April in Paris, painted in March

I painted this diptych (painting in two parts) of Paris to donate to the silent auction at the upcoming Sjogren’s Syndrome Foundation fundraiser in Atlanta.

It is acrylic paint (I LOVE acrylics!) on canvas/hardboard cradled panel…and each panel is 16 inches h x 12 inches w…for a total size, when hung together, of 16 x 24.

Usually I crop the photos I take of my paintings but I wanted to show my very high-tech photo area — the A/C unit sticking out of one of the barn/studio’s windows!  This area isn’t pretty — and is always a bit drippy — but the light there on the non-sun side of the barn/studio is beautiful and even and true-to-color.

About the painting…I love Paris (heck, who doesn’t?) and I love the monumental scale of everything there.  I like to imagine, as I stroll around with Dan, what it must have been like to have been one of the King’s architects or landscape designers.  Someone designed and placed that amazing sculpture/planter…the one I’ve painted there in the right corner.  Did that start out as a series of drawings by some silk-frocked be-wigged fellow…who then gave the drawings to stone masons who carved the glorious thing?  Fast forward to now: who decided that wild purple petunias were to be the choice for the season?  How many gardeners are on staff there?   Where were the petunias grown?  And now, a couple years later after Dan shot the photo that I used as reference for this painting, what is blooming in that beautiful planter?  And when can I go back to see?!?

YoYo! An update…

YoYo is the adorable little Pekingese that someone dropped off here last November.  She was emaciated, malnourished, full of worms, deaf…and had one damaged eye, mammary tumors, an abdominal hernia and, not surprisingly, some trust issues!  Our vet fixed up her medical problems and we provided a lot of good food and a lot of love and now she is thriving and enjoying her life of luxury as the only house dog here at the farm.  She has gained almost five pounds and her fur has grown in as thick as bunny’s.  As a thank you to our vet, Dr. Howard Small (no relation) I painted this portrait for him.

A chicken painting, a studio sign…and some epiphytes

(Scroll down to see all the photos…there are 5 in this post)

Howdy!  Long time no blog.  It’s been…um, hectic and interesting…”interesting” as in that old Chinese curse: May you live in interesting times.

I painted two things yesterday — a chicken and the “that a way” part of my studio sign.  The main “studio” and the stick I painted years ago when Pip and I taught a glass fusing class in my then-studio which was a three-car garage that I wanted to make look, well, NOT like a three car garage. 

The glare is from the freshly applied varnish.  This painting is 20 inches wide by 16 inches high…and I hope Gillian’s parents like it enough when they come to visit  in two weeks that they will take this silly chicken back to Bethesda with them…for her bedroom.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That’s my potting shed…the barn/studio is, as the sign suggests, off to the right.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve been living out here in the country long enough now that when I was trying to figure out what to paint on that wooden arrow, the first thing I thought of was “over yonder” !!!

 

And here are the bromeliads that I’m trying to establish under the oaks adjacent to the barn/studio…I took them from our old house where they had climbed up another oak’s trunk about four feet…lovely colors, huh?

Gillian’s Farm…FINISHED!

This is a photograph I took of the finished painting…but it looks much better in person, not surprisingly.

Since the last post to this blog I added lots of flowers — bluebonnets and black-eyed Susans and some wholly imagined dew-drop type blossoms on the long arching stems that I’ll name GumDrops because they look like candies – and I finished the animals.

The  important non-pictorial steps of the process, such as adding hanging wire and varnishing the painted surface for durability, are shown and described below.

You can click on the image of the painting and enlarge it, I believe.  It may not appear sharp as I did NOT take my own good advice to always use a tripod.

 

 

 

 

Because this painting is fairly large (20×24) and heavy and will be hanging near a baby’s crib it is super-important that the hanging wire is strong and secure.  A trick I learned when we owned the gallery and frame shop in Texas is to use TWO wires on the back…that way if one breaks (highly unlikely) the other will hold.  To make the picture hang level two picture hangers are used.

