Knocking off the rust

Misty Field

6" x 8", oil

Winter Shadows

5" x 7", oil

Let's Walk

6" x 8", oil

Winter Field

6" x 8", oil

Once again, after months of neglect I find myself relearning what to do with brushes, paint, and my new set of palette knives (thanks Mom!). I forced myself to squeeze in these little paintings between my design work and when the school bus arrives, this gives me usually about an hour and a half, maybe two if I'm lucky.

Housekeeping

Since I use this blog to keep track of what I've done I REALLY need to take care of some business after months of neglect.

Last fall I had a little show at a local coffee house and never got around to adding these to my blog, so for the record...

June Fields

12" x 16", oil

Three Susans

6" x 8", oil

Three More Susans

6" x 8", oil

Four Little Birds

12" x 16", oil

Sold

Can't Get Me Down

Can't Get Me Down

oil, 6" x 6"

I don't know what it was, but I just got obsessed with DPW Challenge this week. Normally I would steer clear of flowers since I've never been happy with any flowers I've painted. I guess that's why this challenge was a HUGE challenge for me.

The challenge had a limited palette of Ultra. Blue, Cad Red Lt, Cad Yellow Lt. and white, plus it had to be done in 1 hour, plein aire.

After 6--yes 6!! failed attempts and 6 hours of frustration I finally got something I can live with. I sat in the rain outside with my umbrella and in between the kid related interruptions I was able to get this thing knocked out in the 1 hour time limit--just barely.

June Sky

June Sky

12" x 16", oil

My husband told me to grab the camera as we were headed out for an evening walk. I'm so glad I did because the sky was so beautiful. Thunderheads were forming in the distance lit by the sunset, cliche maybe, but so cool looking.

My mom suggested doing another palette knife painting, TOO much fun! Would it be wrong if I abandoned my brushes?

Morning Patrol

Morning Patrol

8" x 10", oil

Our new pullets are close to full grown now and happily roaming the yard on most days. They were left out of my last painting because I got too focused on the swing, but here they make an appearance.

Summer Swing

Summer Swing

8 x 10, oil

This is one of my favorite spots in the yard, and it just glows on a sunny morning. I've taken so many pictures of this spot in probably every season, so I'm glad I finally got around to painting it.

Stand and Sway

Stand and Sway

8" x 10", oil

....must ...paint ...greens

I'm trying to develop a taste for the many green, green, greens of summer. My two favorite colors in the world are alizarin crimson and cad. yellow med (think red dogwood, golden grasses, and throw in some snow patches). In other words, I'd rather be painting a fall or late winter scene. So, while I have some free mornings this summer I plan to force myself to confront the greens.

This is from a photo I took in our yard, as you can see we are not too meticulous about weed whacking around the trees. In fact, I have no trouble at all finding interesting weeds and bare patches to add a little flavor to the GREEN.