What's on the Easel?

Well, there just aren't enough hours in the day! I got up earlier than usual today, which isn't all that early, really, and after breakfast I got to work on the M painting. I wanted to get the Mask painted, a first pass. I love the expression on its face, and wanted to be accurate in the face's proportions. I know it really doesn't matter for the painting if I get the face exactly right, because it's not a real person that you would notice wrong proportions, but I'm an observational painter and I like to be accurate. I need to let go of that with this face! Also, my colors aren't right yet. I see so many colors in this bland, neutral mask, and I'm sometimes exaggerating them, and sometimes making them too mushy and chalky. (Sorry I forgot to take a progress picture at this point.) I stopped for lunch and decided to go for my walk. We are having a major wind storm today, so even though the temperature was mild, it was so windy that walking was kind of cha...

Well, I didn't get very much done today, because after my walk I had a delightful visit from my only long-term private student, who came to my house after school for an hour a week lesson from age nine to eighteen. She's now 24 and lives far away, but was home for a visit. It was great to see her! So today wasn't really a painting day, but I did do a little. I mainly worked on the mask and the area around it, but wasn't able to finish it before I ran out of time. I'm sneaking up on the eyes, which kind of scare me, but the mouth and nose seem to be OK.  I'm hoping to be able to get into this tomorrow and really concentrate on it! Thanks for reading! Click the image for a larger view

Well, I overestimated being able to cover the whole canvas today! I started working this morning, got some piles of paint mixed up and the rest of the still life sketched in, and started working on the mirror tray and its shadows. Suddenly I felt exhausted. I had been working longer than I thought and realized I was hungry. So I had lunch and went for a walk. When I got back, it was around 3. I got back to work, and continued painting until after 6. Still didn't cover all the white, though. I had left milk in the Mr. Peanut cup for two days, and this morning, I was horrified to see that it had turned into what looked like yogurt! High and fluffy and mounded over the top of the cup! I dumped it down the drain and washed the cup. It was NOT yogurt, and I didn't taste it, don't worry. The white you see in the painting is just the canvas that I haven't gotten to. There was nothing in the cup today! Maybe tomorrow I'll manage to cover the rest of the canvas, and then I c...

I only worked on this for about an hour this morning and another hour this afternoon, after I got back from my volunteer shift at the library. I retired from my full-time job at the library in 2021, but I missed it, so I've been doing "pick list" for two hours every Friday afternoon, pulling books that people have put on hold and processing them for transfer or pickup. I really enjoy my two hours a week in the stacks, it's just enough! I want to approach this painting with a fresh eye and not fall into bad habits of using dirty paint, or not enough paint. So as soon as I started feeling tired, I stopped for the day. This is as far as I got: I painted the light pink money and started to indicate the silver tray and its shadow. I also painted the Mammoth and indicated where the Mr. Peanut cup will be.  Tomorrow is Saturday with no commitments and a forecast of yucky weather overnight, so I hope to be able to work on this and hopefully get most of the white canvas covere...

Merry Christmas, to those who celebrate! For me, it's just a quiet Thursday. But after weeks of fiddling with my setup, I finally got to work painting my "M" still life, next in the alphabet in my series, "Still Life A-Z". I've been gathering the objects, all starting with the letter M: Maple syrup Mask of Poseidon Map of Mt. Desert Island, Maine Moss in a Mauve pot Milk in a Mr. Peanut cup Macarons Mammoth Mirror tray M&Ms Melissa’s Monopoly Money Magenta cloth I've also just ordered a greeting-card size reproduction of Matisse's "Dance", to go on the wall to the left of the Mask - I may or may not put it in. Here is a photo of my setup: I measured out and lightly painted the halves and quarters of my blank 24" x 24" canvas. Looking through my viewfinder (a very well-used and much-loved ViewCatcher ), I started sketching the composition with thin gray paint. But I was having a lot of trouble - holding the ViewCatcher up and l...

  "Milk, Milk Glass, and Macarons", oil on linen panel, 8" x 10" I have painted these objects before, many years ago, so I thought it would be fun to paint them again. I've been in a class with  Erin Raedeke  about finding color in whites. Also, I'm getting ready to start my "M" painting, part of my Alphabet series, " Still Life A-Z ". These objects will be in my M painting, along with a bunch of other things that start with the letter M. One of my favorite painters, and a big influence on me, Janet Fish, passed away on December 11 at the age of 87. I was thinking of her as I painted this. Check out her work at  https://janetfish.net/ For comparison, here is the other painting I've done with these objects. (Actually, I think it was a different glass, but similar.) This old one is 6" x 8". I think I did it around 2008, when I was doing a small painting every day for a while. Milk Glass/Glass of Milk, 2008, oil on board, 6...

  White Crane on White Damask with Snow, oil on linen panel, 8" x 8" I placed a white origami crane on a white damask tablecloth in front of the window with a little snow outside. Started out overcast but the sun came out, which I indicated a little bit on the snow, but then the sun came in the window and I had to stop rather than change the whole painting. The next day it was overcast again, so I was able to go back into it and refine some things. I don't feel that this is all that successful, but it was fun trying to get this challenging setup. Working on the many colors that appear in all-white objects, depending on the light.

  House Across the Street, oil on panel, 12" x 9" I made one important change to this painting - I darkened the tree trunk on the right. I think this helps to create space between the viewer and the house.

This is a painting I did for Erin Raedeke's zoom class, "Finding Colors in White" (or is it Finding Color in Whites?) I'm enjoying pushing my understanding of cool and warm colors, something I've never been very conscious of. In this little painting, I tried to tease out the subtle differences in the different whites - the tabletop, the edge of the table in shadow, the pages of the little book, and the sides of the book. The only surface that isn't white is the vertical gray piece of paper that the book is in front of. As always, I love light and shadow on different surfaces and planes. Small Sketchbook, 10" x 8", oil on linen panel