First Class in SIX Months

 Such A Long Time Coming

WOW!

It's been 6 months since I've taught a class

because of the pandemic and it felt so good

 to paint again.

I missed it!!!

The class was held in conjunction with Eagle Creek Winery

and we had very limited seating

but I think it worked out very well.

We did our very best to paint safely.

On this night we learned how to create a barn siding background, how to paint pumpkins in several colors and how to paint sunflowers.  

This was almost a Mother/Daughter event as we had 3 sets of them participating.

Eagle Creek Winery has a tasting room in Warsaw, KY.

and they were our wonderful host for the evening.

Proprietor Lynn gave everyone who wanted one,

samples of the wines they produce.

We plan on making this a monthly event.  

My classes will resume at the Switzerland County Community Art Center in Vevay, IN in September and at General Butler State Park in Carrollton, KY in October.  Please watch on Facebook for dates and times.

If you're interested in learning how to paint,

please join my Facebook Group, Bucket List Artists, where I go live every Thursday at 1 p.m. with a new art concept, technique or lesson.  

Click HERE to ask to join,

then answer the 3 questions that pop up 

to unlock the door. 

There is close to 1 1/2 years worth of lessons, hints, tips, tricks, and other goodness in there for you right now.

I have a YouTube channel, Sharon Durbin Graves

and here is my most recent video about values.

Enjoy!

Thanks for stopping by today

and Let's Paint Together Real Soon! 

31 Rose Paintings in 31 Days

WHEW!!!

I did it!

I challenged myself to painting 31 rose paintings during July, you know, the month with 31 days, and I finished on time and under budget, (so to speak).

I learned so much during this challenge

and I really appreciate all those who followed along on Instagram and Facebook and encouraged me.

I created a tab on this blog about the journey and all the paintings are listed individually.

Thank you so much for clicking the link and scrolling through.  

Appreciate any comments on the work as well.

Click HERE to read the story and see the paintings.

Here's 22 of them after signing them all

 and waiting to varnish them.  

This little video gives you a glimpse of them.  

Click HERE to see them all.

Thanks so much for stopping by today.

I truly appreciate all your support!

Have a great day and let's paint together real soon.

I don't do this often.

I almost never do this

 And yet here I am

entering an online art show.

I'll give you the link and if you can,

I sure would appreciate it if you could go

vote for me.

Click HERE to view the link.

This is the painting I entered.  

Several years ago I had been trying to paint Roses.

Sort of like I'm doing right now. 

I went to bed very frustrated and thinking about all the colors I had used the previous day.

I actually dreamed this painting.

Luckily, I remembered it the next day

so I went right out to the studio and painted it.

All the swirling colors in the background are actually the colors of the paints I used to create the rose.  

It's the only time this ever happened to me.  

It was pretty cool!

Thanks for stopping by today.

A Rosy Challenge

Difficult But Rosy

I spent several weeks in late May and June

immersing myself in daisies.  

Click HERE to see those details and paintings.

Here's one of the finished pieces.

I learned so much and realized that by doing so many pieces of the same subject matter I really began to improve.

I am a certified florist and I love flowers, so I decided I really needed to learn how to improve my rose painting.

Can I just say, roses are hard,

I cut some roses from my yard and 

brought them into my studio. 

I studied pictures of roses I've taken in the past.

I looked at how other people painted roses.  

I decided I would do my own 30 day rose challenge.

So here are the first 7 days of the challenge.

I've struggled.

I've learned.

I've improved.

This was one day of practice 

after one extremely excruciating painting session.

I set a timer and gave myself 10 minutes for each row of roses,

You can see the top right one did not make the cut.  

There was lots to be learned in this session.

Knowing I only had so much time forced me to look and react quickly, quit over-thinking.

So here are the first 7 days of the challenge.

It's funny but it was on day 7 (bottom right)

when I felt like I learned the most.  

I started to begin to understand what I was doing,

what the rose was telling me to do.

To me it's not the prettiest one of the bunch,

so to speak,

but I learned a lot abut petal placement,

shadows, and going from light to dark.

I was using only three colors on the roses,

so I was working in a semi monochromatic palette.

Doing that forced me to look at how to achieve the depth of the rose and how to see different sides of the petals.

There is a learning curve in everything we try that's new.

I've tried roses before, but was never happy with them

and decided that now is the time to dive deep

and learn everything I can in 30 days.

That's why working in a series is so beneficial

because you have a chance to really dive deeply into a subject and learn and improve, maybe faster than any other way.  

When I finish this project, I'll put them all up for sale

at extremely affordable prices.  

One is actually already spoken for.  

If you're a beginning artist

and would love to have the support of other beginning artists,

my Facebook group,

Bucket List Artists was created with you in mind.  

Click HERE to ask to join,

be sure to answer the 3 questions and you'll be ushered in to a group of other beginning artists,

all scared, all learning and encouraging each other.

I do a live every Thursday at 1 p.m. EST and there 

are over a year of classes, lessons, hints, tips, and other ideas for you to work on.

I'd love to have you join us.

If you're interested in real start to finish painting classes, please visit my website at

www.paintingwithacrylics101.com.

There you'll find classes created with the beginner in mind, a full blown art course, a free blog and a free daisy painting class.  

