Peach tree

Labor Day weekend meant three days of painting! I worked on two paintings and this is the first one. The other one isn't done yet, and I can see a few things in this one that I'm going to tweak.

It's fruit again, but its still on the tree so technically this is not a still life. :) I have this wonderful, rickety old peach tree in my backyard that produces big juicy peaches that I hardly ever eat. No clue why because I love peaches.

I'm happy with this painting because it captures the light and movement in the leaves. I'm a little shocked to be honest, because I'm starting to get things down on canvas that are close to what I envision. In the beginning it was all a big crap shoot; I never knew what would happen and the paint definitely controlled me, rather then the other way around. It was very frustrating because I knew what I wanted to create but I couldn't do it. I guess all the painting books and magazines I've been pouring over for the past year are starting to actually make a difference.

Back to work tomorrow - ugh. Work is fine and I really have absolutely nothing to complain about, not to mention that it provides the means that allow me to have the studio and paint - but, still - ugh.

Revisting an older painting

I was looking at some of my paintings and this one always bugged me because the background was funky. So in the spirit of being "loose" and just having fun I started fooling with it on Sunday. One thing led to another and I ended up really changing the painting. I just used my imagination and enjoyed myself. I think the new one is more interesting and the difference in style between January (when I first painted it) and now is pretty drastic.

What do you think? Sorry that one of them is a little out of focus.

Laying It On Thick

I was back in the studio this weekend after a couple of weeks away. I went on vacation to Maine, which was fantastic, and didn't do any painting or drawing while I was there. Not sure why - I brought everything but I wasn't into it for some reason.

So yesterday I needed to paint something fun and loose to get back into the swing of things. Very different than the way I usually paint, but wanted to experiment with lots of paint and just laying it on thick. It really is a mess, and damn those leaves are uuuglly. I think it was good in that it helped me loosen up - but I did get a bit lost in what I was doing. I had a lot of fun just going crazy with the paint.

New York City Workshop

I just enrolled in a 5 day workshop in NYC with Karin Jurick - I'm so excited!! I think she is wonderful painter and I mentioned her in an earlier post. She started painting about 5 years ago and does it full time - she's an inspiration. I've also heard that her workshops are great.

The workshop combines 2 things that I love - NYC and painting. We will be taking photos around the city and then going back to the studio to paint. The workshop is being held at the National Academy which will also be very cool. I don't paint from photos, mainly because it would probably encourage me to be too exact and also you don't see the shadows and colors accurately. But Karin always paints from photos and she has somehow figured out how to overcome that.

I have almost a year to save the money for the outrageously expensive hotel (don't have one yet, but it is NYC so it comes with the territory) but it will be so much fun. New York is one of my favorite places.

Little Mr. Salt Chef Guy

Took a break from the fruit. This is a little salt shaker that I think my friend Nadia gave me years ago. I don't know what happened to the pepper (I have a lot of lonely shakers). This was so much fun to paint and I flew through it. I think I need to take more of a break from fruit.

Fruit is a great learning tool though because it is really challenging to capture the color and light.

I am trying to paint a lot of 4x6 panel paintings for the Lowell Open Studios at the end of September.

Have to figure out how to frame these.

I added a photo so you can see what my little still life set up is like. For some reason this cracks me up.