Daily Paintings

This week's daily paintings include:

Sunflower 2, 6x6, oil on board, available here

Composition Challenge, oil on board, available here

An Apple A  Day, 6x6, oil on board, available here

Harvest Trio, 8x8, oil on board, available here

The composition challenge was done from part of a very complex photograph which was posted on Daily Paintworks as the weekly challenge. The objective was to choose part of the photo and create a pleasing composition from it. The Apple A Day painting came from me playing around with the paint. I bought some Yellow Oxide, a color I had not tried before, based on information in Qiang Huang's blog. He mentioned what lovely transparent grays a mixture of yellow oxide and ultramarine blue would make. The Harvest Trio painting came from my finding one of my dwarf pomegranates knocked off my new dwarf pomegranate bush. I hated to waste it but it wasn't ripe enough to eat so what else but paint it. The acorn squash and apple were from my kitchen and will soon be eaten.

Cat Project Done!

As I've mentioned before I began a project of painting three cats in pastel as a gift for a former manager and good friend of mine who recently retired from the newspaper we both worked at for many years. I had wracked my brain for a good idea for a retirement gift and realized that perhaps the best one I could give would be a piece of art, but I wanted to give something very personal that I hoped she would love. Having done a successful portrait of my cat for the Central Texas Pastel Society Annual Show, and knowing her love of cats, I decided a cat portrait would be ideal. She has three beautiful cats and after playing with several options I realized a single painting with all 3 cats would be very problematic. So I decided to do three individual small portraits. I posted the first one about a month ago and was pleased with it's resemblance to the photo I was working from. I've since completed the other two. One looks a little off kilter, but it's his ear that is unusual and not an error on the part of the artist. It occurs to me that perhaps pet portraits could be a profitable revenue source for me although I've only done cats so far. Both my mother and brother have asked me to paint their cats after seeing the work I'd done on my cat and Karen's cats, so I guess there are people who would like pet portraits. 

Mmm... something to think about. Anyway this project is done. All I need do is frame them and deliver them. I'm still trying to decide if there's a way to frame them under Museum Glass without it costing a fortune. These are small paintings and I plan to put them in 6x6 frames with only a spacer between them and the glass. Anyone know of a cheap source of 6" x 6" Museum Glass? Perhaps scrap from a frame shop. I'll have to check around.

Harriett, 6x6, pastel on Wallis paper glued to masonite

Eddie, 6x6, pastel on Wallis paper glued to masonite

Grace, 6x6, pastel on Wallis paper glued to masonite

Round Rock Chalk Walk 2011

Time flies so fast when you're having fun. It seems like only yesterday when I last posted my daily paintings but that is not so. A week has passed and I have a whole stack of paintings to add. I participated in the paint out associated with the Round Rock Chalk Walk Art Festival last weekend. For two solid days I painted in downtown Round Rock while the chalk artists painted on the street. Friday was fairly slow as the event was just getting underway. Only a few chalk artists came to start their work and none of the vendors were set up yet. Saturday was a whirlwind of artists, vendors, tourists, kids, dogs and entertainers. It was cloudy and gray much of both days, and the weather finally brought us a good downpour of rain, fortunately just after the judges completed their judging of the chalk art on the street. It was a wonderful event. As we finished each painting there was a "wet" area for us to display our work inside the Art Space Gallery. Our wet paintings were put up for silent auction and I was excited to get the first bid. The art was also judged when the chalk art was judged and first, second and third prizes were awarded. My friends Liz Zornes, Beryl Kerwick and Susan Anderson (in that order) won. I managed to put 5 small paintings into the "wet" painting show to complement the 5 framed pieces already in the ongoing plein air show in the same gallery.

RR Chalk Walk 1, 6x6, oil on board, silent auction at Round Rock Art Space Gallery

RR Chalk Walk 2, 6x6, oil on board, silent auction at Round Rock Art Space Gallery

RR Chalk Walk 3, 6x6, oil on board, silent auction at Round Rock Art Space Gallery

RR Chalk Walk 4, 6x6, oil on board, silent auction at Round Rock Art Space Gallery

RR Chalk Walk 5, 6x6, oil on board, silent auction at Round Rock Art Space Gallery

Today I attempted a self portrait. It was just as successful as all my previous self portraits so after several hours of work, I threw in the towel and I wiped off the board so as not to waste it. Oh well, some day I feel sure I will manage one I can live with until then I'll keep trying.

Most recent daily paintings include:

"Wild Spring" A very typical Texas spring time scene with bluebonnets in the fields and the cacti (at least I think it's a type of cactus or agave) blooming. I took this photo near Marble Falls several years ago while on a trip to see the art collection of Mr. & Mrs. Jerry Owens. They were gracious enough to invite our pastel society to come for a private tour of the home they built in Horseshoe Bay to accommodate their incredible collection of art. They also owned the Riverbend Art Gallery in Marble Falls which we toured later that same day. 6"x 6" oil on board. Bid on this painting here

"Wish You Were Here" We helped out with the Mamma Jamma Ride against breast cancer on Saturday. The ride started and ended at the Reunion Ranch. They had a beautiful little beach set up by a small pond. The beach had very bright colorful umbrellas and adirondack chairs. I loved the yellow chairs and the red umbrella, but wanted to see them on a real beach with an ocean in the background rather than dried out Texas countryside, so I moved them to an imaginary beach. 6"x6" oil on board. Bid on this painting here

"Post Rush Hour" This was from a photo I took through the windshield at 5th and Lamar near Whole Foods in Austin. The sun was setting in the West and we were heading south. I can't remember why but the number of cars on the road tells me it was definitely after rush hour. 6"x 6" oil on board $35.00 click here to buy

"Fist City" this one was a real departure for me. I did it to meet the "Hand" challenge on Daily Paintworks. I did find it very challenging. Looking through the other challenge paintings I was very discouraged by seeing one painting that the artist did with her non-dominant hand. I had enough trouble doing it with my dominant hand - I can't imagine trying it with my left hand. 6" x6" oil on board. $25.00 click here to buy

"Sunflower" I did this one because I bought my mother a bunch of sunflowers and other flowers to celebrate her 65th anniversary and what would have been my dad's 103rd birthday (smart man, he married on his birthday so he'd never be caught forgetting an anniversary). The bouquet decorated the table for lunch. After lunch my 90 year old mother said flowers were too much trouble to care for and she didn't want them. I reminded her they were cut flowers and all she needed to do was throw them away when they got old. She didn't care, she refused to take them home with her. So I got a beautiful bouquet for me - even though that was never my intention. My feelings were bruised a bit, but I like the flowers and would never have bought them for myself. 6" x 6" oil on board click here to bid.