Two new canvas paintings and my inspiration for painting them.

I completed two paintings since my last post.  The first one I call "Patchwork Pine".  I am trying to come up with some ideas of subject matter that will be more appealing to art lovers here in MI.  As I look around I see lots of pine trees of different varieties.  My thought was to do one that would look like it was done in fabric like a patchwork quilt.  Here is an image of the 16X12 painting.

When I finished this painting I was uncertain on what to do next.  I recently got all my frames organized and hanging on my new pegboard wall.  Since the frames were easy to see I decided to pick a frame first than decide what subject would look good in that frame.  I chose a 16X20 frame that I have had for a long time.  I never used it in Arizona because it did not have a southwest look.  The frame is in pastel colors and looks like it was splatter painted.  I could have refinished it but I liked it the way it was so saved it for years waiting for the right idea for a painting that would be the perfect fit for the frame.  I put a blank canvas in the frame and stared at it for awhile and thought some type of flower would be my subject.  I went to my computer desk to do some flower research and my eye went to my calendar with one of Van Gogh's bedroom paintings.  The color scheme of the carpet was similar to the colors in the frame.  I decided to check out images of Van Gogh's paintings.  When I came to his Orchard in Blossom series I got my inspiration.  I would do a tree in bloom.

   Having gone through my first snowy winter in 20 years I am looking forward to a Michigan spring.  While a bit of my heart will always long for the southwest, my roots are in the mid-west.  I remember the joy of seeing the first crocus peeking its head through the snow.  I remember the woods next to our house and seeing the trees start to form buds.  I remember the beauty of the dogwood tree in the spring around Easter time.  I am ready for that experience again.  That is why I decided to paint a dogwood tree in bloom.  Here is the painting titled simply "Dogwood"

It is 6 moths since we made the move to Michigan.  If you follow my blog you know that most of the time we have been here we have been working on the house.  It is only since the first of the year that I have been concentrating on establishing my self in the art community here.  I think things are moving in the right direction.  I have shown my art at a prestigious exhibition at the Carnegie Center for the Arts and won an award on one painting and sold another painting.  I was accepted as a member of the Three Rivers Artist guild and just last week I applied and was accepted to show my work at the Vicksburg Cultural Arts Center.  I have also applied to take part in the Kalamazoo Institute for the Arts 2016 regional show and am waiting to hear if any of my paintings have been juried in.. I miss all my Tucson artist friends but am looking forward to the new artist friends I will make here.

A frustrating photo session!

I finished a project this week and took the photos today to post here.  The project was a bowl that I did to be a companion piece to a tray I did while I was in AZ and brought with me when I made the move to MI.  They both are decorated with butterflies.  I took a few photos of the tray and one was pretty good.

I then took a number of photos of the bowl.  None of them were very good so I tried again, and again, and again......I probably took 400 or more shots.  I would do maybe 20 and download them and delete them and then take another 30 and go through the same process of downloading and deleting.  I kept increasing the number I took each time.  I tried different areas of the house and different backgrounds and different light and camera settings.  The problem is that the contour of the bowl allows for a light reflection spot.  I could not use a flash but any light in the room still made a spot.  Some photos were too dark.  Some were too blurry.  I have always had this problem when taking a photo of a bowl.  I was bound and determined to get a good one this time.  After two hours I finally gave up and picked a couple that are so-so.  I deleted all the others.  Here are the ones I chose.

These are not as sharp as I would like but at least they don't have that darn light spot.

Towards the end of my so called photo shoot I was trying my bedroom as a new location and just as an experiment took a few photos of a chair I painted many years ago.  Those pictures came out great so I decided to post them.  I love this little chair.  I got it for FREE at a yard sale.  It was pretty sorry looking because it had sat in a shed for years and was spotted with paint and someone had cut the legs short..  I asked how much she wanted for it and she said she was going to throw it away and I could have it at no charge.  I stripped the old paint off of it and painted it and we put casters on it to raise it up.  I liked it so much that I decided to keep it for myself and not sell it.  Here is my pretty little bedroom chair.

A few years later when I decided to enter a canvas painting contest I used this chair for inspiration for one of the paintings.  That was my first contest.  I won third place and peoples choice award on one painting and got an honorable mention on the painting based on this chair.  That was the start of my fine art career.  Also, I sold both paintings on the opening night of the show. Here is a photo of both paintings.

"Doe and Fawn"

This is my latest painting titled "Doe and Fawn".  I am often asked how long it takes me to create a painting so I decided to time myself while I did this one.  I also took photos of the different steps in the process.  Since people seem interested in how I do a painting I am going to post the photos of the different steps.

