Green Bowl, Flowers and White Vase

A friend said she wanted to hear me complain about how hard it is to paint, to commiserate, so this post is for her . This painting nearly went into the trash more than once. Really. Initially the bowl came out beautifully, my greens were clean, colors were applied in one stroke and it looked like glass. Then I painted the red flower.  The more I worked on the flower the more I got red paint smudges on the bowl. After several days of redoing the red flower more than half the bowl was lost. Today I was able to paint the flower and touch up the bowl. The unmuddied green colors of the bowl are lost but I think the painting still works. I'm not going to throw it out because I basically like my painting, it's an expression of my view of things and I know nothing is perfect.

Persimmon on Cloth

I was inspired to paint this persimmon abstractly and it turned out to be much more fun then just rendering it. Since this is the first time I've painted a persimmon I did a few practice sketches. I worked on getting the colors right and then values. I positioned it on it's side and then as above on it's base. I eventually decided it would be a more interesting picture with lots of movement. The cloth  is a piece of folded canvas draped over a box. 

Happy Holidays

Wishing everyone Happy Holidays and a peaceful New Year.

Family Reunion

I thought I'd try something new again. I think that's important. It's like testing the waters. It's been a long time since I've tried painting figures (this time from a photo). I like it in the way that it looks like my sister-in-law and me. Maybe all this painting has helped improve my skill.  I'll try again at some point but I am still pretty sure that my first love remains still lives.

An Apple A Day

I'm in a different mindset lately. Instead of doing a daily painting to blog I decided to paint an apple a day and when my painting was done I'd blog it.  I'm happy I made that decision because it gave me a chance to work at a more leisurely pace. If you believe that then would you be interested in purchasing the Brooklyn Bridge. These green and red apples were a *!#:( to paint.  I'm happy with them now and so here they are.

Asparagus

It's been 11 days since I posted my last blog.  That's not because I haven't been painting, I have, almost every day.  But, when a lot is going on in my life, my painting doesn't seem to work.  Maybe someone else looking at my paintings wouldn't realize it but I decided at the beginning that I'd try to post only those I was happy with.  A big change in my life right now is that I'll be moving out of my studio at the end of the month. The owner (who has provided wonderful artists' spaces) has decided to retire and she has put the building up for sale. I've come to terms with this but it has taken a few days. Of course, life itself is full of distractions but I'm going to try to concentrate on painting again and blog too.

Birthday Bubble Bath

My son gave me a bottle of lavender bubble bath from Sabon for my birthday. I can't wait for a cold evening to relax in a warm bath and think about what to paint next.