"Goofy Smile" --- SOLD

Happy Halloween! I did this a few weeks ago when I was painting onions. A few bits of onion peel fell off and I only had to adjust it a tiny bit to form this goofy smile. I thought it looked a little evil, so I saved it for today.

"Loosey Goosey" --- SOLD

I've been looking at a new artist (to me), Lael Weyenberg. She's VERY loose. Her work inspired me to loosen up a bit with these flowers. I bought these for a larger painting that I did this weekend and couldn't let them go to waste. What I really like about Lael's work is that it's fuzzy in places. And clear in others. As soon as I get braver I'll try that too.

"Three on the Side" --- SOLD

Sometimes it just takes turning the fruit on it's side to come up with a new composition.

"Besides" --- SOLD

There's no rhyme or reason to this title. I liked the subtlety of this tiny sliver of light on the wedge of apple beside the big piece. Actually, this composition reminds me of being a kid and standing around next my dad while he had "grown-up" discussions. Still nothing to do with "besides," but that's ok. Besides, ... since when does a title have to make sense?

"No Apple" --- SOLD

I swear I was going to paint eggs today. But my son, Jacob (2), asked for an apple and then refused to eat it. He said "no apple" and pushed away the slice I cut. And I couldn't just throw the rest away ... could I? So I painted it. Twice actually. I'll post the other one tomorrow. Meanwhile I'm working on some more larger paintings for the gallery. Thanks so much to my wonderful husband who gives me time on the weekends to paint.

"Egg on White" --- SOLD

I love how the yolk sort of floats in the white. Sometimes I get too nit-picky with my paintings. Once I notice, I tend towards too loose. It's like a big pendulum that swings back and forth. I suppose it's the natural order. My best paintings are somewhere in the middle.

"Four Yolks" --- SOLD

I was visiting my parents a few weeks ago and my mom (a potter - made this bowl) got up early to make breakfast. She mixed the eggs in this beautiful blue bowl and loved the subtle greens and blues through the "whites". I borrowed the bowl and have been saving the idea for when I drew a blank. I found I really enjoyed painting the eggs and may make a series of it. Be prepared.

"Support" --- SOLD

I forgot to photograph this one before it got dark last night, so will post two today. This one is from yesterday. The next will be from today.

It always takes a little while to get back into the groove of painting after a trip - usually about the same amount of time as I was away. It's like a muscle that you have to keep in shape. It feels so great to be in that groove - about as good as it feels to take a break once in a while!

"Curly Stems" --- SOLD

I had one more painting from Sacramento, but it got damaged on the ride home so ... here's today's painting. These are 2 very small, very dark green gourds with great curly stems. This setup reminds me of pickup trucks that pull up next to each other in small towns so the drivers can chat.

Sacramento Feedback

Perhaps this is boasting, but I got this today from the owner of the gallery/workshop space in Sacramento where I just finished a 3-day workshop. He suggested I post it on my blog:

Carol,
You were a big hit on your three day Sacramento workshop. I have talked to a number of the students and everyone is really turned on to painting. We were impressed with how organized you were and how much personal attention everybody received. Many are very interested in one of your fields of expertise: Blogging. Your creative husband is well remembered. We hope you will return to our tree lined city soon. Actually we are more known for our rivers. Perhaps an indoor-outside in the spring/summer. Again thanks so much. I have to run as I am painting and counting each and every stroke instead of 1000's short dabs.
Jim

Thanks, Jim!!!

"Persimmons" --- SOLD

I love teaching, but the one negative thing about it for me is that I'm always itchin' to paint. Doing a demo during class just doesn't cut it - too much pressure. Today I had time to do an extra painting after class. I borrowed these persimmons from a student. I've always wanted to paint them but had never found any with attractive tops. These were perfect.

Here I am doing my demo. I hate pictures of myself, but someone asked me specifically to post one like this. So there you go.

Here are some of the student paintings. Someone left a comment on yesterday's post asking what all my crazy ideas are - just keep reading my blog and you'll see a lot of them. :)

Sacramento Workshop

I'm having a great time here in Sacramento. The space we're in is really nice - fantastic skylights and soaring ceilings. The students are all taking to my crazy ideas really quickly. :) The gallery and classroom is right downtown. Someone told me yesterday Sacramento is considered an urban forest, and this is especially true for the downtown. There are HUGE trees everywhere, and right now it's expecially beautiful because the leaves are turning all sorts of beautiful colors. I'm tempted to paint them and am considering that for tomorrow's demo.

"Big Bottom" --- SOLD

I bought a bunch these a couple-a weeks ago, and hadn't yet found a good angle to paint them from. But today, it came to me. I'm very happy with it. That is a BIG bottom, huh?

Tomorrow I leave for Sacramento. I'm giving a talk at the American River College at 2, and then my 3-day workshop starts on Friday morning. If I have time, I'll post pictures again like last time, and maybe this time I'll have a painting to show for it. Or not. More for sure when I return on Monday. Ta.

"Cactus Fruit 2" --- SOLD

I really like the colors of this one. I remember being a kid with my markers - putting them in groups that I thought went particularly well together. I kept coming back to pink, puple and turquoise. It's a strange combination in my book because it doesn't follow any color theory that I know of. Is there one I don't know that fits???

"Cactus Fruit" --- SOLD

My husband and I found this cool purple cactus fruit on a walk yesterday.

