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Friday, December 31, 2010

California Lemons, ll

Although these lemons above are still lemon-shaped, some of them (to come) are definitely mutated forms. I did see recently in Central Market some fruit called Buddha's Hand that was essentially a lemon, but was shaped like a cluster of narrow lemon fingers all emanating from a sort of palm. When my odd shaped California lemons are beyond painting, I look forward to some exploratory surgery.

Thursday, December 30, 2010

Been to L. A. #1


My first landscape. Although I like this genre, I haven't felt the pull of it until this last trip to L.A. All those palm trees jutting out from the tops of squashed together houses and the sky cut by wires and cables. And low heavy skies, very moody.

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

California Lemons

Back from LA....where everyone has a lemon tree in their back yards, or maybe an avocado or orange tree. It's so exciting to see the leaves STILL ATTACHED to the lemons!

Saturday, December 25, 2010

Light socket and Spatula

Merry Christmas Everybody!

Here is a short prayer from Jim Morrison:

Oh great creator of being, grant us one more hour to perform our art and perfect our lives.

Friday, December 24, 2010

Crabapples and Japanese Glass



Whites! (Scary.) But this is the most wonderful glass, very thin and delicate. I love to look at it and hold it and drink out of it and paint it and whatever else I might could figure out to do with it.


Thursday, December 23, 2010

Light Socket and Salt Shaker



Just one or two more of these...it's sort of like making batches of cookies, and tweaking one thing each time to see if you can improve or move the whole cookie recipe forward.

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Split Pomegranate


6 x 6 inches oil on Gessobord

I tried to channel Lorraine Shirkus for my edges, which want to be sharpish.

Monday, December 20, 2010

Light Socket and Ribbon

This has been an interesting little series, I have learned a lot about composition. I tried to keep everything as simple as possible. I also moved the stuff around until it clicked in to an arrangement that was compelling and tied the color to the surface, emphasizing the flat square. It's been good ellipse practice too, so many of them in that one socket. On this one I did not overwork it and I was able to build the form and its transparencies as I went, rather than tensing up and figuring it all out beforehand. The painting experience was much better, more freedom. I am almost at 300 paintings -- oy vay!

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Light Socket and Black Box


I can't help myself, another one. I turned the socket upside down here and used a round brush and thicker paint. I'm trying to find my way to something, but of course I don't know exactly what that is, just that the old way isn't enough of something, or maybe too much of it.

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Light Socket

I am pleased with this one, even though it's nothing much. It sits well for me or something. Terrible glare though, black is tough to shoot.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Decorative Squash



I was thinking I would be more subdued in this painting and not use red at all or even any form of it, but it snuck in anyway.

Friday, December 10, 2010

Still Life With Chair

This is my December entry for the challenge group, Some Texas Artists Like to Paint. The topic for this month is Chair. To see how others have handled this subject, please click here.

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Abroujo Whistle

This is an old clay whistle I bought in Mexico several years ago and painted for fun last week, so I offer it up as my post. I think it is a devil. I have always loved it - it is such a power packed little form, all madness. Today was actually a good painting day but nothing I did was worth much so I wiped. I learned lots, though. I have been painting that bastard white cup (day before yesterday) for months and it offers all sorts of problems: the cup itself is all ridges inside with a thick rim that fools my eye regarding the elipse, the handle is clumsy and fastened weirdly to the foot, and on top of that, it is white, or rather a creamy, grayish bleh. I think I appropriated it from a friend's house, thanks a lot, Kris, because it is very small and fits well in the hand if you are drinking a bit of strong coffee. It is a staple of my still life stash, and I return to it frequently to see if I have mysteriously acquired the skills yet to get it right. I've been at it again this week, and finally decided that the way to tackle it, is to break it down into small pieces: I don't have to keep going in a straight line until I get it, I can do it every morning as a warm up, and then wipe it, and if it takes 100 days, that's what it takes. So today's was pretty good! I am encouraged and thinking, pretty soon I will have a cup painting, and believe me, I will be crowing when that happens.
Oh yes, I used Cadmium orange in this...I had some on my palette from portrait work. It's such a different orange from mixing it, sort of a tough orange.

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Oranges and Eggplants

More grappling with looseness, and also this is a glass bowl, not plastic, and the rim of it is completely square. Interesting result of doing that plastic bowl so many times: this one was so easily perceived, I could get right to it.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Bete Noir, White Cup

Yikes, I did this cup so many times I am now blind.

Monday, December 6, 2010

Home Grown Peppers


Another day of painting and wiping, so at the end of it I painted up a little one for posting.
Sort of cranking one out but in a good way.

Saturday, December 4, 2010

Ashley in a Black Ht




Another portrait in the hat...I was pretty quick with this, trying to keep moving and relaxed and the forms as simple as possible. Sorry for the glare, black is so hard to photograph.

Friday, December 3, 2010

Study with Green Tomatoes

Huge brush, harsh light, lots of paint, loose as a goose.

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Study, Browns


so...ripping along, keeping it as loose as I can, not staying too long on any one thing.
Support team: thanks for those helpful words.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Loosening UP, Study!


I changed to an 8x8" size, maybe jostling things around a bit will be helpful.