Once One Gets Started, It's Not that Bad ... or ... Peony Painting W.I.P.

The model, growing in a small spot near Bruno's Eatery.

It was not meant to get this dark, but by the time I had some colors down, I didn't like how it looked. So on to graded washes of a green/black.

Washes done, masking off ... onward!

First wet-in-wet applications - aureolin, quin.gold, quin. burnt orange and phthalo green [blue shade] for the leaves and stalk. The peony is quin. rose, and a bit of cobalt blue and brilliant orange [Holbein].

Still chugging along, trying to see the petals [not ALL of them!].  I think I am about halfway there ...

Thank you very much for stopping by!

Biting the Bullet ... or ... Really Getting into a Painting ...

Oh ... I did not want to do this, but now it's done, I think it looks much better. I wanted to get the masking off as soon as possible, so worked on it yesterday evening and this morning.  Here it is after one wash of quin. gold, followed by another of quin.gold and phthalo green.

[This photo looks somewhat washed out]
I then did three graded washes of a mixture of quin. gold, phthalo green and quin. violet, which sounds like a very weird combination, but gave a lovely dark muted green. Now, all I have to do is clean it up [some dark leaked through the masking] and adjust the darks and zap the oranges. Thank you all for your advice!!!

Another Drama Queen Is Done ... and This ... That ... and the Other ...

Yes, it really is finished. I painted this to give to a dentist friend of mine - a sweet, gentle lady who lets me bring my family in to the office twice a year for the recall appointments. She does like dramatic paintings, and she loves purples, so I hope she loves the painting. 

I was here Saturday for a few hours, giving a demo and promoting the art courses offered.   

Sitting beside me for much of the time was Sam. She has a wonderful sense of humor, and we discovered we both love H. P. Lovecraft stories [that's the book she is holding up] and "popular" books on quantum physics and cosmology. Who'd have known??? Quantum physics is so very unbelievably weird and beautiful!

And here I have my painting propped up in an eye-catching position. And it did. I think I recruited 3 people for the course I will teach in September.

Summer is in full swing here, hot and gorgeous! It's hard to stay inside to paint, and I am such a studio painter.
Bruno is going very well, though hard work for both of us. We are working on getting and increasing suppleness through his body. His past life as a pacer did nothing but make him stiff and resistant. I think I will have to spend some time in the evenings working on his neck, giving him a massage. WHAT a life he has!
I think Scruffy has fallen in love with the lad, and thankfully he is very tolerant of her. Today, she followed me into his paddock when I went to feed him dinner. She is almost totally blind, and has never been around horses, and she stood right under his body. He gently lifted a hind leg to nudge her out of that very dangerous position. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it. I think I was holding my breath. With any other dog, he would have used that leg and hoof as a most effective weapon, and sent the dog flying. But to be safe, I think old Scruff will have to stay out of his domain.
Maggie is quite the character. She has turned out to be a rug chewer, and a shoe thief. But it hard to be angry with her - she is sensitive and seems to over-react to scolding. Hopefully she will outgrow most of her vices ...

That's about it for now. I thank you for dropping by! And your comments are always welcome. 

Asking Myself "Why" ... Why Do I Tackle Such Complicated Subjects??? Iris Update

Since the past post, I have tweaked the foliage, added a w/w wash of quin. violet to the fall, and started working on the teeny, tiny shadows on the uprights. Right about now, when I am cross-eyed from trying to paint detail, I ask myself WHY I choose complicated subjects. But ... here it is, almost done ...

Thank you for dropping by! Your comments are always welcome.

Trying to Gild the Lily ... or ... Another Class Project

I left this painting for a few days, as I couldn't decide what to do with the background.  Considering the ornate style and rich color of the bloom, I thought it best to do as little as possible. So I sketched light pencil lines to get an idea of placement, and applied paint w/w.  As with the rest of the painting, the only colors used were aureolin, quin. sienna and phthalo green.

Thank you for visiting! Your comments and questions are always welcome.

Another Hydrangea Finished

I have added some veins to the flowers, the stem and a shadow.

I have done the shadow beneath in two stages, to be able to enhance the gold.
Well, it's done, and to its credit, I like it better than my earlier attempts at hydrangeas [below]. I like the idea of the starkness against a soft, almost-not-there background. I will have to play with this concept a bit more ...

The above two paintings were done about a year ago.

What I really want to paint are some thoughts and feelings about Rio de Janeiro.  I have never been further south than Mexico, but I love the Brazilian culture - music especially. A few nights ago, I watched Black Orpheus - a great old movie. And I have been doing a lot of reading and researching on the recent turmoil concerning the "gentrification" of the favelas. I have google-mapped as far into the favelas as the map permits, and have scrounged for pictures all over the net. Now I must mull over images and ideas to come up with some work expressing how I feel about all of it.

Thank you for dropping by - hope you enjoyed the visit. And your comments and critiques are always welcome.

The Princess and the Drama Queen ... or ... a Tale of Two Tulips

I'm still working on the top tulip here, placing a w/w wash of the under-glow color, drying, then a w/w wash of black.

Drama queen tulip pretty much done, except perhaps to darken the stamen.

Now I am working on boosting the colors on the bottom, the Princess, tulip. In comparison to the dark one, it looks rather washed out.
A grump is in order. The colors showing on the blog are pathetic. In reality, the background is quite dark, almost black on the left side, as is the dark tulip. If you'd like to see more what the painting is really like, I suggest you visit my facebook page. Is anyone else having this difficulty on blogger?

