Company: Right Hand With cigar

This was interesting and challenging to do. I was determined to get the darks as dark as they really were, which I did and tried not to futz with the edges. All of the hand was in shadow, so there were no obvious lights. The range of tones was narrow because of this, mostly differing in temperature rather than value. I learned a lot -- hope to do more of these so that this understanding is easier to drive to my fingers.

Self Portrait, Camera Close Up

I thought I would try a little portrait.

It is ever more clear to me that my dark values are not dark enough. I had to go back after a break and darken all the darks here - everything had the same weight. Wonder if I can retrain myself to see this the first time out - it is a problem in every painting.

Fruit and Japanese Bowl

Better experience today. Being calm is a big help. Each step forward is so hard won that when a backslide starts you think the whole thing is going down. Then panic. So I'm looking for a Zen space.

Ellipse Practice1

It could have been better, but it could have been worse.

Julep Stuff

Agony, ellipses are agony! Glass is fun, though. In this one, I have cleverly left a big hunk of empty space at the bottom, I don't know what I was thinking.

Cricket

Another little dog.

He is so white as to be almost transparent, and I thought it would be a good exercise in modeling with pale greys. I put my white-ist whites down first, just as I have done in the last few paintings ( with relative success)except this time I could not keep the whites clean. They disappeared into surrounding paint and I had to spend lots of time re-establishing those areas, and very soon I hated the dog and the white, and it took twice as long to get it done and over with. However - I learned about the temperature of whites! And that is what must make white shimmer, shifts in temperature from cool to warm in very close tones.

Lulu

This is my 13 year old Yorkshire Terrier, Lulu. I am doing dog paintings this week, so I thought I would try a quick one of her for a warm up to the real work...

I reposted this after another photo. I am learning the hard way about cameras, and just now grasping the ISO. Not enough light this morning for color to show up.

Butter

I have been thinking about what causes tightness in the painting. My painting, really, because I don't know about anybody else. It isn't being careful, it's being afraid I won't get it right, and then going back to fix it. I can always fix it, with time and patience, but the aliveness of the first strokes are gone. When I fully understand the structure of the form, I am not worried about accuracy and I have a better chance of getting it down right the first time, so things don't need cleaning up. I think tightness in painting might be a drawing issue -- not enough drawing skill.

What I want is that aliveness in the paint itself, it's visible plasticity.

Tall Salt Shaker on Pink

I am finding that a single image painting is a good break from a complex composition. There are different issues, all that space and how the color works in it, for instance. I am doing better with the small sized canvas, but I'm itching for some room. I did have an epiphany this week: if I move the easel 2 feet back from the set up, the image is miraculously smaller and easier to fit into the small canvas. I felt very clever.

Can Opener

This one was a sort of training session for greys. Every color of grey was in the can opener plus purples, blues, yellows, greens. Almost lurid, in fact.

Bluebonnets,3

I'm trying some greying down of some parts, thinking it will jump the color in other parts....

Bluebonnets,2

Every year since I moved to Texas I do a bluebonnet painting for my Texas sister's birthday. Most of those paintings are really terrible, but they are steadily improving. I find flowers so hard, for all the same reasons as everyone else: they are so alive and after you paint them they are so not. And all the greats have painted them so there is a heavy historical burden. Even with all that, sometimes you have to do it anyway.

I take my hat off to you, Jane Freilicher.

Poblano Peppers, Red Onion

Shiny things are such a great vehicle for color, this one was fun.

This is yesterday's post, I will try to get today's post in today, and also try really really hard to have fun.

Perch in Green Bowl

Last appearance for this little fish. Color terrible in this and all other photos I took of this pntg.

Maybe terrible in real life, too, but not this terrible.

Three Black Plum, Red Plate

More color experiments. I am annoyed that I can't get the color right in this shot! The journey from photoshop to the blog post messes with it somehow, lessens the intensity of it.

I could have shifted the entire plate to the right and improved this one, since all the weight is leaning to the left. I think I planned that in the beginning but it got lost.