30 in 30 The End

Thanks to everyone for your support during this September 30 in 30 day challenge!  Each time, I forget how grueling it is and forget how much the positive feedback is truly essential to keeping me going.  There is hardly a day that goes by that doesn’t include a moment that makes me smile - whether a Dailypaintworks “pick,” a comment on my blog / gallery, kudos from the artists at PaintMyPhoto, or a sale and delivery of one of the pieces to a lover of art.  I get to wake up to each morning with one of these highlights in my inbox! 

Here’s the collage of all the paintings – delighted to say that almost half have found new homes! 

The Journey - September 2015

Things I’ve learned:

1. Start painting two days ahead so the painting has a little time to dry before taking the photo
2. Sync blog with both DPW and Leslie’s posting days
3. Start auctions on same day as blog (insiders should have the edge, don’t you think?)
4. Have the plan for ALL 30 days laid out.  Each time I’ve had a few weeks set up and think yay, I’ve got it, right up until I run out and then in scramble / stress mode.  This is when it all comes to a screeching halt.
5. Painted from photos which helped a lot in planning, setup and time management
6. Keep trying new things because most are a delightful surprise
7. Practice learning to count to 30! 

Thank you again, sincerely appreciated!

Enjoy - life is joy we make one moment at a time,

30 in 30 Hop to It – Day 28

Art for the Waterford show delivered, sold paintings mailed, art class attended and painting something new, well just barely.

Another "something to try" -- had to do a lot of fixes to end up with something decent. . . .  I don’t know what it is but things that seem hard, turn out to be easy and easy things, quite difficult!  Maybe that’s the practice (or lack thereof) talking!

Hop to It

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Reference photo from PaintMyPhoto, Elle, Lunch Break.

Off to new homes: Persian Hibiscus to Alabama and How Rad & Lemon Tines! to Austin TX.

Enjoy - life is joy we make one moment at a time,

30 in 30 The Barn Door - Day 24

Apologies first, as I wasn’t able to paint yesterday so posting a painting that was in a show, didn’t sell, and is now on the way to a weekend festival in Waterford, VA.  If he still wants to come back home, he’ll go to Daily Paintworks.  Hopefully someone will fall in love and adopt him soon!  He’s adorable if you ask me. 

For the locals (Northern Virginia / DC area) – The historic village of Waterford welcomes fairgoers from around the world each October for three days of living history, food, heritage crafts, and just plain fun. From 10 a.m. to 5 p.m each day. OCTOBER 2, 3 & 4. There is an extensive Art and Photography line up at the fair.  http://www.waterfordfoundation.org/

 

The Barn Door

The Barn Door – little puppy waiting by the barn door for whatever is to happen next.  My goal was to depict a blank page for a life of wonderful memories to come. The red door is to emphasize adventure.  Looks like he wants to follow you home!

Enjoy - life is joy we make one moment at a time,

30 in 30 Bath Time! – 23

Double dare day.  I’ve always wanted to paint a sink, bathtub, faucet or something quite different from a traditional still life.  Definitely a challenge to capture chrome, porcelain and in this case, soft plastic that squeaks!  Hmmmm. . . . triple-dare?  Really glad I gave it a try – gives the word “bling” a whole new meaning. 

Bath Time!

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Reference photo from PaintMyPhoto, Colin Ming, Bath Time!  I’ve never seen a blue rubber ducky, so went back to the traditional for that part.  BTW, polka dots are harder to paint than you’d think. 

Enjoy - life is joy we make one moment at a time,

30 in 30 Rainier Cherries Day – 22

Finally rained today so I guess it’s appropriate to have Rainier cherries on the table for painting.  Too bad it was a photo and not the real thing!  Probably needed a little reminder of early summer as this season closes, the clouds begin to gather, and fall looms ahead.  

Ranier Cherries

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Reference photo from PaintMyPhoto, Lee Pierce, Still Life 3 Delicious Cherries Vanished 

You all may remember a show I participated in at a winery in Waterford – one of the paintings just sold off the Facebook event page and is on its way to New York City!  A super-favorite of mine, but know it’s going to a great dog-and-art-loving home.  Blog story is HERE

Shotgun Sailor

Thanks for taking the time to read this blog.

Enjoy - life is joy we make one moment at a time,

30 in 30 Stuck in More Ways than One – Day 21

Having fun with the fork and finding it’s now my “go to object” when I can’t find anything else to paint!  

