Fig Preserves, 6x8 Acrylic

I am supposed to be doing all the responsible things a person does when they've been awol for a number of days, paying bills, running errands, buying cat food, doing laundry, but I keep getting pulled to the easel by some unnameable force!  I've been on a jam buying kick lately, either for the beautiful shapes of the jars, or the lovely colors of the jams, like here, or, because FAUCHON is having a sale (I agree, $35 is a lot to spend on jam - so I'll have to justify it by painting them before I open the 3 jars).  

Here I thought the hardest thing would be the colors in the jam.  Nope.  Nailed it right away.  The hardest things were the stupid elipses on the top of the jar cover - yeah!  I will never be one of those people who takes drawing elipses for granted.  Anyway forgive my jam obsession ;)

Orange You Glad? 5x7 Acrylic

Reports of my demise have been greatly exaggerated - or however that quote goes, but they're not that far off the mark!  Last Friday I thought I was simply having a very rare bout with asthma, but it turned into - the flu - surprise!  And while I rallied to 'help' move me into my new studio on the weekend, it was my tireless husband and son Conor who did all the work.  I thought I was out of the woods Monday but lets just say I'm FINALLY human again, and started a daily painting yesterday - it literally took me all day to get to finish it - then today I looked at it and gasped - what 7 year old painted over my painting?  So I went to work again and re-painted it, loving the brightness this time of year, loving the orange and green together.  Also I changed the background and the depth of color (thank you Mary) on the bottom of the lime on last week's 'Limey', but for the life of me, in any light I can't get the right yellow that the background is - even fiddling with it on the computer.  You'll just have to take my word for it till I can capture it!

OOOps and a Belated Intro

Sorry that last post went out without the image!  It's on the actual blog, so one click will get you there.  Speaking of 'one clicks' I'm s-l-o-w-l-y learning how to integrate links, so bear with me.  Also every once in a while I'd like to feature another artist that I've found either in person or in the Blogsphere here in my blog, and I'll tell you a little about them, and supply a link to their (safe) blog or website.  

I'd like to start with Joyce Washor, who I met on the plane to Scottsdale last Fall.  She's a talented artist, teacher, and author, who is working in a small format, without sacrificing any of the 'punch' of the huge pieces you see in galleries.  This is her book, above, which I own, and would definitely recommend, even if you don't exclusively do small paintings.  A good painting is a good painting, and there's a lot of great advice in her book!  Check out her blog, too, and I'll always have a link to that right here on my blog, too.  Enjoy!

Limey! Acrylic 6x6

Snow day today.  I was planning on doing a 4-Art-Show Day with two painter friends, Phyllis Adams  http://blockdogart.blogspot.com/ and Denise Zompa on the South Shore of Boston, but the weather had other ideas.  After getting reports from my husband and daughter about bad road conditions we decided to cancel - and so.... I got to paint!  I felt like doing fruit again, since it's been such a long time.  I liked the multiple light sources, too.

Updated 'Spring' 6x12 Acrylic

Does it count as a 'daily painting' if you take yesterday's painting and edit the backgrounds, shape, highlights and reflections?  I like this peachy background better - I think the flowers actually stand out better against it.  I kept looking at it, and although I loved the Pacific Blue of the original background, the value was too close, and I thought I'd venture away from the blue.  Packing the studio like a good scout today, I will be wishing I had the brush in my hand, but at least I can post this.

Pretend It's Spring, 6x12 acrylic

I saw these tulips in the grocery store last night and had to have them.  They remind me that Spring WILL arrive in the not-too-distant future.  Brings to mind Holland, too.  I love them in this celadon vase that I have, and I wanted them thick and loose.  The name, however, is pretty lame - sorry!

Bordeaux Countryside, 5x7 oil

I was supposed to be packing up my old studio, but when I was going through my sketchbooks to put in boxes I came across the one from France, and was flipping through and decided - ONE little daily painting!  So here's the original sketch, and today's little painting.  I thought it would be easy (should be on my tombstone) but it was a bit challenging!  Brings back great memories, though...

