"Finley" the Fawn

 

"Finley" (pastel, 7x5 inches) bid or buy

See a 40 second slide show video of the creation of Finley here!

Newborn II

 

Day 6 of 21-in-31: "Newborn II" (pastel, 11x14 inches) $590 framed

I started this one just last night as a Virtual Open Studio demo, and  finished it today. I'll be taking this one to Boerne for the Art Waddle this Saturday May 14th. I'm calling it "Newborn II" because I painted "Newborn" from the same photo shoot of a mama doe who had given birth in the  backyard of a friend down the street from me. She called me over and we  took pics out her kitchen window!

Enjoy this quick speed video of "Newborn II"!

Day 19 of 28: "Lyra"

 

"Lyra" (pastel, 10x10 inches) $390 unframed for a limited time.

 I have several medium sized works planned in this month of paintings (10x10 is "medium" for me!) I managed to get this one half done yesterday and finished today. As the works get larger, the strokes must get larger and looser. I'm pretty happy with this one. But I have painted her twice before from the same pic and I've always loved how the light looks... 

See progress pics and the reference photos here!

Little Beggar - Day 11 of 21-in-31

 

"Little Beggar" (pastel, 5x7 inches)

I met this young deer at a wildlife refuge on my travels, and she was begging for food at my car window! I thought the foreshortened pose would be interesting to paint.

Click here to see some progress pictures of "Little Beggar"!

On auction for a limited time at Dailypaintworks!

30-in-30 Paintings in June ... Finished!

 

June 2021 Daily Paintings poster.

I can't believe I really did  it; 30 paintings in 30 days. My usual month in past years had been November because it's otherwise fairly slow. I really wasn't ready in June but I had missed November last year (I missed a lot of things last year, lol) and I was really eager to do a month of paintings. Now July is going to be full of everything I couldn't get done  in June... commissions, paperwork, groceries... but I've proven to  myself that it can be done even when I think I'm too busy. It's a great feeling of accomplishment to look back on the month and see all the paintings. And several of them have also sold, so there's that too!

It's HARD to be a true Daily Painter (completing and posting a new painting every day) so it's become more popular to do it one month at a time. It's a lot easier to accomplish 30 days in a row than 365+ days! I highly recommend a Daily Painting practice for anyone wanting to improve their painting skills and work habits. I also find that Daily Painting and Working Small are inevitably connected, so I want to share this blog post on Why to Paint Small. It might help inspire you to greater smaller daily paintings!

Now I'll have a full booth at the #rockportartfest hosted by @rockportartcenter this weekend, and hopefully a nice couple days to kick back and relax a bit.

This poster has not been ordered yet, but I'll take pre-orders to see how many I should get. It will be 16x20, $25 includes US shipping. Let me know if you'd like one!

Day 26 of 30 - Fiona

 

Day 26 of 30 paintings in June - "Fiona" (pastel, 8x6 inches)

Another young fawn on a beautiful spring morning. I get some great views out my studio window!

This piece will be with me at the #rockportartfest hosted by @rockportartcenter July 3 and 4, 2021

See a quick GIF of Fiona's painting progress here!

$320 includes frame and US shipping

---------------

And in case you missed this message earlier...
 
The Feedburner team announced that their email subscription service will be discontinued in July 2021. As a result, Blogger’s email subscription widget, also known as FollowByEmail, will be turned off. Specifically, the email subscription system will no longer work and subscribers to Google blogs will no longer receive email updates.
 
SO! If you're receiving this post via email, I thank you for your subscription, but you will no longer be getting these delivered to you from my Google Blog after this month.  
 
But don't despair! Here are two ways you can still get my (almost) Daily Paintings in your inbox!
 
#1 - Sign up for my website's New Art Alerts. I basically have been pasting the same info into my website art posts as I do here, so you won't be missing a thing. CLICK HERE to get my New Art Alerts from my website at RitaKirkman.com.
 
#2 - Follow my public Patreon Posts. Sure, Patreon is a subscription-based creative support platform, but you don't have to pay anything for my public posts, and just about all of my new work gets posted on my Patreon page, usually with cool little extras like progress pics or short speed videos! CLICK HERE to go to my Patreon Page and right below the membership levels, next to a button that says "share" is a button that says "follow". It's that easy! (Browse around my other free posts while you're in there..)
 