So much goodness in one place just for you.

Thanks for stopping by today and let's paint together real soon.

Immersed in Daisies

I Might Have Been Drowning in Daisies.

I like working in a series because it forces me to study one subject deeply.  Do it over and over and create

 muscle memory with the brush.

That's exactly what I did recently with daisies. 

First there's the prep work.  

I got a lot of canvases ready to paint by creating a grey using ultramarine blue and orange and white.  

 You can see the streaks in the canvases.

I don't like having a background with a solid color.

This always adds movement and depth to a painting.

Even if my painting covers every inch of the canvas,

I like to start this way.

Next came some warm up practice

 painting daisies in every direction.

Then it was time to get down to business.

I love painting daisies in Mason jars.

I love the blue and the white.  

I started out with 5" x 7" canvas panels.

It seems like it's easier to go from small to large than from large to small.

Sold

These are in the Community Art Center in

Vevay, Indiana.

Then things began to get a little crazy.

This is 12" x 12" 

Is currently at The Community Art Center

in Vevay, Indiana.

This was an 8" x 10" on a stretched canvas

Sold

This was a 16" x 20" on a stretched canvas.

Sold

The next 3 paintings are all going to 

The Community Art Center in Vevay, Indiana today.

 16" x 20" On a stretched canvas

 This is an 11" x 14  on a stretched canvas.

 This is a 16" x 20" on a stretched canvas

and I needed to add some zinnias and echinacea into the mix.

This was 20" x 20" gallery wrap canvas.

Sold.

Here's a short video giving you a closer look at the group.

This is a group shot of most of the paintings I did in this crazy experiment, but not all.  

They were evidently popular with others as well as myself,

because many of them found forever homes.  

The main thing about painting this way is you learn so much

and your hand no longer has to think so hard about what to do next.  

I have a free daisy painting class on my website.

Follow the link below and sign up 

to take this totally free class.

Then you can begin your own crazy love affair with daisies. 

Click HERE to sign up for the FREE

Daisy Painting Class. 

Homeschool Fun Stuff

Homeschool Fun Stuff

Recently in my Facebook group,

Homeschool Art Club

while my grand kids were visiting from Utah,

we painted a tic tac toe set.  

Here we're painting the rocks.

Then we painted the X's and O's on them.

I took a placemat and made the board using painters tape.

We store it in a large ziploc bag with our other games.

Also in our Facebook Group

Homeschool Art Club recently,

we drew cartoon faces.  

That was lots of fun and very simple. 

If you have or know of a homeschool family who would like to add art to their curriculum, why not share this with them.

It's a fun FREE group and I go live on Wednesdays about 

1 p.m. with a new drawing or painting class.  

These were so much fun to draw.

Click HERE to visit the

Homeschool Art Club and then ask to join.

Then 3 questions pop up.  Answer those questions and that will open the door for you to hop on in and start adding art to your curriculum.  And right now, pretty much every family is a homeschool family.  

There's nearly 2 years of classes in 

Homeschool Art Club

and it's all there for you for free.  

Hope to see you there

and

let's paint together real soon.

Click HERE to see my available art.

Taking a Flat Painting to a Finished Painting

My Painting Looks Flat!!!

You've been working on a painting and you think you're done,

(how do you ever know we're done?)

but it looks flat.

What's the problem?

Here's my example.

My husband gave me a beautiful bouquet of flowers for our 48th anniversary and of course, you know I had to paint them.
I did and I was relatively happy with the painting.

I didn't sign it though which usually means changes are on the horizon.  

The next day I was looking at it deciding if I was really done or not, and I saw it.

There was no distance between that big beautiful stargazer lily and the vase.

What to do - What to do?

I took some of the color I used for the vase and added its complement, the color opposite it on the color wheel.  I added some white and could have added more if I felt it was still too dark.
Then I made the shadow between the lily and the vase. 

 BOOM!

Much Better.

However, looking at the petals of the lily, I realized there was room for improvement, especially with the one in front.

It also looked flat, so I took the color of the lily and aded a tiny, I really mean tiny, bit of dioxazine purple to it to darken the center and give it a deeper feel.

On the petal to the right of that, I added a shadow where the petal is turning on the top, and I darkened the other petals a little to make the center pop.  

I also darkened up the leaves under the lily as they would be in shadow also.

Such small changes made a 

huge difference in this painting.

If you're not certain if you're done,

it's always a good idea to leave it sit for a day or 2 and come back to it.  

Look it over and see if anything speaks to you.

It was just a few strokes that gave this painting the zing I was looking for.

It took less than 5 minutes once I stopped looking at the parts and began looking at the whole painting.

Just in case you were wondering...

Yes.

I signed it. 

And it's available.

Anniversary Flowers

10" x 8" canvas panel, unframed

$50 + shipping

Grab my free eBook on 3 That Will Improve Your Art.  

If you've always wanted to learn to paint,

 but life got in the way,

join my free Facebook group,

Bucket List Artists.

Click HERE to join.  

Ask to join and the key that unlocks the door to over a years worth of posts, live videos, hints, tips, etc., is to answer the 3 questions that pop up. 

Can't wait to see you in there.

Stay well and 

let's paint together real soon.