Smith's Garden

I am plein air painting on the garden tour Sunday. There are six gardens and four artists, so I agreed to paint ahead some images from the other gardens. This is from the Smith's garden which has this amazing clematis which didn't work out when I tried to paint it, I am sure they wanted a painting of that maybe I can pull that off sometime today, probably not.

6 x 8 oil on canvas. 

LIttle Truck Without a Load

I illustrated a children's book. The story is a "Little Truck Without a Load" to find out more about it go to http://andreacrooksbooks.blogspot.com/

Horses at Shimek3

This is an acrylic painting. Today is one of those days that I did not want to mess with the solvents involved with oil and do not have a long uninterrupted time to work. To dilute the acrylic I use the medium made for thinning acrylics for spray painting.  I have a rough in of this in oil that I wanted to work on but did not have the time.

Sometimes trying to go in there and paint is hard. I know from past experience that it is only temporary. I  really don't have time to whine and be lazy. 

Changing mediums is one of the ways I cope. Different surfaces is another; Yupo paper was fun for a while. The first time I heard of it was an article in Artist magazine and at that time it was called Kimdura and it was much cheaper. Changing styles is another, even painting abstract.

My husband the framemaker seems to be in a slump now too. He just takes a break from it. His stems from his favorite wood shop shutting down. I need to find a great place to buy really cool boards and he will be reinspired.

6 x 8 acrylic on canvas panel

My Neighbors Iris

SOLD

I have irises in all purple and yellow. One of the neighbors had this beauty that I couldn't resist painting. 

7 x 10 watercolor on 140 lb. paper

Buckskin and Pale Palomino

SOLD

Another painting with the buckskin horse

6 x 12 oil on canvas on masonite panel.

I Think They're Blue Bonnets

I am painting at the local garden tour. This was painted from a photo of one of the gardens that will not have an artist on site. The painting will be displayed at the garden that day. The garden tour has been a fundraiser for the garden tour for over 20 years and I have participated at all of them. So you would think I know my flowers, no not this one. 

8 x 8 oil on Canvas on masonite panel.

Rodger's Garden

This morning I went to the park to paint and I wiped that off the canvas, sometimes I have to admit failure. Oh well it was a nice day to get out. 

The local art center has a garden tour as a fund raiser. Since they are short on artists this year I painted this from a photo of  Rodger's garden and plan to display the finished painting. He had this bountiful garden with herbs and many decorative paints in a very small area in a trailer court, thus the container planting. It turned out better than my plein air painting which got wiped off. 

I forced myself to use thalo blue. I wished there were recipes for colors and I could just Google the color and up would pop an exact measurement and pictures of the finished product.

6 x 8 oil on canvas on masonite.

Buckskin Horse at Shimek

I took pictures of this horse last year. He has made it into several of my paintings, very photogenic.

6 x 8 oil on canvas on masonite to bid click here

Quarter Horse at Shimek

On my way back from the rose garden I stopped along side of the road and took this picture. There were three horses in the pasture and usually they are too busy eating to pay attention to me, but the knats were so bad they were walking around swishing their tails and shaking thier heads.

8 x 6 oil on canvas on masonite panel to bid click here

Plein Air painting at the Bentonsport Rose Garden

I did go down to Bentonsport's rose garden and painted today. The roses were in full bloom and some past. Bentonsport attracts many tourists and some stopped and commented on my painting. The last time I was there a couple stopped by and the man said "I've seen better". He said he was an art teacher but was currently an administrator. I admit that painting was not going well, but that is how it works when you paint on site for anyone to see. I suspect he is afraid to try painting on site and risk anyone seeing his failures.

The first plein air competition I entered was in downtown Iowa City. I recieved a mass email about the competition, this was before everyone had a web site with the details. I decided to enter but did not know the exact details and the sponsoring gallery was not open at 7 in the morning. I set up in the middle of busy dowtown Iowa City across from the pedestrian mall; all the time telling myself I can do this. I painted all day but only saw one other artist. Several people stopped and commented but nothing discouraging. This is a university town and I am sure much better artists passed by. I dropped the painting off  but never made it to the opening reception. I later found out that I could have painted in the nearby parks, but it did not matter as I won first place and sold the painting. It does pay to put yourself out there.

6 x 8 oil on canvas on masonite panel. to bid click here

During the month of June I have an exhibit with two other artists, Carroll Michalek and Gin Lammert.

Below are two of the paintings in the exhibit.

SOLD

Rock Wall

I stopped at a rest area and this caught my eye. 

6 x 6 oil on Ampersand panel.

Peony no 5

SOLD

Next Sunday I will be joining my fellow artists at the Bonaparte Rose garden, so this will be the last peony for this year.

6 x 9 watercolor on 140 lb. paper matt included.

Pink Peonies no4

This started with a blue ground and the light areas wiped out. 

There are a few peonies left, just when I am starting to get the hang of it. Next Sunday I am going plein air painting in a rose garden and hoping for lots of great subject matter. 

6" x 8" oil on canvas on masonite panel.

Peony no 2 in watercolor

This is a previous peony painting in watercolor. Watercolor was my first medium. I still love playing with the medium to get those wonderful washes.

To bid click here

Rabbit no 6

Just playing with some left over paint.

6 x 8 oil on canvas

Pink Peonies

I love the challenge of painting the complicated petals and the lovely pinks. 

8 x 6 oil on canvas on masonite panel.

Pink Peony no2

Another peonie, seems I can't get them out of my head, sort of like a song. 

6" x 8" oil on canvas on masonite. 

Pink Peony in Pastel

This is another entry in the Daily Paintworks challenge. 

10 x 14 pastel on le card pastel paper

Pink Peony in oil

This is the previous subject only in oil. I painted it for the Daily Paintworks challenge to paint the same subject in two different ways, colors, surroundings, size or medium. The first one is in watercolor in a 10 x 14 format. This one is in oil in a 6 x 8 format. To bid at auction click here

Pink Peony

My peonies are in bloom. These flowers usually have ants on them so it is not a good idea to pick them and use in a still life. I have done that in the past. 

10 x 14 watercolor on 300 lb. paper To bid click here

Sketch for Pink Peonie. Very light pencil sketch. This is a complicated flower and I don't always stay in the lines. Most of my watercolor sketches start out with a basic idea of how I want it laid out.