Quiet Day - Day # 30

This was my back-up painting.

It was painted on New Years Day looking out my studio window.

Quiet Day

8" x 8" oil on panel

Today is Day 30 of the 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge.

I'm a little sad that the Challenge is over.

But only a little.

I will reflect on it tomorrow.

Lily Pond - Day #29

Maybe you recognize this Lily Pond?

Lily Pond 

10" x 10" oil on panel

It is intimidating to paint something that has been painted so many times.

Monet gave the world many wonderful gifts

including this pond.

The tulips were in bloom when I visited 

with some other garden loving ladies last spring.

The sun was in and out.

It sprinkled.

And it hailed a bit.

Can't wait to go back again.

True Blue - Day # 28

A little still life of an oft painted pitcher.

It was a gift from a friend (Thanks Eva).

True Blue

6" x 6" oil on panel

Took a trip to Keokuk, Iowa today to help hang the February show at the Keokuk Art Center.

Carlene Dingman Atwater and I are sharing the show.

We shared a show in Fort Madison last August.

We have both been painting for Leslie Saeta's 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge.

While we don't each have 30 paintings in the show we managed to fill up their large gallery.

At the opening on Friday we plan to have a slide show of
all 60 of our combined paintings
 on a large photo frame.

In addition we would like everyone to be able to take a look at our blogs.
 We plan to have 2 iPads going so they can see what we did in January 2013. 

Loopy - Day #27

I'm feeling a little loopy keeping up with painting every day

 for the 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge.

In addition I am getting ready for a show at the Keokuk, Iowa Art Center that I am sharing with my artist friend 

Carlene Dingman Atwater.

We will be showing quite a few of our 30 Day paintings.

The ones that are DRY!

Loopy

5" x 7" - Oil on Panel

The reference photo was taken at a Canadian airshow 

 by Prince Edward Island Photographer Stephan DesRoches

who was kind enough to give me permission to use it for this painting.

This is quite a small painting and was done wet over dry.

I painted the blue background the night before 

with a low toxicity M. Graham Alkyd/Walnut Oil medium.

I think I will do a larger version in the future 

and paint it wet into wet.

This should create more of an atmospheric effect

which should be fun.

Relax and Paint - Day #26

I haven't been to Figure Drawing in Fairfield

 for a long time.

So I decided that I should go and paint 

my Day #26 painting there.

RELAX
5" x 5" Watercolor

I think that I need to attend more often and a big   

THANK YOU 

to Jim for his encouragement.

I always seem to elongate the bodies of the models.

I must have "Mannerist" tendencies.

It was fun to relax and draw.

  

Hollyhocks - Day #25

Hollyhocks from my garden last summer.

Hollyhocks

10" x 10" oil on panel

These were growing in front of a rough weathered wood wall

 and caught my eye because the wood had

 a purplish cast behind the pale lemon yellow hollyhocks.

I did the rough-in for the painting and quit for the day.

When I came back I liked it so much that I gave it a touch-up and left it alone.

And you know that this is no easy task for any artist

 but especially for me!

Widgeon - The Plane - Day #24

It's airplane day today.

Widgeon

5" x 7" oil on panel

I love this plane.

It is amphibious, it lands on water and your local runway.

A girl can dream.

(and paint planes for fun)

Jimmy Buffett owned one of these planes 

and he put it into the sea off of Nantucket.

Then he bought the larger version - 

I think that was a Grumman Otter?

I loaned out my copy of "A Pirate Looks at 50" and it wasn't returned so I guess that I will just guess.

The reference photo is from Eric Presten's book 

"Vintage Flyers III" and is used with his permission 

and well wishes.

Thanks Eric!

Spring Green - Day #23

The light was coming through the clouds 

and it hit the neighbor's field just perfectly.

Spring Green

5" x 7" oil on panel

I'm glad I stopped and took the reference photo for this painting, one never knows what will be planted in that field next year. 

I tried to keep this subject very soft and diffused to reflect the warm, hazy, cloudy atmosphere of the spring day.

I didn't push the really bright intense green that you see

 in an Iowa spring.  It just isn't quite believable in paint.

Those of you from the midwest know what I mean.

Maybe next time....

Field Day - Day #22

Red grain carts out in the field 

look like agricultural sculptures.

Field Day

8" x 10" - oil on panel

If they are another color I really don't like them as much.

Something about the red and gold.

Off the Coast - Day #21

This painting has been on and off of the easel for days.....

Off the Coast

8" x 10" oil on panel

It may be named Off the Coast but it is 

FINALLY off of my easel.

It is also testimony to giving up and letting go and finding out what happens when one does this.

I just started to experiment with Cobalt Blue, Naples Yellow, Transparent Oxide Red and a little Dioxanine Purple.

Limiting the palette obviously helped.

It ended up a bit mysterious.

Don't you think?

