Reflecting Fall Daily Painting #9

Today's painting is a fall scene on the Umpqua River I'm calling "Reflecting Fall"

The more I paint these, the more I realize what a powerful tool they are! I was in a bit of a block with my painting. These little studies have such momentum!

I have a real tendency to get bogged down in detail. I love detail! I love all the tiny shapes and color shifts and light patterns in nature! They can be like a rabbit hole when it comes to painting! And there is nothing wrong with a beautifully detailed painting! But if they aren't built on a solid foundation, you will always feel there is just something off about them. It's so easy to fall in love with one passage in your painting, and then realize that you created this little gem in the wrong place, wrong value, wrong perspective.... so many ways to go wrong! :)

So these little paintings give you the chance to start many times, build the foundation many times, without bogging down for days or weeks or months in detail. I have a lot of reference photos that touch me, but I wasn't sure I could make a painting of them. This is giving me the chance to try them out, work with them, explore their possibilities. Without pressure or a huge time commitment.

Haha, sorry, didn't mean to get on a soapbox! :) I'm just excited about these!

I think the title "Daily Painting" is not the right one. Quick Study is probably better, but I want to emphasize that doing them often, preferable daily is what creates the momentum, loosens up the fear of failure, gives you confidence. 

So, for today's painting "Reflecting Fall" I did a real time (meaning not sped up) video of the process, showing you how I'm doing these little paintings.

I started with a canvas toned with a mixture of Quinacridone Gold and Hansa Yellow Medium with regular acrylics. Once that dried, I painted the rest in Open Acrylics.

Click here for the video

 

Daily Painting #8 - Little Falls

Painting rocks is all about planes. Each rock is made up of a series of surfaces that change in color and value based on the direction they face. Wet rocks pick up all kinds of reflections from the things around them. They can have sharp edges, or be rounded by the action of the water over the years. They can be moss covered or bare. Their sizes and shapes and colors are so varied! Painting things like rocks helps me appreciate how really beautiful they are.



"Little Falls" 5" x 7" acrylic on canvas panel

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Daily Painting #7 Early Spring

I think I should change the name to Semi Daily Paintings :)

Or maybe Time Finder Paintings. Really the key thing is that they are a great way to fit a little painting in, even if you have a busy schedule. Doing one every day is great if you can, but I know that many of us have other commitments! There was a time for me when my kids were home and I was working full time that an hour a day just wasn't in the cards. But painting when you can, scheduling in a little time for yourself, will keep you going until you have more time. Hang in there!

It took me a long time to figure out I was a better mom, wife, employee, and person when I took some time for myself. Doing something I loved and feeling like I was learning and growing.

So here is today's little painting "Early Spring" 5"x7" acrylic on canvas panel...

Unframed original available using the Paypal Button below
$50 plus shipping

Title of the Painting

"Garden Path" Daily Painting #6

Well, I hope you aren't keeping track because this is "Daily Painting" #6, but there have been a couple of days in between! I suppose I should call them Nearly Daily Paintings :)

This little project has led me to going back through my reference photos to try to bring some sort of order to them as well. I make folders with titles like: mountains, water, florals, birds, etc etc and then move my photos into them. I also have photos called "To Do" where I keep the ones I'm sure I want to paint soon. It all sort of works! Takes some time, but its fun to run across photos I had forgotten I even took. Like this one - I was doing an experiment to try to show how reflections in water change with your eye level, and with how close to the water the reflected element is. My cat Pooty couldn't figure out what the heck I was doing!


So, I found the reference for this little garden painting in my reorganizing. One thing that's really starting to sink in for me is the importance of doing a small thumbnail sketch. Because I know I only have an hour of painting time, I'm motivated to do all my editing and simplifying before I get started. In the past I would just jump right in and figure it our as I went along. This is easier to do with regular acrylics which dry quickly. I can just repaint if I get it wrong. Using a thumbnail to do this in advance really helps to keep the painting looking more fresh. And with the Open acrylics I'm using, I don't have the option of painting over.

