When Do You Call it Finished?

Beginnings...on a 16 x 20" deep canvas

When do you call a painting finished?  I know this is a questions every painter asks.  It is a question I ask often these days. 

Progression...

 I liked this second phase.  It was tempting to stop, but so much of the canvas was still uncovered with paint.  How do you keep going and not loose these ghostly images?  I have no idea how.  

Where I left off last night...
still in progress...
(cutting their clothing was like playing with paper dolls..very fun!)

A little more polished in the above photo...but hopefully not headed in the "tight" direction.  I am always disappointed when they come out tight looking and they often do. 

This is where having an instructor would be awesome, but it's such a pain to drag art supplies (especially when you work in mixed media) back and forth to art lessons.  

So I will just keep painting and figuring it out the hard way...

Have a great Saturday!

PS:  Still having a sale on Etsy plus I listed several new works that are now available.  Sale ends August 17th. 

Bernadette's Bedroom

Bernadette's Bedrrom
11 x 14 inch oil on panel

This is an oil painting I started before I left for North Carolina and it is now finished.  In the beginning the background was just one big curtain, but it seemed so boring so I put in a smaller window and flowered wallpaper.  The carpet design was made by scratching squiggly lines into the paint.  I used a palette knife for the curtains and the bedspread. I thought about putting a vase of flowers or something on the nightstand, but decided to just leave it.  The wonderful thing about painting is you can always change it later if you want to.   I am getting more comfortable with oils the more I use them.  

Close up of Bernadette's Bedroom

My trip to North Carolina with my friends Carol and Kelly was a great time!  One evening, we spent some time drawing and I walked them through the steps of drawing a face with charcoal.  I think they did fabulous!  I really love teaching people how to draw faces, because they always seem to get so into it and really enjoy the process.  

Our drawings:
Carol's, Mine and Kelly's

Every year at our house we throw a July 4th party to celebrate Independence Day and this year we had around 40 people come.  We cooked on the grill, listened to live music...our son plays keyboards for a band and my mother and father in-law have their own 2 person band.  We also watch fireworks and it is so relaxing to sit in a lawn chair and watch our fireworks and all the others around our neighborhood.  Our street is full of families that really like to celebrate so it's quite a show.  I didn't get any photos of the fireworks this year, but here's a great one from last year...

July 4th fireworks at our house

Needless to say, it's been a busy couple of weeks and it will be nice to settle back into a routine and make some art!

See you soon.

♥ Lisa

Taking a Trip and a Sketchbook Peek

Hello and good morning!  I am going to be gone for a few days to North Carolina to spend time with  these girls ...my childhood friends Carol and Kelly.   It's hard to believe it's been two years since we last met there in NC where Kelly lives and I can't wait for the girl time complete with giggles and soulful talks.  

Graphite, watercolor and gouache in
8.5 x 11" sketchbook

This week I have been working on a 11 x 14" oil painting that is almost finished and spending a lot of time in my larger sketchbook...an 8.5 x 11" Stillman and Birn Gamma.  I don't work in this book often, but I should because there is a lot of room for play.  But honestly I tend to do my "play" on loose paper because  if it turns out well I want to be able to stick it into a frame for a while until a better one comes along.  Like the first image above here...I would  frame her for a bit because I like the way her dress turned out.  

Graphite, watercolor and gouache in
8.5 x 11" sketchbook

In the above image I was playing with some lettering just to see how my freehand looked.  It doesn't say anything...or at least not that I know of.  She looks so Picasso.  I study his art a lot in a couple of books that I have and it's funny how sometimes those impressions come out in my own art when I look at the art of others.  I love that subconscious thing in art.  It always amazes me.  

Graphite and watercolor in
8.5 x 11" sketchbook

The above is just a playful sketch.  I was trying to do a good tree in watercolor...not an easy task.

I hope you have an amazing week and see you soon!!

♥Lisa

Oils on Paper and a Quick Question for YOU

Roman Thought
oil on 6 x 8 inch paper

When I am working on the WIP I shared in the last post with the seven little faces and my eyes start to cross, I have to work on something larger.  Can you tell I overcompensated on these faces?  They are HUGE.  It could be my rebellion against the teeny tiny faces, but it could also be that I worked in oils.  Not my forte', but oh they feel marvelous on paper!  These were really quick works too, so don't be surprised if they end up in one of my shops for cheap cheap once they are dry.