The hardest thing on this painting was coming up with an idea.  I had planned to paint on Super Bowl Sunday while my husband watched the game.  I started by picking a frame then painted an 11X14 canvas board black. Next I started to think about what I would paint but was totally brain dead so went on Facebook and asked my friends for ideas.  I couldn't believe how many ideas were given to me but nothing quite appealed to me so I gave up on painting that evening and just played games on the computer and watched some of the game.

 The next morning I woke up with an idea (I do my best thinking in the morning).  I decided to do a doe and her fawn similar the the mare and foal painting I have done in the past.  I spent maybe 20 minutes doing online research on deer and looked at images of both does and fawns and started to get an idea of what I wanted the painting to look like.  I was going to start on the painting that morning but when I checked my email I had a commission for two domino train stations from a lady from DE. So I put the painting on hold for a few days until I completed the commissioned job.

By Wednesday I was ready to do the painting. I started by doing  the preliminary drawing on tracing paper. I also decided I wanted a brown border so painted it on the canvas that morning.
Here is the sketch.

I bowl in a league that meets on Wednesday afternoon so I didn't start work on the painting until I got home at 4 that day. The first thing I did was to transfer the sketch to the canvas with white transfer paper.

I then painted in the base colors.

My working time on Wednesday was about 4 hours.  Thursday was a cold snowy day...a perfect day to stay home and paint.  The first thing I did that morning was to splatter the frame with black paint to give it a rustic look.  I use an old toothbrush and run a pencil across the bristles to splatter the paint.

The next step was to add shading to each color section by floating on a darker color around the edges of each section.

By the time I finished this part it was time for lunch so I took a couple hours off to eat and relax.  When I went back to work I started what I consider the "fun part".  That is doing the design decoration on each section to give it that patchwork look. I worked on this for a few hours then took another break.

Later I finished off the painting by doing the final shading using a wash of black and dry brushing on white.  I outlined each section in black and did the dot work on the border.  I worked on the painting  just over 5 hours yesterday.

I did the final work on the painting this morning by applying 3 coats of polycrylic.  This helps to protect the paint and also helps to make the colors "POP".  I use Minwax satin polycrylic.  After the protective coats were dry I framed the painting. Total time I spent on creating this painting is around 10 hours. If you scroll up to the top of this page you can take another look at the finished painting.

 I enjoy painting and to make it even more fun I listen to audio books while I paint. I have always been a book lover so now I can do two things I love at the same time...Reading and Painting!  On Wednesday I finished listening to "a Spool of Blue Thread" by Anne Tyler which I had started earlier in the week and yesterday I started "The Cinderella Murder" by Mary Higgins Clark and Alafair Burke.  I got through four discs and still have 3 to go. That means I will have to start another painting project so I can finish my book.  Not sure what I will do next but am thinking maybe a functional item like a bowl.  I painted many of them when I lived in Tucson but they all had a southwest subject.  I will have to come up with a new idea that will appeal to the Michigan art lover.

New canvas painting and more house decorating photos

I finished my latest canvas painting.  This one I did for myself but will enter it in an exhibition before I hang it in my living room.  If, by chance, I sell it I will paint another one for me. It is similar in style to the painting I won the honorable mention on at the Carnegie Center.  I call this style my "Fantasy Flower Collection".  I enjoy doing these designs.  There is something about the symmetry that is a challenge.

 The inspiration for this painting was a piece of fabric that I used to make a round cover for a lamp table that I have in between my two new living room chairs.  It is a paisley design.

  I did some internet research on the paisley pattern and found the symbol sprang up a milennia  ago. It has an interesting history and many meanings in different cultures.  American quilters gave it the nickname "Persian Pickles"  That is why my title for this painting is "Paisley aka Persian Pickles". Size is 20X18.

I am also including a few photos of my living room and dining room. Most of the furniture are things I had in my Tucson house but we did buy a new entertainment center and two new side chairs for the living room.  I finally decided on window treatments.  For the 20 years we lived in Tucson I kept it simple with vertical blinds and no curtains.  While I liked the look it just wasn't right for this Michigan house so I went with grommet curtains.  The first photo shows the table with the fabric cover that inspired this painting. I am also posting another of the living room and one of the dining room.

The first floor of the house is pretty much done except for the floors which we plan to do later this year.  We are thinking of hardwood for the living and dining rooms and ceramic tile for the kitchen. Roger is now working in the basement building a painting studio for me and a stained glass studio for himself.  In the mean time I am doing my painting on the dining room table.