Art Show on the Deck...

I have not been able to paint for the last three days of last week and I do regret it, but I had to pack up stuff (the kitchen part of the remodel begins this Friday) and I had to get paintings framed and titled and ready for the show next week in Fairhope. I have built in a little trick to make sure I don't let things wait till the last minute...I have an art show at my home the week before which forces me to get everything ready. Here is what my art looked like all spread out on my deck yesterday. I did sell two paintings, too. I have the best friends!
I hope to try to paint later this week, but today and tomorrow I will be off visiting my mom, it is her birthday today. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!

Oil Painting of a Tomato ... 12x12

Okay here is another day that I have stepped outside the box and painted on a day that I would normally not have. Even though it is a subject I am well familiar with, I saw this tomato displaced in a fruit bin at the grocery store yesterday and it had all those great little curling leaves that I love. So I had to have it. I am still pretty uncomfortable with painting when I have 1200 other things to do, but I am trying.

Also you may have noticed that I have made more informative titles for my posts for the last two paintings. I read an article from the Empty Easel web site this weekend on how search engines work as applied to an artist. When blogging it seems that the more "keywords" you have in your blog title the better chance you have of getting noticed. Dangerous words for me, since I tend to be pretty verbous anyway.

(Sorry if you are getting this post for the second time today. I am republishing it in an attempt to enable my "comments" section again)

Okay, this is my first attempt at painting every day. That sounds weird, but to the Daily Painters it will make sense. The premise of the daily painters is to paint one small painting every day. You stay in practive that way and don't get rusty. Plus you just get better by leaps and bounds. Or so the story goes. I have seen it happen for others. I don't pretend to think that I can paint every day. Or even every weekday. But today is a day that I have a million things to do. Phone calls, a meeting with my kitchen guy, more packing for the remodel. I would have normally blown off today and not painted. But I will not get better that way.
So I painted this apple. Not small by daily painter guidelines...it's 11x14. But small by my guidelines. I did not have time to play around with the image a lot, so the colors are not as great as they are in the painting.
But, the important thing is that I painted today.

Frustration...

I have had several people comment on the fact that you can no longer comment on my posts each day. I do not know why this is...I have done everything I can think of and nothing different than I did before. I cannot figure this out so if anyone knows what is up with this will you let me know. Thanks, Lorrie

Friday's Work...

I did this pear yesterday afternoon after I had posted the pelicans. I was feeling the time drawing to a close where I can just paint all day long so I was reluctant to put up my paints and wash my brushes. I did this pear from life with thoughts of what I learned in class near the surface of my thoughts. I changed backgrounds at the last minute and the ground color was not what I would have used. However it made this interesting background color, sort of a departure for me. The pear is 11x14.Speaking of departures I decided to do something different from my normal repertoire and this guy is the result. I took his photo when we visited Hilton Head Island this summer. I am sorry to say he was a pet and not just in the wild but he was colorful, noisy and happy(like me). He is 12x24.

In keeping with the departure theme, this landscape was born out of the desire to not throw away the beautiful colors I had left over from some of the paintings of the last couple of days. I took my pallette knife and created this sunset. A total departure...I feel like there is no way I can come close to imitating the beauty of a sunset, so I normally don't try. This is 11x 14 and just sort of makes me smile.

Wednesday and Thursday's work...

I did not get to finish Wednesday's paintings on Wednesday because I was painting two at the same time and just ran out of gas. So, I have worked on them all day today and will post both day's work together this time.I finished the third tomato (in the set from Tuesday) first thing in the morning. I don't know what it was about yesterday but my phone rang 100 times. I have a phobia about not answering it so I was up and down and in and out with my painting mojo. The tomato is 12x12 like the other two in the set.

Then I did these two handsome creatures. They are 12 x 24. They were painted from a set of photos that I took one afternoon at the Ocean Springs Harbor. For those of you not familiar with this neck of the woods, Ocean Springs is in Coastal Mississippi and their harbor was dreadfully affected by the hurricane. These photos were taken during the summer before the hurricane struck. I spent an afternoon down there and made friends with these guys and their flock. I got so friendly with them that I was actually able to walk out on the dock with them and hang out. I have often wondered if they survived. I know that the photogenic shrimpboat nearby did not. It remains a wonderful memory.

