Simply Fruit

simply an apple, 6 x 6 inches, oil on wood

Available  DPW auction

Started working on a small group of paintings, 6 x 6 inches on wood panels, all of fruit.  These are a small group of paintings that I think would be simple and elegant for a kitchen or dinning room.  And the subject is great practice for developing more skill with oil painting.  Did a practice one on canvas paper and liked the way it looked so did a finished one on a wood panel.
   If you can't think of a thing to paint here you go, raid the frig and then grab a paint brush ;)
Plan to see more fruit this week.

the first practice on canvas paper

 Mary

Being true to yourself

Just a jar painted week 2 of an oil painting class

This is week two of an oil painting class I am taking at the Flint Institute of Art and just wanted to share the process.  The class is formal classic painting and so far I am loving it.  Class started this week with a short lecture on thumb nail sketching, before we were turned loose to paint a still-life.  There was a lovely well lit still-life waiting to for us, that I sat and stared at for about 20 minutes while everyone else was already putting paint down.  Just past the set up was an off white jar set not part of the set up on another table.  My eyes just kept going to that jar as if it was calling me.  So I made a few quick sketches of it at the bottom of my canvas paper and just decided it was what I wanted to paint. After a while the instructor came over, took a deep breath and said “ok I can work with this” and gave me some suggestions. 

    The story here is be true to yourself and still be wiling to learn. I know this is going to go well 11 more weeks to go and looking forward to each one.

Mary

A classic set up to paint

The jar that caught my eyes

Full picture of the painting and the sketches at the bottom.

http://mary-schiros.artistwebsites.com

http://www.zazzle.com/mbschiros 

Second Ink

 

 

 

Acrylic on paper, 20 x 16 inches

     Still working with the quick ink sketches I posted last time.  This is the second one.
Worked this up on red gessoed watercolor paper, and pick only primary colors to experiment with.
This is just one option, and I plan to try different variations to the way I paint it, but you need to start some where.  While I was painting, the thought of  "disconnected  conversations" kept popping into my head. I may later follow up on that idea.  It is always a good idea to jot down the ideas that can give a future work a direction to follow, that can be as important as the sketch.
Hope that sharing this process, encourages new ideas and gets painters to get those brushes going:)

The Process

Oil 16 x 12 inches

Ink 7 x5 inches

    Art is always on my mind.  And the only way to deal with an obsession like that is to learn to live with it.  When the TV is on, I am doodling, when I go out there is always a small sketch pad with me.  Even when I get ready to sleep there is a sketch pad near the bed, for those times a picture pops in my brain just as my eyes are closing.

     Because I have learned to grab ideas when ever they happen, I always have a source to work from when real time allows.

   Thought I would share the start of one of these ideas.  The sketch is on a small 5 x 7 drawing pad, one of many I did while pretending to watch TV with my husband.  When I had the time to get some oil paint out, instead of sitting and trying to think of something to paint, I accessed the nearest sketch pad and picked the first one that caught my interest.

   The Painting is on watercolor paper 140 lb that was gessoed with orange colored gesso.  I keep a small pile of prepped paper handy.  This is a working idea now.  The small painting is complete, but also may lead to a larger work.  

   Mary Schiros

Art and Reading

The start

What is a good book?
 A book you can't wait to to start reading.
Once you start it, you can't wait to read it all.
By that  I mean, not just finish, but absorb it all, over and over again.
But the mark of a really good book; you have to stop, at many points in it, put it down
and act on the idea that grabs you at that moment, then go back.
That  is a good book.

My reading list right now:

"Ignore Everybody,and 39 other Keys to Creativity", Hugh MacLeod.
   examples: "Stay ahead of the culture by creating the culture." Hugh MacLeod.

  
"Steal like an Artist", Austin Kleon
    examples: "As Salvador Dali said, "Those who do not want to imitate anything, produce nothing."
                    "Steal it 'til you make it."  Austin Kleon

And a little sci-fi for fun: "Agent of the Stars", John Scalzi
    "I didn't know which was more fundamentally disturbing: that the ''jell-o was talking to me,
 that it had a sense of humor,
or that it had better manners than I did."   John Scalzi

Oh and between reading there is always some painting
Here is a start and finish...gotta share art when I blog....after all this is an art blog:)

(for more art visit my web site  on Fine art )

the finish

 

 

 

 

One more adventure in printing

White ink on Black paper

  

  I have 2 more weeks to my printing class; it is going by so fast. The class is at The Flint Institute of Arts, and is taught by Bill Stolpin, great teacher check out his web site:  http://www.stolpinart.com/
  The class started with easy print methods, using scratch foam, and easy cut rubber, both fun and easy to work with.   We moved on to lino cuts and wood cuts, which are harder but can give you great detail.  Of course now I look at everything and think huh can I carve and print that.  

   Found out cheap foam plates work, don’t last long but you can get a few prints out of them.  Last night I noticed some kids craft foam, and had to give it a try.  Well it was no fun to carve just wanted to crumple up, but being stubborn did it anyways.  I did it but don’t plan to do another, really not worth the work involved. Got an interesting print out of it and just thought I would share.  

white ink on red paper

 

Also here is my very first woodcut, there will be more to come of this method.

black in on white paper

on red paper

more motivation

Fall is moving in here fast, October feels more like November this year. Knowing the fall season will move

too quickly, I used what good days we have to get some reference photos and some outside painting in.

The last wild flowers to bloom in my yard are the Jerusalem Artichokes, so the weather determined my subject matter for me this week. The last blooms of these flowers I captured with acrylic outside.

While working on this I noticed my neighbors starting to put away the wonderful lawn decoration

they use all summer. They have two large metal birds that I have admired all this year, and contemplated painting. So before they could drag them in for the winter I ask permission to get some drawings done on them.

With paper and pencils and charcoal, and grabbing as an after thought some ink and sumi brushes

I headed for they’re yard. After sitting and just viewing the birds I realized the only media that would work

was the ink. So to make a long story short… I let the weather motivate me and the subjects determine the media.

Sometimes you just have to let things happen, everyday life can present an abundance of motivation, subject and creativity.