Away

I'm away for a few days on a clinical trial. I also have to catch up, as I have missed quite a few days of painting. I have been disappointed by many of them these last few weeks, and it has me discouraged. I think I will be returning to the tutorials, in order to get back to basics.

There are some courses coming up in our Parks and Rec program this winter. Two in particular appeal to me, Life Drawing and Intermediate Acrylics. I should do both. I think it would be motivating and educational.

See y'all in a couple of days!

Autumn Past

I took the reference photo on the same walk as the Day 31 painting. I felt like looking back to fall as we have snow on the ground now and it's freezing out.

Acrylic on 6x6 Masonite

Not bad, but it seems to be lacking something and the leaves seem to be floating, and they shouldn't be. I guess I could just sat that this is a painting of falling leaves.

The underpainting colour was a mid tone green. It seemed like a good idea because the photo was mainly yellows and browns. I never quite sure whether to use a similar colour or an opposite colour as a base coat. More research needed. Keep painting.

More Decorations

Quite simply, I did two more decorations as my daily painting. The second and third one are not exact copies of the Harris painting, I drew and painted them without looking at the original just to see how it worked.

Acrylic on Christmas Balls

I enjoyed painting these so much that I may make a few more!

Have Yourself A Group Of Seven Christmas

Many of the Streets Alive artists are painting Christmas ornaments to give away on Saturday. I thought I'd make it my daily painting and decorate it based on winter in the Northern Woods by Lawren Harris.

Ornament with Acrylic Paint

Painting something so small and on a sphere is not as easy as I thought. I'm going to do a couple more tomorrow.

This was fun and a nice change. I just bought cheap dollar store balls. They are plastic so they aren't fragile. I may do a few more to give as gifts.

Mantlepiece

I chose a photo of my Uncle Tom's mantle from a few years ago. He always has the most beautiful flower arrangements, and not just during the holidays.

8x8 Acrylic on Canvas Board

I tried to make the background a purplish gray instead of the beige in the photo. I struggled with the candle, background and roses. You can see I worked them way too much. After that I pretty much threw the rest together. I was hoping for something I could use for a Christmas card. I'll try again tomorrow.

You know, I think I will look for some tutorials on painting roses. I'd really like to do a much better job with them.

Rise And Shine

It's breakfast time! I honestly couldn't paint for a few days. I guess the pressure of 365 straight days of painting got to me. But now is the time to break the "fast".

6x6 Acrylic on Masonite

I don't know if it's winter depression or if I was just sick of painting every day. None of my reference photos appealed to me and I just felt dumpy. But last night I went to the Monday night painters group and it was nice to see everybody and paint without pressure.

I picked another magazine photo to take with me and painted quickly. Our meetings are 2 hours. Subtract talking time, I painted for 1 1/2 hours. The bowl and plate are crooked, but otherwise I am happy with it. I mean, at lease I got back on the horse. I still feel un-confident, but I will do my best.

Gee, this post sounds like a gripe session. I'll try not to do that too often!

Snow Day

At this point, I've learned that I do not do my best work when I'm tired, especially late at night. I just don't seem to care at that point. But at least I painted something today.

6x6 Acrylic on Masonite

I took this photo last year on a day so cold and beautiful that I had to go for a drive. I will revisit this photo someday, maybe on the same piece of masonite.

Thank you all for your patience!