Company: Asters, Plum

Still the same pillowcase, but with a glass this time, which makes for so much more yellow...

This is an improvement on glass. I dreamed I was doing it last night and today I understood it better and was able to simplify the shapes of paint more easily. Still, it helps to know very well the structure of the glass and get it down the first try.

Company: Crock of Grapes

Well, this one is a wiper for several reasons, the first one is wonky ellipses. But never mind, that can be eventually learned, I tell myself. The thing I like very much is the color, the close values and the richness of it. So on to the next one as fast as possible.

Company: Nectarines, Cherries

Everything going swimmingly.

I will try for purple, green, mustard, brown in the next one... just for fun. I like the middle murk range.

Company: Plums, Plate of Cherries

Easier today, everything settled down. I found an old pillowcase while cleaning up that is a virulent mustard color, very un-bedroomlike but a color I love - a strong dirty yellow. Even better with some bottle green and sable brown next to it. I'll have to see if I can do anything with this combination.

Company: Apples

OMG! It's really hard to do this when somebody is waiting for you. I'm afraid I would not be able to dismantle the bomb 60 seconds before it blows while everyone is watching.

Poblano,Cherries

I have friends visiting for the next few days, and I'm thinking I'll start a Houseguest Series, which means I will have only about an hour to work every day (I hope). My aim will be simple subject matter and no overworking. This is the first one, and now I have to vacuum.

Plums, Grapes

This was my first session with grapes, not as scary as I thought, but they definitely have their own specific characteristics...

Right Handed Bunny

I have been wanting to use Payne's grey (Gainsborough's clouds, for one example) because of the silvery color it makes, and it always has a sort of strange edge to it like there is some phosphorescence in it, or some steel. I dug it out and used it here, but not to the effect I wanted really. I added all sorts of other things to it to take it down in importance and lost that element. As I was working on this hand though, I was thinking, this doesn't even look like skin and it didn't until I got that background in. I'm going to hang this with the left hand, below, on my dining room wall, along with all the other human parts I have been painting.

Diptych, Pt. 2, Fruit on Japanese Sash

The painting above (tricky photographing these, the black really wants to shine no matter what) consists of two paintings, one 6" square, the other 6x8". My student and I both did this exercise, doing each painting on different days and without making a great effort to match elements of the compositions. Mine can match up either way.

Above is the second painting, 6x8".

This is my student's painting. She has had no drawing experience but just plunged in. Her work has a modern, classic feel and she makes unusual color choices that always surprise me. This painting is more successful in the composition, it has that "fresh but inevitable" quality.

Diptych, PT. 1

This is a set up with a Japanese kimono belt. It is such a strong element that I thought it would be interesting to repeat it in another small canvas and hang the two together. I set this as a task for a student who is working with me and it was a lot of fun with some surprises along the way. I will see if I can get her permission to post her paintings here. I will do the second half of this one tomorrow. If I am feeling strong I might use a differently shaped canvas for the second one.

Hand Making a Bunny, J.L.

This is my neighbor's elegant hand making animals for me to paint.

Vanilla HEB Cupcake

Top painting is the redo --

Lower one I did quickly over some candy papers glued to a panel - had some technical problems so I abandoned it, but I like the idea of it. A bit more investigation needed.

Watermelon, Cherries

This was a 3 interruption painting. By the time I got back to it the first time the lamp had slipped its mooring and I had different light conditions. I decided after interruption two I needed to wipe out the bowl and re draw. After interruption 3, I went to bed. So this morning I finished up as best I could. I've come to the conclusion that I just have to finish the thing in one go because I can't hold my vision of it, the wholeness of the idea in my head if any distraction prevents me from going all the way to the finish. This smacks of The Princess and The Pea.

Apples, Cherries

Yesterday I worked on a larger canvas, 8 " square. I had saved a cornish game hen to paint, and when I paint those on that 8x6" canvas, I always struggle with the drawing trying to get most of the legs inside the boundary. I was so happy to have all that space and feeling a little cocky maybe. Things went bad fast. The chicken ended up in the middle, as did the bowl and the cast shadow did not save it. I felt like I had a desert of space with those extra 2 inches. However, I got the bowl down really well, and it was a side view, harder for me, but it was beautiful and I got attached to it, even though the rest was terrible. So I saved it to look at and admire the bowl, and I since I wasn't out of steam yet, I did this one for today's post -- and to my surprise, it went easily and ended up a bit fresh!

Screwdrivers, level

I was (and am) specifically trying to have a lighter touch with the paint. I have to sort of un-focus myself from the detail and flatten my gaze at the set up and work quickly to do it. My nervous system is not always in a state to accomplish this I find. I am so much more familiar with the paint now than I ever was before, and I am finding I can relax a teeny bit in some areas. That said, it doesn't mean a better painting though -- just some movement happening.

Vienna Sausages, Lite

I have a thing for Vienna sausages.

This one not so overworked, and I tried to let the blue shadow be as blue as it was.

Hand Making an Alligator

I had some problems with this one, but I thought it worth a post. It can be the before for the better after.... There was something so light about the positioning of the hand and the clean empty space surrounding it. A new direction maybe.

Chilis, Plums

On this painting I deliberately chose forms I know well and do not get in a sweat about so I could concentrate on the shadows and approach them with ease. The values are slightly darker in the actual painting than here -- the jump from my photo program to the blog photo seems to alter something. Anyway, this is an improvement and I am happy enough with it.

Peaches, Plum

I am trying to sneak in an ellipse here and there and keep pressing forward on them. I'm still not able to do it without tightness though, clearly it is an alien form to me. The shadows also somehow lose their depth as I paint them - when I begin them they are much darker. I will have to pay attention to what happens and figure this out.

Red Fruit, Green Plate

I found a green plate at the thrift store, a good bottle green.

Half of HEB Cupcake

Today I am posting my 100th painting (the top one) and below it is the last painting I did

before I began the blog. I really have loved every minute of the whole ride, even the bad bits.

Two Hands, J.D.

Very interesting to paint these, they were very freckled and banged up.

Right Hand, J.D.

I thought I would do a collection of parts of people and hang it all together. Maybe I can make it really huge...

HEB Cupcake #3

So glad to get yesterday's scary papaya off.

Strawberry Papaya

Today was a day full of wiped paintings for some reason. This one is the least terrible. The black is so shiny that it wasn't possible to get a shot without glare anywhere around my studio, in or out.

HEB Cupcake #2

I am fascinated with pastries, well with food really. It's just so interesting, the look, the smell, the emotional load, the seductiveness. I could practically break into song here , Food, Glorious Food!

Peaches in Moroccan Bowl

This was an interesting experience -- lots of info to get down. I overworked the peaches, but on the next try, if I can keep the leaves alive, I might get it. Peaches are fuzzy - my brain can't quite make the paint describe the fuzz in the light areas, at least not on the first try, and when I've tried several times that shows. As they said in the Renaissance when someone stays up all night working hard at something, it smells of the lamp.

Watermelon, Black Plate

I am having lots of trouble posting - blogspot has gone beserk on me, can't imagine what else is going wrong on the other end...

I DO know that there are two peaks of exactly the same height in the top half of the painting and won't do it again.

Two Feet

I really loved doing these feet. I like the grotesque quality. I also relish the opportunity to make the beautiful fat paint describe something un-beautiful (in the ordinary sense).