Here are the tools and parts I used.  The awl makes small starter holes into which the screw eyes are fastened.  It is important to NOT pre-drill the holes into which the screw eyes go because it is easy to make the holes too big and this will result in the screw eyes being loose and possibly pulling out. 

The best position for the wire is approximately one-third down from the top…in this case that’s about 6 to 7 inches from the top of the canvas along the 20 inch sides.  

The wire I use is super-strong braided picture cable and it is threaded through the screw eyes twice then wrapped on itself seven times.  Why seven?  “Cause it is a lucky number, that’s why!

 

This is what one side looks like…ready for hanging.  See how secure? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Acrylic paints are terrific, but even the same brand of paints will vary in shininess from color to color.  This is due to the different pigments used to make the colors…and this characterisitc occurs in oil paints too.  So, it is important to varnish the panting once it is dry to bring the entire painted surface to the same degree of shininess or matteness.  A matte surface tends to make the colors look lighter while a gloss makes the colors look deeper and richer…naturally, I think deeper and richer colors are more desirable so that’s what I went with.  This varnish also protects against UV light damage, but that really isn’t an issue with acrylic paints.  This varnish can also be used on watercolors, where lightfastness IS an issue.

I elevated the canvas on four small plastic containers to prevent the varnish from seeping around the edges and gluing the canvas to the table.  This photo shows the “gallery wrap” canvas, which allows the painting to be hung without a frame.  In this case, because the picture is hanging near the crib we don’t want a frame that would add weight to the picture ; additonally a frame might contain potentially harmful materials, such as metal leaf or lead-based paints.

Another advantage of varnishing the painting is to protect the surface from things that might splatter on it, such as spit-up or milk

Here’s a detail of the finished painting…this is the lower right corner showing the hen and two chicks…and my signature.

I hope you’ve enjoyed watching the progress of this painting.  The was a  fun project for me…and I learned how versatile acrylic paints are.  I welcome your comments or questions.

Gillian’s farm…part three

Here are some more photos of the process of making a  farm scene painting for the bedroom of Baby Gillian.  My biggest challenge has been to try to keep this light and whimsical and not to spin off into too-realistic.

So…the sign is blocked in and underpainted…the pig is there — and I like her placement — but her details need lots of refinement.  The hen and chicks needs more feathers and important little details like eyes and beaks.  The cows are fine — I won’t mess with them anymore — and I notice that they seem to be a cross between Holsteins and belted Galloways…so I’ll name them Belted Bethesdasteins

 

Here’s a close-up… you can see I’ve added lots more feathers to the hen and given the horse a mane and tail.  The chicks are fully feathered and beaked and have little eyes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve painted the sign background with matallic gold acrylic…it’s very shiny and I may decide to tone it down later by putting a dulling wash over it.  I’ve blocked out the letters with an opaque white paint and later I’ll add color.  I’m not keen about that little cartouche thing on the sign, so I’ll change that.

The pig has her various wrinkles and folds…and her hooves.  Now all she needs are some soft hairs added to her face and arms.

 

This is a good place to talk about the versatility of acrylic paints.  I tend to use them only for fun projects, but they can be used for serious projects, too, and I want to do that more in the future.  In this painting I have used them in much the same way I would watercolor…and acrylics can do that.  Watercolors are, as the name suggests, colors (pigments) carried in water…the water evaporates and the color remains.  Problem with real watercolors is that they are fragile on the paper…get the paper wet after the painting is done and -poof!- the picture is ruined.  Acrylics can be diluted greatly and used transparently,  just like watercolors, BUT they forn a tough plastic-y layer when dry and are much more permanent and completely light-fast, unlike watercolors.  Acrylics can also be used like oil paints and put on the canvas (or board or paper) very thickly (and in some parts of this painting I’ve done that).  Unlike oil paints, acrylics are non-toxic (unless you spread them on toast and eat them!) and don’t have fumes as they dry.  Clean-up is super-easy — just soap and water, unlike the turpentine needed to clean the brushes used with oils.  If you want to learn to paint, consider using acrylics, rather than oils.