Here's the reference, and my thumbnail simplifying the shapes and values:

You can see there was a lot of detail to sort through. And the Photo had completely blown out the light areas so that had to be compensated for. At least you can see into the shadow areas, photos tend to make those all dark and murky.








Anyway, here's what I came up with in an hour's painting time:
"Garden Path" 5x7 acrylic on canvas panel

Original available via the Paypal button below, or directly from me if you are local

Title of the Painting

Daily Painting #5 Blueberry Patch

How long will I keep this up? I don't know, but I hope for a while, I'm having a blast! I almost didn't start it because I was afraid I would give up and be disappointed with myself. Do you do that too? I'm trying to learn to just do it, and stop worrying about outcomes. Life is too short to worry about failing! I could quote lots of motivational sayings here, but I'll spare you that :) Bottom line, I'm making friends with failure - it's a great teacher. And I think it is starting to sink in. It's easy for me to think about how I want to live my life, but getting that info down into that subconscious place that actually seems to be making my decisions for me is another thing!

So here is today's "no fear of failure" little acrylic painting on 5x7 canvas panel:

"Blueberry Patch"

I started with my canvas toned with Quinacridone gold and Hansa Yellow Medium.
If you are painting along with your own daily paintings - here are a few ideas on the process:

The idea is to go through all the important steps you would to make a larger painting.
-Deciding your focal point by knowing why you are painting this image.
-Editing down to 4 or 5 simple elements (ie: sky, hills, river, foreground tree)
-Arranging those elements in a pleasing way (composition)
-Deciding on your color harmony - a limited palette is great with these
Then just set these things down with the simplest of brushstrokes and a fairly large brush

original available: $50 unframed plus shipping - use the Paypal button below

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Daily Painting #4 "Winter Sun"

Here's today's little Daily Painting:
"Winter Sun" 5x7 acrylic on canvas panel.

Almost didn't get to this one today! And Wednesdays will be my "day off" because I work my other job on Wednesdays. So I'll be back Thursday with the next one!

available - $50 - use the Paypal button below

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Daily Painting #3 - Fall

Continuing my Daily Painting Journey. These are really fun, and when the hour is up I just have to say "it's done!" Haha. It's harder than it sounds to just leave it. I really feel like I'm growing though, so that's a good thing.

"Fall" 5x7 acrylic on canvas panel

Unframed original is available via Paypal with the button below at $50 plus shipping- be sure to specify which Daily painting you want!

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Daily Painting #2 "Mailbox"

Day 2 of my Daily Paintings!

I'm enjoying using my Open Acrylics with their longer wet time for these little paintings. It does take some adjustment from the regular acrylics I normally use. But that was the whole plan with this exercise! And I had a hard time not getting in there and adding tiny details to that mailbox!! :)

Something about this red mailbox on a country lane in early spring. Pretty nostalgic! The arrival of the mail used to be the main communication with friends and family. Not any more :)

"002 Mailbox" 5x7 acrylic on canvas panel

Here's a link to a little video about the making of this painting, and encouraging you to join the challenge!  https://youtu.be/oZTSIkNABEE


 unframed original available: $50 plus shipping

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Daily Painting Challenge!

I've given myself a new challenge - Daily Paintings.

It's not a new idea, but it's a good one! The idea is to paint a small, quick painting every day. I'm using 5" x 7" canvas panels, Open Acrylics, maybe some regular acrylics as well, and one about 3/4" wide brush. This is to help loosen up, stop worrying about details, stop thinking, take risks, be adventurous. After all it's just a small amount of paint and time and an inexpensive panel!

I've been having trouble lately deciding on what to paint. So I thought this would be a good way to stop worrying about that and just try anything!

I've also been trying to paint more loosely, experiment with color and brushstrokes. Just push those boundaries into a more creative space.

So, I'm going to take an hour or so, anything I have around to work from life, or a reference photo or part of one. And just paint!

That's my plan. Want to join me?

Here is day one - " 001 Vineyard" 5x7 acrylic on canvas pane

 P.S.
In case you are interested - all paintings will be available for purchase through the PayPal button below at $50.00 USD plus $10.00 shipping. For shipping outside of the U.S. please email me for cost.

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