30 paintings in 30 days Collage

30 paintings in 30 days Collage

And so the 30 day challenge comes to an end. As I look at this collection of a portion of my work , I am extremely proud as it took much focus, effort and will to accomplish this.  I love the variety of work I completed, as well as the shift in theme towards the end to the water, beach sun and sky.  I haven't settled on a genre, and my style shifts on occasion depending on my mood or time limitation, but I am happy with that. It all contributes to growth in expression, color choice and experimentation.  

California Girl

California Girl, oil on gessobord, 6x8 inches

I painted this from a photo taken at the end of the summer of my daughter skateboarding at Santa Monica beach. 

I thought it was the perfect segue from the palm trees posted yesterday, and for the end of the 30 day challenge that I have been participating in. Overall, I was able to post 29 paintings. I had difficulties towards the end with photographing my work due to insufficient lighting. But you can't win 'em all. 

Here's to skating off into the sunset on a beautiful California evening, sent from the currently freezing  mid-south :-) 

Palm Trees, Napa

Palm Trees, Napa, oil on gessobord, 6x6 inches

Yes there are palm trees in upper California, mostly imported for decorative purposes. The climate is still mild enough that they thrive.  This painting was so much fun to paint once I got it sketched out on the board.  I have only attempted palms one other time, and I will say, it was great!

This driveway went waaaaayy back, completely palm tree lined, to the main house of the vineyard.

Country Lane

Country Lane, oil on gessobord, 6x6 inches

Despite having had a decent day to photograph this painting, I must say the image above turned out too light. I don't have photoshop, and the basic color editing program on my macbook distorts other colors if you try and boost particulars, so I leave it alone.  This painting made me happy to paint because it put me right back in the car, stopping to take a picture of the plethora of vineyards in the area, on the way to a wine tasting   *BIG SMILE*

Red Among the Vines

Red Among the Vines, oil on gessobord, 6x6 inches

On a country road that leads to my brother-in-law's home outside of the city of Napa are many beautiful red barns in their fields of grapes. These barns remind me of a red version of the old black tobacco barns that used to dot the state of Kentucky.  I always loved the basilica design of these simple, functional structures. They resembled Renaissance Cathedral architectural design, such as the Church of Santa Maria Novella in Florence, who's steps I sat on two summers ago.

Regardless of the architectural influences, the barns are always beautiful. Red or black, they always catch my eyes as if they are protecting their field like a watchful beacon.

Lake Grass

Lake Grass, oil on gessobord, 6x6 inches

Lake Michigan has incredibly tall dunes that extend up and down the western side of the state of Michigan.  There are smaller versions also some flatten out all together allowing protective grasses to take over, like at the ocean. Sea grass is like a form of kinetic sculpture, constantly in motion, rarely still. And it beautifully captures the light, casting delicate shadows.  

I have been reading Carol Marine's book on Daily Painting and am thoroughly enjoying it. I appreciate how her book is an abridged version of my college art years and then some.

I do find myself feeling hopeless in some organizational areas she suggests for artists, like palette set-up  (I "failed" at this during college as well).  I was laughing when I set up my palette recently after reading her well articulated section on that subject, and realized I am the perfect example of "you can't teach an old dog new tricks". I still randomly squeeze out paint, with no color-wheel order. And, I still mix paint with my brushes rather than a palette knife, a habit I actually have tried to stop many times. In some ways my knee-jerk reactions to color(s) is a result of my particular state of mind (i.e. mood) of the day. I have my favorites to pair up, and then experimentation comes into play for the rest.

Lake Path

Lake Path, oil  on gessobord, 6x6 inches

Saturday I spent nearly the whole day painting. The good news is, I accomplished quite a bit and had daylight to get decent photos to post. The bad news is, I spent an entire  beautiful day down in my cold, basement studio. Oh well, can't win 'em all.  

Keeping with my streak of Lake Michigan paintings, I found a generic lake path photo and ad-libbed a bit. This painting was relatively fun to do, and I tried to stay loose, and lighten my palette. I am looking for more beach grass scenes to paint, because it is the perfect subject matter for warming up first thing in the morning and being playful with the paint. The more I paint these scenes, the more enchanted I am becoming with the area itself.  

The Saugatuck area is known as the Art Coast of Michigan. There are numerous galleries in the downtown and surrounding area, thus a supportive community. The downside however, is the winters are long and many shops and studios close up from November to April. But, there are always the interwebs for winter sales.

Grand Haven

Grand Haven, oil on gessobord, 5x7 inches

Painting 23/30 for my challenge of 30/30. I am still trying to figure out when I will have the time to post two paintings in one day, to make up for my lost day due to bad photographic conditions. 

I moved about 30-40 miles up the coast of Lake Michigan from yesterday's post, to Grand Haven. All of the coast is beautiful. Hey, I might be on to something!!

