Day 30 ~ last day

Can’t believe this is the last day of the month and the last day of our challenge. And… I can’t believe I am feeling so lazy. We just had an incredibly wonderful thunderstorm and I’m just sitting here enjoying the sound of thunder and rain all around me.

I did finish another painting today that I had to scrape, because the barn was too red. Scraping to make the barn more subtle, more in the background where it should be was my goal, but in scraping I also removed the snowflakes. Today I restored the snowflakes…

Tomorrow, I think I will post a review of what I accomplished and what I didn’t accomplish on this challenge.

Thank you, Sage, for doing this with me. ❤

Advertisement

Day 29 ~ The Road to Gray’s

I have really failed in my challenge this last week, but I did work on this painting.

I bet there are some beautiful autumn colors happening in those aspens in Colorado right about this time. The trees around here are starting to turn yellow and fall already. Fall…here we come…

Day 22 ~ making something new from the old

Gray’s Peak in Colorado is a wonderful place to hike. We have gone there many times throughout the years. Some of the family have climbed both 14ers, Gray’s and Torrey’s… I admire them. I only went part way up Gray’s to where there was nothing but slippery shale sliding under my feet and my fear of heights kicked in, so down I went, taking a deep breath of relief when I got back to the car. I painted from one of the photos I took on the road to Gray’s and Torrey’s and sold it at the gallery. I’ll post it here so you can see…

Road to Gray’s and Torrey’s SOLD

After I had completed this painting back in 2017, one of my daughter’s gave me an old acrylic painted canvas that she was getting rid of and I decided to try and paint this same painting, but with a palette knife. Never finished it, so that’s my new project here…making something new from the old.

Day 21 ~ Iconic Taos Truck

I’m finished!!! I know I skipped a day, but yesterday was strange. Anyway here it is…

I might see a thing or two that bothers me and change it a little, but I’m pretty happy with how it turned out.

What shall I do tomorrow? I have to say this challenge has really helped me get back into painting and for the most part has been really enjoyable.

Glad we are doing it, Sage. 🙂

Day 19 ~ progress

Today I began to add in color…

And more…

Hopefully, I’ll have time to finish this up tomorrow.

That’s all for now. 🙂

Day 18 ~ block in

A couple years ago we went to New Mexico for a little vacation and I took some pictures of all sorts of things that inspired me. I did paint plein air one time up in the Sandia Mountains near Santa Fe, but it was difficult for me knowing that people were waiting on me, even though they were so very nice about it.

While I was looking through my computer pics, I found this iconic truck that we saw near Taos. It’s been a while since I painted a truck and I thought this might be a great time to do it.

I love the aqua color of this truck, and how the color is echoed by the other truck in the background.

When I used to be on IG I made friends with an artist who lives near Taos and we talked about painting this truck.

CheyAnne, New Mexico Mountain Girl , if you see this, I’m challenging you to paint with me. 🙂

Here is my block in…

I’m letting it dry for a bit, and then I’m going to paint some of those beautiful colors.

Hope you all are having a wonderful day! 🙂

Day 16 ~ try, try again

I can’t try anymore… something is just not coming together with this piece. I really think I need to start over on a fresh canvas, or perhaps sand this one down to the bottom layer…

At first I thought it would work… then I added the chandelier…

Not happy with it… I will try again some day…maybe…

Day 15 ~ indecision

I’m at a stopping point with this painting now. I need some advice on the background. Still not sure if I should cut the painting down or paint the background one color. What are your thoughts?

Here is the same image, just cropped. Does that look better?

Personally, I think the background is too busy. Perhaps, I’ll put it away again and take a fresh look in a few months.

Sometimes that just happens. 😦

Oh… Half way through the challenge!!! Yay!!!

Day 13 & 14 ~ scraping and layering

I have been working on a painting that has been sitting unfinished in my studio for over a year and I find my self continually scraping paint off and layering paint on and I still have a lot to do before I’m finished. I’m searching for a color pop…something that will really make this painting glimmer…

So, here is my unfinished work…

I have painted two other cello paintings, this will be my third. This one is my daughter Tera, who played left handed cello in our family band for years.

I’ll go ahead and post the other two so you can see them…

• 

• 

Cello Love ~ Rachel and Cello Love ~ Emily

Personally, I just love how these turned out.

I’ll be back at it tomorrow and I’m hoping it will all come together.

Day 12 ~ preparation

Today I spent some time cleaning my studio and deciding what to start on next. I found an old plein air painting that I never varnished, so I put a quick coat on it.

Then I decided to pull out an old unfinished painting that I have struggled with for over a year. I set it up on the easel and will delve into finishing it tomorrow… at least I’m hoping to finish it tomorrow. 🙂

I want to share my daughter’s postcards with you. She is selling them for a dollar a piece. Let me know in a comment if you’d like to purchase some and then I will let her know.