Day 31 - Broadway

Congrats to all 1,400 artists that participated in the 30 paintings in 30 days ... Yay! I felt the need to finish out the month with #31. It seemed wrong leaving that poor orphan "Day 31" all alone without a painting. Besides, that saying about forming a habit in 21 days is true. This was my last day in Desmond O'Hagan's workshop, it was really great. This pastel started out as a 9x12 and after "some" frustration with most of the painting, I liked this section of the street; so I cropped down my painting. That doesn't work on canvas (or a big commission) but I took advantage of using pastel paper today.
This is a night scene on Broadway St. just south of the Mayan.
Broadway
5x7 pastel

Day 30 Napa Winery

This painting comes from a trip to Napa Valley, CA while touring several wineries. This is Inglenook, the grounds were more impressive than the wine at some, just sayin'.

Napa Winery

9x12 pastel on paper

Day 29 Jackson, WY

Today, I started a studio workshop with Desmond O'Hagan. I LOVE his work, particularly his city and street scenes done in pastel. Find an artist you admire, take a class and then get LUCKY when they are a good teacher. It doesn't always work out that way. Today was a great day, learned a lot and what a really personable, nice guy to boot. Disclaimer - he worked on this too, so a joint effort. And, I can certainly work on it some more. Looking forward to the next couple of days - I get to paint like crazy, how lucky am I.
Jackson, WY
9x12 pastel on Canson

Day 28 Noisy Pond

Today I redid the painting that I wiped out on Tuesday while painting with PAAC at Kountze Lake. It was such a beautiful day with lots of duck and geese making all kinds of noise. I was overwhelmed with trying to get in so many things, mountains, trees, clouds, shadows, ice on edge of pond, water ripples. Meanwhile, the geese honked and the squirrels stealthily tried to steal my paints thinking they might be edible. The more I worked the worse the painting got. Sensory overload. I had a couple hours this morning to redo it from the reference photo and memory. Here is the result.
Noisy Pond
9x12 oil on canvas

Day 27 Frozen River

I'm experimenting on different types of supports (linen or cotton canvas, stretched vs. on a board or just plain mdf board that I've treated and gessoed) while still trying to keep everything archival. I've gotten loads of great information from wonderful artist friends and teachers and almost feel like I know what I'm doing! This one reminds me of looking down through some of the many half frozen rivers I've been driving by or staring down at. The texture looks great up close - it's a colorful world we live in.
Frozen River
oil 8x8
sold

Day 26 Houses on the Hill

This was an assortment of homes on the hill outside my hotel window in Jackson, WY. It was snowy and cloudy so it seemed like a good idea to paint from the warmth of a window seat at my hotel. A quick study that I will revisit as I continue to paint from reference photos taken while in Wyoming.

Houses on the Hill

5x7 oil on canvas
nfs

Day 25 Ice Skaters

This weekend while walking around Jackson, WY I found a small local park where the baseball field had been flooded to create an ice skating rink. I really wanted to take photos of their colorful pile of boots and scarves flung about but decided the parents might think I was a nut. I settled on just a regular old photo of the kids skating to paint from.

Ice Skaters
5x7 oil on canvas
sold

Day 24 Where's Dinner?

We watched this beautiful fox roam the field at Moose Junction. He watched the photographers along the side of the road (about 5 of us) ... completely unconcerned. Then he (she?) put on a great show by jumping straight up into the air and diving head first into the deep snow. After a few tries we figured out he was hunting for mice under the snow. I had no idea about jumping foxes and it was fascinating to watch. He was a little far away to see if he successfully captured dinner.

Where's Dinner?
9x12 pastel

Day 23 Teton Sunrise

The sunrise broke through on a cloudy morning and gave me about 5 glorious minutes of glowing rock and stunning colors just north of Moran mountain in the Tetons. I've never painted so fast and it was 13 degrees out. I'd love to paint many sunrise and sunsets, you have to plan a little and move very fast, exciting!
Teton Sunrise
8x10 Pastel on sanded paper

Day 22 Apple & Bottle

Today you get a portion of a picture. It's part of this weeks class in painting color, value and temperature. I can only bear to post a photo of the left side of the canvas as the rest was pretty awful. It does look a little wonky ... back to the great outdoors tomorrow.
Apple & Bottle
16x20 oil

Day 21 Over and Over

All I can say about this one is that I've really enjoyed working with a palette knife. Honestly, learning to use different knives, brushes, how to achieve a specific effect and how you can paint over and over.  And over. Sometimes a good thing, sometimes not. Messy and fun ... I have oil paints everywhere.
Abstract No. 5
Over and Over
16x20 oil on canvas

Day 20 Looking Up

I've always loved shooting pictures looking up through the trees, but mine are usually evergreens or aspen. There's nothing wrong with gazing at a palm tree. Since the photo was taken literally "upwards" and I have such a positive attitude about 2016 ... Looking Up seemed an appropriate title. Thank you Laura for the reference photo from far away Everglades National Park.
Looking Up
8x10 oil
sold

Day 19 Walking the Ranch

It's not your typical ranch, but Highlands Ranch. We get a bad rap for being a massive block of houses, but what a great place it was to raise my kids. If you know where to go you can get anywhere on these beautiful trails. The light has been so beautiful walking late in the day, long shadows, naples yellow and some sort of beautiful blue I haven't figured out yet. Again, it's all about how you see things.
Walking the Ranch
16x20 oil on canvas

Day 18 Disappearing Fruit

This was painted in my still-life class with Don Sahli at the ASLD. Anyone who has taken this class with him has the exact same still life at home. Who knows how many of these are floating around Denver? I've seen a few. He partially teaches by "Doing" so half of what you see - he painted, it was a joint venture. So, after taking a picture I scraped it to reuse the canvas, it was a learning painting (aren't they all?) so no reason to keep this one. Maybe tomorrow I'll show you what I painted over it!

