Pink Tulips in Acrylic - Work in Progress - See All the Steps!

Pink Tulips - 16 x 16 Acrylic on Canvas

As long as a painting remains in my custody it is never finished. This one started out as another class demo and it was painted in 4 layers - a block-in, then the basic shapes and then some details.

I plan to change the foreground as my plan was always to have this underpainting peeking through a creamy white colour. So, by the time I complete the painting it will have taken at least 5 layers of paint.

What do you think? Would you paint the foreground white? I would love to hear your thoughts!

Initial Block-In

Locating the main shapes

Adding some detail and refining the drawing

Painting almost done....just need to add white to foreground!

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 Some January Oil Paintings - 30 in 30 is over!

Some of my January 2017 Paintings - Doggie still WIP!

Leslie Saeta always concludes her 30 in 30 Challenge with a collage of all of her paintings. It is pretty impresive to go look at all the artists who actually did complete 30 paintings in 30 days. I have included some of my favourites from this month in my own little collage pictured above.

I still have a few more paintings to finish in order complete my own personal 21-Day Painting Challenge. I am not going to feel guilty about doing it in a lot more than 21 days though!

Daily Painting Habit Challenge - Day 6 of 21 - Pink & White Peonies

14 x 18 inches - Oil on Canvas - Peonies #2

This is a larger painting of my favourite flowers that I started some time ago. I made some new decisions, darkening the background and adding contrast for drama.

I also took the opportunity to sign it in a subtle manner with my favourite new tool - a rubber tipped scraper. This method is so much easier than trying to sign with a tiny brush later on.

Vibrant, Colourful Oil Paintings of Flowers and France with Dreama Tolle Perry

Scene from France - 9" x 12" Oil on Canvas Panel

I live in Canada, where it is cold in the winter - really cold! Like many of my fellow Canadians, if I can possibly manage it, I try to get away from the ice and snow for at least a week or so. This year I was very blessed to arrange for a double treat - not only did I get to escape to Florida in January, I also attended a workshop in Marco Island led by a lovely artist, Dreama Tolle Perry. She loves to paint flowers, cats and scenes from France. She jokes that she lives in Paris .... Kentucky.

Dreama has a colourful, joyous style of painting that is very appealing. I was interested to see what her process was for creating her whimsical works. Dreama initially began her painting career with watercolour as her medium, as did I, so I was particularly interested to see how that has influenced her work. Her process does show that influence, as she begins her paintings by completely covering the entire surface of the gessoboard that she prefers with transparent oil colours. She generally uses a colour that relates to the local colour of what she is depicting and does this even in areas that will end up light, despite the fact that the transparent oils are all dark.

Dreama, who has the best name ever, teaches a class unlike any I have previously experienced. I think her method and accessible way of teaching is particularly good for novice painters, since the whole class paints the same subject (for the first two days) in 3 stages. First, there is a lecture and then a demo of the first steps, after which everybody goes back to their easel and does their version. Dreama provides a gridded photograph upon which the finished product is loosely based. It was interesting to see how everyone had their own style and interpretation of the same exact subject, painted in a similar manner, with the the same colours.

Flowers in Mason Jar - 12" x 12" Oil on Gessoboard

Letting some of the transparent oil peek through the opaque layers that follow creates a glow that is impossible to achieve with later paint layers.

Dreama's palette consists of:

* Titanium White
* Cad Yellow Lemon
* Cad Yellow Med
   Cad Orange
* Winsor Violet (Dioxazine)
* French Ultramarine Blue
   Cobalt Blue
* Sap Green
* Richeson Shiva Ice Blue
* Permanent Rose
* Transparent Red Medium (Rembrandt)
* Transparent Oxide Orange (Rembrandt)
* Transparent Oxide Brown (Rembrandt)
* Indian Yellow (Winsor and Newton Brand Only!) 
   Caribbean Blue (by Old Holland Oils)
   Magenta 
(The * indicates required colours, although I would say get them all!)

I can't say that getting away from winter in Canada for a big didn't play a role in my decision to take a class in Florida in January, but I always go away from any workshop with something new to apply to my own work. In this case, although I am still more interested in light and shadow plus form for my paintings, I really resonated with Dreama's method of using transparent colours before touching the opaque colours and white.