Sailboat 8 - Sail, Don’t Drift

Sail, Don’t Drift

6x6, oil

A good motto to live by...sail, don’t just drift through life...the ride for us all is fleeting!

Sailboat 1 - Seas The Day

Seas The Day

6x6, oil

Seas The Day is the first in a small series of 10 sailboats I plan to paint in oil. I’m one of twenty local artists participating in a fund raiser on April 30th at Finer Frames to benefit the Eagle Idaho Plein Air Festival (which will be held June 6-13th). Each painting must be painted on a 6x6 unframed wooden panel (which means my beloved pastels just won’t work for this event). However, what a great opportunity to practice painting in oil.  Right?

Anyway, the fund raiser is comprised of 200 6x6 paintings all of which will be up for sale for only $36. each! It should be a wildly popular event...I’m hoping to buy a couple paintings from other artists myself.

Along The Shoreline

Along The Shoreline

20x16, soft pastel

It's always fun for me to see someone else's work-in-process so I thought I'd post a couple of the  WIPs of the latest, "Along The Shoreline".  I painted this scene before as a 12x9 but decided to go larger this time.  This piece is 20x16 and was just as fun to paint as the first one.  I hope you enjoy!

Why Am I An Artist?

In the back of my mind I know I'm trying to out-race dementia.  I want to be a REAL artist before I start to forget how to paint!  That's the journey I'm on.  I don't have it now, or even any symptoms but I know it runs in my family. Watching my mom struggle with it for the past 10-15 years has been a sobering reminder.  Alzheimer's or dementia...whatever you want to call it...it stinks!  So, I'm assuming over time I will progress and get better at painting only to decline in later years.  I don't dwell on it because after all...I may not be here tomorrow!  (lol)

If you've ever struggled to achieve a dream that seemed so far out of reach it would be almost impossible to achieve...or, you've felt like that " little engine that could"...chugging, chugging, chugging uphill always thinking..."I think I can, I think I can..."  Then you know a bit about how the past three years have been for me.

Diving headlong into creating art three years ago (at 58), I've been an obsessed woman!  I've had so much to learn and fortunately because of the Internet and workshop teachers there have been mountains of information to absorb.  I felt I was starting out so many years behind everyone else and to top it all off I began with the most brutal self doubt imaginable.  My inner voice was so so critical of every painting I produced I didn't think I would ever feel confident.  And, because of it, I thought about giving up from time to time too.  I'm glad I didn't.   

My tombstone should have one word on it.... "Persevere" because throughout life that's what I told myself to do when things got tough.  It's SO very easy to stroll through life when things are going ok...but challenges call for perseverance.  So, I've hung in there.

For the remainder of my years I know I will love the artist life and continue to be in hot pursuit of that perfect painting...my masterpiece.  Personally, I doubt I will produce an actual masterpiece but every once in awhile a painting does magically "paints itself" (if your an artist, you know what I mean).  

In three years (and over 390 paintings) it's happened exactly twice.  Today I'm happy to report that the second of those two paintings (Along The Shoreline, above) was awarded Best Of Show in the Pastel Society of the West Coast's (PSWC) general members online competition as well as one of the Top 15% FAV on FASO's Boldbrush competition.  I don't enter competitions very often so this is a big deal for me especially because I've taken a look at the wonderful work submitted by all the other artists.  

I was dumbfounded when I got the call from PSWC and humbled to have my work acknowledged in this way.  I also know to "keep it real"...judging is subjective and another judge or panel of judges would most likely come up with a different winner altogether.  But today, I will enjoy the news because I know tomorrow, I will be in hot pursuit of that masterpiece all over again!!!

Along The Shoreline

Along The Shoreline

12x16, soft pastel

Along The Shoreline is most likely my favorite painting during the January 30in30.  Unfortunately the photo doesn't really pick up the true blue and green colors in the water...I'm assuming it may be because of the strong red dominating the center.  Being much larger than the typical 6x6 paintings I often do for the Challenge, it took a week or so to paint.  Painting larger is easier for me if I paint each day, not expecting to complete it all in one go.  Of course, I like the variations of red...but I also like the water and all the trees reflecting in it that were along the shoreline....thus, the title.  I will surely hate to part with this one!

Lavender Sky

Lavender Sky - Oil

6x6, oil on board

I really love the feel of this scene and will probably tackle it in pastel too.  I've been having fun playing with texture by applying a primer on the board before I begin...but it backfired a bit in one area of the sky where the refracting light is a bit distracting....at least to me.  Painting on 6x6 sizes for oils this month has been less intimidating...but I can see where it would actually be much easier painting larger sizes in oil.  Sometimes I have to resort to tiny brushes and it becomes too tedious.  I'll put that on my to-do list.

