Amaryllis

This painting was a joy to complete. It is so bright and cheerful. The colors range from deep dark red to brilliant orange.

Amaryllis
16 x 20
acrylic on canvas

A Walk in the Woods

A Walk in the Woods
30" x 40"
acrylic on canvas

I have finally completed this painting after taking time off to stay with my mother after her heart surgery. I have added a lot of texture with just a little hint of a path through the woods.

Amaryllis

I am having so much fun painting this flower from life. It changes everyday so I will have to paint it quickly before the bloom fades.

I am painting it in the fashion of Georgia O'Keeffe, who is one of my favorite artists.

This painting is 16 x 20 and is painted with acrylics.

Distractions

Progress on my paintings has suffered these last two weeks due to distractions that are just part of daily life. On January 10th as I was painting on "A Walk In the Woods" we had a storm that knocked out the power for a few hours. I was in the middle of painting the foreground foliage and suddenly no power. I had to put away my paints and clean my brushes by candle light. I decided to let the painting dry for a few days.

My next distraction was a good one, I sold two paintings on ebay. This is not usually a distraction, but I discovered that if I could be out of a supply item used in shipping a painting, I was out of it. My printer was out of ink, so I couldn't print the COA. The price of the printer cartridge I used had gone up so much, it was more economical for me to buy a new printer. So then it was necessary for me to install a new printer.

Next, I needed to purchase a box large enough to ship a large painting. The company I usually buy my boxes from had moved, but I finally located them only to find out that they no longer make the size box I needed. This forced me to have to cut two boxes down and create a single box out of them. More time expended figuring this out.

Then to top it all off, the store where I usually buy styrofoam sheets to create packing crates for the paintings was out of them. I had to quickly rethink my shipping procedures and used the pink insulation foam product that is about twice the price of styrofoam.

Lesson learned from this distraction is that I need to restock my supplies before I list my paintings on ebay. What should have taken one afternoon, turned into a three day ordeal.

On Friday, I was excited to see that the Amaryllis bulbs, my friend Kathy gave to me for Christmas, were in full bloom. They are just sooooo beautiful, I just could not resist painting them. So I have started a new work featuring one of these large blossoms.

I will get back to painting the woods after I get my fill of painting these plants. It is incredible having them pose for me in such bright living color.

WIP - A Walk in the Woods

Yesterday, I added detail to the middle ground trees, painted in the leaves and blocked in the foreground large trees. Today, I will be considering the color for the bark of the foreground trees. I was originally planning to paint them as aspens with their dramatic black and white trunks, but on further consideration, the white trunks will focus your eyes away from the path that leads into the woods. In the reference photo I am using, there is no path and the trees are aspens. But since I want to walk into those woods, I added the path. It creates a dilemma. Since I need to fill in the middle ground foliage under the trees, I will do it first so that I can get a clearer idea about what color the foreground trees should be and define the central focus of the painting.

WIP - A Walk in the Woods

I have started the second tier of trees - the middle ground by blocking in the dark color of the leaves. I will go back and add some sky peeking through, add some limbs, and highlights to the leaves today. Since this is a large painting, 30 x 40 inches, I find that doing each layer in steps helps to get an overall feeling of depth on the painting. I will also be adding a layer of middle level undergrowth foliage, and maybe an old tree fallen along the path.

Unfortunately today, I have also scheduled myself to put away the Holiday decorations. Housekeeping is not one of my strong qualities. Maybe I will have time to do it between drying times. Hm mm...sounds like a good plan to me.

WIP - A Walk in the Woods

My current "work in progress" is tentatively titled, A Walk in the Woods.

The painting depicts early autumn trees (there is still green in the color of the leaves) from the perspective of someone standing at the edge of a forest and getting ready to walk down a path that leads into a wooded area.

I have just finished the background trees. I plan to have three levels of trees, background, middle ground and foreground. I will be working on the middle ground trees today. I am a little obsessed about this painting and feel nervous about taking the next step with the trees.