New Flower Painting ( First Bloom )

The photo on the top is the finished piece and the more   accurate one for the color in the painting.

Thought I would take a picture of what I am working on right now.  I find it really helps to see the painting from this perspective.  It shows me where the painting still needs work or if the composition is working.  It's a rainy day here in Portland...surprise...rain in Portland!  I couldn't get the right light to take a good picture and was having trouble getting the color in the white flower to photograph more purple.  Some of the greens are really off also.  When I get the piece done I will try and set it up with better light.  The flower center isn't done and the bottom right needs more work. I really tried to get more texture and paint in my brush strokes.  I tried working with  Gamblins Galkyd Lite as a medioum and really liked that I could get the paint on thicker with a lot of brush marks showing.  Not really very visible in the photo.

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Hydrangea-Summer Sonnet

http://topartistsdirectory.blogspot.com/

It's been awhile since my last post.  The coming holidays sort of get in the way of painting.  I had three paintings accepted into a show called "Birds of a Feather" which is in January at the Sixth Street gallery in Vancouver WA.  http://www.sixthstreetgallery.com/.  They are a co-op gallery, but also put on regular call to artists show.

The new floral painting is for a show in March, which I was juried into that would like up to 7 paintings for the show.  I had  a choice of showing the collage pieces or the flower series.  I haven't thought of a title for this one yet....any suggestions?  My Sister-in-Law, Joy suggested the title,"Summer Sonnet", after a poem she read recently, which I thought was a nice title.

So much for what I have been up to; my fellow Thursday Painters have been blogging also.  You have to check out Patty Ryans newest landscapes.   Patty does wonderful ink pourings where she somehow goes back into the pours and works on the pieces and winds up with terrific abstracts.  But, she recently  has done some new acrylic landsacpes that are loose and very painterly, a style of painting I wish I could do.

http://shialavati.blogspot.com/

Also,  please check out another one of my painting buddies; Wendy Smith's blog;

http://wendysmithoregon.blogspot.com/ Wendy does beautiful landscapes in oil and pastel of  Oregons incredible scenery.

Sun Flower-Color Inspiration

I was juried into a show in March and am allowed to show 7 works.  The show said I could show my collage work or the dried flower series.  I decided to show the flower series and thought I would try and do a few smaller pieces for the show since I already have a number of larger paintings done.   I want to try a few  12" x 12" size to see what kind of a composition I could work into the square formatt.  I tried two differnent shades of blue for this painting and still am not sure if this is the right one for the background.  My color palette was inspired by a book I have on the California group of painters know as the Society of Six; http://www.askart.com/askart/interest/society_of_six_1.aspx?id=35
 Anyone out there in cyber space have a comment on the blue background ? I sure would be appreciate some comment on the color and composition.

First Cosmetic

This is the first painting I did several years ago of cosmetics. I did in a class I was taking with the Artist Larry Morace. http://www.larrymorace.com/ in San Francisco. We worked from a photo, but he made us turn our photo upside down. It was a good learning experience because it forced us to look at the negative shapes and to not concentrate on the objects in the setup or photo.

Twists and Turns,

It's been awhile since my last posting. I have been working on a cosmetic painting that is a commission, which is close to being done. We have had some incredible weather here in the Portland area. I have basically been house bound for close to a week since we keep getting more and more snow everyday. Usually this time of year is all about rain, rain, rain and more rain; so since I haven't been able to leave the house I have gotten some painting finished.

This is another painting in the flower series and I thought I would set a price for it online. If anyone is interested in purchasing the piece the price is $550. plus shipping. Shipping outside of the Portland area usually runs about $35. This is an original Oil, size 24"x24" on a 1 1/2" stretched canvas

Plein Air Price $100.

My friend and fellow artist Wendy Dehart, http://www.wendydehart.com/ asked me to go out recently to paint in a local park. Our plan was to go out later in the day, around four o'clock to catch the afternoon long shadows. Well, it's Portland and while the summer has been beautiful and now that fall is approaching we didn't get to catch the long shadows. We had really no shadows as the afternoon just became overcast. We decided to paint anyway and this is my attempt at Plein Air. I have only been painting outdoors a handful of times and always seem overwhelmed. I have a hard time narrowing down what I want to paint. My daughter commented she thought the trees looked like they are doing a plie'. I realized I painted both trees with the same "V's" in their branches making them very repetative. Posting the photo's always gives me a differnt perspective of my paintings. It's a very good tool to help see what I don't always see when I'm painting.
I have another friend that has put her art on a new web sites for artist. Check out Patty Ryan's art at:http://greenfabric.com/ and also her blog; http://shialavati.blogspot.com/