The first Day after the Challenge

To sum up a collage of all the paintings.   Assembling it led me to remember where I was each day of the month, and to decide which paintings I liked the best, and of course the least.

Thirty Paintings (well 26) in Thirty Days

As they used to say,  it's been real.

Laurel

Day Thirty - The Last Day

This morning I listened to Leslie Saeta's web radio show which were many of the artists' stories from the past thirty days.  Listening gave a human dimension to the paintings that have been posted on Leslie's site.

After yesterday's really bad "plein window" painting, I decided that I just had to do another.  Some painters from North Carolina Plein Air Painters posted snow paintings that they had done outside.  Just too cold for me.  Yesterday's painting was so embarrassing, I posted some other plein air work that I had done previously.  Today I will be happy to post on Leslie's site and on the plein air site as well.

Tree Line 2
5 x 7 oil on canvas board

 

 

 

Tomorrow I will visit Leslie's website again to see the collages of everyone's work. 
I was excited to get an e-mail from Meredith Adler I met thru the Thirty Day event and is thinking about  joining our local painting group, the Blue Ridge Fine Arts Guild.

Day Twenty Nine - Snow Day

Last night I received an e-mail from the my plein air group to go out and paint snow today.  Since it was 11 degrees this morning I elected to stay and paint the view from my studio window. 

Having not done plein air since October it was good to be reminded that before I can mix the right color on the palette it is already changed. 

This image looks more like a Hawaiian volcano than a Appalachian mountain, perhaps a not so unconscious desire.

Mt Celo Volcano
5 x 7 oil on canvas board

 

Tomorow is the last day of the challange.  I hope to hear Leslie's web radio program.

Day Twenty Eight - Rocks and Water

On Day Sixteeen I painted underwater rocks and wrote about not being ready to paint the sun dapples on the rocks.

The next day I took photos of some rocks with the sunlight ripple patterns.  I was amazed at what I saw; captured the digital the patterns were rather schizophrenic.  Not what I had expected.

Today I attempted to paint from one of these photos.  Getting the rocks to look as if they are underwater is a real challenge, which I haven't mastered.  There is a very complex relationship between the rippled surface of the water, the angle of the sun and the uneven surface of the rocks.  After looking at it for some hours I understand it better, but still not well enough paint convincingly. In some areas the sunlight on the rocks seems to reflect back to the water surface creating yet another phenomenon.  Yikes!!!

Here is first try:

Almost Touching
5 x 7 Oil on Canvas Panel

 

Just got a e-mail from my plein air group to post snow paintings tomorrow.  I was thankful I made it back from the mailbox.  Talk about extreme sports.

Day Twenty Seven - Winter Whitewater

I've spent a lot of time looking at whitewater but never understood its structure so well until I painted from a reference photo.  Ocean waves on the beach seem so simple now.

Since I've been having lots of trouble with values I went back to the monochrome underpainting technique.  It does take longer, but until I learn values better it's something that's needed.  I tried a black and white reference photo, but apparently I need to spend time painting the values, not just looking at them.

Winter Whitewater
6 x 6 oil on gessoed paper

 

 

 

 

Only three more painting days left!!

Day Twenty Six - EarthSea

If you can get to the top of the highest of the mountains in the Blue Ridge early in the morning, the mists still remain in the valleys, the peaks rising through them as if from the ocean.  The clear part of the atmosphere between the mists and the clouds above is revealed.

EarthSea
5 x7 oil on canvas panel

 

 

 

See you all tomorrow.  Only a few days left.

Day Twenty Five - Clear and Blue

After a lengthy medical screening yesterday, I set about to do a landscape as quickly as possible.  Wasn't the fastest time ever, but it wasn't incredibly long.

I tried to keep the island the focus while making the overall painting more colorful than usual, still the center still needs more color.  Not sure how to do that and keep the rest of the painting from looking washed out.  Or the center from looking like a summer garden.

This is the only panel with an oil primed surface.  I was having trouble getting a bright enough color earlier this month, using only gesso, but I seem to have figured out how without the oil primer.  It makes for a smoother surface.

Clear and Blue
5 x 7 Oil on Gessoed Panel.

I keep looking out the window at the sky late this afternoon, very windy and changeable.  Maybe a painting there tomorrow.