Day 30 of 30 Paintings in 30 Days

This post is long and winded (surprised I have any) 

but have some things I would like to share...

"Well Used and Ready for More"

9" x 12"

oil on Raymar panel

The very MOST inviting space I know!  Finally

we are done with the challenge and I made it!!

Second year - I can think of no better way 

to start a year, if you are a regular painter.

It gets you right in the groove...

and 30 paintings under your belt

in just the first month of the year.  

For me, some very acceptable, some needing

more to be better.

So let's go 2014!

I am warmed up, got the kinks and the bugs out...

if I continue (at a slower pace, of course)

I think I will be painting a good bunch of 

paintings along the way.

Sure, there are gonna still be days of frustration 

and hair pulling...but I am ready.

Thanks to Leslie Saeta for hosting (again) the January event.

A few shots of the process on this one:

My source photo, taken with my Nikon D3200. Sent to my iPad

and clipped to my Sorg easel.

The following photos are taken with my iPhone.  I use all 

three devices for painting each day -

my Nikon camera, my iPad (which is such a great tool)

and my iPhone.

I painted my Raymar panel with cad orange acrylic.

Sketched in my shapes with a white charcoal pencil, 

then used a brush with dark brown to sketch

more boldly - you can see how shaky I was today.

There were very few dark darks - so I began laying

in color masses.

Starting to add more color as I go to 

give me that overall sense of

where I am going.

And as shown at the top - the finished painting.

NOT to go without mentioning, I have had LOTS

of help over the past thirty days.

Pye gets to a point where she watches, 

then plays and then watches some more,

finally jumping down, from her perch nearby,

 climbing up the back of the chair

over my shoulders to settle in my left arm, 

while I paint with my right.

She doesn't stay long, but long

enough to give lots of love, kitten kisses, hugs  and purrs.

She is such a sweetie.

Meeka is not as clingy and

is content to just watch with

an occasional stretch over 

to put her front feet on my 

apron and to look at 

me as if to say,

"I shouldn't be here, bugging you."

But I allow it all the same.

Gonna take a few days off.

Gotta get feeling better.

I think a few full day's rest is on the agenda.

Thanks for visiting.

I very much 

appreciate all of you who have left comments!!!

Where I Stand Sunday

Ditto from last week, although there aren't as many IV's in her arm. Mom is doing LOTS better. May get to go home early week, we hope! It will be a long and diligent recovery and treatment, still, we are glad she is alive and getting well! Thanks to those who sent kind thoughts and prayers. I have begun to feel the lag in my blogging, but my world has been on one big hold.

I came here without my art supplies - silly me. Got myself supplied yesterday and will hopefully be back to it today!

Stay tuned.

Where I Stand Sunday

Here I stand on the porch at home, just outside the back door. I have to go out with the dogs, I literally have to PUSH them out the door, to go potty! It's 12 degrees. The cold affects them in that the weiner dogs are too low hung and get themselves a little colder on the undercarriage and our Weimeraner has a plate in his left leg from breaking it several years ago, so he can't stand it long either. So I stand and encourage, especially Chaco, the red Dachshund, he just stands and shivers.

I haven't been anywhere in 5 days, except for splailed on the road getting the mail 2 days ago, as the dogs were zooming in and out between my legs and I gathered an armfull of mail, turned, tripped and fell flat on my face, mail splattering all over the road. Luckily, there is no one near by to see the lack of grace at which I took this and the words I uttered to myself and the dogs. It was so windy, I guess you could say the wind blew me down. Ha! Ask my DH and he will tell you I am not very balanced at times. (Probably in more ways than you know!)

Anyway, he's been gone for 5 days, and is trying to get back from N.M. in the R.V. Now I wonder about his trip back home as the weather has now impacted that area as well. He's on his way.

One thing that I have been able to do, is be out in the studio, non-stop since then. It has been a gift (my birthday is coming up, that is a true gift)! There have been two other paintings, but below is the beginning (day one) of a painting of my daughter and granddaughter that I really like. It is her profile photo from her myspace, and I fell in love with it. Working in acrylic is tricky, I haven't done it for some time. It's funny, day two doesn't usually go as well, when returning to a painting for me, and sure enough, I look at it now, and I have to work hard to take it back the other direction. I wanted to call it good after the first day. But...you can imagine how it goes. It's still "about mixing paint for skin tone colors". In pastels I know what color to use. I should get them out, discover which one I would use next and then mix the color in paint. I think I will try that! I also got a hint online from a forum, that I could look at the picture in Photoshop and put the eyedropper over the color I am having trouble with and it will isolate that color for me. What a great idea! Probably I don't have the right color of cadmium red, or pthalo blue. I have a cheap set of acrylics. I am soooo art store deprived! You can imagine, how I feel like a kid in a candy store, when I go to Kansas City where there is Keith Coldsnow or New York City, where there is Pearl and Dick Blick!

Today is about unloading a few more boxes of weeded out "stuff" from our move over a year ago and probably doing some dishes. Ha! I live and look like a hermit when I am on my own!

Where I Stand Sunday is an ongoing photo essay examining the different places I spend my life standing. Too often we take for granted the everyday places we spend our lives walking on. If you'd like to join me by posting a photo on Sunday of places you've been on your blog/photo hosting site/website, leave a comment on this post telling me where I can find you/your photo and I'll add a link to my sidebar so others can find you and I will also let Fibra Artysta know, so she can you on her web sidebar if you'd like.

Already Tuesday..

I have a lot of works in progress . This oil painting is one of them. It is Cape Lookout in Oregon, some of the most beautiful beaches in the US. The fence needs some more work. I have two portraits on the easel right now, one new and one that I started long ago. I never throw anything away because you can always rework it and supplies are expensive, and hard to come by in this part of the country.