Beach Rider

 Beach Rider
10x10" oil on wood panel box

Beach Rider is a gentleman I saw in Hilton Head.  I really liked his bright blue and yellow bike.  The beaches there are hard enough to ride a bike on when the tide goes out and many take advantage of the bikes most rentals keep.  
 
I have photographed Beach Rider numerous times over the last couple of days in different light and the beach sand is much grayer, but it looks brown in the photos so I give up and you'll have to go see it in person.  

 Torpedo Factory Arts Center Fundraiser

Beach Rider will be one of my donations for March150 fundraiser at the Torpedo Factory Arts Center.  If you live in the WDC area I'm sure you have visited the Torpedo Factory in Old Town Alexandria, VA.  (It really was a WWII torpedo factory.)  It has 3 floors of art studios, classrooms and 2 galleries.  

The Target Gallery is teaming up with March of Dimes for a yearly fund raiser.  The Gallery uses the funds for their outreach arts program.  Last year Maria Bennett Hock did a panel and I thought it was a great idea and really enjoyed the show.  It is really interesting to see all the conventional and not so conventional uses of the panels.  Regional artists purchase 10x10" wooden box panels.  I'm told about 200 panels are hung.  Each panel is priced at $150 – but can be purchased for $100 during the Art Party/reception on March 14th.  If you miss the reception, but are visiting Torpedo Factory in March please stop in and see the show. Who knows you might see a panel you just have to have!

March150: 4th Annual Exhibition Fundraiser

Entry Dates: January 29 - February 24
Exhibition Dates: March 8 - 23, 2014
Art Party: Friday, March 14; 7-10pm

#15 - Little Wader

January 2014 Leslie Saeta's 30 paintings in 30 days challenge: Half way there!!

         

Little Wader
 6x6" oil

If you haven't been reading Richard Robertson's free online art lessons you should check them out.   Today's lesson was a reminder that to make your lights lighter, don't add white but make things around it darker.  I darkened the water and voila the lights finally looked bright!

This is my first dance with daily painting.  I'm learning that I really need a day 2.  I need the 2nd day for one last look with fresh eyes to pick up on little things I missed the day before.    I think this painting will get a couple of those little tweaks tomorrow.  

#14 - Getting Her Feet Wet

January 2014 Leslie Saeta's 30 paintings in 30 days challenge

Getting Her Feet Wet
6x6" oil

It was nice to be painting at the beach (in my mind) again today instead of looking outside at the gloomy rainy day.  

#5 - Girlie Googles

Girlie Goggles 
4x6" acrylic on RayMar

   #5 -  Leslie Saeta's January 2014 30 in 30 challenge

I've put my still life set up away for a couple of days and I'm back at the beach.  Well at least in my mind and painting.  

I've always admired the daily painting artists, but at day 5 of my first daily painting challenge, my admiration doubles and my hat is off to those who finish a painting everyday.   Today was the first day I really had other commitments and was stressing myself out for a bit.  I know that is not what this challenge is all about, its to have fun!   So when I got home I decided to change and do some acrylic paintings.  I pulled out some old photos, picked one and went to town.  I enjoyed it so much I think I'll go acrylic again tomorrow.  Acrylic dries darker than oil so that is always a bit of a struggle for me.  I rarely tone the canvas when I paint in acrylic because that darkens the paint even more.  I also discovered if I can't get something as light as I want I go back and paint that spot out in white and start it over.  That way I seem to be able to get the area as light as I want. 

#1 - Shell Game - January 2014 Painting Challenge

One of my 2014 art New Year's bucket list items was to try a 30-day challenge (and to get back to blogging!)  

A number of art friends participated in Leslie Saeta's challenge last January.  Leslie, the host of podcast "Artists Helping Artists" (AHA) started this challenge last year, not as a must do 30 paintings to participate, but to get people to kick off the year painting more paintings in January than they did the previous January.  It was also to help them get back into painting after the craziness of the holidays.  

I will admit one of the hardest things for me is deciding what to paint.  I'm hoping this challenge will get me over that block and quite agonizing over subject matter.  Hopefully I can learn to pick anything in the house or in that hoard of pictures I have taken and just paint.  I'm also hoping it will get me to paint faster and over my compulsion to go back and "fix" paintings. I bought thirty 6x6" boards before the holidays so we'll see how it goes.  

Yesterday, I pulled out a few beach photos I took last Feb and have been meaning to paint.  

Day 1

Shell Game

6x6" oil on gessobord (sold)

Catching Some Rays

Catching Some Rays, 9x12" oil on RayMar ($300)

I took this photo a couple of years ago in downtown Washington, D.C. and finally pulled it out to paint.  Two things struck me when I took the picture.  I loved the turquoise color on the building and the young lady enjoying the sunshine was a great compliment to that color in her yellow top.  Putting figures in my paintings is fairly new for me and probably why I'm just painting this now.  The paintings I've done over the past year have given me a lot more confidence about adding figures in a cityscape.  

