Moon Pies

As usual, I'm running really late with my postings for ArtColony and this is the latest challenge going..."moon". There were several other subject lines with a moon that I just couldn't see painting and one of my artist friends from Houston, Nita , suggested MoonPies. Loved the idea. In my childhood, when we came home from school we usually had a moon pie and a Pepsi. These challenges are not major productions so we can really throw something out..and this is just that..thrown out! I drew it in about an hour, painted it in about 2 hours and need to do a little more detail work, but our deadline for ArtColony is the 15th. And..today in addition to being tax deadline (for the final extension..DUH!), is the challenge deadline. This piece is only 5 x 7 so if any of you punch this up, it will look really "messy" as it will be sooooo large in magnification. Sorry about that. I still have not honed my computer tech skills enough to know how to get to the right editing program with Photoshop yet to reduce the posting sizes. I will admit to eating this setup of MoonPies, although I did half it with our dog, Gunney. On the wrapper it stated the calories at 300 so I couldn't make myself be that indulgent. And, Gunney doesn't care about calories!

NecterinesWIP

 

This is the latest painting done with Debbie Cannatella's class of the artists from Bullard who took us with them on the trip to Ruidoso, NM earlier this summer. Can't resist when I know they are going to paint crystal and Debbie's setups are always wonderful in subject and good reference photos. I did make some changes on this one as the photo was taken on a wooden table and since I didn't want to introduce browns, I made mine reflect on a white countertop. Since there are no mistakes in art (especially if you're the artist) we can change things to suit our tastes..which is a good thing. My rule of thumb seems to be..if there isn't red somewhere, I don't enjoy painting it! The darks were laid in first as I paint dark to light. When I tackled the necterines, I laid a solid wash of New Gamboge on the whole fruits and after that dried, then started in with layers of 3 or 4 different reds. I love the way reds seem to glow when painted over yellows. As usual, I really enjoyed figureing out the facets of the crystal and jumped in. Although I always love to paint glass and crystal, I do have a close focus asiatic lily drawn off and waiting in the wings when I get around to it. However, my next major project will be to get my taxes to my CPA as I've used my last extension and time has caught up with me. I always say I'm not going to wait until the last minute every year...oh, well.