Birth of an Oil Painting.....Happy Birth Day.

This is a photo of my finished commission for my client in Missouri....still wet on the easle. 

Yes, I am happy happy happy and I hope the owners will be as well. 

That glass looks like you can pick it up and drink out of it (if it wasn't empty!)  I added the little marks that make the glass on the wine glass and the salt & pepper shakers come to life.  Mostly the less you can add and the more you can imply the better off you are where glass is concerned. 

The lable on the wine bottle is another favorite spot for me.  My client sent me a bottle from one of his favorite local wineries in Missouri.  At the bottom of the lable in tiny letters you can read Hermann MO.  How personal!  My goal with lables is to have them just realistic enough that they are not just generic, anonymous spaces....but not so bogged down in detail that you can read everything word for word.  I want them to evoke the image, but not photocopy it. 

What I try to create is what I told my client in an email...A blend of a very representational piece that is very literal at first glance but then if you look you see the basic "loose-ness" and "expressiveness"  that is the root of impressionistic painting. That is why I love the little imperfect parts...messy edges and the sides of the bottles and the s & p shakers that are not totally matchy-matchy. This is what keeps you looking at a painting long after your eyes have told your brain that this is a painting of some bottles and stuff on a table.

That is why I paint.

Birth of an Oil Painting....WIP 3

Here is the next installment in the process painting series of my Missouri commission.  I emailed the owner of this painting and told him that sometimes I stand in my studio and hold some palette knives and God paints a painting. 

That what is happening here. It seems to be flying onto the canvas.

 When you first approach a blank drawing on a canvas, you need to block in colors in the correct values with the idea of getting the entire canvas covered before you start making drastic changes.  Everything is relative to what is next to it and you can't really judge till you have all the black covered up.  If you are lucky, though, some of those rough little patches that you just spontaneously blocked in will stand the test of time and become permanent parts of your painting. 

A successful painting to me is one that I have the fewest places that I have to come back and re-work what I did on the block-in.  I can already see some little permanent parts starting to show up at this stage...Like that lid on the olive oil!  Can't you just reach right up there and unscrew it?

Here I just about covered up the black...just the salt & pepper lids and parts of the sides remain uncovered.  The glass doesn't have a top rim yet, but already I am LOVING it!  (My daughter viewed this after I had stopped for the day and called it to my attention that the glass that I was loving so much did not have a base on it!  Lol... sure enough it was levitating.)

I will fix that and add all those little cool things that make a painting come to life tomorrow when I will show you the last photo of the finished product!

Birth of an Oi Painting....WIP 2

This is the second of the series of my process paintings for my Missouri commission.  I prime my canvases in black acrylic and the my rough drawing is done in chalk.  It is easy to change huge mistakes with the chalk and it shows well on black.  I even sometimes use several colors of chalk on a very complex painting to help me keep different buildings or groups of trees sorted out for the painting part.

I strive for a loose style, so I keep my drawing very basic.  I want the spontaneity of the painting to come through.  I admire the talent it takes to produce very realistic, almost photographic, paintings.  I have even done some in the past that people have mistaken for photographs.  But that is not the style that I am drawn to.  I like bold, loose, chunky and funky.  I am still working in that direction.

At the beginning of this painting I blocked in my lightest lights...the salt, garlic and wine lable.  And then I sort of just keep moving...painting on what strikes my fancy.  There is no one process that I use.  My goal is to not get too bogged down in one spot and work an area to death.  I sort of flirted with that issue here on the wine bottle...working a little too close to finished on the bottle itself.  But I do like to get those highlights incorporated into the paint around them before the paint dries too much. 

At this point I was happy with my start and looking forward to continuing!  More tomorrow.

The Birth of an Oil Painting...WIP

I am going out on a limb here by letting everyone in on this project from the very beginning.  I have just received the go-ahead for this commissioned painting.  This is the photograph that I will be working from.  I thought I would share the on-going process with the future owner (he lives in Missouri and I live in Mississippi, so he and his wife can't just drop in to check on the progress).  Since I was going to be sharing it with him, I thought I might as well share it with my blog friends as well.

This started as a request, back before Christmas, by my former client (who found me through Google, by the way) for a 24 x 24 painting featuring salt & pepper shakers.  It evolved over many emails and photos into the composition that you see above. 