•      Stuck #1 seriously running out of ideas,
•      Stuck #2 most things are either too large or too small for a fork, and
•      Stuck #3 perhaps you are thinking – would she please just move on! 

To me, the hardest part about this challenge, and painting in general, is WHAT to paint.  The joy comes when it’s all set up and ready to go – then you get to have fun turning it into art. 

Never even considered painting a cucumber until this idea popped into my head.  It worked, nice slice of an English cuke didn’t topple over the fork.  Decided to move it off center to accentuate the lovely shadow. Love the cool, crisp veggie on the hot yellow background.

Stuck in More Ways than One
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Hard to believe there are nine more days to go – oh no, what to do?

Enjoy - life is joy we make one moment at a time,

30 in 30 Something Fishy – Day 20

How about a sea of fish (no pun intended) to brighten your day?   My crazy, colorful fish seem to be popular so thought I should include at least one in this challenge.  No shadows, no dimension, just flat, VERY colorful, cheery, bright-eyed fish.

Something Fishy
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Since I’ve wanted to do a color chart for some time, decided to try it with this painting. Well sort of. Took paint right out of the tube then mixed it with white to see both ends of the value (light to dark) scale.  Turned out better than expected, plus I’ve learned a lot about color behavior. The fish are still not sure about it at all J

For the inquiring minds – the colors are:

Top row:

Cerulean Blue

Sap Green

Cobalt Teal

Second row:

Ivory Black

Dioxazine Purple

Permanent Rose

Cobalt Blue

Third row:

Cad Orange

Phthalo Blue

Cad Green Pale

Fourth row:

Radiant Magenta

Phthalo Green

Cad Yellow

Paynes Grey

Fun rediscovering some of these colors.  A real color chart would have mixed other colors vs. white, but still interesting.   

Reference photograph is from Abner T. Ibarra, Fan Fins Fishes. PaintMyPhoto.

Enjoy - life is joy we make one moment at a time,

30 in 30 "Persian" Hibiscus – Day 19

Okay, there’s no such thing in real life, but time for a little creative license – love this hibiscus photo and painted it before, but wanted to try out my new Radiant Magenta (Gamblin) and tried-and-true Persian Rose (Williamsburg). Well before I knew it, all my favorite reds, purples and pinks were piling on.  Just love the way the pinks and blues play together. 

Fearless at this point, so went out on a limb and tried a new multi-media thing – I guess that’s what it is called.  I have a tool that’s called an eraser – basically a rubber tipped “brush” that lets you remove paint.  In this case it came in real handy to carve out the tip of the stamens (yellow round things), creating a more pronounced 3-D effect. The panel was toned in hot yellow so the carving brings it to the surface.  Since that was so fun, I “hacked” up the background to give it more interest. Use the DPW zoom function to see how fun that part turned out!

"Persian" Hibiscus
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Saying goodbye to Stick a Fork in It and Lucky Ladybug who are traveling together to Texas.

Photo reference from PMP, Marsha Woods, Hibiscus

Enjoy - life is joy we make one moment at a time,

30 in 30 How Rad – Day 18

Okay one more fork with about the most perfect looking radish I’ve ever found.  Love painting rads ‘cause the color is so intense, the round shape so challenging, the quirky leaves and “rat tail” or whatever the root is called.  Strange and even stranger shadows on the tail, but I liked the way it's "pointing" off into space.

How Rad
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Enjoy - life is joy we make one moment at a time,

30 in 30 Lemon Tines – Day 17

Ridiculous, I know, but had to do a play on the fork part by emphasizing the tines!  You can talk about stabbing things for only so long, you know. 

This was particularly fun because the lavender background with the yellow lemon and lighting caused the fork to reflect blue.  I also like how the shadow of the tines is more noticeable than the last one. Marvelous looking at it now, but gave me a lot of trouble during the process.  Happy ending.

Lemon Tines

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A fellow artist stopped by today so I brought out the two forks - the comment was - gee the blog doesn't really show how great these are -- she's right, the web defuses and flattens photos (no matter what).  So I encourage a visit to the Daily Paintworks link for a better view and zoom feature.  Still, she says, the painting is even better than that!  Hmmmm . . . I rather like that the buyers will be pleasantly surprised!

Enjoy - life is joy we make one moment at a time,