September Means a 30 Day Painting Challenge!

No. 1: Calendula Bouquet - 9 x 12 Oil on Belgian Linen

It is now September 1st and time to get back to work. Every fall, Leslie Saeta hosts a 30 day painting challenge. She says it isn't cheating to paint ahead, so since I haven't done that recently, I am going to take the opportunity to post a number of pieces that have not made their way onto this blog yet, while I also get back in the studio. I will be working on some large paintings, so may post their progress as well.

Way back in March, I attended a workshop by Canadian painter Robert Strickland. I like to attend at least one or two workshops every year with painters that I think can teach me something new. I almost always come away with new insights or ideas to pursue and a refreshed urgency to get into the studio and create.

I love how he simplifies complex flowers into their essentials. The flower on the left was painted  and re-painted several times by me. I was thinking it was looking pretty good, but every time, he came by, he wiped out all my detail! It is all about the form and capturing that first, then adding select touches to give the particular flower character.

Friday evening, we had a lecture, entitled "The Language of Paint" that talked about fundamentals of drawing, value and color) and then on Saturday and Sunday we painted from life with several people gathered around each vase of flowers. 

For those who would like to know, Robert uses very expensive panels as his support (Raymar oil primed belgian linen) and his palette consists of:

Titanium White
Cremnitz (lead) White 
Cadmium Lemon
Cadmium Yellow
Cadmium Orange (optional) 
Cadmium Red
Permanent Rose (optional) 
Alizarin Crimson
Cobalt Blue
Ultramarine Blue
Viridian – Rembrandt

Transparent Oxide Red – Rembrandt

Collage of Daily Painting Challenge for September!

This was kind of fun! I used picmonkey (a free, online image editing software), to make a collage of some of the paintings I completed in September.

The 30 in 30 challenge by Leslie Saeta, which I kind of failed at, once again, due to starting way late and then getting sick, is over, but my challenge is not! Click on the link for her site to see other collages of people who actually did paint 30 pieces, which is very impressive.

I have set a goal to complete 21 paintings and I haven't met that quota yet so the work continues....

Daily Painting Habit Challenge - Day 10 of 21 - Paris Floral #2

16 x 12 inches - Oil on Canvas - Paris Floral #2
NFS

Life is continuing to get in the way of creating new work, but I still want to remain focused on art as much as I can. I am progressing in getting my studio organized, work completed, signed and varnished so I can tackle my latest large portrait painting next month.

Here is yet another painting (from June 2006) that needed a signature. This is a favourite of mine, since the resource photo I used was from a memorable trip to Paris with my two small children. Somehow, flower shops in Paris there seem to have "a certain something" in the way they group and display their wares.

Daily Painting Habit Challenge - Day 9 of 21 - Spring Fountain

9 x 6 inches - Oil on Panel - Spring Fountain
NFS

Here is another previous painting (from June 2007), now finally signed and ready for framing! I love the bleeding heart and forget-me-not floating in the fountain.  It was such a beautiful day, I remember well the serenity of the moment.

Since tomorrow is the last day of Leslie Saeta's "30 in 30" painting challenge, in November I will be continuing my daily painting habit on my own. My goal is to be focused on either finishing some paintings that have been in storage, waiting for completion or to do a new, small painting.

I have found it very challenging to get started and keep up with this modified version of the challenge, but no regrets - I have done more painting and finished more loose ends than I would otherwise have done this month despite all the roadblocks that have unexpectedly arisen.

As Leslie Saeta would say, it doesn't matter how many you complete but just to get in the studio and paint more!

Daily Painting Habit Challenge - Day 8 of 21 - Echinacea

14 x 10 inches - Oil on Canvas - Echinacea

Here is another piece from my pile of previous starts that is now almost done. I still need to varnish, which will unify and bring out the colours, adding depth and a slight sheen to the surface. It is much easier to photograph an unvarnished piece, especially one like this that is mostly low key.

Yellow Rose - Small Floral Oil Painting

6" x 6" oil on stretched canvas

The trick to drawing something this complicated is to grid it into sections (in this case, two lines on each horizontal and vertical aspect will create 9 squares. You can print out a black and white copy and use a ruler to divide your subject into equal boxes or purchase an app such as ValueViewer so that you can do it directly on your device. You can scale up or down but it is easiest to keep the image you are working from the same size as the one you are creating.

With flowers, you can also just wing it and try to suggest and capture the essence of the flower without slavishly copying every petal.