Tomorrow I’ll post the last stages of Gillian’s Farm…and an image of the finished product.  I’m very pleased with the finished painting…stay tuned to see it!

Gillian’s Farm…part two

The Gillian Farm painting continues…

I’ve made the roof and door yellow to blend with the wall color Lauren added in the nursery.

 

 

 

 

 

I tried adding a weathervane to the barn roof, but the scale is wrong, so I think I’ll paint it out…

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is how I figure out where the different animals will go in the scene…first, I draw them on tracing paper…

 

 

 

 

 

Then I slide the drawing around until, in this case, the horse looks naural with the right scale…then I put a piece of graphite transfer paper (like the old carbon paper but not as waxy) under my drawing and draw over it to transfer the lines to the canvas…

 

 

 

 

Here are the products I used to place the animals in the scene…available at any art store or online.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are the animals placed in their farm surroundings…and underpainted.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s a close-up of the flock of sheep I painted on the far hillside…it appears that farmgirl Gillian is having a cozy fire in her little pink farmhouse

(I’ll post Gillian’s Farm Part Three photos in a day or two…stay tuned!)

Gillian’s Farm, part one

Gillian is our beautiful new great-niece and her parents, Lauren and Michael, have decorated her nursery with a farm theme.  As a former (and current and forever) farmgirl, I’m thrilled with this and readily agreed to do a painting inspired by the fabric Lauren chose to make the crib bedding.  You can see the fabric in the first photo.

For those of you who like to see how paintings happen, I’ll post the step-by-step photos, with some explanation of the process.

I painted in a sky with the same blue/green in the fabric.  While the paint was still wet I wiped out some cloud shapes with a damp paper towel.  Acrylic dries quickly so this step must be done FAST.

While I was painting, Dan was running plumbing to the barn/studio and now we have running water in the beautiful sink he installed.  To have a sink and running water to wash hands and brushes is WONDERFUL!

 

I enhanced the wiped-out clouds with some warm white paint at the tops and a pale pink at the bottoms…to suggest an early pink dawn breaking.  At the bottom part of the sky, where it meets the horizon I added some pink to suggest the sun.  Using a mixture of dark green and blue I roughly painted in a treeline at the horizon.

To make something appear to be in the distance you should do the following:

1) Make the object(s) bluish;

2) Make the object(s) hazy and indistinct;

3) Add “hills” in front.

Here I’ve added some hills.  Eventually I’ll add grassy texture to these.  Notice how as hills “come closer” to the viewer they become lighter and more yellow-green.

The paint is still wet…that’s what that shine is.  There is a new type of acrylic paint by “Golden” that is called “Open Acrylic”, meaning it stays wett — or “open” — longer and it behaves more like traditional oils, which take forever to dry.  I haven’t tried it yet.

 

 

This looks rough…and it is.  I wanted to establish a darker area and pick up the brown tone that is in the inspiration fabric.  This dirt road area will be enhanced and will provide a nice background for the farm animals that I’ll paint in part two.

This is another technique for making objects seem to recede in a painting: painting in a road or fenceline that gets smaller.

What I’ve done in this step is to add the underpainting for the flowers and shrubs that will ultimately be in the foreground. 

I’ll have a baby pig on the left side of the foreground area and a mother hen and a chick or two on the right side.  I’ll paint sheep on the far hill and have a cow and calve grazing in the middle distance and there wll be a horse somewhere…that’s the plan, anyway!

I made this custom grass brush by taking an inexpensive synthetic bristle brush and hacking at its bristles with a utility knife.

A custom grass brush

This type of brush is also wonderful for painting fur texture in animal paintings. 