"Yellow Tomatoes 5" --- SOLD

If I imagined some plate of alien fruit, I think this would be it. They also remind me a bit of fish eggs. Lovely thought. This is my favorite of the yellow tomatoes. I am finally satisfied -tomorrow I will paint something else. They were just a little translucent, and I think I finally captured that here.

I think painting is sort of like chess. The really good players can think many moves ahead, but you can never think a whole game out, because every game is different and you never know what's going to happen (I suppose that would be pretty boring anyway). So I never know quite what a painting is really going to look like until the end. But all good chess players have strategy and certain tricks they use when they see a familiar situation. Likewise we artists have general strategies and personal tactics that we use. I would argue that painting is more difficult than chess (oh who am I going to offend here???) in that you never "win" in art and we have an infinite number of variables, vs. the 32 players and 64 squares in chess.

"Yellow Tomatoes 4" --- SOLD

This is my happiest color combination yet. I think what I'm obsessed with though, about these tomatoes, is trying to figure out the order of the strokes. I think there are certain orders that are better than others, but I don't think it's ever the same. Maybe someday I'll see some ryme or reason and be able to talk about it. :)

"Yellow Tomatoes 3" --- SOLD

Ok, so I'm obsessed with these tomatoes. And I actually forgot to post this yesterday. I remembered when I was trying to fall asleep. So I'll post two again today.

"Yellow Tomatoes 2" --- SOLD

I've heard a few times that when you're in a slump with your art, you're just about to grow in a new way. I'm still feeling a bit stiff, so here's to that theory being right!

"Yellow Tomatoes" --- SOLD

I struggled with this one. This is actually my second attempt. The first was yesterday - I wiped it off, which is why I had nothing to post. I think it's really hard to paint glass small, especially jars from an angle like this. And for some reason the tomatoes were giving me a hard time - the buggers! I wish I could say what I learned from the first attempt to this one, but I'm having one of those days (or 2) where I have suddenly forgotten everything I know. It'll come back ... it always seems to. : )

"Zinnia 2" --- SOLD

For this version of the zinnia flower (see previous post), I painted the darkest bits of the flower first, then the next lighter, then the lightest. I like this one better, but I think it might be a coincidence. Maybe not ... it'll just take more experimenting.

"Zinnia" --- SOLD

I painted two versions of this flower yesterday, in different ways, but forgot to photograph them before it got dark. So I hope no-one thinks it's cheating to post them both today to make up for it. For this first version I painted the lightest part of the flower first, then I went in and added in the darker bits.

"Transparent Red" --- n/a

Today is another anniversary for me. I have officially been doing daily paintings for ONE YEAR. I wish I could say I did one every single day, but I did do 324 ... which actually seems pretty amazing now that I think of it being 324 paintings in one year. Dude.

"We All Fall Down" --- SOLD

There's something about the colors in this one that I just love. I usually follow a certain kind of color scheme, and this time I just went with instinct and didn't even check it against the color wheel. I'm not even sure why it works or why I like it so much. Maybe I should do that more often.

I also like the arrangment of the pear peices. I usually try to lay each item down purposefully in a way that I like. This time I just kind of shuffled them randomly until I liked the arrangement. I've always loved that spontanaity and randomness in other people's paintings - maybe this is how they do it too. But then again, and I love/hate this, every time I find a "trick" that works, it never seems to work again! And that's probably what keeps me going every single day - the challenge of it.

"Just a Piece" --- SOLD

This one was tough, but I'm happy with how it turned out. I especially like (and this may sound silly) the delicate line on the plate. Usually I put that kind of thing down first and put the white around it. This time I put the plate color down and got it completely the way I wanted it. Then I came back with the line and sort of let it blend a little with the white. I find that letting things blend a little makes it look more realistic. Errr, in some places anyway. I had a friend tell me recently that she's frustrated with painting and thinks maybe she should take some classes on art because she's sure there's some secret she's missing. I thought the same thing for a long time. I finally realized that there are tons of little secrets, but none of them work all the time. And the only way to figure them out is to PAINT PAINT PAINT.

By the way, today is my 7th wedding anniversary. I know I complain about my husband here sometimes, but I couldn't have gotten luckier in snagging a mate. I love you sweetheart.

"Pine Cones 2" --- SOLD

I couldn't resist trying the pine cones again. I collected a few and wanted to give the others a chance. I can't decide if I like this blue background better, or the more teal from yesterday.

An artist friend of mine told me today that sometimes painting goes really well for her, and other times she feels like she's painting with her feet! I just couldn't NOT share that. Lorrie took my Santa Fe class and has been painting her "patootie" off since she got home, and it shows. Check her out.

"Pine Cones" --- SOLD

I find I really enjoy this square format. There's something about a square that lends itself to the more graphic nature of composition that I enjoy.

Whenever I am first deciding on a composition, I squint at my subject through my viewfinder to get an idea of what the value's are over-all. The approach to value that I've enjoyed the most (and what I teach in my workshops) is that an interesting/strong composition has a dominant value (takes up the most space over-all), a smidge value (takes up the least space) and another inbetween those two (still haven't come up with a great name for that one - though I like "inbetween"). So, if I were to divide my values into three main categories: light, medium and dark, using this painting as an example: light is my dominant value, dark is my smidge and medium is my inbetween value.

Oh, and these pine cones are from a forest just north of Santa Fe. I brought them back in a sippy cup so they wouldn't get squashed in my suitcase, and remembered them just today. What a great subject they made!