Thanks so much for liking my work and following my blog. Here's to many more years of following my Website or my Patreon, and to many more years of creating!

Day 18 of 30 - Fern

 

"Fern" (pastel, 6x6 inches)

This is another one of the new fawns who showed up near our house recently!

This piece will be with me at the #rockportartfest hosted by @rockportartcenter July 3 and 4, 2021.  $285 framed

See a speed video of Fern's painting process here!

Day 15 of 30 - Ambre

 

Day 15 of 30 paintings in June - "Ambre" (pastel, 12x6 inches)

One of the mamas of some of the fawns in our back yard. She comes up for horse biscuits and will eat out of our hands. (I probably painted her as a fawn a few years ago!)

On auction for one week only at DailyPaintworks.com.

See a progress video here!

Day 12 of 30 - Fay

 

Day 12 of 30 paintings in June - "Fay" (pastel, 8x6 inches) 

Another sweet fawn from last spring.

See some progress pics here, or for a $10 pledge you can watch the full length video of the creation of this painting on my Patreon page. (And many more vids too!)

Fay will be on auction for one week only, on DailyPaintworks.com. After that I'll be saving my paintings for the Rockport Art Fest July 3 & 4.

------------------

And in case you missed this message earlier...
 
The Feedburner team announced that their email subscription service will be discontinued in July 2021. As a result, Blogger’s email subscription widget, also known as FollowByEmail, will be turned off. Specifically, the email subscription system will no longer work and subscribers to Google blogs will no longer receive email updates.
 
SO! If you're receiving this post via email, I thank you for your subscription, but you will no longer be getting these delivered to you from my Google Blog after this month.  
 
But don't despair! Here are two ways you can still get my (almost) Daily Paintings in your inbox!
 
#1 - Sign up for my website's New Art Alerts. I basically have been pasting the same info into my website art posts as I do here, so you won't be missing a thing. CLICK HERE to get my New Art Alerts from my website at RitaKirkman.com.
 
#2 - Follow my public Patreon Posts. Sure, Patreon is a subscription-based creative support platform, but you don't have to pay anything for my public posts, and just about all of my new work gets posted on my Patreon page, usually with cool little extras like progress pics or short speed videos! CLICK HERE to go to my Patreon Page and right below the membership levels, next to a button that says "share" is a button that says "follow". It's that easy! (Browse around my other free posts while you're in there..)
 
Thanks so much for liking my work and following my blog. Here's to many more years of following my Website or my Patreon, and to many more years of creating!

Day 10 of 30 - Bambina

Day 10 of 30 paintings in June - "Bambina" (pastel, 6x4 inches) bid or buy here for one week only

Our neighborhood deer are popping out fawns like crazy the last week or so. I've seen one little one many mornings in our back yard. We've had a lot of rain so the grass really needs mowing!

Watch a speed video of Bambina's painting here!

And by the way, in case you missed this message earlier, I need to tell you something!
 
The Feedburner team announced that their email subscription service will be discontinued in July 2021. As a result, Blogger’s email subscription widget, also known as FollowByEmail, will be turned off. Specifically, the email subscription system will no longer work and subscribers to Google blogs will no longer receive email updates.
 
SO! If you're receiving this post via email, I thank you for your subscription, but you will no longer be getting these delivered to you from my Google Blog after this month.  
 
But don't despair! Here are two ways you can still get my (almost) Daily Paintings in your inbox!
 
#1 - Sign up for my website's New Art Alerts. I basically have been pasting the same info into my website art posts as I do here, so you won't be missing a thing. CLICK HERE to get my New Art Alerts from my website at RitaKirkman.com.
 
#2 - Follow my public Patreon Posts. Sure, Patreon is a subscription-based creative support platform, but you don't have to pay anything for my public posts, and just about all of my new work gets posted on my Patreon page, usually with cool little extras like progress pics or short speed videos! CLICK HERE to go to my Patreon Page and right below the membership levels, next to a button that says "share" is a button that says "follow". It's that easy! (Browse around my other free posts while you're in there..)
 
