Portico

This painting is also from the IMA, done while standing in the shade of the portico at the Lilly House on a 90 degree day! I think it has an "Old World" feel, something I'll try to capture more often.

To see this one and lots more, come visit me at the June 4th show, "En Plein Air", at the Stutz Gallery from 5-9pm. Many of our studios at the Stutz will be open to the public from 12 to 5pm, just before the show opening.

En Plein Air

Last week was a big one for getting outdoors to paint. Several of us are preparing for a plein air show on June 4th. This painting was done just outside the Lilly House at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. What a charming garden area!

TC Steele Grounds

I was able to save the rained out plein air painting today. It's not exactly plein air anymore, but I hope I've saved some of the spirit of it. Did a lot of scumbling, added some shadows that weren't there on site. I think it improves the compostion. Hope it's not too busy!

Rained Out Paint Out

This was the result of my first Plein Air Paint Out, not exactly what I was expecting. It started out to be a beautiful sunny day at the Flowers of T.C. Steele paint out in Brown County. Jerry Points, Susan Mauck, and I had come together. For my first attempt, I set up my easel to paint the "Big House" amidst its blossoming garden. Unhappy with my painting, I decided to move on to a different spot with a clean canvas. I chose this view from below the house looking up from the woods. Just as I was beginning to put some thicker paint on my canvas it began to sprinkle, softly at first, but becoming more insistent. I packed up my things in a heavy downpour and headed back to the cars. When the time for judging was near, Jerry, Susan, and I set up our paintings alongside the others. The rain had let up, but not for good. Soon it was pouring again, and my painting began to show interesting orange speckles. People asked me with interest, how did I get that effect? I had to confess it was by accident. I started with an orange ground. Since there was so much "thin" paint still on the canvas, it came off with the rain. After an hour or so of heavy rain, this picture is all that was left. I hope to save some of it and re-post when it's finished.

These three sketches were done along the Pacific Coast this past week. My husband and two daughters and I were there enjoying the sun and surf. I did several sketches of water and rocks before feeling comfortable with them, although, "comfort" is a strong word to use in reference with sketching water! Can't wait to turn some of this into paintings, as it was the colors of the sky and water that were spectacular!

'Stutz Artists Association- Romancing the Paper'

'Stutz Artists Association- Romancing the Paper'

Tomorrow evening's First Friday will feature my artwork along with nine others from the Stutz, please join us for a great time!

Early Spring

Sometimes a painting turns out totally different from the original vision, this is one such painting. I set up a still life of spirea branches in a glass vase, but everytime I tried to paint it I didn't like the compostion, but I liked the still life when I looked at it, so what was the problem? I asked myself what it was that attracted me to the still life I had set up, and the answer was the flow of the lines the branches took when sitting in the vase. So I painted that, without the vase or the table it sat on. I kind of like it, but it's very different from my usual. A case of art in "the eye of the beholder".

Waiting

This is a larger than my usual size painting, 30 x 24. I started it a couple of weeks ago in open studio, when Marla was posed at a TV tray table with this hat and dress. In open studio we made up a whole story about how she was waiting at an outdoor cafe for a blind date, who hasn't shown up yet, but her real true love is the waiter standing in the background. (Yes, we were all women in open studio that day.) I didn't want to try to include the waiter however, so I've re-worked this painting a couple of times, and I think I like it better now.

First Attempt at Plein Aire for the Season!

The forecast was for fabulous weather, so I packed up my box easel and lunch and went to Holiday Park. I forgot, it's spring break, so the park was PACKED with kids! In order to get some solitude I hauled my equipment (15 - 20 lbs?) down to the river bank, about a 15 minute walk, which wouldn't have been too bad except I had also done my longest run for the season this morning, and my legs are killing me!
Spring at a riverbank means MUD, and lots of it, which is what I set up my easel in. When I started I was in the shade, but within 30 minutes I was in sun, and could hardly see my canvas anymore from the glare. I forgot my Liquin, so used terpenoid as my medium, and forgot my sunscreen, but at least had water. After about an hour of painting I'd had it. I packed up my load and headed back, or at least what I thought was back the way I had come. After climbing some unfamiliar looking hills, and scrambling in more mud, I finally found another human being who pointed me in the right direction, which of course was not where I was headed. By the time I got back to my car I had been out over 2 hours, but only painted for one. I finished my first plein aire painting of the season in my studio.

