Why I paint, what I paint

                                              At fineartamerica.com
I went to bed last night with my mind in absolute turmoil, could not stop thinking about news and issues.
The last few days I have been drawn to painting a couple of subjects, Buddhas, and horses.  At first I could see no reason, but this morning it all came together.  

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With the Buddha paintings I was reaching for some serenity, in chaos, I look for peace.
But there is a saying I love; “Chaos - where brilliant dreams are born”.
This morning I grabbed a coffee and immediately started another horse painting.  While painting I contemplated the nature of the horse and our Country.  The horse was not native to this Country.  But it was brought here and built and work our lands, together with cowboys, farmers and ranchers, to help build something wonderful.

Our land is a vast mix of people, plants and animals, some native, some not.  How all these mixes work out, depends on if they work together, or if they destroy. 
 The tumble weed is not native, it causes much destruction, it does not blend in and benefit the land, the Starlings take natural areas away from native birds, but he horse has an iconic role in the portrait of the US.
Sometimes I just have to look at the complicated high tech world and break it down to what I can wrap my mind around.

As an Artist, the subjects I paint may seem random, but I guess they really are not. 

                                     Watercolor work in process

Mary

More than three

16 x 12 inches, ink on watercolor paper

                                                        Available at DPWs                  

Winter is over, and time to celebrate Spring.  After working on yard work for several days, decided to treat myself to some flowers.  It will be a while before there are any flowers blooming outside,  so having some in the house feels wonderful.  Of course with fresh flowers, they must be painted.

14 x 11 acrylic on canvas sheet

I pick a few flowers from the bouquet, set them on the table with just the right light and started painting.

14 x 11 acrylic on canvas sheet

  After three paintings set the blooms aside, back in my kitchen.  Studied the paintings, although I liked them, they just say what I wanted the paintings to say.

 14 x 11 acrylic on canvas sheet

 Today while walking through the kitchen, I noticed how well the light and shadows looked on the bouquet, so got my watercolor pad out, a couple brushes, and my inks.  Standing in the middle of the kitchen, I painted them just as they looked, (minus the dishes in the sink), and was finally happy with the painting.

Sometimes it takes more than 3 times to get some right.

Oil on canvas, 20 x 16 inches

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One of the advantages to oil and acrylic paint is how layering can be used.  Thought I would share this painting, where it started to how it was finished.   I started with a textured grey tone gesso, a slightly rough patchy texture, when it was dry sketched in my idea with vine charcoal, and white pastel.  The first layer is a colorless, using only the light and darks as my guide. 

layer one, shades of grey

With second layer I decided on my color scheme and added my first layer of colors in a light painting of oil color.  The finish at this point is fairly easy, building up the colors, redefining my lights and darks.

First layer of color

    It is amazing how colorful a painting can be created form just a grey tone under painting.

Mary

Feeling Brainy

12 x 12 inches oil on canvas panel  "Mister E"

                                                                                 Available at DPWs

     This is a little follow up to my last blog.  I had mentioned links for painting ideas, and one was the Daily Paint Works Challenge    Many of the challenges are open for quite a long time, which is great because you can pick and choose what you want to do.
     One of the interesting things is see how different each painting posted to the challenge can be.  Fifty artist looking at the same reference subject will come up with fifty different paintings, this always amazes me.

Mary

Finding Ideas

                                           On the available paintings tab of this blog

Wanted to spend some time today sharing some helpful links.   There are times I know I just need something to give me a kick in the rear to get going.  Having some sites on the web to spark ideas is wonderful.  I have some old favorites and a new site (at least for me) that are great to go to.

The idea for the painting on today's post came from a site I just discovered;
paintmyphoto.ning.com  This is a site photographers and painters get together.  Photographers offer photos for painters to paint,  how cool is that!  You can as a painter post your paintings there also, and there are a number of forums for tips and ideas.  I have posted both paintings and some of my photos for other painters to use.

One of my old favorites,  is a web site called Wet Canvas  This site has activity for all media, and a great photo reference library.

Also, if you need an idea or challenge Daily Paint Works isn't just for selling and buying art, (although I highly recommend a little shopping there), it also has challenges, contests, and tutorials.

And one more site I just found for painters wanting to understand color;  Hand Print
This has information on color pigments and more.  I haven't finished looking around the whole site but use it mainly for pigment detailed information.

Hope these sites help you out, and let me know of any others that are good too.

Mary

Inspiration from the tube

Acrylic on watercolor paper, 16 x 20 inches, Over the Shoulder
Available at Daily Paint Works

We are bombarded by imagery every where, not by just what is around us, but also from television and movies.  If you are like me TV drives me crazy, mainly the over load of commercials.  But with the nifty invention of the remote and the DVR those can be passed over.  The second thing that is handy about the DVR, is the pause button.  Often there is a scene with a beautiful location, or a face just perfectly shadowed that just yells paint me.  Well pause at that scene and start sketching.  Occasionally a movie that is totally about art, will drop in to your lap, that is full of inspiration.  The movie “World of Art” is one of those.  If your a painter take some time and check it out on YouTube.  While watching that movie I did several sketches that I am working up into paintings, thought I would share the sketches and a couple of the paintings so far. 

Available at Fine Art America

Mary
Schiros_Art