I had the components all gathered and took MANY photos of them in all sorts of arrangements and none of them suited me.  I just could not achieve the balance that I was looking for.  Then yesterday I moved my light source slightly forward and BINGO!  Those two gorgeous shadows were thrown on the back and harmony was achieved!!!!

My shot-gun approach to good composition sometimes takes a while, but I know a good set-up once I see it.  Sometimes you just have to kiss a lot of frogs along the way.

I am off to begin the drawing process...photos of that tomorrow!

Asparagus Bunch...Oil painting

8x24....oil on canvas

This is a first time painting of asparagus.  I love it and plan to paint more.  My favorite part is the purple rubber band.  Not sure why, but it is.

On another note...As we pause to thank our veterans I have cause to think of another group of people that deserve our thanks...our often overlooked teachers!  I had the distinct pleasure of talking to my junior high school (to you young people, that's what we used to call middle school) art teacher a few minutes ago.

I think of her often and in teaching my recent workshop I realized that some of the art principles that I was teaching to others were little gems that I had picked up way back when in her class in the 70's.  I decided to look her up and tell her thank you for the impact that she had had on my life.  I'm glad I did.

So to all the teachers out there....whether your students are able to find you to thank you or not....remember that most likely there are scads of former students out there that think of you often.

So once again, Thank you Ms. Swager!

Crab-i-liscious....oil painting

16x20......original oil painting on canvas

I love this painting, and it is one of my first to feature a more realistic colored crab.  I was really digging my awesome colorations...and then my husband mentioned that once the crab is cooked...as it would be when you actually put it on a PLATE....they turn orange.  Oh, yeah, they do, don't they?  Oh well, lol.  I still like it.

Market Fresh...original oil painting of FISH

24x24 ....oil on canvas

This is my favorite of my new paintings this spring!  I love the colors and the unique-ness of the subject.  In person, this one has great depth and presence.  If it was a floral painting, I would say you can almost smell it, but with this one, well, you know......

Shrimps for Dinner....Oil Painting

I love this painting.  It is 16x20 oil on canvas and I just love it. 

It is New Orleans....it is summer....it is friends....it is eating and having fun....messy hands....hanging out and laughing...everything I like about the South.

I was talking to my daughter at a recent art festival and I said..."I just love how this painting turned out!"  I told her "I love the shrimp, and the wine glass, and the checked tablecloth!  and the corn, I LOVE the corn! and the olive oil bottle!" 

She said, " It sounds like you pretty much like everything about this painting!"

I said, "Well, the plate's ok"

Then I decided I really like it too!

Art in Hand Playing Cards...

A while ago I was contacted about a project called Art in Hand.  It is a unique set-up whereby many different artists are contacted and asked to produce art for one specicific card in a deck of playing cards.  The art is collected and an interesting deck of cards is produced with lots of different styles and types of art represented.  The first decks were produced featuring art of specific cities...Charlotte, Portland and Washington, D.C.  They had such success with the city projects that they decided to produce a nationwide deck featuring one artist from each of the 50 states, plus D.C. and 3 U.S. territories.   

One day I got an email asking me if I would like to be the artist to represent Mississippi.  It was so random and out of the blue and to this day I still don't know where they saw me (I am supposing it was this little ole blog) or how they chose me.  But after researching the city projects and seeing how well done they were and what a success they had been I decided to jump on in.  Even though the timing was less than ideal (there were grandbabies being born and lots of important stuff to do) I did enjoy participating.

You can view the entire deck (and even order one of your own) at the link above.  Just go to the USA Project on the home page and it will bring up the entire 54 cards.  I am the 9 of spades.  Your card was supposed to represent your state and your art.  I think mine does. 

Thanks for looking.

Fine Wines by commission....

Fine Wines.....24 x 30 .......Oil on Canvas.....Commission

This is a commission for a nice couple up in Tennessee.  They visited me at the Double Decker festival last year and then the wife contacted me later to do this painting for her husband as a surprise for his birthday.  She took photos of their favorite wines and sent them to me.  Then I combined them into this one composition and painted them for her.

What a sweet wife and what a great surprise!  

Workshop is in the "Success" column....

