Daily Painting #214

SOLD

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Other News; This isn't an 'other news' so much as a free cooking tip - one should NOT use a blue colored toothpick when testing the center of a ricotta pie. My thanks in advance to the good sports in my neighborhood for putting up with my cooking adventures. Julia Child and/or Julie Powell I am not.

Chocolate 'Moose'

Daily Painting #213

Ah-HA! I figured it out, how to end an Ebay listing later than when it started. I'll still be able to get my beauty rest.

There's a link at the top to click for a form with more options and once there if one scrolls to the bottom, there it is, something about scheduling, that was it this whole time!

Daily Painting #211 & #212

I tried to stay up last night to post the auction later, but well, it was today before I knew it. Maybe I should be focusing my efforts on a time zone ahead of us, like Italy, instead?

Daily Painting #210

Dashing through the snow has new meaning when it comes to this time of year and daily painting.

I usually get up at five during 'real life' (not holiday life) to paint - but holiday things have kept me up way after my bedtime, so five is not an option.

I love the holidays but have found it challenging fitting in the reveling and the painting while still allowing myself enough time to ponder such questions as, "What IS figgy pudding and how do you know if you've had too much of it?"

Speaking of questions, does anyone know how to make an Ebay auction end later than when you've posted it?

I find myself posting early evening, but just read Ebay auctions get the most 'action' from 4:30 - 8:30 PST - soooo, if I'm posting here on the East Coast at 4-ish, for instance, that's just no good for the West Coast, or anyone for that matter. So how do I post before I go to sleep, but have the auction start later therefore end later?

Daily Painting #209

Daily Painting #208

Happy Holidays!

Daily Painting #207

CONTACT WHITE MAGDELENA TO PURCHASE

(781) 749-0048

I bet you were expecting tomatoes. The sugar bowl is from my grandmother's house.

Daily Painting #205 and #206

Painting #206

I've been thinking maybe I should be listing my Ebay items at night when people are around to 'win' the bid? Because what would be the point of bidding on something if you wouldn't be able to bid on it at the end and possibly win it?

Now, the question is what is the best time of night. . .

Painting #205

This scan is not reading right - in Photoshop it looks okay - not great, but here it's getting washed out in places, I think it must have to do w/the blog automatically compressing the image, therefore it loses some of the color?

Anyhow, this was done last night before I went to a holiday party and when I came back, it didn't look right - you'd think after I got back from a holiday party it'd look better, but it didn't. So I started fussing with it again, putting in another tomato and this morning, I put in one more and a plate. All I can say is we wouldn't have #206 without #205, so be it.

Daily Painting #204

This was painted last night, but I could not wait up for the paint to dry and scraping wet paint off the scanner is not as much fun as it sounds.

Daily Painting #203

Other News; There's been a sighting of the rare, abominable snow beast.

Daily Painting #202

CONTACT WHITE MAGDELENA TO PURCHASE

(781) 749-0048

Daily Painting #201

You guessed it, more fabric acquired during last week's cloth extravaganza. I really like the blue and white stripes, but thought I'd give you a break. And truthfully, had a hard time not painting that black and white striped bowl again, but thought I could use a break from it!!!

Daily Painting #200

I'm on my 200th daily painting.

I once heard the first 200 paintings are trash - meaning, I suppose, it takes a long time to figure out how to paint. I always had mixed feelings about this statement. On one hand I felt it freeing because one could just paint, without expectation of the finish product, on the other hand, I felt maybe it could be reworded somehow - trash - I need a nice word for trash - maybe they didn't all work out perfectly, but there's always something redeeming, even if it's just a smidgen of a color or stroke or something.

After 200 daily paintings, I'm ready for the next 200.

Other News: Yearly cancer exams and all is well. . . !

Daily Painting #199

Daily Painting #198

Daily Painting #196

As promised, new cloth, oh and a different bowl! Now I think I need a patterned fabric for the background - maybe tomorrow!

Daily Painting #195

After I painted this, I trotted off to find more fabric other than green and white.

