My clever daughter! Besides being a terrific Mom to her four little ones (my gorgeous and always well-behaved grandkids, LOL), she has managed to start, grow and develop a quite successful home based business. Her products are all natural and she makes them in her kitchen, sells them at the local farmer's market on Saturdays, and totes them to local fairs as well. I really must brag on her here, now that her web site is a little less under construction than last time I checked. Check it out at: http://lotionsbymieke.com/ and you'll be just as impressed as I am. Oh, and since I get a really good Mom discount (read free), I can vouch that the stuff she makes is really good, and smells great, especially Ocean Rain and Lavender, my two favorites.
In the style of Karin Jurick, who does gorgeous paintings, here's a small cherry pie slice done in oils on masonite. It's only 6" by 8", so I'd consider it a quickie painting, but it's one of my best so far, I think. The nice thing about working so small is that you can have your model right in front of you, and lay the masonite right on the drafting table in front of the model. So close you can smell the cherries, and really stick your nose in the colors and shadows. I will definitely do more of these small, quick studies.
Waiting for a nice homemade peach cobbler to bake, I was able to get my friend Robert to sit still long enough to draw his ear. This is done with carbon pencils in the Moleskine. Seems the paper in the Moleskine is particularly happy with carbon pencil, and I'll have to take advantage. There are other media which aren't as pleased with the paper, so here's a tip for everyone who uses a Moley and hasn't been happy with the watercolor or graphite work. Use carbon pencils! (Ink and marker are also good, so we adapt.) Thanks for looking. 
What was meant to be a quick and easy oil painting took a bit longer than I had anticipated, with all it's details. But it was fun to do, trying to look, look again, study, squint, what color IS that shadow anyway, and see as many colors as i could. I did it in pencil on the canvas first, and spray fixed the drawing to avoid the graphite smudges, which worked well. I'm not sure about the bright background; I might still change that, maybe something duller? Any ideas? Thanks for stopping by.
Draw something cold! This one is a bit silly, a slice of lemon meringue pie to go with all the cold beverages everyone has been doing this week. Nice, cold, tart, sweet lemony pie right out of the fridge. Yum! Same goes for key lime. With a nice buttery, flakey crust and melt-in-your-mouth meringue. Done in the Mary Lou's Sketchpad (see next photo) on Lanaquarelle paper in watercolors.
This is a photo of the cover and inside (small one) of the Marylou Sketchbooks. The inside cover has the list of all the types of paper in the pad, and then you just put your numbers on each page. http://www.marylouswatercolor.com/index.htm I love these guys. The lemon meringue was done on one of the pages in the larger book, on page 15, which is the Lanaquarelle paper, cold press. Wonderful paper, but it still doesn't match the Twinrocker. That's still the best, in my opinion.
Larger than life watercolor of a dragonfly who has been sitting in Press and Seal for a year on my bulletin board, waiting for me to draw him. Done in the Moleskine watercolor sketchbook with pen and ink and watercolors. The wings are actually more delicate than this, but I couldn't find an ink pen fine enough. Used some irridescent medium for the sheen on the wings, but I don't think it showed up in the photo.
Flowers, a nice challenge for me, and I know some of you also. We just love our flowers. Now that I'm working in oils, I itch to get out my watercolors. Isn't that always how it goes? You see a gorgeous charcoal drawing, and that's what you long for. Then there's a delightful watercolor, maybe with pen and ink (Karen, Jana) and there's what you want to be doing. Or a wonderful graphite piece (Felicity) and you want your pencils right away! But I guess that's part of the motivation, and we'll all get there. This is a more careful study on canvas instead of masonite board, done from a photo I took. I want to try some glazing on it, to see how subtle a white I can achieve. This particular rose had a yellow glow to it, very soft, that I'd really like to attempt capturing. This is the first of four challenge 76 postings. I've really been enjoying all the postings for this one. Thanks, EDMers!
Sunday afternoon I went to paint again at Barbara's house, and since rain and clouds were predicted, we painted together in her backyard studio, a wonderful screened in patio porch, with the fans going. It was still-life time, and we wound up with hydrangea in a vase. As it turned out, I had just done hydrangeas the day before (see next post), so I had at it. The color in this one is better, but the composition is somehow not quite right. There's just something about it that feels off somehow. Any ideas, Karen, Teri, Jana, Roz, Clare, Sue, Donn, Lin (and any other EDMers) ? Drawing problems keep cropping up, boy do I need practice just plain drawing.
The hydrangea in our neighborhood is a three color bush, and has been calling to me for quite a few days. Simply gorgeous! I finally got out there and painted it, but had to work in the full sun to get close enough. My colors got too bright, I think, especially the green, but anybody in plein air work will advise you that this is exactly what happens when you work in full sunlight, your colors wash out. I think it needs toning down, and the sky color needs to pop out in some of the upper branches still. Oils on masonite. Any advice, now that I ignored the basic advice I had in the first place?
An oil in progress of the geraniums on my balcony. I am pretty happy with the way it's turning out, but still want to change the color of the pot. It actually is a white pot, and I need to remember: warm light, cool shadows, warm light, cool shadows.... and make the pot more white and the shadows on it more blue. The wall really did look creamy, as I had dragged the geranium inside to paint, and it was really sunny out.
My friend and artist buddy has a wonderful home and backyard. This is a view of her backyard bird feeder which sits beautifully by the pool surrounded by gorgeous flowers and a gurgling fountain. I'm trying to get more oil work done lately. It was getting dark as I tried to get at least one layer on this one. The copper patina on the feeder and tube is not quite right yet, but I really like how the patio tiles came out, and the suggestion of grasses. I think sometimes the less we "think" about what we paint, and just go quickly and instinctively, at least with this kind of plein air work, the better the outcome. Has that been your experience also?
Unfinished plein air oil of the copper bird feeder at Barbara's house. Something not quite right with the sky holes, and the color on the bird feeder isn't yet working, but I do like some of the tree work. Any suggestions? (Besides the crookedness of the feeder, of course. A little drawing accuracy problem there.)
Really do need to learn to use Photoshop, where I could clean up the ear problem. Bruno the GS does not really have three ears. This one and the next were done in the Moleskine, with watercolor pencils, and water added later for the wash effects. I am glad to report that the Moleskine is becoming less "precious" by the drawing. I'm more likely now to just play around and make lots of doodly stuff, instead of only drawing "seriously" in it. If you are still being shy with your sketchbook, take a page and make a huge mess, it's very freeing.
is a German Shepherd who belongs to a friend of mine, and was being cooperative while I drew him stretched out and sleeping on the floor. He did get up and move, but I was able to make several drawings of him. This one was done with watercolor pencils with water added later. You have to start with heads, since you aren't likely to get the whole dog done before they change their positions. I'm not sure where his other ear went, he does have two. Moleskine sketchbook.
One advantage of living in an old apartment complex is the wonderful size of the trees. The pool is surrounded by huge old trees, and this one I tried to watercolor just went on and on, so I simply used two pages in the Moleskine watercolor notebook. Done with waterpens, which are great, so portable, and a little Daler-Rowney travel watercolor set. Some of the kids came over from time to time to see what I was doing.
This is a detail of the graphite drawing posted below. I would like to be really loose and free with the pen and ink, watercolors, but every once in a while, the pensils call me. I love how you can just sit and "color", reminds me of the coloring books we loved as kids. Doesn't it look like the jawbone is gonna eat the beans? Not intentional, but if it works....
