Day 30 of the 30 in 30 challenge

10 x 8 inches, oil on canvas panel,"The Muses"Available at DPWs

The last day of 30 paintings in 30 days, thought it would be fun to share my Muses.  I have 2 troll dolls that sit on top of my easel, when I am frustrated all I have to do is look up and they always give me a smile.  The two little trolls are my reminder,  life is just too short to stress out over the little things.  Painting is fun!

Mary

Encaustic painting

Day 25 already!  

8x8 inchesAvailable at DPWs

     I think I have mentioned this before, I am an art supply junkie.  If there is something new I have to try it.  This one is painted with cold water soluble wax paint called Ceracolor.  I call it encaustic because it is wax, but you do not have to melt it.  Pretty cool to work with.

   I have work with tradition encaustic and enjoyed it, but it is complicated, with heating the wax, melting it to paint, scraping back into it, and doing that to every layer you work on.  With traditional encaustic you can create more texture than with the cold wax.  But, the Ceracolor paint is just plain easy, wet it, paint with it, and heat it only to seal it.  Kind of feel like I am cheating...almost:)

    The painting is a location in Parshallville Michigan, an old apple mill that is fun to visit in the Fall.  There are trails from the mill that travel a long the small river by the mill.  A nice place to walk, paint and photograph.  One word of warning, on a warm day in the Fall, there will be bees, they are drawn to the area, think it must be the smell of cider and doughnuts:)

Mary

Finding time to paint

Started this early with a rough acrylic underpainting.  Working with gesso and some magenta color is a quick and loose way of putting down a composition idea.

Purple Passion, 8x8 inches, Acrylic on canvas panelAvailable at DPWs

After canning up 6 quarts of garden veggie soup, I went back and added the green leaves and darker accents.  This was a multi tasking day:)
Mary

Oil painting today....

10 x 8 inches, oil on panel, "One In One Out"Available at DPWs

     Planned to do a lot more on finishing this paintings today,  but after spending some time just sitting and looking at it, decided there was not much I wanted to change.   As a painter I spend much of my time when painting just looking.  Looking at the subject, looking at the painting.  Think that is what I love about painting from life, there is a kind of meditation that goes with it.
    I realized that I really liked the soft feel this painting has so just a bit of glazing to bring up the color of the roses was all it needed today to call it done.
   Did the under painting with a new color Greenish umber by Utrecht,  really like the color for laying out the composition and also to create a dark neutral color for dark accents.

Mary

Painting from memory

Finished this 3rd week of 30 paintings in 30 days having some fun.  I have been painting a view I saw briefly while driving down a road.  One thing I learned from this is a memory is just an idea,  not a true reference.

Day 21....

6 x 6 on Ampersand panel

Day 20 and 19...

The 3 are available on my DPWs web site, pretty much just for the cost of the painting surface, thought it would be fun to just share the little experiments a t a fun price.

While I was having fun just had to do a little digital play also..

There is a web site called Collage.com that you can create collage collections from photos, another fun place to play:)

  Next week I plan to get a little more serious and finish each day some paintings that I have started.
I have a rule for myself, always have something in process, that way when I get up there is always something waiting for me to work on, it is a good way to keep painting everyday.
Mary

Day 18 ...already

I started the underpainting for this yesterday, and enjoyed finishing today painting at good friends studio.

"Tes for Two", Acrylic on canvas panel, 8 x 10 inchesAvailable at DPWs

This one of my many Teapots, ( I tend to collect them).  I did one underpainting in acrylic, and a second underpainting in oil that I may work on another day.  I always find it interesting how different oils and acrylic paintings look.  So it will be interesting to compare the two.

This is how this one started....

I like using orange for underpainting (adds a bit of a glow), also wanted to put down an idea for composition.   I change a bit from start to finish but still very happy with it.

Mary