South Haven

South Haven, oil on gessobord, 5x7 inches

Yesterday I failed to post, and I broke the chain of my 30 paintings in 30 days challenge. Boo! This then becomes 22/30. 

I have had such a hard time taking photos of my work because of lack of daylight, before and after my 8-5ish job, and indoor lights are throwing glare.

So this morning I enlisting the help, once again, of my trusted son who came to the rescue. Voila... No glare!

This is South Haven beach, Michigan, in all it's summer glory...how it will be the next time I see it. I am quite happy with this painting. It was produced quickly a few evenings ago, when I was in an overall crappy mood.  Once completed, my spirits were lifted.

Saugatuck

Saugatuck, oil on gessobord, 6x6 inches

Ok, I kinda cheated :-) 

I went up to the west coast of the state of Michigan this past weekend. The beach did not look like this. It resembled a mountain range of tall peaks consisting of snow, ice and sand.   It was beautiful to see but did not allow for beach trekking due to large formations of ice from the blowing wind and freezing water. So, wanting to paint the Michigan coast, I found some images on a free photo site.  Hopefully, I will return when I can actually set up my easel. I scoped out a few places while I was there.

Big Cab Country

Big Cab Country, oil on gessobord, 6x6 inches

I spent a couple days riding through Napa wine country in the back of a convertible car. I know, how bad is that!?!

The funny thing is, I was constantly trying to take pictures by holding my camera up and out of the car boundaries, snapping away, while the wind gust were trying to grab my camera. Most of the shots were blurry, but this one suited my fancy! This is also one of my most favorite paintings I have done thus far!

Lake in the Middle

Lake in the Middle, oil on gessobord, 6x6 inches

I recently visited the newest addition to the parks system in Louisville which, by the way, is amazing.  This is a linear park so this particular day, I hiked out and returned. Even though it was on the verge of rain and not the best light, there was so much color from the dying fields of wild grass allowed to be.  I hiked around this lake eventually and loved the photo I took at the beginning. The lake looks like it is cradled between the hillsides.

Land Torments the Sea

Land Torments the Sea, oil on gessobord, 6x6 inches

Let me just get this out of the way...I am working on a better method of photographing my paintings. In the non-winter light it was easy, because I could take the painting photo just about anywhere. Now that I am working in my basement, and there is no daylight at the times when it is convenient for me to click away, I get massive glare from my lights. My son was attempting to explain to me the soft blue/purple lights they have in the Visual Arts department of his high school, but that discussion will have to wait for the moment

The painting is an abstracted version of the small mountains that rise out of the San Francisco bay.  I look at each one and the few roads that are built on them and I want to drive to the top.  If I lived in California, it would become a habit to paint these mountains, with the rocks, crevices and ripples that make them up.

Abstract, Breaking

Abstract, Breaking, oil on gessobord, 6x6 inches

This one is another quick sketch that I did of the beautiful beach in Pacifica, CA.

I had a picture of breaking waves and I wanted to try something different - to do a quick sketch. In the end I decided to abstract it.  The colors were fun to work with, as were the forms.  Not entirely pleased with this one, but it was certainly fun work on and shift gears in my brain. I am going to start finding minimal landscapes that I enjoy looking at and hopefully work abstractly in the near future.

Tracks on the Beach

 Tracks on the Beach, oil on gessobord, 6x6 inches 

I was up bright and early on New year’s day to celebrate ringing in 2015 with a “hike and dip” that my brother-in-law and his son participated in near Pacifica, CA.  Unfortunately for all the “dippers” the temperature reached freezing temps the night before, but the event went on for all the brave participants.  While I was there, I took some photos of the very wide Pacific beach.  One of my favorite photos was of a simple set of maintenance vehicle tracks that created some subtle artwork on the sand.  I needed a quick and easy painting to get warmed up yesterday and this is the result.  

Winter Vineyard, Napa

Winter Vineyard, Napa, oil on gessobord, 6x6 inches

Driving around Napa, CA is fun anytime of the year. I have been out there three times in the last calendar year to visit my sister and brother-in-law. Taking pictures is actually hard because there is so much to look at. This past holiday when I was there, I was trying to take pictures with painting from them in mind.  This was a scene that I had to eliminate a lot of distracting elements out of the photo, and condense it to the winter vines beyond a grove of redwoods.  The vines were still leafless and therefor brown, but the grass everywhere was green, green green because of the excessive rains delivered to the area in December. Such a vast difference from the drought-ridden fields of last year, same time.  I wish I had time to take my painting gear, visit again in spring and paint en plein air.  I want to study the color of the fields and hills up close and personal.

Big Red

 Big Red, oil on gessobord, 6x6 inches

I spent some time in California over the holidays and loved every minute of it.
I have seen so many animated paintings of the Golden Gate Bridge lately that I decided to try.  And I will try again. The detail of the bridge itself presented a lot of fine-motor issues for me this particular day (my hands were frozen in my unheated basement studio). I enjoyed working on this regardless. To capture the photo, I had to hike down a small but steep trail of one of the National Parks that are scattered around San Francisco.  Usually there are a lot of sailboats in the bay but this cold day there were few. 

