Painting an Heirloom - Motivation Monday

Painting an Heirloom

I love painting furniture,

so last week I painted a piece that's been in my family

for years,

and the scene has also been

 rolling around in my brain for years.

 

This is a cedar chest my uncle who is 87, made for my mom when he was in high school.

My mom would have been 90, so this piece is about

 70 years old.

We had a huge rain storm 2 weeks ago and water got in our basement where this has been.

So, I thought it was a perfect time to take it out to my studio

and get started on it.

So after all the sucking up water with shop vacs, carpet cleaning, removing and replacing baseboards, and running industrial fans for 72 hours,

I emptied it out and we took it out to my studio.

I had it sitting up on a table so it was almost at eye level.

 

It's a large cedar chest and I cannot remember a time this wasn't in my home. 

 My mom gave it to me about 70 years ago when she moved to Florida.

 It has been painted all sorts of colors over the last 70 years or so.

 

 And here is a close up of the finished product.

I guess this proves that we're never too old to be useful.

We're never too old to try something new.

We're never too old to shine!

And this 70 year old cedar chest does shine!

If you would like to learn to paint in acrylics?

Click HERE to go to my website,

scroll down to the bottom and sign up for the FREE Daisy Painting Class. 

Thanks for stopping by today!

Happy Motivation Monday to ya!

 

 

Day 20 - Lakyn Picking Asparagus

Day 20 - Lakyn

Picking Aspragus

Lakyn came to stay with Papa and Grammy this past spring and while here she fed bunnies and chickens, gathered eggs, picked berries and this asparagus.

She is a sweet little girl

and loves getting bunnies out to pet.

Only 10 more days in the 30 in 30 and I'm beat.  

These figure paintings are killing me.

But I have learned a ton and am thinking all the time on what to paint next.

 Blogaversary Update

I put a page on my blog about my blogaversary

with pics of what I'm giving away

and everything you need to know to win a paintings or an online art course. 

Click HERE to see that page.

 

Extension Art

The Art of Extension

The Carroll County Extension Agents are having a celebration

for 100 years in extension and they asked me to help them by painting them a tree.

This tree is going to be part of their timeline,

as they place leaves on the tree for agents, 4-h'er's and volunteer leaders.

If you have served in the Carroll County, KY area of 4-h in any form,

you should drop by this week and put your leaf of the tree.

The tree is starting to take shape.

It's on two sheets of 4'x8' plywood covered with batting and flannel.

 Working on putting in some grasses at the bottom.

 The trees branches will form the timeline for 100 years of Extension.

 Checking it out to see if we're even sort of symmetrical.

Working on the highlights.

The tree is mostly black with some other colors thrown in for some depth.

Then I highlighted with cad yellow, cad orange, burnt sienna, Indian yellow and hookers green.

Adding lots of distant branches and limbs so you can hang lots of leaves on it.

Here's the finished tree.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today.

Finishing and Photographing a Painting

Finishing and Photographing a Painting

Painting is problematic enough without having to deal with the intricacies of photographing it, with all that entails.  It is sometimes bizarre if not frustrating and maddening the results we get and are forced to live with once the painting is completed.

That brings up a whole nother (I know that's not a word) topic.

Is a painting ever really finished?

If you like it, it's probably finished.

But, if you've never really been happy with it,

then, you can bet it's not really finished.

In fact, it may never be finished.

I struggled with these two issues on this particular painting.

Is it finished

and

getting a good photograph of it if it is finished.

This is a 20" x 16" acrylic on a canvas.

I completed at least a year ago, but was never really happy with it.

I took this photograph in natural light and it is a fair representation.

This month I'm working on my own art education so I'm taking several online or DVD classes at home and if I have time re-working some paintings I'm not happy with. 

This one was OK, but I just wasn't pleased.

So I reworked it and now I want to show you how we artists suffer for our art,

(are you crying yet)?

This was taken in natural light.

I like the painting better after a few tweaks, but the photograph doesn't really represent the actual colors in the painting.

I broke every rule in the "photographing your lovely painting book",

yet, it is much closer to the actual painting.

I used artificial light (I know you're gasping),

I had light coming from every direction, (you're feeling whoozy)

it's on an easel so it's not exactly straight up and down,

(please don't faint).

But here it is looking much more like the real painting.

I know lots of you struggle with getting a good photograph of your paintings,

(I'm not talking to you Meredith)

but this just goes to show you, that even if you do all the right things, some times the wrong things work out better in the end.

Mountain Path 

20" x 16" unframed acrylic on a canvas panel

$200 + $15 shipping

Now just in case you're still with me, here's how I tweaked the painting.