Tuesday's Work...

First hello and welcome to all my friends and family who are subscribing to my blog for the first time. Thanks to all who have written and sent such nice comments. You just don't know how much it helps to know what others are thinking. I have actually had two people who are not friends or family comment on my work...and they didn't even feel like they had to.

The next big thing is that my friend Carol Marine, that I took the workshop in Santa Fe from, mentioned me in her blog yesterday! I told my husband I fell like a struggling musician that has been asked to jam with a famous band or something. Thanks so much to Carol for the kind words.

On to the paintings...The first one I tackled was this jalapeno and tomato. I wanted to do the horizontal layout for a change. As usual now that I have photoed it I can see something it needs. So I will tweak it before I put it out at my show. This one is 10x20.

Yesterday was the day for my dance lesson so I had to knock off before I finished the third tomato in this little trilogy. Last week was Tabasco-land, well this week we are visiting Tomato Town! I love painting tomatoes. I really am happy with these two. I love the loosy goosy look. I did these almost entirely with a pallette knife. They are 12x12.

Now to get that last tomato done and then maybe something different...

Monday's Work...

I am still trying paint on the fruits and vegetables that I bought Friday, before they are "no longer available". I was dieing to paint these two pears. I actually stood in the grocery store and held up pears and looked at them from odd angles. The produce man couldn't help but ask what I was doing. I sort of had this little drama worked up in my mind before I even left the store. The green pear had this little rakish tilt to his stem and I thought he looked so jaunty. And then the other pear, well she is just blushing right down to her socks, over something that the "suave" pear said. (I know, I've been inhaling too many fumes) This one is 16x20 and is entitled "You're Making Me Blush"
This trio of tomatoes was fun. They are 12x12 and I think they would look good together as a group or on their own. (I pulled the second tomato carefully off the main stem and then by accident pulled off the little leaf crown thing, which was the reason I picked it in the first place, so I had to pin it back on!)

Friday Paintings...

I did two paintings Friday after running errands all day! I was so proud of myself for not just wasting the day since I did not get to paint at the start of the day like I normally do. I love this one of the tomatoes! The blue reflection is more understated in the actual painting, but I can't get it to show up like that on the photo. This is 11x14.
This one I had trouble with the yellow underpainting making my purple so dull. I will probably go back to my old system of dry underpaintings. Who knows. this is an 8x10.

Trio of Reflections 18x36

Well, after the paint-a-thon on Wednesday I only had one painting in me today. Lots going on. One friend scheduled an MRI for next week because of symptoms she is having and another has a daughter in the hospital with serious troubles. I found out that I was not accepted into the art show in Ocean Springs on Nov. 3 and in the light of everything going on with others it just isn't that big a deal. I'm still on for October 20/21 in Fairhope so I had better get to painting.

Two Day's Work...

I have painted my patootie off, as I said I was going to do. In fact I painted so much yesterday, that I didn't have time to stop and photo/post my work. So you get two day's worth today.

Welcome to Tabasco land. I am getting ready for a show and these things sell in this part of the country. I love to paint them, too. (good thing) This first one is 18x36. I was not happy with it at first and then I went back and worked on the background and darkened the shadow and BOOM it came to life. After Carol's workshop I think I am better maybe at diagnosing the problems in my work. Next...
This one is small by my standards...a mere6x12". I really like the mood of it. This one was painted on a black background.

This one I was really liking...until I painted in the background. I thought with so much teal and green, red would be good, but there is just something off about it. I guess I just figured out what it is. The photo of these was taken outside on a pretty neutral surface with trees in the actual upper background part. If these were actually on a red surface, they would be reflecting red somehwere, now wouldn't they? Ok...more tweaking to do.

I got so frustrated with the bottles, and I felt like I was not happy with where I was headed, so I just decided to go a totally different route. I got out my pallette knife and decided to do a pallete knife painting. This is from my Santa Fe collection. This one is 20x24". The colors did not translated just right onto the computer, but I really like this one. Much better in person. Ok, so after that one I was on a roll and decided to try to do a loose pallette knife wine bottle. Just something small. I did this 8x16. I didn't like it as much as I did the one I did in the workshop. So I went and got an actual wine bottle and set up a little still life and did another one.This one is so similar, yet so different. I like them both in their own way.

