oil 8x10

Today is one of those days I did not feel like painting but I made myself sit down and do it anyways.

Lavender Field, Oil 8x8"

Although I had lived in Europe, I never got to see the lavender fields. This is one of the scenes I've always wanted to see, and smell, for myself.

atc mask

I've had absolutely no time for painting today. I did manage to do an artist trading card just to get something done.

Backdrop for Show Choir

I finished it today, now to plan this weeks paintings.

Show Choir Project

This is another job I am doing for the students. It's for the middle school show choir, and it's HUGE. It's about 12x24', if not bigger. Today I blocked in all the major colors and tomorrow I will be shading it.

still unfinished

This is the perfect painting for the "heck" of a day that I am having. I worked on lightening up the areas in the pine needles that would be lighter from the smoke rising in it and started doing the same on the tree trunks. I think I'm just going to soften up the foreground trees and work on the ground a little more. I'm going to let this layer dry overnight and finish it up tomorrow....unless I just lose interest in it.

Unfinished

Today I just blocked in the major colors. Tomorrow, I'll add details to the trunks, ground, and pine needles.

Juneau Gray, oil 10x8"

This is a "I had a lot of left over paint, from the last painting, on my palette" painting. I've thought about going back and doing some details in the painting but the looseness is growing on me, and I'm not so sure I want to do away with that now.

Lake at Oak Mountain, oil 18x24"

This painting is finally done! It's from a photo I took at a state park in Birmingham, Al. I've wanted to paint it for years but shied away from it because of the backlit trees.

Indoor Drumline Floor

For the past four years I have painted the floor and backdrops for the Petal High School Percussion Theatre. This years theme is "Revolutio".  Thankfully, parents and students show up to lend a hand. Today we painted the floor. I wish I had better pictures because I don't think the barbed wire or the bullet hole over the "I" shows up very well in the pictures I took. In any case it's a huge job and it hurts the next day.

Still on Oak Mountain

I didn't have much time to paint today. I did manage to work in some more darks into the water and start adding color to the grass. I might have some time to work on this Sunday but won't post, this painting, again until Monday.

Oak Mountain Lake

Day two of this painting wasn't too productive because of other obligations. I started adding color into the tree trunks and I spent most of my time working on the water. I still have some midtones and darks I am going to add into the reflections on the lower left side. I am really dreading the trees. They are backlit, and I haven't painted backlit trees before. No worries, this is a learning process for me.

Oak Mountain Lake

Morning Fog, oil 3.5x2.5"

I started a larger painting that I will be working on over the next several days. I spent today blocking in the colors on the canvas. I'm going to let it dry a little and refine the background trees and water tomorrow.

Evening Storm, oil 8x8"

I carry my camera with me as much as I can. Every now and then I am rewarded for it. I was picking my daughter up from a slumber party, this past fall, and caught a storm moving in. This painting was inspiried by that photograph.

New Orleans Horse Hitch, Oil 12x24"

I did find the time to paint this weekend. I did another artist trading card called Last Light, oil 2.5x3.5". It's just another, looser, version of the sunset I did the other day.

Today's painting was a struggle to be loose for me. The photo was a paint crusted iron horse hitch that I took in New Orleans. When you want to finish a painting in a day there is no way to build that kind of detail. I think that I would like to attempt this again with all that detail. I had a difficult time photographing this painting so ignore the reflection off the wet paint on the lower left side.
 I gave this photo to another artist, Jeanna Jinks, to do today as well. I've managed to talk her into doing daily paintings with me. Now, all she needs is a blog. *hint, hint, Jeanna*.

Nightfall, oil 24x18"

Let me start this post by saying that if I never do another sunset it'll be oooook with me. Of course, because I am having a hard time with them I'll probably do twenty more until I figure out where I'm going wrong. I suspect that I am going wrong with drying time. I'm going to set this one aside and do some more touch up on it later when it is dry enough. It is close enough to being done, for me, to post it though.
I am taking Sat. and Sun. off during this painting process....or I won't survive it. Having three children make things really chaotic and I'm going to use the weekends to catch up on things around here, and to spend time with family.

