Painting exercises

A collage of 4 individual paintings in acrylic

There are many ways to approach painting, many rules and ideas.  But there is only one rule I follow, make it fun!   Ok, really two, paint often.   Some days I need a little push, or should I say a bit of a challenge.  On Daily Paint Works web site they have weekly challenges that are fun to drop in on.

   Today I picked the 10minute challenge to warm up with. (Oh no forgot rule three, warm up before painting anything serious.)

    I picked 4 acrylic colors, white, and gold fluid Dick Blick brand, and teal, and moonglow (dark violet) from Daniel Smith.  Then spread out 4 sheets of black canvas paper Fredix canvas, and pick a little wood deer as my subject.  I then set a time for 10 minutes and started painted, giving my self a about 2 and a half minutes per sheet.

my subject

 

Half way through I did move and turn my deer to continue on for the last couple.

This is a great way to get in the painting mood, no time to worry or fuss, get get the paint moving, give it a try, you will have fun.
Mary
Schiros_Art



 
     One more challenge from yesterday,  "Clouds"

                                                 Aailable at DPWs

 DPWs keeps challenges open for a while so you have several to pick from.

Sharing the process

Thought I would share the steps involved in making my latest seascape.  

"A Dusting of Yellow"  Oil on canvas,  9 x 12 inches

                                 Available at DPWs

I started with a combination of texture and color combinations.  The texture is a mixture of oil paint, pigment and egg yoke, this mixture is nice because it dries at the same rate as the rest of the oil painting.  I put down my dominate color of blue and a point of red as a focal point.

Then a layer of yellow high light is added to bring back in light and warmth.    

The third step was to develop structure.  The last step is to refine the painting over all.

Mary

Schiros_Art 

Emails and art

9 x12 inches, watercolor on Arches watercolor paper

                                                                        Available at DPWs

One of the best things about being a painter is sharing a bit of your self.  Every time I send a painting out, I am sending a part of myself out.  Some times a painting will go out and all you know is where it is headed, other times sending a painting out creates a new friendship.   It is a nice surprise when an email comes back about the painting.  I have had emails with pictures of the art hanging in a new home, and emails with simply interesting photos and information about buyers. 

Recently a new friend in CA sent photos of her pomegranate harvest.  This was really interesting to me, living here in MI there are no pomegranates growing, so seeing them fresh was pretty cool.  Having a new idea of what they look like growing gave me the push to try painting them. Thought I would share the new painting with you.

6 x 6 inches Oil on Ampersand clay panel

                                                                               Available at DPWs

And here is a photo of one of my paintings framed and hanging in a new home:

Mary
Schiros_Art

Just for Fun

Did the Daily Paint Works Spooky Tree Challenge today,  just for the fun of it.

                                                                  Available at DPWs

Getting the spirit of Halloween.  Sometimes getting the paint brushes out should be just for fun and play, life is short and way too serious!

Mary

Rearranging objects with oil paint

I am taking another oil painting class from Timothy Widener this year, an excellent artist and instructor.  But today I just was not in a classical painting mood.

Oil, 12 x 16 inches

 

I got to class and as usual he had some beautiful still-life set ups ready to go.

I looked them all over picked one that interested me, set up an easel and couldn’t get going. 

 So I pulled out a sketch book I had in my bag, ( full of abstract designs) and one simple layout caught my attention.

When I fill up a sketch book I always paint the cover :)

Looking at the still-life and the sketch I got my brushes moving, and started having some fun. 

 But the best part was when Timothy came over to see what I was doing, actually had him at a loss of words for a few seconds. But then I got a smile and chuckle from him.

What I had decided to do was combine the colors from the still-life, the layout of my sketch, and try and represent different surfaces, like the glass, something fuzzy like a peach, and metal.  It was a fun experiment for the day.

   By the way Timothy has an excellent book available; "Painting Light and the Impressionist Method"

Mary

Schiros_Art 

(I also have a book on Blurb, of Still-life paintings)

Over and Under

I have the bug to paint some dramatic sky scenes.  I also want to try some new techniques.  After doing several black and white studies, decided to start with the one I liked best.  Did an under painting, but instead of the traditional earthy umber color, used black, red and gold.  

16 x 20 acrylic gesso on wood panel

Almost stopped here, really love the abstract look!  But decided I can always do more, so laid in the over painting.  The under painting was done with colored gesso, the top in oil.  The painting is now resting in a spot I can view it and decide if more needs to be done or not.

 

One thing I have decided there is a series here…..

 

 Mary

Schiros_Art