This is the event for which I'm preparing my studio. Everyone who's Anyone will be there, so see you there!

No Art Today

If I were to post a photo of what I painted today, it wold be totally white. I painted the walls of my studio in preparation for the upcoming big Stutz Open House. After the art is hung on the walls I'll post a photo of it!

Tropical Sunset, finished?

I think this is an improvement over the previously posted tropical sunset. I extended the beach, changing the composition. Also changed the color of the sand, and some of the sky became pink rather than orange. It's a little less glaring. I still wish I could have kept it a little "looser", but am working on that.

Henry County Stutz Show

Last night a group of Stutz artists traveled to New Castle for the opening reception of our first traveling show. The Art Association of Henry County very generously offered to host this show of Stutz artists' work, timed just right... before our annual Open House. Edward Jones Investments sponsored the show. Despite the less than perfect weather, and the success of the Butler Bull Dogs happening simultaneously, we had a decent attendance. I was especially excited to see a few people stopping at my paintings to take another look. Who knows, maybe more "traveling" is in our future!

Yellow Roses

Did this 11 x 14 painting in Jerry's last oil painting class of the season. I kind of like it, I think it's one of those paintings that worked well, and I feel I learned something from it. Now if I can only capture that lessen consistently in future paintings!

Rocky Creek

I did this before studying Scott Christiansen's rocks, and then tried to go back and fix my rocks. Somewhat succeeded. It's a pleasant painting anyway.

Study for Rocks

This is a small, 9 x 12 (unfinished) painting of rocks just to paint rocks. I was studying a book Jerry leant me, art of Scott Christiansen, who does terriic rocks!

Tropical Sunset

I thought I was done with this painting, until I see it photographed. I think I'll work on it some more, some of the color needs to be muted, and the beach needs a little work. It's one of my larger paintings though, 30x24.

White China

In a recent painting class we were challenged to paint all white objects on an off-white background. My painting from that class didn't turn out so well, so I tried again with pieces I've been saving in my studio to break into mosaic tesserae. These bits of china are a little beaten up, but looked nice on a sunny day. I like the darker background, and enjoyed playing with the border. It's a little unexpected, but I kind of like that.

Cupcakes!

This 11 x 14 was done for my class, the cupcakes really did have that swirl on the top, but I wasn't able to get it quite right. After looking at it a few days I've decided it's still a pleasant painting.

Avery

Avery is my 2 1/2 year old grandson. He slowed down long enough to lay on the back of my couch to watch cartoons, but just long enough for a very rough sketch. This is the painting I did alla prima from the sketch. That little foot in the air just kept bouncing up and down, up and down...

Cabin Fever = March in Indiana

OK, Here we go again... After 3 trips to the computer hospital, I am able once again to post on my blog! This pencil drawing is one I started on site and finished from a photo. This was my view sitting on Smather's Beach in Key West. Anyone who knows me knows that this is my favorite place in the world, and I haven't been there in almost a year! I'm really having withdrawals, but am so busy I can't possibly travel right now. So I get out old photos and sketches of the beach, and sigh...

A quick pen & ink sketch of my grandson Avery laying on the back of our couch. Did a painting from this sketch.

Improving

I've posted these two paintings to illistrate a point... The bottom piece was one I did about 5 years ago from a photo I took in the Florida Keys. It was one of my first painting efforts ever, done in acrylics. The top piece is an oil painting I did last week in our class, from a photo Jerry took in Hawaii. I think I've improved somewhat, and can attribute that to 2 things: first, taking some art classes, and second, doing lots of paintings!

There is simply no substitute for either of these methods to improve, as has often been pointed out to me, no one creates in a vacuum. To get better you MUST view others' art, get feedback, create together, THINK about how others do it. But even more important, you MUST draw, draw, draw, and paint, paint, paint.

Self Portraits.