Art and craft stores sell packages of these brushes for next-to-nothing.  A major brush manufaturer sells “Wispy” brushes that are made to do the same job, but I find that the bristles are too regularly spaced and the result doesn’t look like real grass…or fur.

Close-up of medium distance hill with some grass texture

You can see the beginnings of the grass texture in the hill.  I’ve used several colors of paint and have a lot more to do on this area.

I’ve done a quick paint-sketch of the barn and silo.  See how I’m using that crest of the hill to make the barn look far away?   After the barn is complete I’ll paint in some vegetation around it to make it look more fully part of the landscape.

The white things in the foreground are a post and a fence board.  The inspiration fabric has white pickets, so I’ll make my fence white-ish, with a wood texture.  The baby pig I’m planning will be peeking through the fence.

More to come in part two

At this stage I have the barn and silo blocked in with color…and the house, too.  The inspiration fabric has a hot pink barn, so I picked up that color for this barn to.  Also, as Gillian is the farmgirl who “lives” in this farmhouse in the painting, I made it a lovely girly shade of pale pink.  The roofs will be grey-blue, like slate.

In part two I’ll add the details to these structures and “landscape” them with shrubs and flowers.

I’ve given the fence posts and boards some texture, but they need to be refined and the lower one on the left needs to be straightened.

Stay tuned for part two to see the all animals and the shrubs and flowers…and the corrections and refinements that I’ve mentioned.

As always, comments are encouraged and welcomed!

 

Baby Blue Eyes

Cooper

This is a close up detail of a painting I recently completed of Cooper, a Shih Tzu.   And yes, his eyes really are that blue!

Cooper was adopted from Shih Tzu Rescue, Inc. of Davie, Florda.  They are a wonderful group of people, each of whom is dedicated to saving the lives of dogs who have, for a variety of sad reasons, lost their homes.   Their name says “Shih Tzu” but they have all types of dogs.  Click on their link on the right side of this page to read some wonderful success stories and see some charming furry faces.

Rescue dogs make wonderful pets — Cooper here is a shining example of that – and bring years of enjoyment and love to the people who open their hearts and homes to them.  Today is Thanksgiving Day and I’m thankful for the people who rescue dogs and the people who adopt the dogs. 

And you know that beautiful Cooper is thankful to his new family for giving him a loving forever home…

FLOWERS, for some fun, for a change (a how-to)

Painting in any form is usually a very enjoyable pursuit or passion or obsession, but lately I’ve been doing so many tight and detailed paintings that I wanted to do something FUN.  Here is the finished product…and below you will find the steps.

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s what I started with: a 12×12 gallery-wrapped canvas on wooden stretcher bars.  These are available in many different sizes at art supply stores in your town or online.  The canvas comes already covered with gesso.

In the upper left corner you can see my bin of acrylic paints…and to the right are all my oil paints, which I have recently put in glass jars.

At this point in the game I didn’t even know which type of paint I’d use…then I remembered the previous day’s painting and the headache I got from, I believe, the paint thinner I use to clean the brushes.  So, acrylic.

toning the canvas with color

I mixed red and hot pink acrylic paint and covered the canvas surface — front and sides — with it.

It is important to keep a jar of clean water nearby to rinse your brushes as acrylic dries very fast.  That’s oneof the joys of working with acrylic as opposed to oil paints, which dry very slowly.

 

 

blue + green = turquoise

Turquoise and red are one of my favorite color combos and are just about opposite each other on the color wheel.  Any time you put opposites together it creates an effect that almost makes the colors appear to vibrate.  Look for advertisements that exploit this to attract attention.  To make the turquoise I mixed a blue and green together.  Don’t overthink color mixing: if you like the color, use it…you aren’t the paint department manager at Home Depot…your color doesn’t have to match someone’s sofa.  Be loose!

spreading the turquoise

Now the real fun begins!  I spread the turquoise paint with a pallette knife…this is difficult to control and I love the random wonkiness of the result.  I want some of that bright red to show through.  Interestingly, as the turquoise paint goes on, the red seems to get MORE red.

