"Wildflowers" from Karen Margulis Paint-Along, and what I did after

 

"Wildflowers" from Karen Margulis Paint-Along (pastel, 8x12 or 8x10 if cropped)
(And my 16th of 21-in-31 paintings this month!) bid or buy
Ok, here's one I tweaked pretty dramatically. I painted along with Karen Margulis during her Pastel Live demo... Karen was just so FAST! It was hard to keep up.  My original 1-hour painting to Karen's demo came out ok I guess, but much looser than I'm used to and it just looked kinda messy to me.
So I went at it today, using all kinds of methods I've learned from a variety of instructors lately (and some stuff I just made up, lol.) Really I was just playing with it to see what would happen. It's still messy and loose, but I like the spacing of the flowers better now. Anyway, I had fun making marks so that's what's important!
See a GIF of the changes here!

"Bird of Paradise" from Lyn Dieffenbach Paint-Along

 "Bird of Paradise from Lyn Dieffenbach Paint-Along" (pastel, 6x8 inches) bid or buy
(Also, #15 of my 21-in-31 August goal!)
My friend Lyn Dieffenbach was one of the faculty for Pastel Live 2022, and on Saturday I was feeling energized enough to try painting along to some of the demos, including Lyn's! Read about how I met Lyn, and peek at a couple of her 2007 plein air landscapes, here!

#10 of 21-in-31 "Busy Bee Mini"

 

#10 of 21-in-31 "Busy Bee Mini" (pastel, 4x4 inches) bid or buy

I pasteled FOUR little minis at today's Virtual Open Studio! Here's the last one first because my son likes it best.

The Episode 115 video is still in editing, but will be posted soon for Muses and Buddies! Meanwhile, enjoy this speed video!

Mother's Day Rose

 

"Mother's Day Rose" (pastel, 8x6 inches) bid or buy

Happy Mother's Day! Here's a fresh rose (painting, that is) for you on this lovely day!
Also to be my painting #3 of my 21-in-31 goal for May!
See a quick GIF here!

Day 16 of 30 - Little Honey

Day 16 of 30 paintings in June - "Little Honey" (pastel, 6x6 inches)

The star of this month's paint-along! I was staying at a house in Kerrville Texas a couple years ago, and there was this huge prickly pear bush at the end of the driveway, in full bloom and a haven of honeybees. So many bees I could hear them humming from yards away! The morning light was glorious.

I caught tons of pics on those mornings, and have been able to paint four or five of these little bee paintings from the collection.

For a $10 pledge on Patreon, you can gain access to the full-length Paint-Along video and many others!

See some progress pics of Little Honey, extracted from the video, on this Public Patreon post!

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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!

"Busy Bee" Paint-Along, June 12

 

June 12, 1pm Central Time on Zoom - “Busy Bee" Paint-Along!

$20
Honey Bees love lazy summer days! Come and paint Bees with us on Saturday June 12 at 1pm CDT 🐝

Register EARLY to have time to prep your drawing! I will send you the Zoom invitation, the reference photo, some surface prep info, and tips that include alternative underpainting methods in case you don't have what I use.

I will be using pastel with an acrylic-based underpainting, but you can use the medium of your choice. I've had some attendees enjoy use oil, acrylic, pastel pencil, and even watercolor with my paint-alongs. It’s whatever you want to make of it!

All registrants will receive a link to the video a few days later.

Register here! https://www.ritakirkman.com/workshop/27077/busy-bee-paint-along-online

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And in case you missed the last post, I need to tell you... an IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT!

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 next 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 (like the one linked above!) 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!

Hovering

"Hovering" (pastel, 7x5 inches) $265 framed

I've been practicing for my demo at the IAPS Convention, less than 3 weeks away now! I'll be showing off my assembly-line approach to Daily Painting. I got four under-paintings done today in 50 minutes. Tomorrow I'll see how many of them I can pastel in an hour...

under-paintings

Might have to pick some simpler subjects for the actual demo. Perhaps I'll include a bee!

Meanwhile, these new little paintings this week will be with me at the Texas Masters Invitational Fine Art Show & Sale, next weekend, May 24-26 at the Y.O. Ranch Hotel, Kerrville, Texas. Come enjoy your holiday weekend in the Texas Hill Country!

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Buzz

"Buzz" (pastel, 5x7 inches) $265 framed

I've had little time to paint this month, somehow caught up with all sorts of other tasks. I got this one done on Tuesday, my studio assistant's morning to come and help with framing, glass cutting, board priming and other miscellaneous stuff. I like her studio days because it gives me the excuse I need to actually get out there and do something!

I'm also really enjoying these bees. Wish I had a lot more reference pics; the few good ones I have will be used up pretty quickly... maybe I could combine them with other flowers... hmmm.

Buzz will be with me at the Cottonwood Art Festival in Richardson, TX (Dallas), next weekend, May 4 & 5, 2019.

Caught a few progress pics of this one:

Thanks for reading! Please share!

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Day 22 - Busy

"Busy" (pastel, 5x5 inches) click here to bid or buy

Happy Thanksgiving, Y'all!
This is day 22 of my 30 Paintings in 30 Days of November.

I REALLY enjoyed this one! I have a bunch of great sots of busy bees hovering around a blooming cactus from earlier this year. Finally decided to use one.

Hope your Thanksgiving is busy, but not stressful, and don't forget a little Honey on your biscuits!

Thanks for watching! Please share!

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Cactus Blossom #3

"Cactus Blossom #3" (pastel, approx. 12x9 inches) click here to bid or buy

This was my first warm-up last weekend at The Painter's Cabin in Kerrville. There was a glorious prickly pear cactus growing right by the road, resplendent with flowers and bees (bees not shown.) It caught my eye immediately so I decided to make a part of it my first painting of the weekend.

I've only done two other cactus flowers, those were waaaay back in 2004... Both were done on the rough side of Canson, on red, and black, respectively.

"Cactus Blossom #1" (pastel, 12x9, 2004) sold

"Cactus Blossom #2" (pastel, 12x9, 2004) available

I believe this one was done on a pale gray Pastelmat.

 Pastel under painting washed in with water..

Thanks for watching! Please share!

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Rose

"Rose" (pastel, 8x6 inches) click here to bid or buy

This was another (relatively) quick little plein air during the Albert Handell workshop, after painting a house across the street from the rose garden. (Stay tuned for tomorrow's post!) This was an unusually fresh (for me) watercolor underpainting before I covered just about all of it up with pastel, darn it! I still kinda like it though. At least I got shots of the underpainting...

Thanks for reading! Please share!

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The Fairy Rose - First Place Portrait

"The Fairy Rose" (pastel, 9x12 inches) $1350

I'm happy to announce that The Fairy Rose has won the prize for First Place Portrait at the Austin Pastel Society Annual Juried Exhibition.

The show remains up through May 1, 2016, at the Chase Bank Building Corridor of Art, 700 Lavaca Street, Austin TX. It can also be viewed online at Flickr HERE.

Koi #12

"Koi #12"  (pastel, 8x8 inches)  $275 framed

Here's another good demo-in-photos!