After the classes in portrait painting, I've been all into portraits, but have only myself as a model. So... last week I took a mirror into my studio and did a couple of self portraits. These are 2 of them which look a little bit like me. I have found that I am much more comfortable doing portraits from life than from photo, which surprises me.

I have also been doing some sketches from my living room window. Check out Urban Sketchers - Indianapolis for some of these!

Shannon

My beautiful daughter-in-law posed for us when Susan Mauck stepped in for Jerry's oil painting class. She taught us her portrait painting techniques, and after one week of dismal results, I was able to paint this the second week. Although not a very good likeness of Shannon, I'm please with the painting overall, and really excited to practise my new portrait painting skills!

View From My Studio

I'm Back!

Our computer is up and running again, HURRAH!!!! I now have a backlog of images to post, but will try to go slow, no need to bombard you with everything at once!

I did this painting recently of my view out the window of my studio. Remember, this is mid-winter. The day was gray, but not completely overcast, so there is some lights and shadows contrast on the buildings, but the color is very low-key, with not much detail visible. I think I've captured the feel of the view I could see.

Down, Not Out!!

For anyone following my blog, it must seem that I've fallen off the face of the earth.  No, I've just fallen off the world wide web.  Thanks to a nasty virus, my computer crashed last week.  It is now at the computer hospital being taken care of by the geek squad.  No access to my photos or the internet.   Currently I'm on the computer at work (the hospital) in order to have internet access.  Hopefully, in a few days we'll have our own baby back, complete with photoshop elements and my saved artwork!  Until then,  happy sketching to all!!!

Finished At Last!!

It's done!  The differences from the last time I posted this painting are subtle, but I think they make a difference.  Notice the sky...

Now, on to something new, maybe a skyline of the city?...

Broken Eggs

This still life was begun in my Wednesday evening oil painting class.  It started out OK, but quickly got very muddy and ugly.  Everything was purple!  After it dried, I went back in with a lot of drybrush and adjusted the color of almost everything, and I think it is much improved.  The inspiration is from Carole Marine's paintings of eggs as shared by our instructor,  Jerry Points.

Warm Ups

 

These are two small paintings, 6" x 8", that I did as "warm up" this past week. It helps me get going with the larger work. Today, though, I went back to them to improve both the color and brushwork. Some how, I think I'm starting to get the hang of this thing! 

It's close to done...

I worked on the large painting some, and it's almost done.  I'd like to change the sky a little, make it darker at the top and try to add a warm yellow glow at the horizon.  Have to wait for the sky to dry first!

Carole's Painting

I worked on the large painting today, it's for a friend who's been waiting a long time, until I took enough painting lessons to be able to do this! It's probably 2/3 of the way done. It isn't as large as I thought, but is just under 4 feet tall. Still large for me!

Very Small Painting

Before beginning the large painting in the last post, I decided to try a small one, just to warm up. This painting of my coffee cup is just 6" x 8". It's not terrific, but it did serve it's purpose... I was ready to begin in earnest when I'd finished this one.

Very Large Painting

This scene of a footbridge on the grounds of the IMA is one I've painted before. What's new, for me, is the size. It's nearly 5 feet tall, so I have to move it up and down to paint on different parts of it. It's just the beginning. The large areas of orange are actually acrylic paint applied to tone the canvas before beginning the oil painting. As you can see, it was not possible to even finish my color notes in one sitting. I'm definitley using a lot of paint on this one!

Lotus, for the Fourth Chakra

I've finished the Lotus abstract. I plan to put it in the upcoming show at the Stutz on Friday Feb. 5th. Hope it will be well received, maybe even sell!

Classwork

Painting these watermelons from life was the assignment in Jerry Points last oil painting class. Originally my still life had a warm neutral background, which was OK, but one of my classmates had put his watermelons on a black background, which I really liked. I changed mine the next day, to a very dark purple-blue background, and I think it works.

Still Life in Progress

This is an unfinished still life I set up in my studio. I'm having trouble with the lower right quadrant. There are about 5 thin books that the green candle is sitting on, but when I've painted them in, it doesn't look good, so I've rubbed it out. But now the candle is floating in air. Something needs to go under it, but what? Any suggestions? Also am still struggling with the background texture, and the reflections on the glass vase. Hope to work on this some more today.