                  

Susan Attends Estate Sales
oil and marker on 6 x 8 inch paper

On compositions:  the first painting I used a lovely magazine ad to aid with the layout of the woman, but then went sort of crazy with the flowers and clothes.  On the second painting here, I used my imagination 100%.  I have a thing for houses right now (they are in the background) and I love painting them.  Here I just scratched them into the painting and went over it with a marker very lightly.

QUICK QUESTION (for my blogging friends):  Do you reply to comments via your blog, by email, or not at all?  And why?  I am going back and forth on this one and if you haven't noticed, I haven't been replying at all unless asked a direct question. I have preferred to spend the time visiting blogs, but I fear I am being rude by not responding on the comments on my own blog.  This is an overdue question I know since I've been blogging over a year and half now, but  I would love your feedback...tell me your thoughts.  

           Have a great weekend everyone!
                                    ♥ Lisa                                                                                                                                                                          

The Backyard Bench

The Backyard Bench
24 x 24 inch mixed media on stretched canvas

Back to a large painting surface again...trying to get some pieces ready for upcoming shows.  On the 1 -10 Happy Scale I give this painting a 9.5.  Not that I am any sort of artistic genius or anything, but I am so thrilled with this one because so many things turned out just as I had hoped without a lot of fight or my usual self doubt.  I used a vintage photo as a loose guide for the composition.  For the colors I initially went to a Camille Pissarro painting that I love to help me get started, but once the foundation of this painting was put in place, I went out entirely on my own and instinctively chose the colors.  

Here are some close-ups so you can see the details better.

I hope all you moms, moms-to-be, and motherly types had a beautiful Mother's Day.  It was a lovely weekend here in Kansas...lots of flower planting,  phone time with my oldest son and a nice walk with my youngest son yesterday.  My mom's birthday dinner was a blast and she just glowed the whole weekend.  Thank you for all your sweet comments and birthday wishes for her.  She has been reading them and you have made her feel really special.  

Have a great start to the week!

♥ Lisa

Jade

Jade
9 x 12 acrylic on wood panel
Available in my Etsy shop

     As I have mentioned before, I have been trying to be a little more controlled with my colors.  You know those paintings that draw you in because the palette is just so pleasing?  That's what I aimed for here.  A portrait with a simple background is the easiest way for me to do this vs say a landscape with lots of parts.  I used  THIS portrait by James Whistler as a guide at the beginning of my painting.  I was wanting to capture the colors he used...lots of grays and yellows and that wonderful grayish-green in the background.  However, her clothing went sort of minty green, but I really liked it so I left it that way.  It was more of a pale blue before, but as my background turned more green, so did the dress.

     I hope you are having an amazing week.  We have been enjoying our sunshine and temperatures in the 80's, but for some reason, there is a chance for snow tomorrow. ?????  Kansas is weird that way, but this is extremely unusual.  Our trees are just now waking up!

Readings at The Dusty Bookshelf

Readings at the Dusty Bookshelf
Acrylic on 20 x 16" wood panel

There is a small and quaint college town called Manhattan in Northeast Kansas. It is a lovely town and the home of Kansas State University (K-State).  I visited this town about two years ago for the first time.  You would think that growing up in Wichita and Manhattan being only two hours away that I would have been there before.   I had no reason to go I suppose because the grand Kansas City is in the same direction, but more east and that is where I usually preferred to go.  However two years ago, the "new dog-owner"/artist/photographer in me felt pulled in the direction of Manhattan so that I could shoot some photos of the area.  Not only is there the quaint town and beautiful college campus, but Tuttle Creek Lake is also located there...a great place to walk the dog and shoot some pictures. 

While I was in town, I walked into a wonderful and very warm bookstore called The Dusty Bookshelf. We used to have a Dusty Bookshelf in our downtown, but they closed.  I had no idea there was another in Manhattan until I visited that day.  So much character in this store!  So I asked the retailer if I could take pictures and this is my painting inspired by those photos. 

Being there made me miss the bookstore in Wichita...they had a black and white cat that lived in the store.  Talk about ambiance.  Maybe I should have painted a cat into the scene somewhere...perhaps on top of one of the shelves.  . 

The Dusty Bookshelf  in Manhattan, KS 2011