Tulips and Oranges

6" x 6", oil on gessobord

This still life painting is for the Daily Paintworks Challenge that began on January 31^st.  It is painted from a photo submitted by Diane Hoeptner.  I love how this little painting turned out with the intense warm and cool reds and oranges.  

Other stuff:

Today is day 82 of my personal challenge of doing art every day.  When I am not painting, I am working on value sketches and oil pastel thumbnails for paintings.  Doing this has really kept me in the art!

 

30 Paintings in 30 Days and What I Learned

 

NFS

This is a collage of my paintings for the last 30 days.  Thank you Leslie Saeta for putting this whole thing together!

This is WHAT I LEARNED from doing the challenge:

• Don’t ever feel it’s a waste of time to scrape off and start again.  It’s still putting in the miles, doing the work, and keeping you in the paint!
• Don’t assume anything.
• Painting every day or almost every day or making some kind of art every day makes for a good creative habit!
• It’s really good to experiment – it offers an opportunity to do something different.  You learn a lot!
• I feel I can handle paint better, mix colors more accurately in a shorter period of time, and can get the values correct on the first or second try.
• Making a lot of small paintings is really helpful if your goal is to eventually make large paintings.  There are several of these little paintings that I want to expand on in a larger format with more color detail and/or more abstract.
• Look at the work other artists are creating; it's very inspiring for your own work.  There are a lot of really good artists out there!
• Meditating puts you in a good place for painting.
• All of this DOES make a difference!
• I love having made this colorful series of small paintings!

trees without leaves I - variation 22

 6" x 6", oil on gessobord

30/30

This is the last painting in the challenge!  It's one of my favorites!

And thank you to everyone who stopped by to check out my paintings during the challenge!  I really appreciate it!

This is WHAT I DID for the 30-day challenge:

• Focused on color, value and design. 
• Tried colors and color combinations that I don’t normally use.
• Mixed most colors.
• Used a very limited palette.
• Used thick paint/used thin paint. 
• Painted tight/painted loose.
• Experimented with bigger brushes.
• Experimented with tiny brushes. 
• Documented all color choices/mixtures for each painting.
• Scraped off a couple paintings and started over.
• Did a painting in less than an hour.
• Photographed paintings every day.
• Posted all paintings – even the ones I felt didn’t work well.
• Knocked an almost-finished painting off my easel face down on the floor.
• Got over my fear of putting my paintings “out there.”
• Looked at a lot of other artists’ work.  Was very inspired!
• Got up most days at 5:00 to paint.  
• Painted for 30 days.
• Started mindfulness meditation.  
• Started Qi Tai Gu.

trees without leaves I - variation 21

6" x 6", oil on gessobord

29/30

This painting is done with a triadic color palette (three colors equally spaced on the color wheel) with two of the colors made neutral by adding their complement. 

I've started compiling two lists:  The first one is what I did during the 30-day challenge and the second what I learned.  I'll post the first one tomorrow.