Blue Petal Plate and Flowers

Another  painting of my new favorite blue petal plate.  This plate is too small and shallow to hold anything so I have to find ways to incorporate other items with it. Today, I added these red daisy-like flowers.  There is something about this plate that lends itself to abstraction.

Blue Petal Plate

A trip this weekend to Goodwill for inspiration and I found this darling blue glass petal plate.  I only wish I had better fine motor skills today because my brushstrokes were more choppy than usual. But now I have this plate for many more future paintings and that makes me happy.

Three Shears

My son came up with the title of this painting "Three Shears Hooray".  I did the drawing from a photo because it was complicated but the actual painting is from life. 

Cake ?

Here's to celebrating my 100th post.

Orange You Glad

This painting is based on the Upstate Artists Monthly Painting Challenge "Orange". Our group of local artists meet monthly to talk about art, create a painting based on a changing theme and enjoy lunch together. My orange stands above the last challenge object I painted and smugly says "Orange you glad I didn't say banana".

Now What?

 I recently went to a demonstration by Laurie Greenbaum Beitch, a local pastel artist who gave lots of useful tips.  For one, she uses workable fixative to set her colors and I'll have to buy some because at some point I couldn't lay down any more color even after I brushed some off. What I like about pastels is that it's fun drawing, and you don't have to invest a lot of time. This red-eyed tree frog has the look that says "Now what?"

Go to http://lauriegreenbaumbeitch.com/gallery.html to see Laurie's work.

Cow

This cow was drawn with my new Nupastels on Mi-Teintes pastel paper.  Pastels are so much easier than oil paint; no set-up or clean-up. I'm told they are more expensive to frame.  I haven't bought any fixative yet and I haven't framed any drawing, so for now my few drawings are taped to the wall. I usually work from life and create my own still life. However, this image was taken from the Farm Sanctuary Magazine. 

Hard Candy

These little hard candies were placed on a white enamel plate and back lit. There were lots of soft reflections and that's what I made abstract. I've come to the realization (a little late huh!) that drawing is important and the reason I haven't posted much recently is that I've been practicing my drawing skills. Also, it's hard to do challenges when I'm limited to still lifes and landscapes. So it's time to try new things.