TIMED VISUAL EXERCISE-"TURNING LEAF"

Yesterday, our Thursday painting group, "Muses Mix Media" did a very interesting exercise in oil. We set up a still life in the middle of the room that looked pretty good from any angle and then covered it up. We had 2 wine glasses (different), and Turning Leaf wine bottle and 4 corks. After setting up our oil paint...s, etc., we uncovered the still life and stared at it for 10 minutes, trying to memorize the details, the spatial relationships, the shapes, and the colors the best we could. When the 10 minutes were up, we covered the still life and began the painting. We painted for 1 hour before we uncovered the still life. It was amazing how well everyone did. I am posting the painting after 1 hour and then the finished painting which I completed last evening.

Keys Rooster on YUPO

This is the latest experiment on YUPO paper.  This is the same rooster I did a palette knife painting of in oil and is from a photo taken by my friend Deb Holmes in the Florida Keys.  Deb is an excellent photographer and is so kind to give me permission to paint from her pictures.  This painting is 6"x8" and is watercolor on YUPO.

"ELEPHANT'S LAMENT"

This is today's experiment in painting on YUPO.  I call it "Elephant's Lament" because it appears the elephant is expressing emotion.  The background texture was created by laying textured rubber shelf lining on a wet-in-wet wash (indian red, burnt sienna and yellow ochre) on the YUPO paper to create the textures.  I then layered a wet wash of turquoise on the top and tipped the paper to allow the blue paint to run down into the textured background.  I then developed the elephant and detail from the patterns revealed in the patterns.

Relic 2...Fireballs

This is the third experiment in YUPO and the second in the Relic series. This is watercolor on YUPO paper.   Once again, the inspiration was from sketches from North American petroglyphs and I was experimenting with textures on YUPO.  This is very 'freeing' for me and a lot of fun!  This color scheme is a tetradic color scheme and I did it from the paint I had left over from the tetradic painting which I posted earlier on this blog...blue-violet, red-orange, blue-green, and yellow-orange.

"VISIONARY"

Well, this is the second installment in YUPO exploration.  I experimented with another texture stamp on this one.  As you can see, I am still fighting the "tight" virus - abstract? Yes! Tight? Yes!  Oh well - I'll keep on trying!  I think this one sort of looks like it belongs in the '60's!

"RELIC" on YUPO

I have been experimenting with some abstract expressionism on YUPO paper.  I call this one "Relic" because I used some sketches I made of petroglyphs when in Ontario, Canada, as my inspiration.  You might say that this is still me working at the experimental stage with watercolor on YUPO - but I decided to go ahead and start posting my efforts so that you can follow my progress (or non-progress) with me.  This is 8" x 6".

Tetradic Color Schemes

I painted this for the April project for Watercolor Workshop group.  The challenge for this month is to select a tetradic color scheme from the color wheel.  The tetrad I selected was blue-violet, red-orange, yellow-orange, and blue green. I mixed the 4 colors in 4 small plastic souffle cups. I did a simple sketch and when painting it, I tried to keep the colors as pure as possible, only mixing the colors together in order to make shadows and the color for the floor and the leaves of the plants..  I lifted paint for the highlights.  This was a very interesting project and it opened my eyes to all kinds of new possibilities.

Emmanuel Lutheran Church, Montra, Ohio

The Muses painted together yesterday afternoon minus one of us, Patty, who was undergoing breast cancer surgery.  Patty came through the surgery very well and I think our prayers had more than a little to do with that.  It is also appropriate that we were painting at Rose's church and I know our prayers were heard.

Montra is located about 2 miles from where I live and is a very little town located on 3 hills in the middle of the western Ohio flatlands - thus the name - Montra - after the French word for mountain.  These are hardly mountains, but Montra does stand a little higher than the rest of the landscape.

This painting is painted on an 8"x10" canvas panel and was painted en plein air in about 3 1/2  hours.  One of those hours was here at home last night just pulling things together.  The wind was blowing pretty strongly yesterday and my canvas did a lot of bouncing and moving around.   It was a lovely, spiritual afternoon.

Three Interpretations of the Redbud Tree

AutumnLeaves requested to see all three versions of the redbud tree...Your wish is my command - these are the three versions of the redbud tree - as you can see - Patty's - the middle one- is not yet completed but you can see how each of us interpreted it with our different painting styles.  Michelle painted the top version.

Oil Painting at Patty's House

I painted yesterday afternoon at my friend Patty's house - her beautiful redbud tree.  Three of us painted the tree and we all had very different results.  It never ceases to amaze me that painters can start with the same subject and come up with such different results.

This oil painting is 8" x 10" and is painted on a canvas panel.  The weather was beautiful and there is nothing like the spirit you have when painting with good friends.

YUPO Tuesday with an Old Friend

Donna Clark

I spent last Tuesday afternoon, dinner and evening with my friend Donna Clark who is the YUPO painter with the "mostest!"  She started out by demonstrating some of her techniques to creat texture and then went on to composition.  It was all so very interesting.  Then we went to dinner and when we came back I attempted my own painting - one that had interesting texture in the flowers, but was way too tight for a YUPO painting - I have a LOT to learn yet!  Below is my hydrangea painting - which is not a great painting, but I was very happy with the texture on the flowers themselves.  The texture was created with one of her rubber stamps.  Now if I can only find one of those for myself!  :)

Thanks, Donna!

Muses Visit the Dayton Art Institute

On Wednesday, March 31st, our Thursday painting group, the Muses Mix Media, visited the Dayton Art Institute to view the California Plein Air Painters Show. It was spectacular! Such an impressive show! After the show we ate lunch at the Cafe Monet before leaving for home. We had a wonderful time and lunch was delicious, too. Our server was kind enough to take our picture.

Fox Island Adventure

Our painting group, Muses Mix Media, painted en plein aire today at Fox Island at Indian Lake State Park.  It was a lovely day and we had a wonderful time.  It was windy, so we took refuge behind the restroom building, out of the wind.  I was situated under the "women" sign - it was so apropos since we were a group of women painting:)  What fun!  My painting started with an underpainting of burnt sienna which I then painted over with thicker paints.  No knife painting this day!