Colette on the Porch

Tired of painting fruit. I decided to challenge myself with figurative work again. My neighbor was kind enough to pose for this shot. Much improved over the last attempt.

Blue & Greens

Back from a long weekend at Disneyland! Fun was had by all. Sooooo... ...this is my first post since last week. I spotted these leaves in my front yard the afternoon before I left. I knew I wanted to paint them. I put them in water hoping they'd last until I returned. They're a bit limp, but still gorgeous green. This one was a challenge, but very satisfying in some ways. Trying to differentiate between all those tones of green. Whew! I'll leave it to your fine eye to discern the "beauty".

Waiting for Dinner

This is the last cucumber. Maybe I'll paint slices tomorrow. Again, I considered what I was going to do before I did it. I'm happy with the loose, "let it go" feel. Although this may be too translucent, I'm learning a lot about cast shadows too. I start light and go darker and add color later. I definitely need to work on the photography. There's so much glare and so much lost in what you see here. I'll work on my setup.

Thanks for dropping by!

Lipstick Bouquet

This was a bit ambitious, but I've been wanting to paint my little bowl of lipsticks for quite a while. Some are old. Some I don't even  like the color. I only wear lipstick a couple of times a year when I really want to be (or think I am) cute. Yet I couldn't make myself throw them away. Well now I'm really glad I didn't. They look like a lipstick bouquet.

I'm happy with the last several paintings. Loosening up and making decisions about color and intention before making those strokes.

Thanks for dropping by!

An Apple for the Teacher

Today I went to the graduation of a friend who received her Ph.D. After a fun, delicious dinner celebration at a Moroccan restaurant (belly dancer & all), I came home energized & inspired, and painted this delicious red apple. What a wonderful, joyous day. This one's for you Taj! 

To see more paintings visit my blog - "Stroke by Stroke" at 

http://jeanettemadden.blogspot.com

Watermelon Glow

It's just been too &%#$@ hot to paint! I know you've just been waiting in anticipation of what lovely treat was coming next. Yeah. Right.

Living in this East Bay corridor right across the bay from San Francisco, we usually have mild weather so many of us don't have air conditioning. It's been sweltering in a brief heat wave with 100 degree temperatures! I just couldn't sit up straight to paint. I bought this watermelon yesterday to cool off. I knew I wanted to paint it too. I don't know which excited me more — painting it or eating it. Anyway... here it is. I painted it. Now I get to eat it.

Thanks for dropping by!

Funny Little Tomatoes

8" x 6" on canvas paper.

Ok. What I said about fruit and vegetables... ...I take it back. Just when I think it's easy, it's hard again. I do like this painting, but it was challenging. I guess that's why it's called learning. Gotta do what it takes get good at this. I did mix linseed oil with the paint. It was an even hotter day and it worked very well. No thick, sticky paint.

Baby Carrots

6" x 6" on canvas paper

This is a fast attempt at some baby carrots. It's good to be painting color. I see why people like to do fruit. You don't have to fuss with likeness and it's much easier to go with the impression. The problem with this one is that I missed the stopping point and kept going. I lost some of the freshness of color and stroke by throwing on extra paint when distracted by a phone call. A much wanted phone call, but a distraction none the less. Plus I just felt pressured to get a painting up tonight. 

Actually though I like this one.

Soft Touch

It was a slow, well actually no work day (real work — the kind that actually brings in income), so I had more time to paint. Cotton balls. Do you believe I'm painting cotton balls? Actually I was excited by the idea. The first attempt was pretty good, but I decided to try it again and see if I could define the shape with fewer strokes. It was a good exercise to try two different approaches, but I think I'll go buy some fruit or maybe beads. I need color!

Another thing — it was a beautiful warm day and as the afternoon warmed, my paints began to get sticky and dry. I'm using water soluble oils and that's part of the price I pay. The weather is getting hotter this week. Maybe I'll try using some stand oil in the paint or use a spray bottle to keep the paint wet. What a drag this may turn out to be.

Stroke by Stroke, I begin

The First Sixteen

OH NO! 

I uploaded the following 16 paintings out of order and I can't find a way to change the sequence. Starting over is not an option...  Most important is to know that group "1 — FIRST PAINTINGS" was indeed first!

Sequences 2 - 6 are all 6" x 6" or 6" x 8"

6 — FIGURES

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This is the most recent series. I love painting people, so as I explore subject matter, I will return again and again to figurative work. So far, this is the hardest. My challenge is to paint the subject with accuracy and aliveness and still to not get bogged down in detail. The challenge will continue.

 

5 — THE BLUE BEAD

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Ah. The blue bead. I couldn't figure out why the first two looked like a blue donut and a Life Saver respectively. And then I realized I was putting the hole in the bead, dead center. Duh. Also the translusence (sp?) of the glass bead was challenging. The third try I added a ribbon to see if I could catch the satin, shiny finish and create a dramatic composition. Nice painting, but I didn't accomplish those 2 goals. The fourth version I'm happy with on both counts (yay!) and will definitely be revisiting the blue bead. 

4 — SHOES

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Running out of things I wanted to paint I looked around and decided to paint an old pair of shoes. The painting is ok, but I worked much too hard on the shoe leather.

3 – STILL LIFES

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I enjoyed painting these. 

1- The first is just one of those early "something to paint" works. 

2- The Apple, Creamer and Mug are an experiment in composition, color and imitation of subject matter I've seen in the work of several of the "Daily Painters" crew. I feel it's a very successful painting. I'm happy with the composition, color and some of the technical aspects like reflected color on the creamer and the mug.

3- With the vase and flower I took on several challenges. Painting loosely and appreciating the "juicyness" of the paint, the color and lightness of this painting

2 — RAGGEDY ANN

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Raggedy Ann is out of order. I painted her after the blue bead. I needed to try my hand at different textures. I'd been looking at this doll and avoided it as being to difficult, but then I decided to zoom in and crop some of her out. This made it more doable. She's alright, but definitely deserves another try.

1 - FIRST PAINTINGS

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The following paintings were 10"x 12" or 9"x 12". This is a very comfortable size for me. Like the smaller "Daily Paintings", these were painted somewhere between 2 and 4 hours. 

This painting was the second in the beginning of this journey. The drawing and rendering of the bottle is awkward in places, but otherwise, I like this one. Again, I played with adding more color. I want to keep my paintings high key — unless the subject matter calls for a darker mood.

Wanting to try the bottle again, I did this ambitious painting. It ended up overworked and the color dull and muddy. I learned some things not to do from painting it — like not continuing to mix color from already mixed colors. Stop and clean off the palette from time to time. 

The glasses were challenging, but I like the result. I like to keep pushing myself by trying new things. But then everything is new to me at this point. Again, I tried to keep it colorful by adding color to the background.

I like this painting in the end, but some places, like the top of the jars, I painted before I really looked and decided what to do. Actually the whole painting was approached that way.  The candle holder was over worked, though pretty. I have to find my level of finish vs. looseness. I'm working toward a loose, painterly style. Sort of an impressionist realism.

First Painting

10"x12" oil on canvas paper

This is the first of the 17 paintings I've completed so far. Each was done inside of one day and took between 2 & 4 hours. The values aren't right, but in some ways this is my favorite. I love the looseness. I guess after this, I started trying too hard. I'll upgrade to better materials when I'm more confident. If I use a more expensive ground now, I'll surely tighten up. That's absolutely not what I want to do.

The first stroke.

Well, I decided to commit to really learning to paint. As usual, I started googling around and found the Daily Painters movement. Wow! I wanted in. I thought I'd wait until I was pretty good before I'd start my blog. But I've decided to journal my learning process. So here I start.