Magenta!

I have been exploring oils with a group on Wednesday afternoons for a while now and may finally be getting a feel for the paint.  Going back and forth between oil and watercolor is challenging but the differences in the medium and how I paint with them is kind of fun in a schizo sort of way..

I painted the flowers below to make myself use a tube of magenta paint that came with a set of oils my husband had given me.  It is a color I had not used before except in tiny quantities to see how it mixed with other hues.  Making it the base for a major part of the painting forced me to explore the color and its possibilities.  Magenta has now been making its way onto the pallette for more paintings as its vibrant hue gives some added punch to mixed reds and oranges. 



Untitled  16 x 20

Oil on Canvas

2013

Fall Aspens

Roadside Color  2013

20 x 30 Acrylic on Canvas

 

Well I have been painting this on and off for over a year so I am finally throwing in the brush and calling it done.  These aspens were alongside the road in northern New Mexico and the yellow leaves fairly glowed in the light. 



Red Hibiscus for the New Year

After fighting two separate head colds, I have only managed one new painting so far this year.  I seem to be stuck on the flower portraits but they just got bigger when I ran out of small panels.  The fun part of painting a flower so large is that it becomes just abstract shape and pattern at some point in the process.  This piece really points to that abstraction as I had a lot of fun just layering and layering color to see how many different reds I could coax from a limited palette.  

Red Hibiscus  22 x 30

watercolor  2013 

Final paintings of 2012

Yellow Canna  20 x 24

Watercolor on 200 lb Waterford paper

 

Reflections  19 x 27

Watercolor on 200 lb Waterford paper

Small Oils for Christmas

The oil painting group I work with on Wednesdays had our holiday lunch today and exchanged small 8" x 8" paintings for christmas.  It was a great way to get us working on something small and fun with oils. 

I started out painting an Amaryllis but when it wasn't going too well I painted a still life of Cassia flowers from a shrub at the gallery courtyard just as a back up.  The Amaryllis eventually came around and was taken in the exchange today.  Both oils are pictured below.  

The Amaryllis painting has a metallic gold background that I was trying out after looking at a lot of advertisments of a major Klimt show.   I really didn't realize where that impetus came from until I looked back at some blogs I follow and saw all that gold in his work.  

OBSESSION

I stretched a 36" square canvas and then realized that I don't usually work in a square format.  So.. I bought some 12" square linen panels to explore the square.  It then turned into an obsession of painting these small flower portraits and I couldn't stop until all the linen panels in my possession were finished.... 

I still haven't started the large canvas but at least these are done  (until I order more panels anyway)

 

These are all 12" x 12" Acrylic on Linen Panel

 

These two are 12" x 16" Acrylic on Linen panels



 

SOLD!

Bright Angel Trail

 

Bright Angel Trail

12 x 16 Oil on Canvas

 

 

Well at long last here is the first painting from the reference photos I shot at the north rim.  It was very hazy while we were there because the smoke from fires in Idaho and other northern states had come down and was settling over Utah and northern Arizona.  The haze gave a kind of difuse blue to the shadows at certain times of day.  

Shadow Play

I am just back from traveling and hiking in Utah and Arizona so have lots of material for more paintings but for now here is one I have just finished this week. 

 

Shadow Play

24 x 36 Oil on Canvas

 

Taos Mountain Trail

 

12 x 16 Oil on Canvas

 

 

 



 



Amazing Prints

Just back from traveling to see family and we saw the most amazing show of prints by Canadian artist, David Blackwood at The Rooms in St. John's. 

 

Fire Down in Labrador

Etching 32 x 20 1983

David Blackwood

 

 

His work was haunting in it's subject and beautiful in the rendering.  He is a Canadian artist working in Ontario and Newfoundland so his work isn't real well known here in the states but well worth checking out.



Oil Painting, again

I have been working on some oil paintings lately, trying to get back the feel for that particular medium.  So far each has been entirely different than the next, but I am just stubborn enough to keep at it.   I was asked to join a group of painters who are trying to promote working in oils here on the island.  We meet once a week to paint together so it has kind of forced me to work in oil as well as in a group setting.  The feedback is great as I have struggled to adapt to the limitations as well as the opportunities that oils bring into play. 

Now if I could just remember how long this paint stays wet I wouldn't be smearing paint all over myself and my studio moving them around.

Near Jemez

16 x 20 Oil on Canvas

August on the Greenway

18 x 24 Oil on Canvas

Storm Over the Jetty

16 x 20 oil on canvas