Stage 2 of Still life Pomegranates and Fruit of the Vine

Stage 2
1:57 pm
(took 40 min to photo and load)

Pomegranates and the Fruit of the Vine

Source material in the open air- Plein Air Still life

Quick sketch in covered area
Source material on open patio to left
12:13 pm 06/03/2011

Spruce Up Front

Spruce Up Front
6" x 8"
oil
This is a view from the front of my home toward the east.

39/40 Consecutive Days Painting a Day Challenge - Heavy Cloud

Heavy Cloud
3.5" x 5"
Watercolor on Paper
$50

Tonight I delivered the work to Alyson Cook who curates the exhibits at Beans and Barley, a trendy Eastside eating place.

38/40 of 40 Consecutive Paintings a Day - Walkway

Walkway
11" x 14"
Oil on Canvas
on exhibition at the Cedarburg Cultural Center in the Cedarburg Plein Air Event
June 25-26 silent auction
June 27 open sale
exhibit through July 5
Starting bid $250
Retail if not sold in auction $375

This painting I finished in the morning at 2 AM so I am counting this painting for today. I painted at night on the corner of Columbia and Washington in Cedarburg at their Annual Plein Air Painting competition.

I will post more about the event tomorrow.

37/40 of 40 Consecutive Paintings a Day - Waterpump

Waterpump
11" x 14" unframed
oil
on exhibition at the Cedarburg Cultural Center in the Cedarburg Plein Air Event
June 25-26 silent auction
June 27 open sale
exhibt through July 5
Starting bid $250
Retail if not sold in auction $375

Back of reality building on Washington north of Village Hall

36/40 of 40 Consecutive Paintings a Day - Faded Roses

Faded Roses
10" x 14"
Watercolor on Paper
$75

Faded roses on my kitchen table.

35/40 of 40 Consecutive Painting a Day - Late View of the Mists

Late View of the Mists
11" x 15"
Watercolor on Paper
$100

From photo from trip to Ireland. I was at Malin Head looking over the bay.

34/40 Paintings a Day for 40 Consecutive Days- Birthday Girl II

Birthday Girl II
6" x 7.25"
Watercolor on Paper
$75

This has been a tough Father's day.
My darling, my heart.

"But Zion said, 'The Lord has forsaken me,
the Lord has forgotten me.'
' Can a mother forget the baby at her breast
and have no compassion on the child she has borne?
Though she may forget,
I will not forget you!
See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands;
your walls are ever before me...'
Isaiah 49:14f

33/40 of 40 consecutive Day Painting a Day - Birthday Girl

Birthday Girl
6" x 8"
Watercolor on Paper
$75

Once a little girl full of delight had a birthday party.

32/40 0f 40 Consecutive Days Painting - Lee Paulsen

Lee Paulsen
6" x 8"
watercolor on paper
$70

View in Bakery Bontom in Jefferson, WI

31/40 of 40 Consecutive Painting a Day - Treeline in Fall

Treeline in Fall
8" x 6"
Oil on Panel
$85.00
I painted this painting today, in the morning. It is a view of a creek near by. I was quite pleased with it. It was a odd morning with a mist of clouds hanging low in the sky, allowing a veil of soft difused light.

30/40 of 40 Consecutive Paintings a Day - King's Head

King's Head
3.75" x 5.25"
Watercolor on Paper
$60

This was taken from an old photo I had. Regal! Aslan!

29/40 of 40 Consecutive Paintings a Day - Kelly Lake Dock

Kelly Lake Dock
8" x 6"
Watercolor on Paper
$75

Today, I took my small inflatable boat onto to Kelly Lake, rowed across the lake and tied my boat to a raft and began this painting. I worked on it until the rain came down heavily.
Then I rowed to shore loaded the boat and went home.

This secluded lake is a hidden gem in Hales Corners... my little Eden where I can go to decompress.

28/40 of 40 Consecutive Paintings a Day - Mountain of Mist

Mountains of Mist
3.75" x 5.25"
Watercolor on Paper
$50

From photo and memory of Malin Head of Inishowen in Donegal, Ireland.

27/40 of 40 Consecutive Day Painting a Day - Boy

A Boy
6" x 8"
Watercolor on Paper
$75

Comments on My Painting a Day for 40 Consecutive Days Experience

I am going to talk to all of you a little about this painting a day for 40 consecutive days. It has been a good experience to have the goal to do a painting a day and to order my day so that it is a priority to be done. I don't have the pressure of trying to make each painting a great painting, but I do have the challenge of painting and posting. I have learned to more efficiently post images. I suspect that making so many paintings has its own reward in making me "think visually all the time." It can only help but move me along the path of being a better artist. The pattern of making art, thinking art as natural as breathing in an out can only deepen my strength as a painter over time.

I have also begun doing something that I had only dreamt of doing since my advanced drawing class in 2006, making figurative sketches, working on subtle character studies. In the painting a day project I have worked from life on several occasions while in other occasions from photos. I truly like working from life when I can have a long conversation with the person I am drawing. That is ideal, but not always possible. I don't really want to go to a live modeling class situation, because I am more interested in the personality of the person than in their individual body parts. That does not mean I do not believe in the importance of working from a live model in a
life drawing setting. However, I don't want a clinical look of the person. I am going for their mood, their persona. The academic live model in a shared "studio" or "class" situation tends to lend itself to the creation of manikins rather than people with heart and soul, angst or delight...on to the full gamut of human emotion.

In this 40 Day project, sometimes my imagery seems somewhat inconsistent taken as a whole. Part of that is simply getting the painting done, even when I am emotionally tired. I pick a no brainer image, where the form and shape is really the idea for the painting rather than the "character" studies that are more demanding.

Balancing the immersion into the mind set of making art with the business of selling art is a real struggle for me as it is for many artists. It is mental toughness I still must work to possess and release at will.

If you have any thoughts, I would apprecitate your comments.

Painting 26/40 of 40 Consecutive Painting a Day Challenge - Smiling Girl

Smiling Girl
8" x 6"
Watercolor on Paper
$75

I had a great time going through our old family photos when I was preparing the life display poster for my son's high school graduation. Here he is held by his sister in a garden at the Milwaukee domes.

Painting 25/40 of the 40 Consecutive day Painting a Day Challenge - Acker Streen NE, Capitol Hill

602 1/2 Acker Street NE, Capitol Hill
14" x 10"
Watercolor on Paper
$150

This was taken from a drawing and a dim memory of a dusk in Washington D. C. I love the dark evening and the feeling of being alone on the street.

23/40 Painting of 40 Consecutive Days Painting a Day

Mama
6" x 7.5"
watercolor on paper with ink
$75

yeah mama