50/50 3 weeks completed!

Above are my first 21 paintings - 3 weeks complete and just four weeks to go.

Day #21

Walkman: Vintage 1979

6" x 6" oil on canvas panel

Painting #21

$100.00

We've come a long way since this walk!

Day #20

Luke Skywalker

6" x 6" oil on canvas panel

Painting #20

$100.00

Day #19

Walking Yosemite Country

6" x 6" oil on canvas panel

Painting #19

$100.00

Day #18

Tennessee Walking Horse

6" x 6" oil on canvas panel

Painting #18

$100.00

After dreaming about a horse or rollerskates doing airborn flips with dirt bikers two nights ago, I was compelled to paint this piece – a horse walking on his own 2 feet.

Day #17

Colette Walks Jack and Malia

6" x 6" oil on canvas panel

Painting #17

$100.00

sold

This is dedicated to Colette who loves all her animals with a generous heart. She is mourning the loss of Frank, her Corgi who passed this week.

Day #16

Tightrope Walker
6" x 6" oil on canvas panel

Painting #16
$100.00

Do you ever feel like you are walking a tightrope?

Day #15

Pigeon-toed

6" x 6" oil on canvas panel

Painting #15

$100.00

Today I began my third row of 7 paintings with "Pigeon-toed", and put up another 2 week's worth of nails for hanging.

First 14 paintings

Today I began my third row of 7 paintings, and put up another 2 week's worth of nails for hanging. My collection of 50 is shaping up. Pictured below are the first 14 paintings of my group as displayed in my studio.

Day #14

Boardwalk: Monopoly

6" x 6" oil on canvas panel

Painting #14

$100.00

Painting the colors of the game board me think about what a visually oriented game Monopoly is. I always liked to collect particular colors.

Day #13

Engineer Walking along the Train

6" x 6" oil on canvas panel

Painting #13

$100.00

Ever since I was a little girl I loved trains. I had my own train set, and had a ride on the train with my Grandma. Was I the only girl in Santa Clara Valley (before there was such a thing as Silicon Valley) that was disappointed to learn that her dad who was an engineer did not work on a train?

Day #12

Crosswalk

6" x 6" oil on canvas panel

Painting #12

$100.00

Day #11

Wok

6" x 6" oil on canvas panel

Painting #11

$100.00

Day #10

Old Mori Point Road

6" x 6" oil on canvas panel

Painting #10

$100.00

This is a lovely walk that lots of people enjoy.

Day #9

Walking in Molokai

6" x 6" oil on canvas panel

Painting #9

$100.00

sold

Would you rather be riding a mule in Molokai - or hiking this trail, as my brother did shown here? It looks pretty inviting to me.

Day #8

Walkie Talkie

6" x 6" oil on canvas panel

Painting #8

$100.00

This reminds me of playing with those green plastic Army Men in the dichondra on the side of the house as a child in the 50's. Some carried these walkie talkies.

Day #7

Firewalker

6" x 6" oil on canvas panel

Painting #7

$100.00

Day #6

Walk Signal

6" x 6" oil on canvas panel

Painting #6

$100.00

Who could have guessed how difficult a simple sign could be?!!

Day #5

The Moon Walk

6" x 6" oil on canvas panel

Painting #5

$100.00

For some moon walking fun check out this link: http://www.eternalmoonwalk.com

Day #4

Baby Elephant Walk

6" x 6" oil on canvas panel

Painting #4

$100.00

Today I painted into the early evening to complete Baby Elephant Walk.

I always remember the fun of doing the elephant walk in Kindergarten . . . E-lump, e-lump, e-lump, e-lump. I am an elephant swinging my trunk.

Day #3

1969 - Man Walks on the Moon

6" x 6" oil on canvas panel

Painting #3

sold

Day #2

Black-Necked Stilt

6" x 6" oil on canvas panel

Painting #2

$100.00

Day #1

Surfer

6" x 6" oil on canvas panel

Painting #1

$100.00

Ready to go!

I'm all set up and ready to start painting my first of 50 paintings. The theme of my series is 50 Walks. Check every day for a new painting.

Preparing 50 Panels

I've been preparing my panels for my artwork for the 50/50 show. I begin painting on Monday and want to have as many panels prepared as possible. Ideally I wanted all 50 completed before I began painting, but that seems unrealistic at this point. I have cut unprimed canvas that I am gluing onto each panel, wrapping the sides, then am priming each panel. I 'm experimenting with some high grade house paint primer as gesso. I'll let you know how that works out. I have real gesso that I may use for a second coat.

Seascape - phase 2

I'm back in the studio reworking this painting. See 1st sitting from my February 22nd post.

Daddy•Dancing•Donna

Today I put the finishing touches on this painting for the Roots Exhibit. I call it Daddy•Dancing•Donna. It is a 20" x 20" oil on canvas painting. It portrays me as a baby and at age 18, just about year younger than my daddy holding me as a baby.

Daddy•Dancing•Donna

I've been wading through family photos and sorting through ideas for a piece for the upcoming "Roots" show. After lots of thought and exploration, I found one of the few photos I have of including my father and isolated the two of us and found it so compelling that I could think of nothing else. I'm combining it with another image of myself that represents me well. This piece is coming along nicely.