Starting with the mountains, I warmed them up.  Using a mix of every warm color on my palette and some white to opaque it, I reshaped the tops of all those small rocks on the right and added some of the same mix without the white on the front sides of  some of the rocks in the back and almost all the rocks in front.  I also added more of a mix of dioxazine purple, ultramarine blue and burnt sienna in the cracks and creases to give better depth.

I completely re-worked the dead tree in the foreground making it about the twice the size it was and warming up the front and add more shadow on the back side.

I  added one more pass of highlight on the fir tree in the foreground on the right and the one on the left closest to the dead tree.  I also highlighted the spruce on the right again.

Finally, I took pure color to jazz up the flowers along the path and in the corners.\

Don't know about you, but I'm much happier now. (You want me happy!).

It only took about an hour.

Day 10 Back Gate

Day 10 Back Gate

Living in the country is wonderful,

until you are snowed in, froze in, rained in,

and on and on it goes.

We have had a  lot of snow this season and trying to make sure animals are fed

is pretty critical.

We stage some hay up by this back gate to make it easier to get it in the field for the sheep and the goats.

The Back Gate is fun to play and climb on in the summer,

but in the winter, well you don't want to stick your tongue on it, ya know.

Many kids have climbed on this gate and fed goats and sheep on the other side, 

we've used it as a backdrop for family photos,

and sat on it just to watch the animals and the sun go down.

I haven't painted a landscape during this whole challenge,

but I could no longer resist.

I painted this in my mind several times before I actually picked up a brush,

so when I did get in front of my easel,

I knew exactly how to do it.

I even dreamed about this,

so, I knew I had to paint it.

Back Gate

6" x 6" unframed acrylic on a panel

$50 + $6 shipping.

Mudlark Gallery Closing

A Local Gallery Closing

It's really hard to run a small business,

but it's really hard if that business is an art gallery.

Mudlark Pottery and Fine Art Gallery

in Warsaw, KY. is now closed and I went to collect my art today.

These are some of my favorite paintings so I thought I'd give you a look.

Aspen Glow 

framed 16" x 20" acrylic

$200 + $20 shipping

 Another View

is a framed 10" x 8" acrylic on a panel.

The frame, though not shown, is a wide wood gold frame with black speckles.

$150 + $20 shipping

Anyone Home

is another 10" x 8" acrylic on a panel

beautifully framed in a wide wood gold frame with black speckles.

 $150 + $20 shipping

Re Work Wednesday

Reworked, Renamed and Happy

Sometimes you're just not happy when you finish with a painting.

That's how I felt about this.

First Rendition.

I didn't like the water,

I didn't like the rocks,

I didn't like the plants,

I didn't like the trees.

So I began a rework.

Now this isn't the first re-work

or even the second re-work,

but it is the one I'm happy with.

Introducing

 Swirls

12" x 12" unframed original acrylic on a panel.

$100 + $10 shipping.

Thanks for checking this re-do out.

First Snow

First Snow - REALLY!

Are you kidding me?

Yes, November 12 we had our first snow for this season.

Our orchard with the first snow of the year.

unframed acrylic 9' x 12" on a stretched canvas.

$100 + $10 shipping

Technology Tuesday - Evernote

Ever Lost Something?

Try using Evernote.

This is a free program I learned about from Leslie Saeta and Dreama Tolle Perry

when they were on Artists Helping Artists together every Thursday.

Did I mention it is free and it is a way to keep track of lots of notes and information

that could otherwise be easily lost.

It is very easy to use and the learning curve is relatively low.

You sign up

And you can create notebooks right away

and put notes, regardless of how short they are in the corresponding notebook.

Some of my notes are just one sentence, but they are important to me and I want to be able to get to them when I want them again.

Here's a screen shot of what it looks like with a list of notebooks on the left,

when you click on a notebook, all the notes you have in it are listed in the middle box,

and the open note being the largest open box on the right.

This is a super easy program to use and you will find lots of ways it can help you.

You can share the screen with others if you are working on a project together,

but I mainly use it for notes on different topics and of course art.

I am able to keep track of goals,

art techniques I learn in my art journey,

art shows I want to enter and their dates

and the list goes on an on.

One of the great things I really like about this program,
it saves automatically every few seconds,
so you don't have to worry about saving or losing if you don't save.
That's huge.

The list of my 2013 goals are open on the right,

and OMGOSH!

I have completed almost every single one.

The last goal is about entering a state fair piece in large and miniature.

Just thought you'd like to see the large one,

again.

Cause we needed a little art on the art blog.  hehe!

Keeping Watch

16" x 20" framed acrylic

$200 + $20 shipping

Refreshment

Beaches

So, we all need refreshment from time to time.

I got mine at South Carolina for the last 11 days.

I didn't work everyday I was there,

but I'm sure you will be seeing more and more of it as I unwind.

Click HERE to see these on my website.

Maybe you need some refreshment too.

