Abstracted Landscape

"220"
12 x 12" oil on gallery wrap canvas
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This was great fun to paint....a little each day. I am attracted to the bare tree figures against the abstracted landscape. There is no reference material, just my imagination, the paint and the brushes.

I specifically gave it a numerical title because so far everyone feels something different when viewing it.

Mini Paintings

"Mini Lemon"
2.5 x 3.5" oil on canvas panel
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"Mini Lime"
2.5 x 3.5" oil on canvas panel
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This little paintings are so fun. For these two I painted the canvas with orange acrylic, let it dry and then painted the objects and background in oil. I like the little peeks of orange here and there.

Painted Red and Clowns

My two most recent paintings. I've been experimenting with taping around the edges of the image so when the painting is done, you remove the tape and you have a nice smooth edge which looks alot like a mat.

"Painted Red"
6 x 6" image on 8 x 8" canvas panel

The entire panel 

"Clowns"
6 x 6" image on 8 x 8" canvas panel

Framed and hanging on my gallery wall at 40 West Studios

I think these little cherries look like they are at a circus and so I decided they were clowns at the circus.

Rush and Rhythms

"Rush"
Mixed media 4 x 4" image on
5 x 5" panel
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"Rhythms"
Mixed media 4 x 4" image on
5 x 5" panel
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Very fun day..some music...other artists....beautiful weather.....and a bunch of paint.

My Next 30 Days

So, my last 30 day challenge was all about pastel abstracts. My next 30 day challenge is still about abstract, but in oil with alkyd and acrylic. I'm aiming to go completely to oil. There was so much to learn in the last challenge, I'm really looking forward to the next challenge.

"Long Division"
4 x 4" image on 5 x 5" panel
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"Bits"
4 x 4" image on 5 x 5" panel
Oil paint, alkyd and acrylic - mixed media
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Purple and Pears

"Purple and Pears"
8 x 10" pastel on panel
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I'm re-purposing all my old panels that have unwanted paintings on them. This was a Pastelbord that had a horrible blue and orange painting on it. I washed and scrubbed it down to the grit, but not all of the old painting came off. So I painted the board a blue acrylic, then coated it with Golden ground for pastels (I love this stuff!) I put some initial lines and masses in with charcoal and washed it lightly with rubbing alcohol. This helps get rid of the initial linear marks and gives nice masses to then apply the pastel.

Again I'm playing with the idea of an abstracted setting for more realistic objects. It offers me freedom to use colors I wouldn't normally introduce, like the hot pink, or the little bits of pale yellow.

Red Cherries

"Red Cherries"8 x 10" pastel on panel

Trying a little realism with a little abstraction today. I took an old Gessobord panel, washed and scrubbed the old pastel painting off, dried it and then coated it with pastel ground. This left a beautiful light colored surface to add new pastel to.

Golds and Grays

"Golds 3"
11 x 14" pastel on sanded paper

Grayscale image...helps to see the structure of a painting
Darks help to direct the viewer through the painting.

"Golds 3" was started last Friday and, after surviving 4 days of snow and being in the house, finished yesterday. I thought I was done, but after staring at the image for awhile realized I wasn't quite there. Below is the unfinished version and it's grayscale. What I realized is the structure of my darks was virtually non-existent. I added some darks to the unfinished piece and it was much more satisfying. Not perfect, but satisfying.

unfinished painting...darks are needed

unfinished greyscale...it's apparent my painting is all mid-tones and lights