My husband took our camera to work with him today, so no new photos from my studio. This is a charcoal drawing done at the open figure drawing at the Stutz a couple of months ago. It's probably the best figure drawing I've done. The Open Studio group took a winter break, we start up again this Thursday. Can't wait! I miss not only the drawing from life, but the group interaction. In my next life I'll be living in an artists' commune, where we live together, grow our own food, and do art all day. It will be in a place it's warm year round, with wonderful vistas and quaint surroundings... But for now, I love the Stutz!

The Fourth Chakra

This is about half done, it's an abstract piece I'm working on for the Stutz first Friday show, "The Fourth Chakra". The show is inconjunction with the American Heart Assn., and part of the proceeds will go to them. The fourth Chakra is the heart, it's color is green, and it is represented by the 12 petaled lotus. It signifies universal love, compassion, and forgiveness. Hope this painting will turn out well, and perhaps help the AHA.

Finished Painting?

Further refinements, and hopefully, better modeling of the bottles, though I think they are still a little flat. The thing I struggeled with most was getting colors right. During class that was what I concentrated on, never really happy with the outcome. In the studio, not having the still life in front of me, I was free to make a nice painting instead of recreating what I was seeing. It seems that either goal is valid, it would be nice to be able to attain both of them!

I made some changes to the painting from the class the evening before. Lightened the background, and changed the table to draped fabric. Tried to improve the brushwork in the bottles. But still not satisfied...

Oil Painting Classwork

Art class has started up again, with Jerry Points instructing. As usual, it's fun, interesting, frustrating, fulfilling, stimulating. I feel fortunate to have such terrific talent to learn from right here in Indianapolis. This painting is what I ended up with after the first class. It was a still life set up by Jerry after the Stutz Artists Assn. dinner, using "leftovers". There would have been more wine bottles, but someone from the dinner retrieved one or two just as class began! Of course, the glass bottles were very challenging, but the ice bucket is actually plastic, which didn't have the distortion and reflections that glass would have. I was not very happy with the painting at this point, so the next day...

Eagle Creek

This is the result of an afternoon spent photographing Eagle Creek Park in November. I'm not a very good photographer. I used to think this was a hindrance to working from my own photos, but it allows me to explore changing the composition and colors rather than just trying to copy the photo. I like the contrast of the vertical tree trunks against the horizon, and the contrast of the orange tree trunks, with the blue-purple horizon.

Heart of the City, Canal

This painting is of the view seen when coming out from under a pedestrian bridge while walking the canal downtown, just south of the Eiteljorg Museum. It is a view I have admired for some time, and finally took a camera with me on my walk to get this shot. The painting was done entirely in the studio.

This is the first painting I've started and finished while at my studio. I'm pleased with it, and certainly wouldn't have done as well without the comments/advice/guidance from fellow artists at the Stutz. I am definitley loving the art community here!

My Studio!!!!

It's been awhile since I posted, but am resolved to be a better blogger this year! Since my last post, I have rented (sub-leased) studio space at the Stutz Building in downtown Indy. I ablsolutely love being a Stutzie! Here is a photo of part of the interior. Although I wasn't looking for studio space, this opportunity was too good to pass up, and I guess I was ready to make the plunge. This has to be considered an investment in my happiness, as it certainly isn't a money making endeavor yet.

Stage 2, Value Sketch

At this stage I have added ultramarine blue with the alizarin crimson to create a very dark purple. I have used this to lightly fill in some of the darkest darks, to further the value sketch. At this stage I am still pleased with how the painting is going. It took about 20 minutes to complete stages 1 and 2.

Painting in Oils, Stage 1 - Line Drawing

The next few blog entries are of different stages of creating an oil painting. I am painting a scene from a sketch I did on site. I was sitting on the banks of the White River, near the NCAA headquarters, looking southwest at the bridge that leads to the zoo. This is the first stage, the line drawing with alizarin crimson on an orange primed canvas. I have also scrubbed in a little of a value study.