They are all unframed 6" x 6" acrylic on a panel.

$50 + $6 shipping each
 

Finding His Way

Finding His Way

I took some great pics at one of the places Jim checked out to go fishing.

They had some fabulous marshes and I'm sure you're going to be seeing more from that photo shoot.

I don't know how these fishermen figure their way in or out of these marshes.

But they do everyday, 

wind their way in and out of these marshes

out to the intercoastal waterway and then to the ocean.

Finding His Way

unframed 6" x 6" acrylic on a panel

$50 + $6 Shipping.

Beaching

I Could Be A Beach Bum

I've been at the beach for a week

and I could really start to like this life.

This is a little garden just off the pool and before the beach.

So what's not to love here.

But this is off my balcony.

Oh, is this a view!

My blog has been down for several weeks,

so in a minute I'm going to hit the publish button and see what happens.

Hopefully, no more bX error messages.

My iPad is also fried,

but it is under warranty, 

so when I get back home it will be replaced.

Oh the technology troubles of a 21st century artist.

Day 20 Quiet Walk

Day 20 Quiet Walk

No beach trip would be complete without a 

quiet walk in the morning on a boardwalk.

Kids still sleeping,

husband not yet awake either,

and you have that perfect time of day,

before everything is awake,

before anyone can intrude on your thoughts,

before anyone needs you for anything.

Just you and your quiet thoughts

on a quiet walk.

  Quiet Walk

unframed 6" x 6" acrylic on a panel

$50 + $6 shipping

  

Day 18 Marsh View

Day 18 Marsh View

Woot Woot!

I'm finally back on the correct day of the challenge!

Applause applause.

 Love the marshes in Florida!

Always some great wildlife to be seen there.

Marsh View

unframed 6" x 6" acrylic on a panel.

$50 + $6 shipping

 

Day 13 I'm A Rock Star

Here's my main rock study from my private lesson with

Jerry Yarnell.

Hopefully it won't take me as long the next time, 

but,

I'm really happy with this grouping of rocks.

I added the grasses just so it didn't look so weird there all by itself.

These are all studies on one large board

and I'm showing the three I did.

Jerry did one on the board.

Here is a moving water study.

I re-did the rocks once I got home.  

I like these much better.

This was a reflective water study.

I also re- did the rocks once I got home, so I'm much happier with them.

I really like the water and the reflections.

You have my permission to critique.

Just remember, the goal was the water and the rocks.

I'm definitely not happy with the trees, but I needed something there to put in the reflections.

Thanks for checking in today.

Day 11 Painting in Oklahoma

Three Days of Classes

I made it to Oklahoma and have been painting, painting, and more painting.

  Jerry Yarnell studio in Skiatook, OK.

Augusta Ferry

Struggled with the perspective and proportions and the truck of this.

Happy with most of it.

Truck still needs work.

But I learned a lot which was the purpose of this trip.

So, I guess I am successful.

These are two studies I did today because I have problems with water.

The one on the left will be finished tomorrow,

the one on the right is mostly done.

I could work on the splash and bubbles on the one of the right,

but I learned a lot from it so far, so I'm calling it done,

for the most part.

Maybe. . .

Day 9 Need A Vacation

Day 9 Need A Vacation

I don't know about you,

but I do need a vacation!

I am in architecture week

and you are going to see a whole lot of different types of architecture this week.

This started out looking more oriental,

but ended up looking kind of beachy.

Since I can't even decide what it is,

I think that pretty much seals the deal - 

I definitely need a vacation.

Need A Vacation

8" x 10" unframed acrylic on a panel

$95 + $6 shipping

You're The Next Contestant

And The Winner Is. . .

During the most recent blog carnival about a day in the life of an artist,

I asked people to post on my blog and share on your facebook page

and I would be giving away my 7" x 5" study to one of you fabulous guys.

Here's the painting,

I haven't signed it yet,

but it will be when I send it out to 

Kimberly Jones Easterling of Charleston, SC.

Come on down,

you're the next winner of an original painting.

Email me with your address and I'll git'r in the mail to ya.

slgraves6@gmail.com

Thanks for playing Kimberly.

In case you missed it,
click HERE to watch the video of it being created.

    

It Arrived

It Arrived!

Several weeks ago I entered an online contest for artist Karen Johnston

from New Zealand.

We have since become friends and she wrote a post on my blog as a guest poster.

The painting I won arrived yesterday and boy is it a beauty!

It's a 6" x 6" and it came beautifully wrapped with it's own little easel.

It's sitting on my coffee table with one of my own little paintings.

I have my own mini gallery.

    Thistles

Is it a knock out or what.

I love it.  

You can check out Karen Johnston at

http://karenjohnstonart.blogspot.co.nz/

go on, give her a look!