 Here is a photo of me with "my kids" as Carol Marine calls them.  These are the luscious ladies that took on the challenge to "let loose and let go" at my pallet knife workshop in Fairhope, AL.  The Eastern Shore Art Center was a wonderful place to have a workshop and the participants were awesome!  We had a great time and they tell me they learned a lot. 

We definitely learned more about getting "bold, loose, funky, chunky!"  And  they even got to meet my new grandbaby!  (Did I mention that I have a new grandbaby?)

This is the timed demo I did to illustrate the benefits of setting a timer to make you hurry up and make spontaneous decisions in order to loosen up.  Thank goodness this one was a success, because I sort of crashed and burned on the crab demo.

I want to thank all of the ladies that were so willing to do whatever came up and who made my first workshop a personal success.  I also want to thank those in my past that I drew inspriation from...Claudia Swager (my junior high art teacher),  Bob Tompkins, Carol Marine, and mostly Julie McCartney.  It was amazing, when I thought back to the tips and tricks that I use every day, to think back to the source of that information.  Thanks to all!  I will live to teach again, I hope!

Back from the hiatus....

Drennan Reed Malone

I know excuses are bad, but as excuses go, I think this one is pretty darn cute!  My newest grandchild was born in Feb. and he, as well as a thousand other things, are the reason I have not posted in a while.  But he is the cutest(and most important), so that's why his picture got featured.  Life is good!

I have been painting...commissions and work for my galleries and for the (quickly) upcoming spring outdoor shows.  Plus I taught a workshop in Fairhope, AL.  So over the next few days I hope to get caught up with the news and show some of the new stuff....some of it I just LOVE!!!!!

But for today, let's just realize that that little miracle you see if such a gift from God and should not have to share his post with any old paintings!

Extra Olives Please...Oil Painting

Extra Olives, Please.....10x20....oil.....(sold)

My family loves olives!  I have had great success painting them.  It's not a subject you see ordinarily, but they always get comments when I have them displayed.  That particular color of green is really hard to mix.  Maybe that's why you don't see them a lot.

Out Standing.....oil painting

12x24.....oil on canvas......SOLD

This is obviously a bird.  It is out standing by the water.  Need I say more?

The Supporting Cast.....oil painting

12x24.....oil on canvas.......SOLD


The usual cast of characters for any good meal here at our house.  This painting was in the "lost file" that never got published so you are seeing it now for the first time, even though it has already been sold.  Commisions for "similar but different" paintings are most definitely a possibility.

Three Amigos....oil painting

12x24........oil on canvas.......SOLD

This is one of my paintings that was supposed to be published and got left in the bin as a "draft" without my knowledge.  Although this particular painting has been sold, I do have more paint and more canvases.  I have had great success lately doing commissions featuring a person's own favorite brands of wine.  So if you are interested, let me know.
Here are the comments as I wrote them originally:
I love it when I paint glass and it really comes out looking like you are seeing through it.  And if anyone is familiar with the Ferrari-Carano lable...well, I think this painting pretty much captured the real thing.  I'm happy with this one.

Workshop Announcement...

 

The time has come to announce my first workshop!  When I was in Fairhope this past fall, the fine folks at the Eastern Shore Art Center spoke with me about doing a workshop.  Plans have been in the works since then and now that things are final I can direct you to their web page where you can view the details:

esartcenter.com

The class will be a two-day workshop held on April 12 and 13, 2012 at the Eastern Shore Art Center in Fairhope, AL.  Melinda Hicks (251-928-2288 X107) is the contact person and she can answer your questions.  You can sign up online (look at the top for Classes and Workshops) or through Melinda.

You may be able to tell by the paintings above what the focus of the class will be.  We will deal mainly with ins and outs of my style of palette knife painting and how to create your own masterpiece with this technique.  The class is open to painters of all levels. 

Release the artist inside of you!  It is my firm belief that everyone has more talent than they give themselves credit for.  Relax in this no-pressure environment and just see what might happen!

Hope to see you there!

******
Friday Jan, 20, 2012...This is and addendum to the workshop announcement...It has come to my attention that the workshop info will not appear on the esartcenter.com site until sometime later today.  So starting Saturday, Jan. 21, it should be there for sure.  Sorry for the change in info.
******