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

The Difficulties of Painting on Wood: A Look at the 2nd WIP

The title of this blog post should actually say "The Difficulties of Being Self Taught".  This is my second large acrylic painting on a 24x48 inch piece of wood.  I am not sure what type of wood it is, but it is definitely not that wonderful birch I painting on in the last post.  Live and learn.  This wood is so much more porous and getting coverage is really really really taking a lot of paint.  I put gesso down prior, but it probably would have taken a gallon of it to cover this wood properly.

I like the overall composition and the colors, but there are so many things I don't like and I am not really sure how to fix them without just painting certain parts over.

 I am okay with the way her face turned out...the shading is difficult, but this is nothing new for me.  What is annoying is that line you see by her left eye which I believe is from the wood grain.  I didn't even notice it until I took the photo.  The only way to change this is more coverage and I think it would take a lot of paint and then I would lose what I have.  Also, I can't figure out why there is so much glare?  Is it the acrylic paints?

 This is the floor...TOO RAW...but I have no clue how to make it better or to finish it.  I thought about painting borders around the squares in kind of a Klimt-ish style...but then it would tighten the work and I am trying to loosen up.

And her hands are too small.  If I paint larger hands I think I would have to entirely change the mattress and you would not believe the amount of time it took to get it to the point it's at.  It was a white blob for a long time and now at least it sort of looks like a mattress.

I am seeing now that this is why they say an artist should draw, draw, draw.  If you do this you have a much better chance at having proportionally correct hands and mattress edges.  :)

In a nutshell I need to decide if it's finished. Should I leave it raw looking and accept that it is likely the wood that is my problem (if it is a problem) ...or does it really NEED more and I will just have to risk losing the things I DO like about it and keep on painting it.   It may be a while before I decide either way.

♥ Lisa

PS:  Look what we got here in Wichita, Kansas!  We set some records...second largest snowfall from a single storm in recorded history...over 14 inches!  I leave you with a few images of our winter wonderland.  Even though most of us are feeling ready for Spring, it is hard to deny the beauty of snow and the fun it brings, especially to an area of the world that sees so little of it.

Our cat Bean leading the way for Hurley through tire tracks. Bean is the more seasoned pet of the two.

View from my studio window

Female Cardinal

Male and female Cardinals

Hurley our Golden Retriever... and his nose

After shoveling, shoveling, shoveling...I tried my hand at sculpting. Not bad, eh?  

Candela's Light and Painting on a Large Surface

Candela's Light
24 x 48 x 1/4"  acrylic on birch panel

  Recently I have seen and loved several pieces of art by various artists that paint on found wooden objects or wood panels.   After seeing these lovely works I decided to go to the hardware store to see what kind of wood I could find there.  It was surprising to find really large wood panels for less than ten dollars.

It was not just the wood surface that provided so much joy in painting this, but the size of the wood.  How freeing it is to be able to paint with long quick strokes and dabs within the large spaces.  I may have even raised my heart rate a little while painting the archway with all the bending and swooping at the easel.  I even got to do a little bit of "yoga" on the floor as I worked on the rug at her feet. 

The second painting on a wood panel is already off to a good start.  I don't know what I am going to do with these works, but perhaps they will be for the show next year.  Problem is, I need to figure out how to frame these inexpensively or at least put hanging hardware on the backs of these.  Any ideas?

Below are some closeups of the work.  

Thanks for stopping by!
♥ Lisa

The photo above is a bit misleading in the lighting it shows.  However, I left it here because this is the look of light I was trying to achieve...a glow from the various lamps.  For some reason the photo shows it, but the painting unfortunately is not all aglow like I wanted it to be.  Painting light is above my skill level for sure.  A real challenge.