Break is Over and Snow Storm Photos

15-21 Coneflowers, Acrylic 7x5

After this week's snow, I decided I needed to paint some more flowers.  Something cheery!  I do love snow, but 2 feet is way too much.  I need to catch up on the 30 paintings in 30 days.  I'm thinking it will be 30 paintings in 31 days (hopefully) when all is said and done.  

Last week, Jeff and I took the week off for our 10 year anniversary.  By Wednesday, I realized I really needed a vacation - from painting as well.  While I obviously enjoy it, it is still work - that I love doing - but still work and takes concentration.  The few days off was nice.

We got HIT with some crazy snow this past Monday/Tuesday.  Here are a few photos.

The side patio just as the snow started on
Monday afternoon
(ignore power washing needed on fence)

The same patio at about 9 AM next day,
got a few more inches after this.

Days 19 and 20 of 30 Paintings in 30 Days: Experimentation

15-19 Wild - Acrylic on hardboard, 6x6 

I'm on a floral kick apparently!  Flowers aren't generally something I paint, however, I've been enjoying experimenting with my Golden open acrylics and some gel mediums and I feel that flowers are a subject matter that makes it easier for me to loosen up.

I really like orangey/red poppies - I only wish they lasted longer!  I don't have any poppies in our yard now and every year I say I want to plant some.  Maybe this will be the year.

After I finished my poppies, I wasn't done painting so I had prepared another panel earlier in the day and decided I needed to paint one more daisy painting.  Who knows - I love daisies so much that maybe my 'one more' will turn into my version of waterlilies.

15-20 Summer Shastas
Acrylic on hardboard, 6x6 

I have always loved floral paintings, but have never enjoyed painting flowers.  Mostly because I find it very hard to capture the delicacy and translucency of the petals.  I have been enjoying them this week though.  Maybe that's the answer:  loosen up and just enjoy the process - literally and figuratively. 

Day 18 of 30 Paintings in 30 Days

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15-18 Sunny Faces, Acrylic on hardboard 6x6

As if the 30 Paintings in 30 Days challenge isn't challenging enough, I decided I wanted to further challenge myself to loosen up my brushwork.  The past couple days I've been focusing on flowers in between working on some commissions.  I figured flowers were a good subject to try some loser techniques on.  I focused more on capturing the colors and light rather than focusing on detail.  So far, I'm enjoying it!

We were supposed to go to Newport today for brunch, however, freezing rain this morning kept us at home.  Considering I think almost every highway in the state was closed at one point due to accidents and the airport shut down, I feel we made the right choice.  Newport maybe later this week since we both have the week off.

Day 16 and 17 of 30 Paintings in 30 Days! Whoopsie Daisy

15-16 Summer Dreaming Acrylic on Wood

15-17 Just Daisy Acrylic on hardboard

I didn't finish my painting yesterday, but did double duty today and got both done.  So now I'm all caught up! I'm still trying to figure out where I messed up with the numbering.  I'm equal with days in the month right now and I know I should be one ahead.  Not sure where I've mislabeled.  Oh well. Some day I'll figure it out.

A few days ago, I got some Golden Open acrylics so I've been experimenting with them.  I'm really liking them so far.  My first love is oils, but sometimes I just want something easier - something without a 2 week dry time, solvents, etc.  These acrylics seem to be a close second.  They really do take much longer to dry than typical acrylics.  I have made a few mistakes - it's easy to pull the paint off the canvas - and you can't work fast drying acrylics into the open acrylics on the canvas.  A weird goopy thing starts to happen.  But I'm learning and enjoying it so far.

Summer Dreaming ended up differently than I had originally planned, but I kind of like the effect.  If you're interested in purchasing Summer Dreaming, click here.

With Just Daisy, I started out by painting the hardboard with copper paint.  I then put a layer of heavy bodied gloss gel over the copper paint.  I wanted to experiment with some different effects.  I then went in with my painting.  You can see some of the copper paint showing through, but it is much better to see it in person.    If you're interested in purchasing Just Daisy, click here.

That's it for today! It's my tenth anniversary so it is time to get off the computer and start celebrating with my wonderful husband, Jeff!

Day 15 of 30 Paintings in 30 Days - Doin' Just Dandy, thanks!

15-15 Just Dandy:  Acrylic on Gessobord, 6x6

I love dandelions and I'd be happy if our entire lawn was covered in them.  My favorite stage is the 'just puffed out' stage.  The stage I painted in this painting actually!

I found this photo on morguefile.com - a place you can find royalty-free images.  Thanks Elaine for your post mentioning this wonderful plethora of photos!

I recently bought a small set of Golden Open Acrylics - acrylics but with a longer dry time.  This is my first painting with these acrylics and I've got to say, I really like them!  They stay wet for much longer AND you can get the paint working again even after it has tacked up by just brushing in some additional paint or a wet brush.  I'm looking forward to painting some more with these acrylics.  If you are interested in purchasing Just Dandy please click here.

Day 14 of 30 Paintings in 30 Days - I can do it, I can do it!

15-14 Dawn Revisited, Oil on Copper 5x7

After I finished yesterday's painting, I realized I wanted to try another similar scene.  I really enjoyed painting the forest in winter.  This time, I wanted to use two sets of complimentary colors - blue and yellow along with violet and yellow (along with white).  I also wanted to keep this one looser, so to me, it has almost more of an abstract feel.

If you're interested in purchasing this painting, click here and you will be redirected to my Daily Paintworks gallery.

Today I felt a bit overwhelmed, wondering HOW in the heck am I going to finish this 30 in 30 challenge?  And then i realized that I'm literally almost half-way through.  It's not the painting every day, it's the actual part of FINISHING a painting every day that is tough!  Especially with a very busy day job.  But I can do it!  I know I can!

Today, I saw a funny meme on Facebook about being over 40 and I had to share it.  I try not to share all that stuff, but this one really got me and had me thinking about the fact that I went through college with literally no internet.  I think my last year, email addresses were finally available, but nobody else really had one so I didn't know who the heck to email.  We did all our research via Lexus Nexus and looking at microfiche (remember those big microfiche machines?).  I did my papers on a Brother word processor with ONE line showing what  I'd typed.  I really couldn't edit anything because going back through a 10 page paper with one line of digital display was impossible.  But I had the super fancy one!  It actually stored the data so I could type and then print all at once.  Today, I bet kids couldn't even imagine how to survive without the internet!  Anyway, here's the funny I posted today (and yes, I AM thankful that all my college escapades aren't documented somewhere on the internet for everyone to see).

The last picture for today is one of Stella on her bed under my desk.  She keeps me company and comes to work with me every day!  Isn't she adorable?

Day 13 of 30 Paintings in 30 Days

15-13 Winter Dawn, Oil on Copper 8x10

I finished Winter Dawn this morning and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out!  I really enjoyed painting this and using the two color palette.  I enjoyed it so much that I was kind of depressed when it was finished, so I started another small one (5x7), same type of composition and same color palette.  So, that will be my post for tomorrow!  I think....

If you're interested in purchasing Winter Dawn or some of my other paintings, click here and you'll be redirected to my gallery at Daily Paintworks.

Short post for tonight.  There's more painting to do!