Disappearing Fruit
16x20 oil on canvas

Day 17 Thinking of Spring

I know thinking about Spring in January is somewhat foolish, but I can't help it. I'm not quite as passionate about painting snow as some of my painting friends even though I've really enjoyed learning to paint plein air. So I cranked the heater up in the studio and painted large.
Thinking of Spring
24x24 oil on board

Day 16 Burned Popcorn

Did I mention I'm inspired to paint just about anything? Yes, I've fully embraced the artist within and if nothing else ... I'm really having fun. I burned my popcorn this afternoon and you guessed it, I painted it. Maybe I'll go back outside for some winter landscape tomorrow.
Burned Popcorn
16x20 oil on canvas

Day 15 Shattered Glass

This painting reminded me of shattered glass. Which makes me thing of sea glass, crystal, frosted, beveled, amber ... all kinds of glass to learn to paint. Inspiration is around every corner of my world.
Shattered Glass
12x12 oil on board

Day 14 Fruity

Worked on this still life at home yesterday. I struggled with color mixing, really need to do those Richard Schmid color charts. The painting was deemed complete when my left arm refused to move - I guess I'm using more than one set of muscles, and 14 straight days of anything can cause a cramp.

Fruity

12x12 oil on board

Day 13 City Park View

Yesterday I painted with some PAAC members at City Park. It's so nice to have painting buddies, especially when I'm painting in unfamiliar places. This was my view of downtown - looking west from City Park.
City Park View
8x10 oil on linen panel
sold

Day 12 I See It Too

After recently visiting the Denver Convention Center I got to visit my favorite art installation - A 40 foot blue bear peeking through the glass of the building. It's called "I See What you Mean" by Lawrence Argent. I've always loved this lighthearted bear. After wasting another hour googling Argent and his projects, I discovered that in 2014 he installed a 35 foot steel bunny named "Bunny Foo Foo" in a California Winery. How can you not love Art?
I See It Too
12x12 oil on wood panel
Sold - donated to the Denver Expeditionary School Auction

Day 11 Leftovers

I love painting abstracts and the bright colorful effects you can achieve. Painting with a palette knife is so much fun. This was started with some leftover oil on my palette that I knew would dry out if I didn't use it. Then I added more paint and did a little color balancing until I liked the end result. If all my leftover projects could end up so nice.

Leftovers
8x10 oil on 5/8" wrapped canvas
Sold

Day 10 Cold Day

This was painted on another cold day in the mountains. I huddled in the garage to stay out of the wind. It's the same view of Criss Cross Tracks on a different day, different angle and less animal tracks.

Cold Day

8x8 pastel

Day 9 Criss Cross Tracks

Lots of animal tracks through the trees here. They criss crossed every which way. I painted this right before the sun went down and watched the snow change colors. Can't wait to be able to capture it better.

Criss Cross Tracks

5x7 oil on linen

Day 8 Warm & Cool

Last night I started classes with Don Sahli at the Art Students League of Denver. Each class we paint a still life concentrating on learning temperature, value and color. Practicing at home before next week's disaster, I mean painting. I may show it to you one day.
Warm & Cool
8x10
oil

Day 7 Tree Line

Another small painting from RMNP. This line of trees caught my eye with one crooked fellow in the middle. My paint started getting too gummy to paint with - the snow is way more blue than I wanted - but I'm happy to have been standing in this spot trying to capture the beauty of nature.
Tree Line
5x7 oil

Day 6 Animal Tracks

Painting today in Rocky Mountain National Park with Anita Winter. We lucked out with a sunny yet still very cold day. We each painted 2 small panels, and it was 17 degrees out to start! The oils started getting a little tacky; so time to pack it up after 2 1/2 hours.
Animal Tracks
5x7 oil on linen

Day 5 Sunny Spot

Painting today with PAAC members at Flyin' B Park. The sun was shining and I didn't have to stand in snow!
Sunny Spot
8x8 oil

Day 4 Snow Colors

So much to learn about painting snow. It's every color but white. I spend lots of time staring at things these days, looking at colors. Skies are never blue, snow certainly isn't white. Glad that I can slow down enough to learn to see, painting is about seeing more than anything.

Snow Colors

8x8

Oil on linen
sold

Day 3 Shine

This is going to be great learning process. Today I learned to NOT put off my painting until 9 pm. After finally putting away the Christmas stuff this weekend I couldn't help but paint a couple of old ornaments. I'm not too happy with the end result but I can't wait to paint them again in 11 months or so and see how far I've come.

"Shine"

5x7

oil on canvas

Day 2 All the Little Pieces

Today I tried out a new (to me) sheet of AS colourfix paper. This morning, I said goodbye to my adult-kids headed back to their colleges, both out of state. So, I'm a little sad and wanted to paint something bright and colorful with no pressure that it had to look like something.  (Already on Day 2? Geez) The large mosaic was a handmade Christmas gift from Katt, made from paint chips on wood. I was inspired by her creativity. I did think about all the little pieces we are made up of, different colors, some edges pretty sharp, some soft and blurry. Feeling reflective.

"All the Little Pieces"

9x12

Pastel

By Katt 9x49

30 in 30 Day 1

Happy 2016! This is my first painting for the month and the "30 paintings in 30 days" challenge by Leslie Saeta. http://30paintingsin30days.weebly.com/blog
This morning I painted at Three Pond Park in Cherry Hills with the PAAC group. Looking forward to slightly warmer weather this week!
"Shadows at Three Ponds"
9 x12 pastel