Daily Painting Continued...

Well so far so good! I have managed to post something new every day this year ( I know, I know, the year is still young). Today I painted a new pastel of Mount Sopris to put in the Austin Pastel Society Georgetown Library show which we are hanging tomorrow. Talk about last minute. I knew I needed a third painting for the show and since we did not have to submit images, I went ahead and decided on a subject and waited till the day before the show to actually create the piece. Thank goodness that when I went to work this morning on a piece of reddish Windberg paper mounted on some Gatorboard it came out and I was very happy with it. I posted it as my Daily Painting for tomorrow, but if it sells the buyer will need to agree to allow it to hang in the library until the end of February.

"Sopris" 8x10 pastel on Windberg paper

Yesterday was  a beautiful day in Austin (today is too for that matter), so I joined some of my plein air painting friends at Austin Java coffee shop on Barton Springs Road to paint. I sat outside with Johnnie and we both painted competing coffee shop Flipnotics, across the street. Their bright green building with neon orange trim made for an interesting challenge. Johnnies turned out rather better than mine, but most (if not all) of hers do.

"Flipnotics" 8x10 oil on canvas panel/board

The day before yesterday I painted a third small painting in a series pulled from photos taken on a painting trip I took with my mother-in-law in 2007 to Portugal with painter Charles Gruppe. I had a fabulous time on the trip and painted 7 or 8 paintings in various beautiful locations. I have an incredible mother-in-law. Not many people I know, would gladly choose their mother-in-law as a travel partner, but I did. She never once said a word in complaint and I honestly had no idea she did not enjoy the trip as much as I did, until I read her travel journal last year. Her paintings frustrated her and she did not enjoy the food choices available in Portugal. (She's a strict vegetarian and they don't go in much for vegetarian fare in Portugal). Anyway the photos we brought home with us have served me well as painting fodder. Here are the three I painted this week from the photos.

"Schlepping My Art Gear" 6x6 oil on gessoed masonite

This was a photo my mother-in-law took of me schlepping my stuff up a steep, narrow street in Obidos, a beautiful, ancient, walled city in Portugal. It was charming with all the old whitewashed walls and either blue or yellow trim. There were flowering shrubs and window boxes everywhere.

"Sintra Center" 6x8 oil on gessoed masonite

The photo of the center of Sintra was one I did originally on site on a 9x12 canvas. That painting sold in Portugal so I did not get to bring it home with me. So I did it over as a 6x8

"Boat Siesta" 6x6 oil on gessoed masonite

"Seated Man" 6x6 oil on gessoed masonite

The painting of the boats I did originally in pastel and sold it to my old boss at the newspaper. I redid it in pastel for a CTPS show. I still have that second pastel version. This is the first time I tried it in oil. I liked the pastel version better.


This week's DPW Challenge Painting was the seated figure. They provided a photo to use if we chose, or we could use our own photo. I opted to use theirs. This is my interpretation of their photo. I changed the man's hat to red instead of black so it would stand out better and I simplified the background.

All paintings available through Daily Paintworks.

Visit my gallery at www.jfrederickart.com