Old Favorites

This is directed to the other artists who read my blog.  Did you ever have a favorite support that you used forever and thought was the best thing since sliced bread?

My favorite support was always velour and I rarely had a problem painting on it.  However, the paintings I've done recently have been on PastelMat or ColourFix Suede.  So I had this green velour and thought it would be perfect for the portrait of this older Golden Retriever.  It's been an uphill battle since I started and I just don't understand it!

I thought going back to a previously favorite support would be like riding a bicycle - after all, you never really forget how, do you?  Doesn't the old brain make pathways from repeated motions so those motions can be carried out quickly and easily in the future?  Of course, much of the problem has been getting the right colors. Even though the pastel is covering pretty well, the green background does affect the applied colors.  But the application has been difficult also - the pastels tend to drag and sort of skip on the surface and I can never remember that happening before.

Well, I'll quit complaining and just get back to it.  If it turns out lousy, I'll give it a try on PastelMat or ColourFix Suede!  Shoot, I may even switch media altogether and that would really stir up the old brain synapses, wouldn't it?

Double Exposure

I got this painting delivered to my gallery (the Raleigh Street Gallery) yesterday.  It's for a special exhibit for the Siler City, North Carolina Third Friday Art Walk and I'm excited about it.  The exhibit is called the Double Exposure Exhibit and is a joint endeavor between local artists and the local Chatham Camera Club.

A few months ago artists were invited to choose a photograph from a selection from the Chatham Camera Club to interpret in any size, medium and way they wanted.  Then a joint exhibit featuring both the photos and the art will be held at the Chatham Camera Club gallery during the Third Friday Art Walk in October.

I know the exhibit is over a month away but thought maybe some of you who are fairly close might want to mark your calendars and plan to attend.  I think this will be an interesting exhibit and it will be really fun to see the art next to the photograph.  I know one artist is using a medium that needs to be fired!  How fun will that be to see!

And, some of you artists might want to sign up to participate in the next Double Exposure Exhibit or maybe even start something similar with your own local camera club if you're too far to participate with this one!

By the way, my painting is soft pastel on Colourfix Suede - I call it "King of the Mudflats" and I think this is a Little Blue Heron.  There are so many varieties of herons that I'm not completely sure but I do know that it is a heron!   lol

My Visit With Dors

Some of you may recognize the beautiful kangaroo drawing I've posted.  It's from my blogger friend, Dors, blogspot, http://dorsart.blogspot.com/, and she presented this gorgeous drawing to me during the visit to us by her and her husband.  I was just delighted and overwhelmed by her generosity and so honored to have one of her beautiful drawings.  Don't you just love it?

Dors and her husband, Nev, arrived Friday afternoon and were so warm and friendly that it felt as if we had known one another for years instead of just meeting at that moment.  Of course, we have "known" one another for years but only on the internet and it's usually different when you meet someone in person.

Dors is no exception - she is different in person!  First of all, her bubbly personality just doesn't come through on the internet.  She's very warm and actually very funny and, as Sue (http://pencilpix.blogspot.com/) predicted, we talked the "hind legs off a donkey" that evening! 

Dors and I talked art of course, and Nev, her husband, was equally warm and very knowledgeable about a variety of subjects.  He's also a master photographer and got some wonderful photos of our hummingbirds.  Between the two of them, we ended up staying up later that my DH and I have done for ages!  We just had a great time and I hope Dors and Nev did also.

We also hope they'll come back for a visit again one day. It really can't be too soon as this visit was way too short!

Being a Loose Woman Ain't Easy!

The following is a blog post I did at the Paint My Photo website.  They're having a contest where members can post a painting of theirs in a loose style and possibly win a book by Jean Haines who is to judge the contest.  Since I've been a fan of Jean's since I first saw her work on Wet Canvas, I really wanted to win her book but ------ the following blog post explains it all!

You don't know how many attempts I've made at a loose painting for this month's (August) challenge - my wastebasket overfloweth! 

I've tried loose paintings in watercolor (but I stink at that medium under normal circumstances), then I tried pastel but if you put a brush or a pencil or pastel stick in my hands it's not really going to result in a very loose painting.

I've also tried an acrylic piece that is definitely loose because I used my fingers only but it's certainly not on par with the paintings already submitted for this month's challenge.  I just don't think I'm cut out to be a loose painter.

I've admired the work of Jean Haines for eons and frequently refer to her tutorials on Wet Canvas.  I don't think I'll ever be able to paint as loosely as Jean but I would certainly like to loosen up at least some!  She makes it look so easy, doesn't she?

I think it's too late for me to paint anything for the challenge this month as there are a lot of things going in the next few weeks but I just wanted to say that whoever wins Jean's book certainly deserves it!  If it ain't so easy being a loose woman, it's probably not so easy being a loose man either!

The lion painting above is from ESP at Paint My Photo but I certainly did not do justice to it.  I painted it in acrylic but instead of using a brush or palette knife, I used my fingers and finger nails although my signature was done with a brush.  While it's not a masterpiece and loose may not be easy, it was certainly fun to do!
 

Amazing!

I just came inside after having the most amazing experience right out on our back porch!  When it got really dry this summer (they say we've been in a drought for the past couple of years) and the flowers just dried up, we put out a hummingbird feeder that I keep full of sugar water.

I was putting out some fresh nectar while ago and got literally mobbed by hummingbirds!  I got a few photos afterward but wish I could share the experience of having those tiny birds fly right up to your face as if to say "who are you?"

 I don't know how much larger I am than they are percentage-wise, but I'm sure it's a lot!  Those tiny little creatures didn't seem at all fazed by this giant though.  As soon as I put up the feeder, they came swarming in, jockeying for position at a yellow feeding "blossoms".  But these little beings are feisty little warriors at heart and will fly at one another to try to keep the nectar all to themselves!

There are times when I wish we had cable, stores and nice restaurants less than 15 miles away and some of the other amenities of city life.  Then there are times when I walk out on any of our porches and know that the lack of those amenities is nothing in comparison to the perks we have right here in the middle of nowhere!

I Can Spell Schnauzer! Pastel on Suede Paper

This little guy was the source of some controversy as I had gotten the reference photo from Paint My Photo, a group I belong to.  I had started the painting but gotten busy and put it aside until today when I finished it.  I had intended to finish it in a loose style and enter it into a challenge at PMP but the person who posted the photo had left the site and removed the photos they had posted. 

The challenge is to paint a photo from the site in a loose manner but, as you can see, I failed miserably at looseness with this!  At PMP, all paintings posted must be from a photo also posted on the site.  I guess it's ok that the person left and I can't enter this in the challenge as it's not a best effort.  I began it to play on some suede paper I'd bought and had liked for other paintings but it was difficult to get the colors right on this bright red paper. 

It's another painting that I'm not particularly pleased with but I'm posting just to show you that I am painting. lol!

BTW, it's still ok to post the painting even though the reference has been removed from PMP - it's also posted on MorgueFile.

The Dreaded Ginger Cat Portrait

My client picked up the cat portrait yesterday and said it looked just like him.  I had tweaked it a bit more before she arrived (but forgot to get a new photo of it) but I was still a little apprehensive of what she would think when she saw it. 

Whew!  I honestly did the best job I could with what I had to work with, but I wasn't really sure I'd gotten the likeness.  So, I was really pleased that she felt it looked like him.

It's these type of commissions that cause baldness and bad dental health from pulling your hair and gnashing your teeth!

Now off to get ready for Dors visit with maybe a quick painting or two if there's time before she arrives!