challenge CHATTER - 2013

Sarah, your Ireland painting is very very nice.   I can hear the birds and the quiet of the afternoon.   nice

Okay - as some from here learned on Facebook, I finally today, got my art cabinet moved and set up. I need to organize it a little better and I am going to try something tomorrow towards some art piece. The cabinet has my acrylics, watercolors, charcoals, drawing and colored pencils all together as well as all the paper canvases, canvases, and such as well as all my books and such. I even have a 3-ring binder with the things that Sammy/A Gal named Sam did as lessons. I have 2 tubes of oils that I'm not sure what to do with, but maybe I will try some kind of practice piece just to see how they "feel" to me. Have to make sure I have something to paint on and see what else I need. I'm not sure I have brushes, canvas or paper or thinner or whatever I need.

Kristina, sounds like you are all ready to paint. It has been along journey for you but you never gave up. Hope to see your work soon. :)

Fred, we don't get to see your step-by-step creative process, so it was fun and interesting to see how this baked oils landscape came about. I like this painting a lot but am even happier about how much you are enjoying the time you spend on art.

Jen, it's neat that the organizations you are in are using the 6"x6" paintings as a fundraising tool. There's something about that size and shape that is so charming and attractive. I love the red-eyed frog (and would be first in line for it at the event) and look forward to seeing your finishing touches on the sailing painting.

Sarah, a lovely painting of the windswept coast and sea with its lonely gull and cloudy sky. A great touch that you captured how the water is a very different color in the shallows.

Sarah I love the little lake side painting! The sky is wonderful and I like how you've added the gull to give it perspective. The blue of the water and sky send off such warmth!

Hello, mini blizzards last night and today, bitterly cold wind...re-organising frozen food in the freezer was warmer than taking the dog out!!!

Thanks Catherine..my late husband was a keen bird watcher so I learned quite a lot from him over the years. One fact he told me (which made me very careful what I included in my paintings) was that a 'common' bird for some areas was a rarity in others.

Thank you  also Alex, Marsha, Sam and Jen for your comments.

The slightly off white (pinkish in places) sands are similar to Scotland's N.West /Island beaches. Some of the beaches are called sighing sands because if you look very, very closely when the 'sand' is dry you can see it moving and hear it sighing!!!! Under a magnifier the grains look like tiny pieces of coral.

I make countless studies of skies to use when I need them...have to be quick so I spend a long time just looking.

Now I am going to have a try at one of the Challenge ref.photos.....don't know which one yet.

               

 

Sarah, brrrrrrrr rather you than me. Hope the weather gives you a break soon. Well today we had more fun at art. We have two sheets of plywood on which we transferred a picture of an old 50's car and a couple one on a motor bike and the other a pony tailed poodle skirt wearing young lady. We will paint them the make cut outs for people to put their heads in for photos for our Elvis weekend fundraiser. Fort Chaffee is where Elvis got his first army haircut and all is preserved at the barber shop just a few buildings down from us.every year thousands come for the anniversary. So we are busy making small paintings too. Hopefully when people have had enough of Elvis they will visit us too. Fun, fun, fun!!:)

Kim in reply to your comment on the feb challenge for some reason either my camera or my computer or my settings widen by about 15% every posting I have ever done  so even if my painting is correct my postings aren't if someone can offer advice please do I could get a new camera but that might not be my problem any help would be appreciated thanks

Jim - Gosh, even though your camera (or comp.) didn't portray your Feb. chall. quite accurately, your drwg. still showed through as very good and recognizable. Thanks for clarifying that it was a camera/comp. issue. I don't have experience with that but have seen this happen with others (not this site) before.

This time Kim it was doubly wrong I forget the problem sometimes I took a picture of jens photo did my sketch from that tryed to correct a lttle you can see were I erased some then took another pic of my sketch so 25% to wide ?

Hello to one and all....thanks for all the very kind comments on my work....still bitterly cold and still snowing on and off.

Kristina,   when I first began painting ( eldest in a large family, no money to spare for real paints) I dug up some clay (in my area we had blue, grey and brown clays), I used twigs and my fingers to paint with on brown paper bags flattened out. . Added water to the clay and when the painting was dry I had a stick of white chalk and a piece of charcoal to draw in details. Where there is a will there is a way...so just take the plunge and start. Looking forward to seeing something from you soon.

Kim...sorry , no, don't have any examples of the melted wax 'works'. It resembled cloissone or stained glass.

Might have time to have a go at another of the ref. photos if I can persuade the dog he doesn't really need another walk.

I have quite a pile of paintings that  I did last year. I'm going to go through them and apply new understanding to them as a most don't have a background. I'm starting with this one as it was done outside in a wierd light with only a brush and watercolor. I figure what the heck ,right? This was an odd little tree/plant in a glazed pot that was resting on a big piece of sandstone. It's painted in my watercolor field pad and is about 5x7 or so.

My first ever nude model ;) A neighbor had guests camping in the backyard and I just happened to be outside with Stella at 4 in the a.m. This person made a run for the backdoor in order to use the facilities and was not aware, or was still intoxicated from the night before, that there was a motion detector light. She went in quick and came back out with full knowledge that she was now the center of attention. lol I ran in and painted her really fast so before I lost the image in my mind. I think I managed to get her volume as she had a little extra weight on her. We all got a kick out of it later on.

Catherine, it is always fun to pull out old paintings.  These two are both interesting.  The nude reminds me of when I took figure drawing in college.  We always started out the class with one minute gesture drawings  with wc washes, pencil, charcoal or conte crayon.  It was a lot of fun and loosened us up for the class.  I love painting nudes.

Your small tree painting is nice.  I like the rock that the pot is setting on.  

Everybody, I am doing a colored pencil portrait of my great granddaughter, Kaetlyn, playing the guitar.  It's going slow because the new meds are causing me to to light headed and off balance (more so than usual).  I have all the flesh done and am working on her hair.  Maybe I'll photograph it tomorrow and post it although it isn't done.