Nightfall, oil 24x18"

This painting was started yesterday with and acrylic underpainting. I've done sunsets before and have never been happy with them, but I think this one has promise. I've never tried one with an underpainting and it made it so much easier. Tomorrow, I am planning on adding more light to the sky and the clouds.

A painting and a half

This will be tomorrow's painting. I got a head start, today, with an underpainting and will add the color to it tomorrow. If you can't tell, it will be a sunset 24x18". I usually get together with a Thursday's painters group and it helps to have something ready when I go in.

Bass Shadow 14x11", oil
My son plays bass drum and this was taken at one of the last football games I went to.  They were warming up behind the bleachers, so I went to the top to watch. All the bass drummers were lined up but I left them out of the painting because I wanted the emphasis to be on the shadow cast on the ground, not on a drumline. I don't think I could have finished it, today, if I had included the drumline.

Undercover, oil 3.5x2.5"

I thought I would try my hand at a miniature painting today. I plan on painting this larger, down the road, so that I can get all the detail in that I love. This was done on an artist trading card. I'm planning on attending the Mississippi Art Colony in April, and figured that it was time to start a few ATC to take with me.
When you look at the title and see "Undercover", it's not because of the balcony above it. It was so cold, and there was a short break in the drizzle that night to go out and get some night photos. I didn't have my hat so I was using my scarf to keep my head, and neck, warm from the cold winds.  We stood outside, freezing, waiting on the patrons to shut the door. After a few minutes, the door finally shut and my husband said "Now!" so that I could get the shot before the door opened again. There was another man standing nearby, smoking, that said "you'll get more money if you catch him with his girlfriend".  He thought we were private investigators and he's give us a tip on how to do the job. My husband explained that I'm an artist and I was trying to get reference photo's. From the look on his face, I don't think he believed us.

Trombone Blues, Oil 8x8

This one was so hard to photograph because of the thick wet paint. It's really not white glitter on those doors behind him, just wet paint. This was another photo taken in New Orleans, except my daughter and nephew were originally in the picture with him, holding the trombone as he played.

Blue Nawlins, pastel 5x7"

This is from a photo I took when in New Orleans, last month. Don't ask me what I was thinking when I sketched it out this small. Today has been a draining day and maybe I was thinking smaller=quicker. In reality (for me) smaller=big pain in the butt. Painting small with pastels is difficult for me. It's like writing your name on ruled paper with sidewalk chalk.
I've got to start doing these paintings earlier in the day if I am going to have any that are worth a damn. Part of this painting daily process is learning to fit painting into your day and making a routine of it. I have never had a routine with painting. I've always painted when I could find the time. It was, usually, was once a week. What was I thinking when I started this???

Masks, Oil 24x12

My husband and I wen't to New Orleans, last month, and one of the pictures that I took was a wall full of masks. I thought that it would be a suitable painting since we had a visitation to go to tonight. So many of the kids tried to keep their stoic faces on, but all failed.

Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906)

We Wear the Mask

We wear the mask that grins and lies,

It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,—

This debt we pay to human guile;

With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,

And mouth with myriad subtleties.

Why should the world be over-wise,

In counting all our tears and sighs?

Nay, let them only see us, while

We wear the mask.

We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries

To thee from tortured souls arise.

We sing, but oh the clay is vile

Beneath our feet, and long the mile;

But let the world dream otherwise,

We wear the mask!

Saying Goodbye to Nich, 8x10 Pastel on Canson paper

This blog is starting out a little differently than planned. This is only a 8x10 pastel sketch on Canson paper. I had wanted to paint this in oil but life tends to get in the way. With three kids life tends to get in the way quite a bit.
The person in the picture is my son, Matthew. He was vacationing in Florida, with a friend and his family when he learned that another friend, Nich, passed away. He wanted to come home to be with Sam, Nich's younger brother. When I picked him up we stopped at the beach and talked about Nich. One of his favorite memories was of being at the beach with Nich during a youth trip. I took this photo of him and decided to name it "Saying Goodbye to Nich" because Nich was weighing heavy on his mind at the time. I don't know what's worse, the loss of a friend, or watching your child suffer the loss of a friend.

Nicholas Hendry
December 19,1991-December 31, 2009

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