I Thought Painting Was Supposed To Be Relaxing

So, I am still reinforcing techniques on how to complete an oil painting.  I need to pay attention to the focal point with sharp edges. Soften the edges of other objects. Check my directional brush strokes. Look at my shadows and re-check my values. Look at my relationships. Ask myself does it make sense? Keep the painting looking fresh.
Hey - this sounds like work.

Don't Brush Off Brushwork

I am constantly learning brushwork. This weekend I attended a 2 day workshop at the School Of Light and Color in Fair Oaks, CA to help improve my brushwork skills. We were taught how to hold a brush, different ways to lay down paint - thick to thin, color mixing techniques and more.
These are just a few of the pieces. Yes - just a few.  The workshop was outstanding!

A small study to learn layering color without mud.

Another small study to practice brushwork.

A painting to reinforce what I learned.

I Swear I Have Been Painting

I have been painting but most are in the stinker stack. Here is better one from a class last week.

Magnolia Study With Palette Knife

Oops - What Happened To My Painting?

I painted with a group at William B. Pond yesterday where I painted a small 5x7. I was happy and packed it away in my guerilla box. When I opened the box at home, I had not packed it properly and  half the painting was wiped away. Oh well,  I still got outdoors to paint. No picture but a nice memory.

Express Yourself Again And Again

This is  my progress of learning expressionism. It it quite challenging. I also have a tendency to paint the same type of compositions.  Hmm. I guess I should be more aware of that, too.

Toss Me The Palette Knife

I truly love creating these palette knife paintings. After I took the picture, I noticed my bottle was a little wonky. Yes - wonky. So I will fix it later.
This originally had two flowers in the still life setup. I struggled for an hour trying to get that other flower painted correctly. Finally, I just scraped it off the canvas telling myself it was my painting and can do whatever I want. Wow - it is about time I figured that out.

"Pucker Up" By Eva Marie Tanner-Klaas- 8"x10" Oil on Canvas Board

This is created with pure color at the beginning. The bottle was pure ultramarine blue and then adjusted. The lemon in the shadow was cad. green light and the light side was lemon yellow. The flower started as a cobalt blue with light. The table cloth started with perm. rose with lots of white and then viridian  carefully layered on top with with lots of white.
My background was magenta and purple.  Oh and the shadows were ultramarine blue for the bottle and thalo blue for the flower and lemon. All are adjusted to the correct value before layering the color.

Score!

I am so happy with my newly acquired art pieces for my collection.   They are 3 beautiful bowls by Chris Thompson from his incredible 1000 bowl project to feed the hungry. He spent a year and a half throwing these bowls.  I followed this and was hoping it be in town but missed it.
Guess what? I stopped by the E Street Gallery in Sacramento to see another artist's incredible show and found Chris' bowls.  I am still grinning ear to ear. Love his pieces and his the reason behind it. (Check out his youtube video for more information).
The most difficult part was choosing from the selection available. Thank you, Dot, for being so patient I made my decision. I have to go back for a few more. (Forgive the pictures. They cannot capture the glazed colors. Trust me. They are incredible).

These can be used as functional bowls, decorative on the wall or both. They have wire hangers attached to the foot of the bowl. Starting at the top and left to right the sizes are  8", 12", 12 1/2 across.

Saturday Portrait At Patris' Studio

I spent the early evening drawing from a live model in Oak Park at Patris' Studio and Gallery.

Portrait on Gray Toned Paper with Conte, Colored Pencils and Crayon

Don't Brush Me Off

Here are two still life pieces that I did in classes. One is palette knife layering colors which I enjoy.  The other is brush. Since I am learning the brush strokes, the work is demonstrated directly on the painting so it isn't necessarily all my work. Most of it is but not all.
I showed the palette knife to a fellow painter and her preference was my brush painting. It was the bold strokes.
Although I like them both, I lean more towards the palette knife for pragmatic reasons. Why? Clean up is easier and it is easier when layering colors.

Brush work.

Palette knife.