Thanks so much for liking my work and following my blog. Here's to many more years of following my Website or my Patreon, and to many more years of creating!

Warm Fuzzy #38 - Fable

 

 

Warm Fuzzy #38 - "Fable" the fawn (pastel, 7x5 inches) click here to bid or buy

 

The last of five little underpaintings that I pasteled last month at the Carriage House Gallery. Watch a public speed video of Fable's process on my Patreon page!

 

  .

Warm Fuzzy #34 - Fawzia

Warm Fuzzy #34 - "Fawzia" (pastel, 6x4 inches)

I've decided to enter Fawzia the fawn into the PSWC Pastels USA Exhibition, so I won't be auctioning her just yet. Wish me luck!

This was the first of the last five littles from the last batch of underpaintings. I got them all pasteled last week during my work days at the Carriage House Gallery in Boerne, TX. Here's a 12 minute speed video of Fawzia's pastel progress:

Wow, I have really been collecting a lot of video footage!! You can watch a real-time video of the preliminary underpainting of Fawzia, along with the others in this batch (and more!) on my Patreon page here, by becoming a Patron!

.

Warm Fuzzy #32 - Bala

Warm Fuzzy #32 - "Bala" (pastel, 6x6 inches) click here to bid or buy

This dear little deer is the product of my first free "test market" Virtual Live Open Studio Days which I held last Sunday on Zoom with 11 or 12 lovely volunteers who put up with my techie glitches, static-y audio and frame-skipping video.

Speaking of which, I've posted the link to the video on my brand new Patreon Page!

Yes, I've finally jumped in and become a Patreon Creator. I haven't officially "launched" yet, and only have 4 posts, but I plan to turn it into a pumped up version of my blog, with more descriptive posts, helpful tips, and a variety of short (and long) videos. It's still a work in progress, but I wanted to give you, my faithful blog subscriber, this early chance to check it out. I'd love to hear what you think! (I'd love if you'd like to subscribe too and become one of my first Patreon Patrons!)


.

Warm Fuzzy #27 - Elysia

Warm Fuzzy #27 - "Elysia" (pastel, 7x5 inches) sold

I was able to get this one little demo done at the Carriage House Gallery on Thursday. (I started a bunny too, which will be my next post!)

Warm Fuzzy #11 - Calliope

"Calliope" (pastel, 5x4 inches) click here to bid or buy

I've decided to call my current Daily Paintings "Warm Fuzzies" because they're warm and fuzzy, and we all need more Warm Fuzzies right now, to help counteract the stress of social distancing. Read about it here!

This warm fuzzy is another sweet baby who lives next door. I caught a photo of this one as she wandered across our back yard.

Some photoshop adjustment turned this hazy thru-the-window shot into a vibrant reference!

original photo, out my studio window...

adjusted and cropped photo

Day 27 - Windsong

"Windsong" (pastel, 16x8 inches) on hold

Day 27 of my 31-in-31 of January! In the final stretch now!

This was a request from a client before Christmas. Finally getting to it. I showed her a few of my favorite fawn photos and she picked this pose. I like how it came out. I named her Windsong because it looks like she is listening to the wind.

Minuet

"Minuet" (pastel on primed Yupo, 7x5 inches) click here to bid or buy

My last demo from Montreal to be posted. She's a sweet little fawn from our neighborhood.

I've been watching flight prices to Australia, preparing for my string of workshops down there next summer. Hopefully will be buying my ticket soon! So exciting!

I'll be teaching near Coolangatta NSW, Adelaide SA, Melbourne VIC, and Devonport in Tasmania, as well as of course the Pastel Expo in Caloundra Queensland in September. I've got most of them listed on my website now, check it out if you've got Australia on your bucket list! Their late winter / early spring (August/September) is a cost-effective time to travel there, away from the more expensive seasons. I'll be down from early August to mid-September.

For you more home-bound USA folks, I'll be in Texas in January, and up the east coast (NC, VA, NH) next fall!

Hope to see you somewhere!

.