Cup and Saucer, 6x6 Acrylic

I've been experimenting with these acrylic paintings - this one was done with the canvas painted with black paint first, which stayed wet throughout the painting.  So when I painted the pink, yellow or blue it dragged up some black paint.  I had to apply thicker and thicker layers of the color, sometimes changing the colors in the layering so they'd show through.  The background is much more lime green in person, which looks better, I think.

Gray Day, Acrylic 10x20, and New Studio Photo

This is a shot of the NEW studio, as we are painting it.  The color is Quahog (pronounced KO-hog) and it's a light warm gray.  Other than the fact that I liked the neutral light color, I HAD to get this paint because Warren, where my new studio is located is the home of the one and only Quahog Festival (we've never attended one, but will report in this year as to what exactly this entails).  If you've ever seen the TV show Family Guy, they live in Quahog, a fictional town in Rhode Island.  Anyway, this space is amazing, it's in an old grain elevator building, with a cool history.

And, just so you don't think I haven't been painting, I finished up this piece that was started on location.  Typical, it was a gorgeous day with a clear sunny sky and no wind when I started packing up to go across the street to paint the island.  By the time I got my gear and CROSSED THE STREET, the sky had darkened, and the wind was whipping things around.  I decided to stay and paint (and freeze) anyway, being dive-bombed by seagulls and pigeons (there was a car full of people who pulled up behind me and emptied bags and bags of bread, etc. for the birds, who materialized out of nowhere for this feast!  Anyway, paintings like this will drive me mad with so many grays.  I feel a spicy painting coming on!

Saying Goodbye to the OLD New Studio

This week I'll be packing and moving to my NEW new studio in Warren, RI.  This photo of my present studio shows half the space.  Wait till you see my new digs - I have big plans, I'll tell you!  I'll try to do Daily Paintings (because I love to) and post - hopefully my days of tech nightmares are over now, too with the little MAC I have.

**AND if you've been receiving sexually explicit emails from "Thur" or ThurThur", that came from my 'address' it's because someone signed up for my blog, then turned around and 'used' my address as a platform for this stuff.  They have been exiled from Blogger, and I now #1) moderate all comments on my Daily Painting Blog and #2), enabled that word puzzle thing which is supposed to intercept spam.  I humbly apologize and commiserate, because I was getting them, too, and simply deleting them, blaming my Hotmail account - sorry, Hotmail!

Valentine's Day, Oil, 6x6

I did this from a sketch I did at a restaurant last year.  I want to wish you all a happy Valentine's Day. 

Pretty Little Cactus Pear, Oil 6x6

I wanted to think about WARM things today, and my husband had brought home a couple of these cactus pears for dessert, bringing to mind our trip to Sedona, where the trail behind our B&B was studded with cacti bearing these little pink gems.  I tried to stay loose, and deal with the many reds that appear in the skin of this fruit.  I also loved the mango background I sat it on.

Fallen Pear, Acrylic, 6x6

Today was a day I stayed home, so no oil painting for me.  But I had these luscious pears and I decided to make a painting with them.  The background, originally black, seemed boring, so I looked for a nice red to set off the green pears.  I picked up a tube of Naphtol Crimson, a paint I'd had for a while, but never really found a place for.  It was perfect - and more 'candy-apple' red than it shows in the picture.  I'm no pro at iPhoto (yet!), but this is a pretty good image otherwise.

"Spin Me Around, Dad!" Oil, 6x6

FINALLY I can post again!  Thank all of you for your patience.  I'm nowstruggling to learn how to use a laptop, and learn the MAC language that I used to understand!  Today's painting was based on my recent trip to NYC, where I watched the skaters at Rockefeller Center and saw this little girl skating with her Dad.  I loved the shapes of the skaters against the ice - it was a weekday and there were only a few people there, so looking down on them you got a lot of ice in your view.  Anyway... back to Painting A Day - YAY!  Also in about 15 minutes you can check my studio blog, http://welcometomyartworld.blogspot.com/ and see the biiiiiiiig sunset I finished today!  Again, always, thanks for looking!