Daily Painting #194 (and a dog)

Usually I leave the painting of dogs to Lulu, and her owner, Scott Leaver, of Heal Good Dog! but one of the Villager's asked me to do this for a gift. So last night, after my staircase recovery I went for it - she hasn't seen it yet, if she doesn't like it, it's okay, I had this same dog growing up, all I'd have to do is add a white stripe to it's chest and it's my old dog!!!

The scan is lacking some of the variations in value but it still reads okay - and I don't own black paint -so that was unnerving, but I think it's okay. . .

Daily Painting #193

I've been playing with interiors just a little. The top image (8"x 8") is from today. The sun was coming in by the staircase (read, what was I thinking, a STAIRCASE?) and I thought, how DELIGHTFUL. So, I started by chasing the light around, because that was changing quickly and everything it hit looked better than the last thing it lit up. And then, ooops somehow the perspective of the staircase (again, read, what was I thinking ?) got away from me.

Okay, don't panic, I corralled the perspective back (mostly) and then fixed the light again (I think). Anyhow, a bigger panel and bigger brush is in order the next time I try this.

The other one is from last week, I really just wanted to paint the bowl of fruit on the table, which I rewarded myself with after doing the interior first, that was posted then.

Other news; My assistant, Brie the dog, and I brought some fresh paintings down to White Magdelena in Hingham Square today.

Daily Painting #192

Daily Painting #191

Another gray day out there - snowy too - I miss the natural light so, I tried to imagine it here. . .

OH!

There's a bit on Informed Collector for one of my paintings - check it out!

And I'm posting one of my bigger paintings too just for fun - it's 24" x 24" -

Daily Painting #190

I've been a few questions about materials which I am delighted to answer.

I use only Heavy Body Acrylics by Liquitex on 3/16" Fiberboard Panel. Many places carry fiberboard, I've been getting it from www.fineartstore.com. I think this kind of panel is the best because the surface is smooth, and the paint slides around because it doesn't dry too quickly. It's also really inexpensive and comes in a variety of sizes. I prime the surface with acrylic paint only. . . usually a ground color of red.

I prefer a disposable palette because I like tossing the colors I mixed at the end of that day and moving on to a whole new set of possibilities. I felt keeping the same palette was forcing me to use the same colors over and over.

I really wasn't happy with acrylics until I discovered the above - another panel I like to use on occasion is by Raymar, their linen one - it has a canvas texture, so it's totally different, but it too has a good surface for acrylics.

Daily Painting #189

This pepper was in my garden. It's December and it snowed, but I'm still getting peppers - oh, a new cloth too (did not grow in the garden) - I'm hoping all this practice with different greens will help when I go back outside to paint next spring.

Daily Painting #188

Daily Painting #187 Twenty Minute Challenge

This one was done yesterday for a call for entries for a Twenty Minute Challenge http://twentyminutechallenge.blogspot.com/. I see things I want to fuss with, but a challenge is a challenge, so I won't go back into it. . . I painted on and off today, but the paint is still drying.

Daily Painting #186

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Some of my spare time is spent looking around at other people's blogs. There's a lot of really valuable information out there and interesting insights - Fongwei Liu comes to mind - I read this awhile ago and haven't stopped thinking about it,

"Dao talked about keep the balance of Yin and Yang. A good artist knows how to balance the Yin Yang too. I heard a chef said that add a little salt if you want your food sweeter. Same thing when I paint something, I may need something small if I want to paint something big; I will use dark if I want to show something very light; I may need to use some purple around if I feel my yellow looks not yellow enough; I may need to paint some part just by wash if I want to represent some thick texture. So in a painting, big supports small, small supports big, warm supports cool, cool supports warm and so on… this is nature."

For more visit his blog below,

http://fongwei.blogspot.com/2009/07/summer-head-study-7.html

Daily Painting #185

Last of favorite day Thursdays was today - we got to paint interiors - this was a bowl on a coffee table, I'm starting to think there's a still life everywhere! Maybe I'll post the interior painting I did later.

Daily Painting #184

Daily Painting #183

Other news: Carol Marine was on the Dr. Phil show today!