A Painting A Day

I have taken quite the hiatus from painting. But I guess if you love something you will always come back to it.
I started easing back into it by starting an online course with Dennis Perrin on painting the flower portrait. The past couple of days I've painted some rather past their prime pink roses in a blue mason jar.
This is day one - "Having a Ball" will post day two next.

I'm tired of trying to second guess the art buying public and so decided this weekend to just get back to my roots and paint what I want to paint - which is people.

So did this painting of a boy fishing. It reminds me very much of my brother when he was young. I didn't start it until like 5:30 last night, and I never hooked up my lamp so it was hard to see the colors. I didn't realize how purple the rock was until I looked at it this morning. Maybe I need to work without light more often! Haha - because I love the colors.

This is a large piece - 30x48. I wouldn't have been able to finish it if there had been more detail. I spent a great deal of time on getting the green color right on the lake. I still had the light while working on it. I started off using viridian in the mix but quickly abandoned it and just mixed my own with ultramarine blue, lemon yellow and cad red light.

I was on a painting frenzy yesterday! Two paintings in one day! Love it! So first let me preface this by saying, this is not a moviestar! Haha! When I was painting it I was trying to reveal the emotion in her eyes.

We had our first frost this morning. These little guys were still clinging to life, so I brought them inside where it's warm and painted them. I'm not happy with the flowers themselves - I didn't spend enough time on them to do them justice. So they are the impression of flowers! Ha! I thought the little vase turned out okay. I'm working on very small canvas boards (6x8) so didn't really have enough room to put in the lovely reflection of the glass on the countertop. There's just a hint of it. I'm wondering if I really am getting better? I wonder am I just rushing through or am I actually learning something each time I paint. I imagine time will tell, and it only makes sense that the more you do something, the better you will get at it. Next week, I start a color class with Sue Foell. Judging color values in the midtones and mixing them seems to be my biggest challenge and I'm hoping I will come away from this class with more of an ability to mix the right color and judge the color values more accurately.  

It was cold and rainy today, so it was wonderful to have some sunshine in art class! I have a little more to do to finish this, and will probably follow up on it later today. :) I am looking forward to the day when I actually want to sign my paintings. I think with today's effort I'm feeling closer. Today was the last of our 6 classes, but I start back up again next week with a special class on color. I'm so looking forward to that. Color has always intimidated me, but I'm a big believer in facing your fears. What's the worst that could happen? Ha!