The day I started this painting, I posted it for discussion with my critique group. New eyes are good even when I think I'm humming along fairly well.  Sue asked me what I wanted to viewer to look at in the painting.  I didn't know what to say.  She, like many artists I know, have a story they want their paintings tell before they begin to paint.  I rarely thought in those terms before working with this group.  Most of the time, when I paint a cityscape, something draws me to it and it is usually color.  I guess I'm thinking more about perspective.  Rats, I was hoping the story just happens like magic. Back to basics!   It all goes back to the school of doing a thumbnail sketch (which I don't do often anymore) before drawing in paint on the canvas.   
The figure wasn't my focus when I started the painting, it was the turquoise on the building that caught my eye.  But as I painted and removed a tree in the front of the building the figure became the interesting part of the painting and not so secondary.

HH4 Challenge - It was all about the ripples

I found myself surfing art YouTube videos instead of painting this morning.... I confess, I was actually procrastinating since I needed to unpack my supplies from Dreama Tolle Perry's 3-day workshop which ended yesterday.  It is a mystery!...can anyone tell me why it is my supplies seem fairly condensed (for me) when I go to a workshop, but fill the car when I pack it to go home?

I had a wonderful time...Dreama is a fabulous artist, instructor and person.  I learned so much from her my brain is officially full...at least for this week! OK, now I need to get going and finish the painting I started in class yesterday before it gets too dry.  Dreama's method is wet into wet.   More about Dreama's workshop tomorrow.  

Challenge #11 - My Pick

Once again, it was my turn to pick the Hilton Head Four (HH4) bi-monthly challenge.  The pressure was on!  I've had this photo set aside waiting for me to paint it.  I love paintings of people in water and when I saw this young girl floating on her noodle I couldn't resist.  I love the colors in the water.   Painting water seemed like it should be fairly easy, but how do you really paint ripples in water?  Just figuring out how to approach it was a bigger challenge than I thought it would be.   I also learned the weather is wonderful in Florida in February, but the traffic is brutal and the pool is always full of grand-kids... just say'n!

 

Noodling Along, 12x12, oil on RayMar panel

In the order of who is up next for the picks.....

Chris Werst.   

Christ never fails to think out of "my" box. She always goes somewhere I would never think about be it her colors, cropping or style.  She sent her submission to us saying she did the painting then decided to wipe it off and start again.  She decided she loved the look and kept it.  It is like looking through water.

  "Ripples",  Regula "Lulu" Scheifele

"Dunkin"  Maria Bennett Hock

King Street - Old Town Alexandria

King Street (Old Town Alexandria, Va) 11x14" oil on canvas (sold)

I just got the exciting news this painting sold this afternoon. 


Old Town Alexandria is one of my favorite places to paint.  I really enjoyed doing this painting.  I wanted to try to paint something very impressionistic. It is a very different style for me.  I blurred the source photo so I couldn't get caught up in the details.  (It works much better for me than squinting!)

Funny story about this painting: My parents like to see my work so I usually email copies to them as I finish paintings. When Dad got this one he sent me a reply that I needed to resend it because the photo of the painting was blurry!  I had to explain that's the way it was supposed to look.  Oh well, I loved it. 

National Art Gallery Copyist

Mini, 8x10" oil on gessobord (sold)

I love living in the Washington, D.C. area for a number of reasons.  At the top of my list - all of the wonderful museums at our disposal and free to everyone.  A few years ago I worked close enough to run over to the art museums for lunch.  Life can't get any better than that!  I was always intrigued and loved to watch the painters who came in and painted the masters.  There was an interesting article in the Washington Post years ago of an artist who was a copyist.  I wish I still had the article because it discussed the rules.  The only one I recall was the copies of the paintings could not be the same size of the original.  I believe there had to be at least a 1" difference from the original.  

My favorite part to paint - the easel and the copy of the copy!  

If you live near an art museum check out their policy to see if they have a similar program.  Here's some additional info about the National Gallery of Art's program.

National Gallery of Art's copyist program

The National Gallery of Art copyist program has been in operation since the Gallery opened in 1941. A permit issued by the registrar’s office is required for copying works of art in oil or any other liquid medium. The Gallery provides permit holders with an easel, stool, and drop cloth; private easels are not allowed. Visitors may sketch with pencils or other dry media in the galleries without a permit.

To participate in the copyist program, applicants must meet all requirements outlined in the National Gallery of Art “Rules Governing the Copying of Works of Art” and agree to an interview and a security background check; they must acknowledge in writing their acceptance of the rules. For more information on the copyist program, please e-mail your name and mailing address to copyist@nga.gov. A packet of materials will be mailed to you within seven business days.

The issue of a copyist permit does not in any way constitute the National Gallery of Art’s endorsement of a copyist’s work. 

Gregory Stapko, Copyist  

 C. Gregory Stapko, (1914-2006) was a portrait painter, painting restorer and one the nation's foremost copyist of famous works of art.

Challenge #5 - Beau Roux

This is #5 for the HH4 as we affectionately call the Hilton Head 4 challenge.  It was Regula "Lulu" Scheifele's pick.  Lulu sent us a number of pictures she took in Paris.  I'm so envious.  All the photos were great.  Picking one was a challenge in itself!  I loved this gal's gorgeous red hair, so as they might say in Paris, Beau Roux!  

Beau Roux 
8x8" oil on RayMar panel

Paris in the Pink!  

 Maria Bennett Hock 

Paris à Deux Regula Scheifele

Chris Werst