Sunshine Girl

This is another portrait of my granddaughter Isabella and my object with this one was to see how far I could push reds. My refererence photo is of her sitting in one of my yellow rocking chairs on the back patio...and she is literally "sitting in the sun". If I'm honest, I must admit that I used too much aliz crimson on her right cheek and couldn't scrub it out so I had to go deeper and deeper with the reds. But, she was in bright direct light...that's my excuse. This will probably be my last attempt at portraits for a while though as I seem to be getting a heavier and heavier hand...so...back to crystal and glass for a while. Although I am not happy with this one, I do believe that everything we paint is a learning lesson and when we start something...we should finish it.

DonkeyWIP

Why in the world I chose to paint a donkey as my first painting of the new year is really beyond me! Yesterday when we met for art retreat, I didn't have anything at all in mind and found a black/white photo of this little guy in our "stack of stuff". The only area I think I'm finished with is the eye and fur in that general area...need to knock down that masked fur to the left of his eye. I started with the blue on the right ear and intended to paint a rather funky portrait using blues, reds, golds, purples (ala Kay Smith color selections), but my realism got in the way. When my leaf raking chores are finished this afternoon (we have glorious sunshine here again in Texas), I'll try to get back here and finish. This was a 2 hour challenge thingie (where you stop and evaluate after 2 hours of straight painting...photograph it...post it...then get back to it and finish, promising to take another finished photo and posting that). This is one of the fun things we do our our PaintersFriendsForum and it's always a fun challenge. This is a half sheet in size...hence my being able to paint it so quickly (when I paint on the large size, I don't get so bogged down with details...unless, of course...it's crystal.

ChristmasPaintingExchange

Look what I got from my dear Artcolony friend Ellie Sethman from California. Each year we have a painting exchange and we draw names and keep it a secret until we all open them on Christmas Day (Well, we're supposed to wait...Kay Smith sorta jumped the gun this year!). I LOVE IT! Ellie is known for her kalidescope paintings and her miniature paintings...I love both her techniques and could never to either...especially the miniatures. This little gem is 2 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches in size...and she sent it matted and framed. I'm such a lucky gal! There is no way I could ever accomplish the detail (and you all know I love detail) on this size of a painting. My photography skills aren't that great as this is crooked, but just wanted you to see this wonderful Christmas gift.

Christmas Cardinals

Thought I'd post my "probably finished" Christmas Cardinals. As usual, there will be some tweaks here and there to deal with after looking at this for a day or two. Just wanted to break some kind of record and post a WIP to the finished stage...I seem to be bad about not reposting when I'm finished. I have a new painting in the works that I'm anxious to get back to and it seems that I do better when I finish what's "on deck".

Christmas Cardinals

Yesterday at our art retreat, a friend brought in a little card with holly, snow and cardinals so I thought I'd put my twist on a little painting of the birds. Funny thing...when I paint small (as in 5x7) I revert back to my old wildlife pen and ink line drawing days and get really tight. Isn't it about par to fall back on old habits!! I'll draw some more holly and berries in here and there and decide on a background (probably some vague washes) and finish up the cardinals when the little painting tells me what to do. I've also painted some poinsettias for the season...just can't stay away from red!

Snow Village

Since I don't put my Christmas tree up until about mid-December, I thought I'd start thinking Christmas and do an ornament painting. When I was a child...and really until I left home...we always went out and cut down our Christmas tree. Mother was insistant that it go up around the 14th of December and no earlier because of the fire hazard and pine trees....so...that's a hangover habit of mine for Christmas. Too bad that the fake trees are so nice now as that's what we have, but I still don't put it up and decorate until the second week of December. But, ornaments are bright and happy and say "Christmas" so at least I'm starting to think about it. This is 5x7 and I might even use it for our family Christmas card...I just love reds.

Henry

This week at our art retreat, I worked on Henry's portrait. He will be 8 around Christmas, but I have made him look a bit older I fear. He has tossled hair, a huge smile, and hazel eyes so this is a pretty good likeness I think at this point. Just like the other portraits though, when I live with him a few days...I may have to adjust some things. One thing I know right now, I fiddled too much and lost some of the freshness that I had originally captured. But, all this experience is such fun and it's really challenging.