Thank you for dropping by, and your comments are always welcome!

EXOTICA: Parrot Tulips

It took me a while to decide on a format and composition for the tulips. My aunt had given me a frame to work with, and it offered a 15 x 9 inch window, so this is what I came up with. The top tulip is a Black Parrot, and the bottom is a Blue Parrot. I may call it "Parrots: Black and Blue" 

I completely masked the flowers, and started the washes - first a thin aureolin to tone down the eventual violet , then several quin. pink washes  ...

... gradated wash of phthalo blue ....

... and on and on, switching to alizarin crimson in lieu of the pink, to get more depth and darkness.

I finally have the background as dark as I want, though it would have been better if I could have achieved more of a difference between top and bottom.
I have just started the lower, lighter tulip today. So far, I am using a touch of aureolin, with quin. pink and cobalt blue, making the mixture warmer or cooler by adding cobalt blue to the lavender.
Drove into to Vancouver yesterday. Met one of my sisters at her house, and then we drove to Granville Island to drop off three paintings that were adjudicated into a show at the Federation of Canadian Artists, and did some quick shopping at the Farmers Market.  I am planning to enter several shows this year, hopefully to achieve my AFCA status. [Right now I am only an active member.]
Then we drove to the hospital to visit my aunt, who has been in there for a week.

I thank you for dropping by, and welcome your comments!

Progress on My Make-Work Project ... or ... Let's Break Some Rules ...

I really could not get the shadowed petals dark enough for my liking, so ...

... I decided to glaze them with the same black I had used for the background.  Unfortunately, I took the photo at night, under studio lighting, and the colors are way off.

Thank you for dropping by, and your comments are always welcome.

A Quick Update ...

So far, still glazing and glazing to get the dark red shadows - it's a bit scary painting on the intense reds, but when I step away from the painting it looks all right from a distance. So I'll continue with the dahlia. The background is NOT dark yellow, but when I adjusted the warmth to show off the petals, the black came out this color. 

Miss Betty

These are two free-hand drawings I did, last night and this morning, for my niece. Last week, their little pug crossed over the rainbow bridge, and Paulina wanted a momento of Betty. She was a funny little bug, and I know the family will miss her. 

Thank you for dropping by, and your comments are always welcome!

Am I Out-Horsed with This Painting???

I started off with some glazes of a cool orange and aureolin on the petals.

Then I decided I needed to mask to get an even background. BOY!!! Did I ever need the masking!
This is after two washes - aureolin and burnt orange, then thin burnt orange and  quin. violet.

Ultimately, I had to do about five washes of black. As the brush was leaving faint streaks, regardless of how gentle I was, the last wash I applied on sprayed- wet paper, and did it much like a pouring. That technique gave me a smooth black background. Now I am going over some of the petals with a thin violet glaze for shadows. It's about ready for some intense yellows and oranges now.
The size is 13 x 19 inches.

Reference photo
I was coming home from the library one summer evening, and these glorious dahlias caught my eye. I had to stop, ask the home-owner's permission,  and take some photos.

Thank you so much for dropping by! Your comments are most welcome.

HAPPY HOLIDAY from the Farm

For now, the background is done. I may have to touch it up when I get the flowers painted.

I've started the flowers. My plan is to go from cooler pinks on the upper left to warmer and more detailed petals on the lower right. 

The gradated washes are done for the cows, and I will start the girls this evening, unless I decide to turn into a vegetable and watch some science fiction movie.  :)

Here are the boys, begging for raisins. Baby is on the left, Fat Bastard on the right.

This is how Fat likes to sleep when it is warmer. 

Here's the Bug. I think we have finally "bonded". I had my doubts - cats are so different from most animals. 

Me with my BIG sweetheart.

I've posted photos of all of the weird and wonderful animals at the farm [myself included], so we could all wish you a very happy holiday, a Merry Christmas [if you celebrate it] and a wonderful, happy, healthy and prosperous   New Year!!!
I would also like to thank you all for being here with us on my blog. It has been a pleasure getting to know you!

Out of the Comfort Zone ... ACK!

Beautiful, but difficult, photo of a neighbor's hydrangea as reference.

My first timid glazes of some of the flowers' shadows.

The start of a background was in order. I decided to keep it warm, to accent some of the cooler flower colors in the lower right focal area.

Here, I've started a road map of the leaves, with some of the sunlight filtering through,  giving, I hope, some interest there. 

More glazes on the leaves and simultaneously the background.  That's the difficult part.  I would like to integrate the leave and their shadows into the background to give the painting more of a natural look. This one is going to take a while! And I find myself almost having to force myself to paint - not that I don't like it, just that it is a different style for me.

As always, your comments are most welcome!

Done

I left off about here ...

I've darkened the background, the rose in spots and glazed some of it with a thin aureolin. I think I've done all I'd like with this. Flowers just don't seem to be doing it for me right now. I have a craving for more portraits and landscapes. 

This is the second rose I started, same flower - different angle, and cooler colors.

Meet Trigger. He must be nearing thirty years of age. His owner was at the show I had last weekend [which was quite successful - YAY] and she decided she'd like a portrait of the lad. So I was over at her farm on Monday taking lots of photos. She wanted him painted while he still had his summer coat, as he goes very white and shaggy in the winter. More good painting news for me - my brother-in-law likes the painting of the Burrard Bridge, and would like me to have it framed for his office. But I must admit, I STILL don't really love the painting.

As always, your comments are most welcome!