New Years Art Resolutions, and my Blog is Moving!

 

"Park Trail #62" (pastel, 6x12 inches) bid or buy

 I wrote a really nice long inspirational New Years post today about painting more, and you can read it here! (or on my Patreon page.)

What I really want to say here is that my blog is moving! I'm retiring this location and continuing with the Daily Painting posts on my new website blog... 

(Update: Nah, don't go there either I decided not to use a website blog. Just go straight to my Patreon, EVERYTHING gets posted there!! 😃 And tons of free public posts to entertain you if you don't want to subscribe yet.)

But you can always find them also on my Patreon page, and on DailyPaintworks.

I won't delete this blog, I just won't post here any more. Thanks for being great fans! See ya around on the web in other places.

Happy New Year!

#1 of 21-in-31 "A Peaceful Morning Walk"

 

"A Peaceful Morning Walk" (pastel, 8x10 inches)

Available on my website unframed for a limited time. 

See progress pics here!

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!

Day 20 of 21-in-31: Wildflower Field #38

 

Day 20 of 21-in-31: "Wildflower Field #38" (pastel, 4x4 inches) bid or buy
Almost done with my 21-in-31 goal! This is the other little 4x4 I painted yesterday. This one is "Wildflower Field #38". There weren't really any flowers in this scene, but I felt like it was calling out for some delicate little pink blossoms!
I used almost the same pastels here that I used for yesterday's little park trail. In fact I painted them side by side.
See a quick progress video here!

Day 19 of 21-in-31: Park Trail #60

 

Day 19 of 21-in-31: "Park Trail #60" (pastel, 4x4 inches) bid or buy
3 paintings left in my 21-in-31 goal! So I felt like doing something quick and easy today. I pulled up a screen shot of some landscape pics and picked a couple at random and painted two little 4x4's. This one is "Park Trail #60". I liked a relatively cool palette for a change, but couldn't resist putting in a few tiny flowers!
See a quick progress video here!

Day 17 of 21-in-31: Sunlit Glade II

 

#17 of 21-in-31 this month "Sunlit Glade II" (pastel, 5x5 inches) bid or buy

I was in a landscape mood today so I finished (fixed, re-did, did-over) this little glade that I started as a February workshop demo.

It's sort of a sequel to "Sunlit Glade" and I gave it a similar kind of makeover. See a short video here showing how!

Wildflower Field #35

 

"Wildflower Field #35" (pastel, 7x9 inches) bid or buy here

This was the first of the three wildflower paintings I did in my "Wildflower Interpretations" Paint-Along earlier this month. This is on UArt paper, 400 grit, with an alcohol washed pastel underpainting.

 

I had fun creating this little one-minute speed video...

 

 

 

Become a Patron for access to the full-length Paint-Along video of all three variations, with reference photo and tons of painting tips! https://www.patreon.com/posts/51374213

 

 

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!

 

Wildflower Field #36

 "Wildflower Field #36" (pastel on Canson, 8x8 inches) bid or buy here

This is the second little painting from last Saturday's Paint-Along. This one on regular Canson Mi-Tientes paper in an olive green sort of color. I hadn't worked on Canson for quite a while. I had forgotten how softly subtle it can be. 

See some progress pics on my Patreon page here.

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!

Wildflower Field #37 - And an Important Announcement!

 "Wildflower Field #37" (pastel on hand-prepared board, 5x5 inches) buy here

This painting was the third (and my favorite) of three paintings in my last Paint-Along, "Wildflower Interpretations," where we tried out a field of wildflowers on various surfaces, and it was interesting to see how the surfaces affected the look of the paintings.

Watch a short speed video of this one on my Patreon page!

 

Now for 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!

 

Park Trail #53

 

"Park Trail #53" (pastel, 8x8, sold)

 

This one was my one landscape demo for the recent workshop with MidAmerica Pastel Society. I don't do a whole lot of landscapes, but when I do I just love painting pathways (as evidenced by the "#53" on this one ;) And I love dappled light through the trees.

 

I don't much enjoy tree trunks as a major subject however, so I kept these trunks simple. As usual in my work, it's more about the light!

 

I didn't quite finish this painting in the time I had allotted myself for the demo, so I finished it a few days later.

See some of the progress pics on this public Patreon post!

 

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Creek at Willow City Loop

"Creek at Willow City Loop" (pastel, 8x10 inches)

This was the first of my plein air paintings last week in Fredericksburg, during the AIS paint out. A die-hard plein air painter I am NOT! I worked around the general rainy-ness of the day by scoping out the creek area with my camera as a viewfinder first, then retreating to my car to paint my chosen viewpoint.

I sketched the composition from one of the photos, and was able to pretty much catch the the colors from the slightly higher angle of the same scene... It was a little awkward, but it worked, and I stayed dry!

Day 30 - Road Sketch #36

"Road Sketch #36" (pastel, 5x3 inches)

Day 30 of my 31-in-31 of January!

This is the utility easement at the back edge of the neighborhood next to mine. I like to walk there.

I did find one more 3x5 ancient landscape in my shelves that I was happy to turn into something more current. :)

Day 20 - Park Trail #49

"Park Trail #49" (pastel on Ampersand Pastelboard, 3x5 inches) $85 unframed for a limited time

Day 20 of my 31-in-31 for January!

...or maybe this one is my favorite!

Read about these little landscapes on this post.

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Day 19 - Park Trail #48

"Park Trail #48" (pastel, 2x3 inches, on Ampersand Pastelboard) $85 unframed for a limited time

Day 19 of my 31-in-31 paintings for January!

Read about these new little landscapes on this post.

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Day 18 - Park Trail #47

"Park Trail #47" (pastel, 3x5 inches, on Ampersand Pastelboard) $85 unframed for a limited time

Day 18 of my 31-in-31 Goal for January!

This one might be my favorite of the four I painted Friday. See yesterday's post to read about these little landscapes!

Right now I'm giving a workshop in Georgetown TX, and will post my demos next week.

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Day 17 - Park Trail #46

"Park Trail #46" (pastel, 5x3 inches, on Ampersand Pastelboard)  sold

Day 17 of my 31-in-31 for January!

I've been stressing this week because I couldn't seem to get ahead with these dailies, and I'll be away from home this weekend doing a workshop in Georgetown TX (still a couple spaces left if you want to splurge short notice and come! See here!)

So I prepped a few photos of simple things that would fit as some 4x6 or 5x7 paintings, and had planned to get my gears going and whip out a couple glass bottles, a rose, and some baby booties, but when I got to my studio, something moved me toward my overstuffed cabinet and some ancient little landscape paintings that had been unframed years ago and on a whim I decided to paint over them with something new.

icky old landscapes from 2005-ish

first I brushed them off

then I washed them off

then I glazed them with some transparent gold primer, just to warm them up

then i sketched in some new landscape compositions

then I primed in some mid-tone terra cotta

...and added some transparent ultramarine

(note: the gold and blue primers I mention are acrylic colors and/or inks mixed with a pumice gel or Art Spectrum clear pastel primer. The terra cotta is another Art Spectrum pastel primer, one of their opaque colors.)

Today I pasteled 4 of these new little landscapes, and will be scheduling posts for them over the weekend. Whew! Here's a couple shots of Park Trail #46 in development:

Here I worked off the thumbnail image of these trees and path - so as not to get too distracted by details!

Thanks for watching! Please share! 

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