Well, that's it for show and tell. I need to get in the studio if I plan to have anything but a blog post to show for today.

Wine Line-Up and Hot Stuff

These are the results of my paint-a-thon on Monday... This wine bottle painting I did from a photo from a trip this summer where we saved the bottles from the weekend on a rail by the deck where we were staying. (There were 7 of us there.) I struggled with this one and got caught up in the details. There are parts I really like, though. I plan to tweak this one a little more. Now that I have seen it photographed I notice the "fluid" look of the second bottle from the left. I like that look and wouldn't mind it if they all looked that way, but since the others are a little more "soldierly" I think I shall do a mini-makeover on this guy.
This one I did after I had gotten totally frustrated with the wine bottles. I decided to try to really apply what I had learned in my Caorl Marine workshop. I set up a still life, got out my view-finder and did this 10x 20. I think the influences of Carol are pretty evident, but I think it is still "me", too. (Thanks, Carol)

Faye's Flowers

This is the photo that I took outside of the hotel that Faye and Jeannette stayed at during their Santa Fe stay. I was wandering my last morning there and remembered that they were checking out around that time so I hunted them down and was able to visit with them for a few minutes. While there I took this photo, the last one of many from my trip.

This is the 30 x40 painting that I did from the photo. I had both the photo thumbnail and the painting thumbnail next to each other on my task bar and I noticed that the painting was dreadfully lacking something. It was amazing how clearly I could see it on the little thumbnail. I seem to remember Carol mentioning this technique in class. Very useful let me tell you.
I am still having trouble photoing my paintings and getting the right colors represented. But this is the closest I could get. In the modified version (even though you can't see it as well on the photo) I upped the highlights on the leaves that are catching sun and the sunlit part of the urn. I noticed in the thumbnail that my values weren't different enough. Ok, so now I guess we can say I have officially learned something from Carol's workshop and applied it! Woo-woo!

Results of my Santa Fe Class...

This is the first painting that I didn't wipe off in Santa Fe. It is three little grape tomatoes.

These three peppers are my next effort...I did these on the day we talked about composition.

This lemon was done on the day we talked about different values and how to use them in a painting to get the most dramatic effect.

These three red peppers were also done on the day we talked about values. I love the red on the turquoise background.

This is the last painting that I finished in Santa Fe. It is my favorite for many reasons. It is an 8x10 so perhaps the slightly larger size was a little more comfortable for me. I love the colors and I think the brush stroke are closer to what I have in mind trying to achieve for all of my paintings.

This is a sunflower that I finished after I got home...ok, I admit it....I took a photo of the flower before I left. So shoot me.






This is a 24x30 painting that I had started on a while ago before I had to take a work break and do other things besides paint. It was great to finally put the finishing touches on it yesterday!

Corona on the Beach...16x36

This is my first painting since returning from my art class/extravaganza in Santa Fe. I cannot express what an effect that week had on me as a person and as an artist. The workshop itself, the people I met and the art that I saw while there all bonded together and hit me right between the eyes. I came home wanting to be a better artist and convinced that I could be one. Thanks to Carol, Bernie, Paula, Bruce, Faye, Jeannette, Vicki, Kathryn, Bonnie, Mary, oh my gosh, the list just goes on....suffice it to say, thanks to all of you who touched my life.



This painting is certainly different from what we did in class...to start with it is 18" x 36". But, I was able to apply many things that I learned in class to a painting such as this, as well as the small format that we worked on.



This is a painting that I had committed to weeks ago for a pal who did wome work for us, so this one is for Stephen. As promised it is the first one I did when I "started painting again".

New Orleans

I have found a new use for my blog! Yay! These photos are for the viewing pleasure of my friend Ouida who is interested in a New Orleans scene. Just call me and we will make a plan.

Fruits (and Vegetables) of my labors...

I stated in a comment to Carol Marine (on her blog of the three garlic pods) that in an effort to try to get my feet wet in the small painting a day format I had produced some small, very forgettable paintings in this past week.

In keeping with the painting a day system (sort of) I plan to post the better three of the group to see how the process goes and what they look like once I post them.

Some of my work....

This is my very first day as a blogger. I am excited to have gotten this far with my setup. I will look to improve it as I go, but I paint much better than I compute. For now I will just show some of my work that I have done recently.