Little Red

Little Red

12x16, soft pastel

Painting 15 of 30:  Little Red is finished.  It's always a toss up to be detailed vs. painterly....my style is somewhere in between.   I like definition...but too much detail and too much precision leads to stiff unnatural paintings with less expression.  If I was painting photorealistic then I'd put much more detail in.  So it's a fine balance every artist has to decide for him or herself when to stop and "let it be".   

This particular scene reminds me of myself.  I'm pretty darn petite...ok, I'm downright SHORT at a whopping 5'0".  Pretty much everyone seems to tower over me.  So I can identify wih this little dingy sitting side by side tied to a manmouth ship.  We may both be small...but we're so dang cute...lol.  Of course the older we get, we get a little rough around the edges.

Toy Boat Regatta - Pastel

Toy Boat Regatta - Pastel

12x9, soft pastel

Painting 13 of 30:  The same painting as yesterday...only in pastel.

WIP: Now a bit more layering...a bit more detail.

Peaceful Morning

Peaceful Morning

12x16, soft pastel

Day 5 of 30...this is the finished larger piece.  No oil painting today...just enjoying this one for a bit then on to the next larger piece!

Yellow Belly - Pastel

Yellow Belly - Pastel

6x6, soft pastel

Day 4 of the 30in30.  Yellow Belly in pastel (loosely again).  This time I did manage to get the yellow reflection to read more green-yellow as it should be compared to yesterday's oil version. I don't know if it's any better...but on to another boat!  Painting the same scene in a different medium (so far) has been an interesting process.  

WIP Update:  The little dingy "Peaceful Morning"....80% there.

Yellow Belly - Oil

Yellow Belly - Oil

6x6, oil on board

Day 3 of 30...this closeup of a boat in the harbor is as "loose" as I can paint.   My tendency is to paint too precisely and (you would think) painting precisely would be harder than painting loosely...but au contraire...not the case at all!   So, the next time you see a painting that's painted loosely...consider the difficulty and admire the artist's finese!    A little tidbit....the boat's lettering really wasn't FYI in really life...but I liked it, so it stuck.  A little FYI about this piece.

Warm Sail - Pastel

Warm Sail

6x6, soft pastel

Day 2 of the 30 in 30...the same boat as yesterday only this time in pastel.  I like the warmth of the sails lit by the sunlight beyond the trees.

WIP below: I continue to work on the larger piece "Peaceful Morning".  I've painted it twice before...no, three times before in different sizes.  I love this particular boat scene because its just so peaceful to look at and I want it on my walls (eventually if I don't sell it first).  Below is a shot of a closeup...notice the smudge on the back wall of the boat?  That's an example of what NOT to do while  painting with pastels.  Sometimes I will blend with my fingers in certain areas and for this piece I like the waters blended a bit...but using fingers is hazardous.  If there's pastel dust on them, going over a light section like the railing here can result in a fingerprint....(I like to leave my mark on a painting...but not my fingerprint).  Fortunately, a harder pastel such as a Nupastel applied lightly over the smudge can "erase it away".  Interesting that the colors in the painting above are very similar to the one I'm working on below.

Warm Sail - Oil

Warm Sail

6x6, oil on board

This marks the first day of the January "30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge".  My primary goal for the "30in30" is to experiment with oil painting (I've only painted with oils once before...many, many, many years ago).  After I finish a piece in oil, I may sometimes paint it again using soft pastels.  My second goal for the month is to paint four larger pieces (most likely boats in soft pastel).  They'll be created in anticipation of an upcoming show in April at the Initial Point gallery located in Meridian's City Hall building.  I'll share my WIP (work in progress) below.   So....here we go!  

Peaceful Morning

12x16, soft pastel

First a quick sketch:

Then I start laying in values...I have a tendency to put too much detail in this stage even though much of it gets covered up with multiple layers of pastel.  I hate losing the placement of the boat's boards and background ships...so I do it anyway.  This is how far I got...more to follow tomorrow.

Adrift

Adrift
9x12, soft pastel

This piece is a larger version of Morning Calm which was donated recently for a giveaway on Dailypaintworks.com.  I love this particular scene because it's just so darn peaceful!  I may paint it larger yet again. This piece will be on display at the Meadowlake Art Show on Nov. 10th in Meridian, ID.  The show will actually run for a full 30 days.  If you're in the area stop by and let me know what you think.

Morning Calm

Morning Calm

6x8, Soft Pastel

Morning Calm was painted in my hotel room while visiting the Oregon Coast.  I particularly like the ocean and all things nautical...especially in the early morning or late evening hours.  Everything seems just a little more sleepy and peaceful. While painting it, I just wanted to climb up in this little dingy and take a nap.  I may paint a larger version of this one since I didn't have my best pastels with me and struggled a bit with getting just the right colors. "We'll see" (that's my new mantra).