This Evening's Thoughts

This evening I studied a hawk searching, working so hard for his dinner. As I stood in the field I could feel the vastness of the sky, the silence of time.

"Houston We Have A Problem"

Gross painting, huh? I'm a member of Daily Paintworks and this was our challenge last week (insects). Once I got past my hurdle of bugs, I had fun painting this scenario. I'm leaving my Iowa studio tomorrow AM for a month so found myself out here in the studio late tonight finishing this challenge.

A Proud Ride

A month or so ago 1,000 Pink Cowboys came riding into Solvang. They all sported pink shirts commemorating breast cancer awareness. I had a field day with my camera as this was what I live for in art. What a photo op! This is my first day's work with this painting. Can you tell who I think the star is? I can't describe the sense of depth or bond between this horse and rider. There was warmth and yet pride in both of them. I hope I captured  a bit of that feeling. I am going to finish a few highlights, details on both the cowboy and horse. Then I think I will stop. I can always restart this again, but I don't think the background is important in this painting. What do you think? Perhaps a shadow under the horse's hoofs?

DPW Challenge 'The Gift'

Alex's Gift

Lesson learned: Time to stop!

This still life was put together for this week's DPW Challenge. The quest: to paint something that was a gift. This festive, oversized coffee mug was made by Alex (youngest daughter) and given to me a few years ago. I have worked on this over 3 days and find that it is time to now put this aside. The oils have begun to set and are becoming tacky. I now appreciate any artist who attempts to paint bright, vivid, believable colors! A goal I have with these DPW challenges are to keep the paintings fresh (not overworked).  I feel myself tightening up at this point, so time to call this done. 

Do You Wanna Play?

It's been awhile but I'm still painting. I've been working in both watercolors and oils, preparing for an upcoming show in Los Olivos in October. Getting nervous, so today I set up a still life (above) and painted just for me. I spend a lot of time daydreaming about a still life idea, then about an hour setting up the darn thing (thinking about composition, values, color, etc). By the time I finish the prep work, the painting sometimes seems to paint itself.

Today I decided to paint 2 small paintings of this still life as I  found it fun. I found this spotted giraffe last week in California and fell in love. The egg? Well, a Sharpie marker quickly made it a fun participant in this still life. I liked imagining the story behind this scene. I hope you also find a fun story here.