Sure wouldn't want to land into that glare.....

Smokey Mountain Memory - Day #20

This one was fun.

It is Day #20 so I suppose I am getting the hang of it now

Smokey Mountain Morning

10" x 10" - Oil on panel

I am still dredging up old travel photos

 to paint from for the Challenge.

I just love how the atmospheric perspective in the Smokies

 is so pronounced.

I have done a couple of unsuccessful watercolors

of this photo before but I think it lends itself to the palette knife and to a little color "push".

Right after taking this picture we saw a bear cross the hiking path.

This sent me hiking right back toward the car.

The palette for this painting is similar to yesterday.

Cobalt Blue, Lt Green, Cad Yellow, Cad Orange, 

Alizarin, Diox Purple and a bit of Indian Yellow.

The Titanium White that I have been using for the Challenge has an Alkyd in it to hasten drying.

It works well, it doesn't dry overnight but will firm up enough for another layer.

Wild Apple - Day #19

I think that I must have been channeling Matisse 

or some other Impressionist this evening. 

Wild Apple

6" x 6" oil on panel

I arrived home from my trip late in the afternoon.  I only have one backup painting left so I tried to paint something simple.

I wiped it out twice.

At one point before a "wipe out" it resembled a Cezanne.

Kinda, sorta.

The palette for this was fun to use.

Cobalt Blue, Naples Yellow, Hansa Yellow, Chrome Green Light,

Cad Yellow, Cad Red and Alizarin Crimson.

And Alkyd White.

As usual the colors are much brighter than this and the image will be replaced when I am able to take a photo of the dry painting.

Mini Geranium - Day #18

This is a tiny little thing that I painted because

I knew that I didn't have time for much else.

 Mini Geranium

4" x 5" oil on tiny canvas

I had this little canvas laying around 

that may have been from hobby lobby.

I had another painting like this a few years ago and it disappeared .

Do they even make frames this small?

Amazing Grace - Day #17

I have always seen the quiet beauty in the old graveyards.

Amazing Grace

Watercolor on Arches paper

This was done more than a year ago at a John Preston Workshop.

I am definitely not a watercolorist, John is a very good instructor.

I used a limited palette which I believe helps the situation.

This local cemetery is on top of a hill looking out toward the river.

Today I couldn't paint.

 I am at another country graveyard

 where generations of my family lay resting beneath the prairie soil.

To remember and say goodbye to another loved one.

Orange Smoothie - Day #16

I have had this little guy since before Thanksgiving.

Orange Smoothie

6" x 8" oil on panel

I painted him before the 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge began.

I needed to have a couple of back-up paintings

 just in case something happened and I couldn't paint.

I am glad that I planned ahead because life pitched a curveball this week.

When life gives you a pumpkin, make pie... or paint it.

Plein Air in the Garden - Day #15

There is a group of Artists that gather to paint every morning

 for one week in June in our friend Joanie's garden.

We all share the same teacher/mentor - Bill Teeple of Fairfield, Iowa.

 Plein Air in the Garden

8" x 8" oil on Panel

Joanie's Garden

8" x 8" oil on panel - SOLD

Both of these paintings were started in the garden but finished in the studio.

I decided to have the same subject with two different approaches.

A palette knife and darker values were used on the bottom painting and a lighter palette

 and a brush on the top painting that was finished for today. 

I had not worked on the top one since July and decided to "finish" it for Day#15 of the challenge.

The second one was sold at a charity benefit in November.

Christmas Future - Day #14

This is a preview of our Christmas card for 2013.

So if you want to be surprised next year...don't look.

Deep Enough

9" x 12" oil on panel

Although if you are of a certain age

 you might not remember this painting by Christmas 2013.

Ahem.....

This is a photo looking down our driveway taken a couple of years ago. 

It was a brilliant morning with two feet of snow.

We plowed the driveway but there was so much snow

 our county gravel road wasn't plowed for 2 more days.

We haven't had much snow this year 

and I am not complaining one bit.

 But, it does make it difficult to paint or take new snow photos.

Cloud Loop - Day #13

I love painting clouds.

Cloud Loop

6" x 6"oil   on panel

I thought that I would add a little aerobatic plane as well.

Just for fun.

It was interesting trying to make the little plane look

 like it was not just pasted onto the sky.

My instinct was to make it lots darker but it is so tiny that I decided to play it safe.

In the Mushroom Woods - Day # 12

We had fun on this day in the woods but only brought home some photos.

In the Mushroom Woods

6' x 8 " oil on panel

This photo of the painting is little more blue than reality but not too bad.

Even with the color shift I think that I was able to represent

the sense of light falling across the forest floor.

Which was my very simple concept for this Day #12 painting.

Sometimes one needs to keep the emotion in and the intellect out.

Chapel in the Auvergne - Day #11

We were on the trail of Romanesque Chapels on a trip to France.

