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.

Isabella Grace

 

This painting was done earlier this year and I must admit that I think it captures my little four year old granddaughter's sweetness and softness. She is a beautiful little girl (don't all grandmothers think that of their grandchildren?) and I'm please to report that when she first saw the painting she said, "Oh, Grammy, Mommy is going to love this.) That was all I really needed to declare it a success, but I will admit that I am very pleased with this one. This was conceived at a Mel Stabin workshop when he asked us to paint something out of the box from our usual fare and this is my first attempt at a portrait. I have posted this on Artcolony (I think), but had never posted here. Now I need to paint Henry (our 6 year old grandson) and Addison (our other granddaughter who is only 4 months old). Getting just the right reference photo is now at the top of my "to paint" list.

Red Pear

My artist friend, Debbie Cannatella, invited me to come to her watercolor class with the wonderful group of ladies who included us in the fabulous week we recently spent in Ruidoso, New Mexico. They study with her for six week's periods and she has them painting like pros in the short time they have studied with her. Anyway, her method of tip-toeing into a painting is just really difficult for me and I wanted to give it a try when she told me what they were painting. (May I add that that gorgeous crystal bowl is mine and it's just my favorite piece of crystal to paint.) The blue Italian glass vase and amber candy dish were pieces we picked up on the way home from Ruidoso out in Roswell (right down the street from the "aliens" of Area 51). My attempt at going light to dark was dismal, so I reverted back to my dark to light method and might say that I am rather pleased with the results. The drawing and composition are Debbie's so I can't take credit for the originality of the piece and I did love all the elements she included. I'm at the "living with it" stage for a little while and am considering going back in with some more shadows on the fabric on the left and possibly a few more darks in the crystal bowl. Time will tell. I think I'm just putting off getting back to serious painting with my glass and stripes piece that has given me headaches and eye-strain. I have several more waiting in the wings and I really do need to finish that one first.

Strawberry Wine

 

This painting is for my ArtColony blog for the month of September and our subject was "booze". My husband brought this beautiful set of Irish crystal home from one of his trips to Europe and it is one of my favorite wine glasses...maybe a bit small, but still a beautiful cut. My original thought was to paint the huge Miller Lite balloon bottle I photographed outside the Dallas Cowboy stadium last month, but my colors turned to mud after several passes so it was junked. I'll admit that I had trouble coming up with a new piece in my mind's eye after settling on the beer bottle, but when in doubt...I always love painting crystal. I am not sure that I love the shades of grey in the piece, but did try to limit my colors to just a small palette as I completed this from drawing to finishing in about 3 hours. Decided not to go back in and clean up and soften some edges on the crystal as it was actually time to enjoy that little glass of wine and munch on that delicious strawberry.

Dallas Cowboy Game

 

My daughter, Wendy, and I were fortunate to obtain some tickets to the Dallas Cowboy Game last Saturday night and had a ball. I am an avid footballer and go into withdrawals the day after the Superbowl and I had never been to a pro game. And, I really wanted to go see what all the hype is about for this jumbotron. Well, it lived up to everything that's been said...and more. We had fab seats on the 50 yd line, third deck, which is eye level with the screen. Only problem is, you watch the screen and not the game on the floor! It stretches from the 20 yd.line to the 20 yd.line and is 162 feet wide, 90 feet off the ground and has screens on either end for those in the endzone area. But, it was great! We were also fortunate to know some people in rather high places and enjoyed the hospitality of two different suites and all the merriment that goes along with that. We wound up at the best suite of all for the after game party goingson and stayed until around 2:00AM. Needless to say, the stadium lived up to all the pregame hype as it is gorgeous and is very fan friendly. It doesn't hurt that it is all brand new and has every tech thing you can imagine going on. We renewed some old friendships and made some new ones in the course of the night and a good time was had by all.

GlassnStripesWIP Cont'd

This morning when I checked the Artcolony blog, Doris Joa had posted her latest WIP and for some reason, a lightbulb went off in my head. I have been struggling with the stripes and glass and lights and darks in my WIP and after looking at Doris progression, I realized that my true darks needed to be put in right now so I would have some reference of values as a base line. Don't know why it took so long to do this step as I actually usually work dark to light anyway. I've also included my reference photo (which is not that great) which shows just how much jumping around the darks actually are in these piece. Anyway, we'll see how far I get now that I think my roadmap has finally been found.