Blue Chairs - at IAPS 2022

 Hi y'all! Here's "Blue Chairs" (pastel, 6x8 inches) my first painting of IAPS 2022. bid or buy on DailyPaintworks

Today (Tuesday) was my "off" day at IAPS (The biggest pastel party on the planet!) I ran some errands, got some groceries and relaxed a bit. In the afternoon, Laurie Basham (president, Piedmont Pastel Society,) with whom I'm sharing a house with along with my road trip buddy Esther Jones, came back to the house and we sat on the patio chatting. Suddenly the sun came out, and I said "We should paint those chairs!"

And so we did. Even thought the sun went away again a few minutes later (ah, the joys of plein air) it was nice enough to come back out for us right as we were finishing up! Laurie caught some little vid clips of me painting, so I put them together with the pics I took, for your enjoyment.

See a brief montage I made of "Blue Chairs" here!

Aileen in Blue - day 9

"Aileen in Blue"  (pastel, 8x6 inches)

Day 9 of my 30 paintings in 30 days of November!

No new batch prepared today, but I did cut a bunch of boards. Instead of doing new underpaintings I decided to try to finish this girl, who I started during the last batch and thought I might have been close to finishing. I thought, "Oh, I'll just get this one done before priming my new batch and then at least I'll have today's painting done." Ha. Five hours later I get the text from the hubby that he's on the way home which is code for starting dinner. I was really nit-picking at that point, so I gave myself five more minutes to just be done. If I hadn't needed a painting today I might not be showing this one, but it's probably a good thing I had to stop!

So she is today's painting, but I haven't decided what I'll do with her yet, besides let her rest a few days. There are some show deadlines coming up so I'll probably enter her into something. But if I do any touch-ups on her I'll re-post.

BlueEyes (and New Life By Cropping)

"BlueEyes"  (pastel, 6x8 inches)  click here to bid

Here's another older piece I found in my studio, that I've given a new life by cropping! This (originally 10x8) painting had languished in a gallery years ago because (I believe now) of an ambiguous front leg which was hugging the tree in the bottom part of the painting. I knew the leg might have looked a little big because, well, it's a big cat, and the camera had foreshortened the angle a bit and since the leg was closer... Well, combined with some oddness with how the shoulder joint was bent, it garnered some confused comments. So I pulled it out and it ended up in the stack of 'old' stuff after reusing the frame for something else.

But I always loved these eyes! And the back-light across the top of this fluff-ball, and the languorous pose. So today when a friend saw it in my studio stack of 'olds' and I was explaining to her the story of the odd leg, I said "I should just chop it off." ... Hey!

And so I did! It's a much a better painting now. It even improved the composition.. Just goes to show that sometimes amputation is what a painting needs.

(You can see the past life of this painting "Up the Tree Again" on this blog post from 2012.)

Phthalo

"Phthalo"  (pastel, 7x5 inches)  click here to bid

So named because of his color of course. Such a deep black he had phthalo highlights.

Also, he looks like he's saying "Phth.."

Did you know that black cows have tongues that are a blueish gray?

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Frog #10

"Frog #10"  (pastel, 6x6 inches)  click here to bid

Feeling blue? Take heart! You can't possibly be this blue.

Those spots were a real bugger, but I think I made them work.

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Dangerous Gull

"Dangerous Gull"  (oil, 6x6 inches)   click here to bid

Here's yesterday's gull right before taking off. I found his pose to be curiously analogous to the message of the sign.

"Koi #11" - First Painting in new Studio!

"Koi #11" (pastel, 5x5 inches)  is my first official painting of 2012 and the first one in my new studio! The studio is not completely finished, and is actually quite a mess right now, so no studio photos will be posted until I say so!
This new koi painting will be a new work for 2012 at Cactus Jack's in Gruene, TX, along with a few of my 'dailies' from last year that nobody was lucky enough to bid on.

To give you a peek into my creative process, I've posted below, today's original finished painting "Water Lilly #3" which I painted from a lovely photograph of the flower. It was only after scanning it and seeing it on screen that I realized it desperately needed some koi. And so a few strokes later it became "Koi #11". (above) NOW it's finished!

Louie

"Louie"   (pastel, 7x5 inches)

"Louie" is on page 97 of my book "Cows, etc. - 100 Miniature Portraits -" and the original painting will is available at Cactus Jack's in Gruene, Texas through January 2012.
The book is still waiting for the second proof, but hopefully I'll have the poster in time for Friday!

Noble

"Noble"  (pastel, 7x5 inches)

How could I forget Noble? Noble is available at Cactus Jack's in Gruene, Texas, through January 2012!

Ginger

"Ginger"  (pastel, 7x5 inches)  sold

Yes, I've had a run on flavor-names with this last batch... guess I've been hungry lately!

"Coffee"

"Coffee"  (pastel, 7x5 inches)    click here to bid  

Not quite coffee colored? He is to me, who must have 2 packets of International coffee creamers in my cup each morning!
Available at Cactus Jack's in Gruene, Texas through January 2012.

Clementine

"Clementine"  (Pastel, 7x5 inches)   sold

Here's another of the cows leading up to 100 from earlier this month. Her orangy glow reminded me of the sweet fruit I named her for.