"Black Eyed Susan"

In case you didn't know this about me, I get up early in the morning. In order to get painting time in, I get up before 5 am. I worked on this painting again this morning. I was hoping to have time today to do a smaller painting for the painting a day thing, but that didn't happen. It is now technically Saturday, and the middle of the night. I woke up with a fussy teething baby and since I am now awake, I decided to post what I accomplished today to keep the trend going. As in the last image of this painting, I had a hard time getting a clear image- something to do with trying to photograph it in a dingy basement studio in the middle of the night.

"Three and One"

I wasn't thrilled with this painting this morning, but I like it better now. It reads better than I thought it did when I was working on it. This was a good exercise for me.

"Little Red"

I decided to post a few paintings out there today. I didn't do them all today, but I have done them or touched them up since starting this blog. Each of the pears below is 4x6 and I have them framed and hanging on my wall in the same order you see them. It is a nice little grouping.

"Black Eyed Susan"

Although I'd rather not post works in progress, I had to post this one since niether of my paintings from yesterday made the cuts.

"Laney Bray" SOLD

This is getting close to done. I really love the feel of this. I thought I'd have more time over vacation to paint... I really love using pastels for people. Especially feminine paintings because of the softness. My dad is amazing at pastel portraits.

"Laney Bray"

This is a work in progress. I haven't figured out the sideways glich. On my photo program these pictures were both upright.

"Studio"

Woops. A little sideways. I'm feeling a little sideways today. Its about time to clean my studio.

"Natalie"

I was really in the mood to paint a person today. I ran out of time (meaning my kids woke up) because I messed around with the face too much, but I think there is a nice gesture here. The skirt is kind of fun.

"Yellow on Plaid"

I got up early enough today that I decided to work on a big beach painting I'm doing. This painting was sort of an afterthought since I needed a break from the other one. I didn't have high expectations for this. As I was working on this I could almost hear my dad telling me not to mess around-- I had terrible lighting since one of my lamps tipped over and went out the other day; I was using a terrible brush, all my apples floating around the studio are getting old and mushy, and I knew my kids were going to wake up any second. Considering the circumstances, I thought this one turned out ok.

"New York Sky"

This summer I went with my family to Palmyra, New York. This scene was inspired from that trip. I also went to a gallery reception where the featured artist was doing simple landscape paintings that had square skies. I started this painting a few months ago, but got bogged down with the middle ground. I like this painting much better this morning that I did before, but I may clean it up a tiny bit. I primarily used a palette knife.

"Ripening of the Last Tomatoes"

My friend Mindie saved these garden tomatoes for me to paint because they were so fun.

"Old Friends"

I'll get a better picture tomorrow, but I really love how this one turned out. It is so nice when a piece comes together without getting overworked.

Dessert with the Delegates Event (my table)

So I did two paintings this morning, but I was really busy getting ready for this little event. I was pretty happy with my display, considering that 24 hours ago none of it existed except a few of the paintings. None were framed, most of the little ones were still part of a larger board that had to be cut, and all of the little pears needed tweaking a little since cutting them totally changed the composition. I'm pretty tired.

"Red Flowers on My Way Home"

This was a fun painting, but I was a little ambitious with the size. I'll probably work on it a little more. Tomorrow I'm doing another still life.

Day of Rest

No Painting today. I managed to paint one painting every day this week. Thank goodness for the time change and some tired boys.

"Main Street" SOLD

Tough painting today. Good thing I had extra time. Yesterday I came across a concept that I really like. It is to use brushstrokes conservatively and even count them. I started to count, but lost track. This is downtown Annapolis.

"Three's a Crowd"

Fun painting. The pear on the left kept falling down while I was painting it, so I had to prop it up eventually.

"Terra Cotta"

You westerners might appreciate the fascination I had with seeing bright green moss growing in the wood grain. In most places I've lived, there's no such thing as moss- unless it is on the top of a pond.

"Standing Out Above the Crowd"

I recently did a painting of a flower field that I absolutely loved. I used the palette knife a lot in that one, so this was sort of an experiment in control with the palette knife.

So I'm figuring out the blog stuff. I posted three paintings today, but I really have been finishing a painting every day this week. The bucket of apples that I finished Monday night was one I'd been working on for a few days. I consider this being on a roll.

"Yellow Apple on Colorful Fabric"

This was one of our beautiful crispin apples from the pumpkin patch. Its been sitting in my studio as inspiration for a couple of weeks, so I finally decided to shine a light on it and paint it.

"Bucket of Apples" SOLD

I took the photo for this painting some time during my undergrad years and I've painted it a few times. Its fitting that it is the opening painting for my new blog as it represents me getting serious about painting.

First Day of Blog

Today I'm starting my painting a day blog. This is exciting. It is my first step to get my art out there. Wish me luck.