I spent most of my day at the beach on September 3rd. Not a lot of time to paint. But, I am trying so hard to stick with it. I took a little time after dinner to do a little “painting sketch” Every time I pick up the oil paint I learn a little something. I might come back to this guy and touch him up. Felt good to get a little painting in, even if it was quick! #30paintingsin30day good to be challenged!
I am two days behind in posting! But, I have so far done a painting each day for the September #30paintingsin30days challenge. Really trying to stick with the oil paint for each day. I have no doubt I will run in to a day where that will just not be possible. Because I am at the beach on vacation my colors are limited…which I think is working out to be a good thing. This one was fun, oil on acrylic ground, 8″ x 8″ cradled wood panel.
I am going to try this #30paintingsin30days again this year. I have a good start as I am on vacation, so I should be able to keep up for the next 10 days at least! My goal this month is to learn how to handle oil paint and not make a muddy mess. I have already discovered limiting my colors is a start in the right direction. I think if I keep my subject matter fairly simple to start that will help as well. I don’t think is entirely finished…but that is the great thing about oils, I can take a look and still make changes tomorrow.
I’m already looking forward to tomorrow!
Everyday is a learning opportunity! I am trying to stay small during the week so I can get the little painting done. These are 4″ x 6″. I am starting to have fun with these…so that’s a good thing!! Looking forward to tomorrow. It’s nice to do a little painting after work.
The great thing about a challenge is the learning that goes along with it. While I am doing the #WorldWatercolorMonth challenge I am also taking on online watercolor class. The class has really helped me with understanding how to lay down color and working with wet on wet wash techniques. It looks a lot easier than it is! I have been missing my #sktchy projects, so decided to try a face in watercolor. In the end, I broke down and used a blue color pencil to finish it up. I am working on another watercolor for tomorrow and I am going to discipline myself not to add any pencil or ink. See you tomorrow.
I have been away from my blog for longer than I thought! I am going to try and get back to some writing along with my art projects. I started the World Watercolor Challenge for July, I have missed a few days–but I’m not doing too bad. What I have discovered is watercolor is not easy. Painting in general is not really my comfort zone…so watercolor is super great challenge. It’s been a good learning experience to use watercolor every day (or close to everyday). #WorldWatercolorMonth
I can’t believe the year is almost over. It flew by. I have not been good about posting consistently, I will try to do better this year as I like looking back at the work I am doing. Right now, I am really enjoying the iPad Pro and using #Procreate for drawing and painting. It certainly doesn’t replace the paper or canvas but it offers me a sketch opportunity at a moments notice.
This year I think I am going to focus as much as I can on the joy of drawing and painting and less about a particular goal. I think that the joy will be enough.
It’s funny that location seems to inspire my subject matter. When I am at the beach I seem to lean to the sea creatures. Whales are so wonderful, they have great shapes, great color, great everything.
My recent visit to the Portland Museum of Art has also inspired the whale paintings. Currently they are showing Of Whales in Paint: Rockwell Kent’s Moby-Dick inspired works–and it is well worth a visit.
Both of these pieces were a lot of fun to work on. The Sperm Whale in acrylic (which is always a struggle for me) is 16″ x 10″ on canvas. I used a toothbrush for a lot of this painting to achieve the effects and that worked well for creating marks with unexpected results! And, the Humpback whale done in the Procreate app, which is beyond fun.
Lots of joy with these pieces for me.
In some ways I feel like I need to settle down and choose a singular medium. This must come from some rigid thought process held over from college. I don’t know. I am having a lot of fun mixing up materials. However, even when mixing things up, I should probably have some discipline!
I am starting to realize that it is okay to just keep “practicing” and let the mind flow along with the creations. Maybe I need to stop thinking I need to get to something more serious.
Before the presidential election the civility among the people was bad enough, after the election it has not improved. Now the people seem even more polarized. And, of course there is a lot of unknown which can be frightening for everyone. It’s so uncomfortable. Why is it so difficult for folks to be civil? Why can’t we maintain some silence…express your opinion, but silence the mean stuff. You can have a differing opinion of course, but do we really have to be so mean-spirited in the expression of that opinion. Do we have to demean and bully the other side? My thoughts about people that voted for the person that I didn’t vote for may be somewhat judgmental…I think this is a natural reaction. We can’t help but impose some internal judgements on others that might believe something that we don’t. However, I would never in my wildest dreams want to hurt another person’s feelings by letting them know this. It seems better to have a constructive conflict free conversation about the concerns and issues from both sides. Why is this so difficult?
I am going to try and be as civil as I possibly can, for as long as I can. I hope that the people in my world will do the same.
Art Projects 