Look at that cool little scroll in the lower right corner of the canvas…

 

closer look at the serendipity scroll

That scroll is what determined what I decided to paint.  Up to that point I didn’t know if this was going to be a landscape or a painting of a chicken or what.  But the scroll looks like the swoopy handle of a loving cup or a trophy, so I think:  ah, FLOWERS in a VASE.

With this spreading paint technique you have to decide to just STOP…it is so fun, the temptation is to keep spreading and cover up all that beautiful red.

painting the flowers

I should probably have stopped between the last step and this one and taken a photo, but I was having such a good time I completely forgot.

You can see some of my tools here: the water bowl (which needs to be changed), my glasses and my favorite made-in-china enameled butcher tray that I use as a pallette.

I chose yellow as the color of my vase because it contrasts nicely with the turquoise.  The flowers don’t exist in nature, just my imagination…but I am going to try to turn those orange ovals into roses.

close-up shot of in-progress painting

This photo shows a close view of the flowers.  You can see that they are made of loose (that’s the MAGIC word!) brushstrokes and layered colors.  Acrylics dry so quickly that by the time I had made all the purple circles, the first ones were dry enough to add the blue petals over the top.  I’ve painted three shades of green in between the flowers to suggest foliage, and I’ve added some leafy shapes at the outer edges of the bouquet.

 

 

Finished flower painting

Here’s the finished painting standing on its wide edge.  This can be hung frameless or placed on a shelf or table.  I like unframed paintings, probably because we owned a frame shop/gallery in Texas and if I never have to frame another thing it will be too soon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

closeup of flower painting

Here’s a close-up of the finished painting.  I varnished it with a clear gloss arylic gel to make it shiny.  Certain acrylic colors are more matte than others and I wanted the surface to have a uniform sheen.  The gel gloss also seems to intensify the colors.

This was such a fun project and just what I needed after so much “tight” painting.  For mental health I’m going to try to do a LOOSE project like this every few days.

 Tell me what you think…and send me images of any paintings you do as a result of reading this post.

“Molly, painting”

Molly, painting...24 w x 18 h...oil on canvas/hardboard panel

The word “painting” is, in this instance, both a noun and a verb.  Here is my painting of Molly engaged in the act of creating a painting.  

Several years ago when Molly was Evan’s girlfriend and not yet his wife I showed her how to create a trompe l’oeil mural for her windowless college apartment bedroom.  We had a lot of fun over the two days it took to complete this project.  Molly’s a wonderful artist and the mural turned out even better than I imagined it would when we were planning it.  During the project I took several photographs and one of them I used as a reference for this painting.  Unfortunately I shot the photo with what I considered my “eBay camera”, meaning I used it for taking pictures of things I would eventually sell on eBay.  It was an early digital camera and I had set the resolution at the very lowest setting, so the photo was very small, very poor quality. 

In reality Molly was sitting at the kitchen table and there were cabinets behind her and balled up paper towels beside her on the table and junk all around.  But she is so naturally graceful and her pose (which was unposed) so elegant that her portrait needed a much more beautiful background, so I painted in this leafy glen.   I think she looks like a woodsprite artist.  I didn’t have to enhance her at all…she’s naturally beautiful.  I did bump up the bling factor of her necklace and gave her some painted diamond stud earrings.

Below is a photo of just part of the mural she painted that day.  Somewhere I have a photo of the full mural…I just can’t locate it right now.  The painted scene, on an eight foot high canvas panel, is a peaceful meadow at dawn under a sky with white clouds and a crescent moon, as seen from an open set of French doors with a fan window above.  The realistically painted door and window frame and this butterfly (painted on, not real!) are what trick the viewer into thinking the mural is actually a window.  That’s what trompe l’oeil means: to fool the eye.

Detail of mural