Missing Time to Paint

Well, it's Paint Party Friday and I don't have anything to submit.  We're still unpacking, but on top of that it has been one of the busiest couple of weeks of the year.  The warmer weather brought with it barbecues, camping, graduation parties, baseball games, longer hours at work (boo!).  Apart from work, all the activities have been wonderful but I just don't feel like myself when I don't get to paint or draw or scrapbook or bake...I have to do something creative to keep myself in balance.  So the plan is to get my new painting nook set up Sunday - I will post pictures - and get painting this week! 

Moving

My husband and I moved this past weekend from an itty bitty apartment to a nice sized home.  The move went well in spite of the strong thunderstorms and flood warnings.  lol.  Now on to the furnishing!  The good news is that all of our furniture is at the new place.  The bad news is that there is so much to set up and to clean that it will probably be a couple of weeks before I get to settle down and paint.  Maybe I'm panicking and I'll be able to work on some before then, but it feels like it's going to take forever.  We're enjoying setting up the new place though and I get a little studio in the basement!!  I'm going to need to get some OttLites to bring in natural-ish light to the dark space.  Anyway, I am excited to start painting again and hope to start pounding some out in another week or so.

Sketching

Work has been crazy busy lately (have I mentioned how much I hate being stuck behind a desk all day??) and I'm moving in two weeks so the packing has begun!  All this has led to very little painting time!  :(  The current painting project is for my first joint giveaway with Adam at http://roofbeamreader.wordpress.com/, but I don't think it'll be ready for another week or so.  I don't want to go too long without updating this, so here are a few pencil/charcoal sketches done recently. 

 I may turn this elephant one into a painting at some point.

 My dad made these candles for me and I thought it'd be fun to give the shapes/colors a try.

The fist doesn't look too bad, but I struggled with the open hand.  I kept referencing it at a slightly different angle lol.  The thumb in particular is goofy.  Well, they say hands and feet are a couple of the hardest things to draw!

Moving On

This painting is for Wet Canvas' May Different Strokes Challenge.

The colors in this painting are bright and fun.  It is probably the loosest painting I've done so far and that's quite an accomplishment for me.  It seems like a big trend in painting right now is to paint loosely (i.e., don't use too many brushstrokes, don't paint every detail, go for the feeling more than what's observed).  I don't entirely understand the method and though it sounds easier than being really detailed in a painting, I've found it to be really hard.  I start loosely but it ends up looking sloppy, muddy, and chaotic so I end up falling back to painting things exactly as I see them.  Anyway, this is the loosest attempt I've managed so yay! For an example of loose painting, here are links to the blogs of a few wonderful artists I'm following: Celeste Bergin and Carol Marine and Pam Holnback. 

Overall I'm really pleased with this.  I did have a couple of problems.  I started the background with a more haphazard sky and when I painted over it some of the texture from the first draft stuck around.  I'm not sure how to get rid of that-sand it down before applying the next layer?  Also, I'm still trying to get the knack of taking photos of paintings.  This was taken outside, facing North, at around 7PM.  There probably was not enough light.  My camera's having trouble with zoom also so the quality isn't the best.  I'll get this eventually!

Happy Mother's Day!

Thanks!

I was informed last night that I hit 100 followers.  Wow, that is pretty incredible.  I didn't really think I'd want people to know about my blog.  It was more just a private place for me to post what I was working on and get some suggestions from other artists.  I am pretty unsure of what I create because I don't have formal training and am still working on technique and skill.  I have the enthusiasm and imagination, I think, but I still need to get what is in my head on the canvas.  There is so much to learn about color and composition and texture... the list goes on and on.  But all I can do is keep practicing and creating and studying how the pros do it and hopefully I'll improve!  Most importantly, playing with paints and charcoal is really, really fun.
 
I haven't set up a way to sell my paintings for a couple of reasons.  For one thing, places charge to host your work and I’m just not sure enough people would want to buy my work for it to be worthwhile.  The other thing is that it’s scary for me to give people my work.  What if they don’t like it?  It’s hard enough giving paintings to friends and family as gifts, but to someone who pays for it?  That being said, if anyone sees a piece on my site and would like to make an offer, I’d be happy to consider it.  It would be an honor.  And if there’s a subject in particular someone would like interpreted into a painting, please let me know.  I like the challenge and if you’re happy with it and want to purchase it, great!