Complimentary Quarters

Yay!!  I started and finished a new daily painting yesterday!!!  Yay!

Complimentary Quarters.
6×6. oil on panel.

Click to Bid here!

It has been nearly 3 months since I have had dedicated time for painting.
I can hardly believe 3 months summer vacation has flown by with home and studio projects here.   But all the labor is painting off with a studio that is starting to come together.  I still have plenty of work to do in there, but I have dedicated work space, dedicated lights, and room enough (I hope) .   Space enough to open up my small Easy-L easel and get some fresh painting mixed on a small study.  A chance to renew dedicated paint space and times.  Yay!!!

Moments later… my six-year-old wants to share and paint with mommy – the real paint, too. Hmph.
My son declared this past week that my studio was too small and had no room for him to paint.  So yesterday’s morning started out slow reconfiguring still life and joint paint space for the two of us.  In the pinch, I resorted to using a set stool for his easel set up.

Painting and teaching my six-year-old at the same time, not so much.  Left brain/ bright brain…Teach or paint, not both in same space / time.  I can demo sketching and roughing in the painting for him.  So I set to instruct him in minors ways and come back to try painting later in the evening.  Accurate paint mixing requires a dedicated right brain activity, to which does not respond well to the chatter.

After bath time routine, I did manage to sneak away to my studio.  I wiped off the panel, sketched a fresh composition, and set to mixing fresh clean paint.  These are what I managed, sketches, painting… etc.
Happy start on daily painting here…  second start for the day to end the day.

Spring Break Inspirations

Well it’s hump day of our spring break here.
Since my Easy-L tripod is in the shop for repairs I am limited to painting at home this week. So I started looking for fun painting inspiration here at home.   A good day for peanut butter sandwiches and painting!

Still life for lunch.

Course lunch time can not be missed, and must be served on the favorite blue plate with rectangle sandwiches. ~for fear of the tummy monster might unexpectedly visit.

Thus today, I found inspiration in my son’s lunch. 🙂
After scraping my palettes, I laid out fresh clean paint.  2 yellows, 2 blues, 2 reds. Specifically: cad red light and cad red medium and white.  I laid out my under painting with a wash mixture of cad red light and violet (alizarin & ultramarine).  Then borrowing a few notes from a recent workshop with Carol Marine I set to painting islands and oceans of clean grays.

Easy-L palette at work.

Turns out it made a great complimentary study.  Yes, Blue and Orange or opposites on the color wheel.

I think I had just as much fun painting the bread and crusts of the sandwich as I did defining the orange.   It was a good painting hump-day indeed.