Windblown Gulls

On this rainy afternoon, I completed this painting, "Windblown Gulls". This was from a scene at Rockaway Beach on a stormy day. I began this 16" x 20" painting back in November, and recently got back to it.

Pillar Point II

Today I completed "Pillar Point Wetlands II"- a 16" x 12" painting. It felt good to load up a palette with fresh paint and really get into it. Yesterday I worked with leftovers, and I was not having a good time! It pays to prepare properly.

Next I need to finish the gull painting. As a birder, I always joked about saving gulls for old age because they were difficult to identify. They are difficult to paint well too and I've been procrastinating!

I'm Back! Painting from Pillar Point

I did this 12" x 9" painting today of the "Pillar Point Wetlands" at Princeton Harbor. Meanwhile I have been refining my gull painting, and finishing up my orchid painting.

Works in Progress

I've been back in the studio working on unfinished pieces. Since the weather was stormy again, I was inspired to paint in the more monochromatic palette required for my 16" x 20" Windblown Gulls painting above that was started in November 2009. It will soon be complete. My past two paintings were quite bright and springlike.

The painting above is in a primitive, raw and early electric stage and is in major need of refinement. I'm creating this piece for my husband to replace a painting I sold that was a favorite of his I did in acrylics many years ago. This 24" x 36" canvas is a larger piece with different proportions from the first version.

The above piece is a 12" x 12" canvas that was a rough study in acrylics I painted years ago that I am reworking with oils. I was toying with putting this "recycled" painting in the Deja Vu as a recycled canvas, but somehow, that alone didn't seem worthy of the theme. This painting is almost complete.

Really finished!

Okay, now . . . Since I asked for and listened to feedback about this painting, I re-worked parts that were disturbing to some, and have come up with this revision. Now it is definitely complete.

I hope everyone loves it!

Down the Coast

I'm finished with my 10" x 20" oil painting now, in spite of feedback from a fellow artist who thinks the tree on the left and the path on the right in the foreground are distracting him from being able to stay settled in the distance, and in the past I've had feedback of people being stuck in the distance . . . go figure. (Image now appears in the post below) Since it's my world here, I like the playfulness of the unfinished tree as a place to ponder and take off from. I photographed this on an overcast day and got great color representation. I'm contemplating a project for the Deja Vu show, wondering what I might recycle.

And the beat goes on: Progression of a painting

First day of painting with areas blocked in with warms and cools and darks and lights with basic compositional masses.

Second day of painting: I start bringing in details of the background areas.

On the third day of painting I correct some of the background shapes and details and start working into the foreground areas.

Forth day of painting: I began adding hues in the foreground and detail shrubbery. I have resolved some compositional concerns. Now I need to finish up with more texture, contrast, and probably more chroma and the detail of the shrubs in the foreground.
Thinking I had finished on my fifth day of painting (above)
After deciding I was finished, I decided to listen to what you had to say and I made adjustments. The color is not quite true in this photo, however you can see the compositional adjustments and hue changes.

Groundhog Day

Today I dropped off my entry for Arts on Fire then worked on this oil painting above. I think I should be able to complete it in a few more painting sessions.

Sunday Painting: Golden Greenbelt

While some watch football, others paint. I think I have completed this piece.

Resolving Issues

Painting today began with my gull painting. I could tell I was not in harmony with that so I switched to the canvas above. I made some good progress though I think something is still not quite grabbing me. The storm rages on. I will sleep on this and come back to it again.

Painting Sketch

Today I was back in the studio painting working on my Coastal Vallemar piece. Do you ever get to that point where you wish you could press the undo button and get back to where you were before? That is how I felt today when I was struggling to get just the right intensity on the foreground weeds. The more I worked, the less sure I was. That was when it was time to loosen up with the above sketch. I grabbed a 8" x 10" canvas and decided to do the piece above as quickly as possible.

Untitled Coastal Vallemar Painting

I've been working on this 20" x 10" oil on canvas for the last week or so. I'm feeling it is almost finished. Alternately, I have been working on my gull painting I started in November. It's interesting to work on a nearly monochromatic painting along with this color rich piece. I keep gravitating to the sun filled colorful pieces rather than the more somber coastal gray day paintings.

Meanwhile, I studied the gull paintings by renowned Swedish Artist, Lars Jonsson last night in his new book that displays fabulous paintings in oils and watercolors expertly executed in beautiful simplicity in the field. It also shows drawings from his sketch books which are his field notes.

New Year's Inspiration

Today I hiked from Vallemar out around the water treatment plant across the hills of Mori Point looking for new inspiration. It was a lovely day and there were quite a few hikers out, but still peaceful enough for me to find my own quiet connection with my surroundings.



It almost seemed like spring with the willows beginning to form buds.

Above Mori Point I found new horizons for new art.
It was a revitalizing walk.

Old concrete highway dividers, an enviornmental eyesore on beautiful Mori Point, became a canvas of textural painted sculpture against the natural backdrop. As beautiful as they are, they still look foreign against the eroding hillside above it. They seem to have been planted by aliens.

Speaking of aliens... well actually native frogs... I was completely baffled by invisible singing frogs. When I got to the spot where they seemed to be, suddenly the frogs became silent. I looked and looked and they were absolutely nowhere to be seen. Is it possible they were burrowed underground?