Auvergne Chapel

8 " x 10" oil on panel

This one had some nice light coming from behind it 

and one of those french "lollipop" trees.

Another photo that I have been wanting to paint for a couple of years.

I started with an underpainting using a brush and finished with a palette knife.

I actually don't know if this one is finished or not.

I pre-determined the palette but as usual my darks all crept toward the middle values.

I Had A Big Beef - Day #10

Day # 10 - Double Digits!!!!

Big Beef 

8" x 8" 0il on panel

I started this painting early this morning but had to leave before finishing.

I came back to it this evening and gave it some final touches.

BUT......

That meant I had to photograph it with very wet paint

thus the shine along the edge.

Just to achieve this decent of an image I had to photograph it at an oblique angle.

with a color corrected lamp.

I usually use daylight.

A little creativity won the battle and I didn't miss posting on day #10.

Whew!

Yokum's Field

This painting is based on a photo that I took of our J-3 Cub

 a couple of years ago at a local EAA Chapter Meeting.

Yokum's Field

9 x 12  oil on panel 

The harvest was in at the farm of our friend Rex 

and the colors of the corn stubble and the plane intrigued me.

The alternate title was going to be "Honey You Forgot the Struts".

Because I almost did.

But I wanted to remember Rex, his adventurous soul and a beautiful flying day.

Sauté - Day #8

Today started out with an airplane painting that just did not co-operate.

 

Sauté

8" x 8"

oil on panel

This was another uncooperative painting from last week.

It needed to sit and dry so I could go back and "fix" it.

So I suppose you will be seeing the painting of the airplane that I started today 

next week......

Break of Day - Day #7

This was the view from my back yard this morning.

You don't need to ask me why I live here.....

Maison de Monet - Day #6

I was going through some old photos on the computer

 looking for images to use on my new website. 

A photo from a visit to Giverney popped up.

Maison de Monet

6" x 8"  oil on panel

I have been wanting to paint it in oil for a while.

I have done a watercolor from the photo in the past.

None too successfully.

Maybe my theme for the 30 in 30 Challenge should be:

"Photos that I have always meant to paint".

Unless we get some really nice days

then I will go outside to paint.

Wandering Away on Day #5

                     Yes, I am wandering away to a different subject today.

"Wandering Away"

8" x 8" oil on panel

Or maybe there is a little "Where's Waldo" airplane up in the sky?

My last post with the Tavel Air airplane made me a little wistful for a summer day.

So I decided to paint one.

Just because. 

Travel Air - Day #4

A little different perspective on this painting.

"Travel Air "

8" x 8" oil on canvas panel

I chose this plane for my Day #4 painting because 

the angle of the photo included the ground.

That would make it a landscape painting with an airplane in it I suppose.

Or is it an airplane painting with a landscape?

You can decide for yourselves.

I was trying to give it a sense of atmosphere that suggests flight -

of being "in" the air.

I found that as I looked back at the photos I took earlier that I preferred the simplicity of the underpainting.

This version is a little fresher.

There is always a danger of overworking.

I need to work on that....

On to Day #5

It's a Plane

A nice Aeronca 50-C Chief 

"It's a Plane"

6" x 12"

No plein air painting for this one.

The photo was taken from a beautiful book by Eric Presten.

He was selling it at a Fly-in this summer and was happy to give me permission to use any of his beautiful photos for my paintings.

He is a very kind man.

The title is "Vintage Flyers III - A Photographic Essay of  695 Types of Surviving 

Antique and Classic Airplanes"

He is a marvelous photographer.

I am planning to use his book as a resource as I work my way through the 

30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge. 

Red Wing

No, not a plane but the name of a very tasty red onion.

"Red Wing"

6" x 6"

This is the last onion that we have held in storage and now it has been memorialized.

The seed for this variety is from Pinetree Seeds in Maine.

One needs to start onion seeds at the beginning of January.

If you have problems with your onions not forming a big bulb then it is possible that 

you might not be starting them early enough in the year.

Now I can make some soup.

And start the seeds for next year's onions.

30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge - #1

Artist Leslie Saeta has started a 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge beginning today.
Each artist posts a new painting on her blog at lesliesaeta.blogspot.com every day for the month of January 2013.

Leslie has encouraged the artists to pick a theme for the month.
Maybe painting flowers, reflections, boats, etc.
I haven't picked a theme yet and will probably alternate between still life, landscape and AIRPLANES.

I hang out at a lot of fly-ins with my husband and have always wanted to use these colorful beauties as subjects.

I started painting ahead last week from a shot that I took this fall of our Piper J-3 Cub at our local airport.
I used both a brush and palette knife on a canvas covered mdf board.

The Barn in Ink and Wash

After various versions in ink and watercolor wash this is the final version.
I used smooth hot press watercolor paper and waterproof micron pens.