Over the Top, Napa

Over the Top, Napa, oil on gessobord, 6x6 inches

I've been participating in a wonderful challenge since New Year's Day called "Thirty in Thirty" organized by online artist, Leslie Saeta.  The objective is to produce one small painting a day and post it. I have been doing this almost everyday, but thought it would be good to start 2015 off with a bang!  I occasionally produce more than one on a given day, to work ahead if you will, then if I have a hectic work day somewhere along the lines(always!) I have one ready to post.  Because of wanting to complete 30 paintings, I have also allowed myself to paint less intricate or detailed paintings and work on sketches, or even abstractly. This is a nice change of pace and still works my painting muscles!

This little scene was the grand, long driveway of a winery in Napa, CA overlooking the hills that go on forever. 

Lil' Runaway

Lil' Runaway, oil  on gessobord, 6x6 inches

Beautiful tomatoes that I crave in the winter.  Must be the lack of the sun which equals fresh from the garden during the summer. Before they were eaten they had their portrait painted :-)

New Year Fog

New Year Fog, oil on gessobord, 5x7 inches

I took some photos before Christmas at a park along the Ohio river while my daughter was skateboarding nearby.

The boat dock that borders the park looked lonely and in need of attention, and me, the eye behind the lens immediately saw a serene painting in the near future.  As I write this, the weather is 1° so going out on any water is not in anyone's near future unless you are a coal barge captain!

Asleep on the Beach

Asleep on the Beach, oil on gessobord, 6x6 inches

Day 10 of the 30 day challenge. I am one third of the way and still chugging along!

Unlike the previous "do overs" of the boats on the beach, this is one angle hadn't done before.  It ended up being more of a sketch and quickly done. I had difficulty with the fact that there was not much contrast, and the form got a bit homogenous, but it was still a decent attempt. 

Contemplation

Contemplation, oil on gessobord, 6x8 inches

I painted this of my youngest daughter, Barrett, from a photo taken while she and I were waiting for the kayaks to return, so we could have our turn.  Even though she was only 11 at the time of the photo, and the wind was incredibly strong, she held her own out there on the water. A girl after my own heart!

Calm Water

Still Water, Oil on gessobord, 6x6 inches

Sometimes a painting can provoke an appropriately long blog, but with this one all I can say is....can't wait!!

oil sketch, Parklands

Oil Sketch, Parklands, oil on gessobord, 6x8 inches

After returning from an out-of-town trip at midnight last night, and working a long day at my normal job today, I sat down to paint and counted 9 days since I've picked up a paintbrush.  Man, was I rusty.  In order not to force a painting or even put up a palette power struggle, I did a loose, quick sketch of a photo from a beautiful walk I took before my trip to Napa, CA.  I normally don't post sketches but was glad that in my ongoing exhaustion, I still made room in my quickly evaporating day to paint.
**Day 8/30 challenge**

Neatly

Neatly, oil on gessobord, 6x6 inches

Another version of a painting from 2014.  I must say, I was giddy when I finished this version, because of the tug of war between the calm(still boats) and the not so calm(brilliant shadows)! It's actually not so much of a tug of war, as it is a marriage of opposing forces :-)  The blue shadows are like small children trying to get their slumbering parents out of bed in the morning. Relentlessly playful!

Bridge Runs Through It

Bridge Runs Through It, oil on gessobord, 6x8 inches

I love to hike but lately I haven't been able to do it as much. My knee is not up to it. But I can paint from photos that I have taken in the past few years during hikes, like this one. I hiked solo through the state park in Brown County, Indiana a few years ago in the middle of what would become a dangerous ice storm for the region. If only I had known about the dangers.....I would have done it all over again :-)

Stop Copying Me

Stop Copying Me, oil on gessobord, 5x7 inches

This is part of Leslie Saeta's 30 day challenge. 

I did a quick and fun drawing of one of a bunch of flowers given to me over the Holidays.  I hope to do more flowers, which I continually struggle with, because this was enjoyable.

Serene

Serene, oil on gessobord, 6x6 inches

I have always wanted to do this stand-up paddle boarding.

That will have to wait for now. But I can paint an old friend heading through the salt marshes of the Atlantic coast and sigh. I can only imagine the wildlife there is to be discovered in those grasses. I put this high on my list of things to do in 2015 :-)

Resting

 

Resting, oil on ampersand gessobord, 6x6 inches

Happy New Year! For the first post of the year I did a second version of one of my own personal favorites of 2014.  I loved the nesting boats as a subject matter and it proved to be just as difficult the second time around as the first.  I do feel like this version ended up a bit looser than the first, which is a goal of mine for 2015.  My new painting life is now 8 months old, and I've been contemplating ways, styles, methods, and directions I would like to head into for the near future.  The most important goal is to find time to paint each day.