Category: Still Life

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Art theory Flower Art Glass Painting Plants Sketchbook Pages Still Life Studio Watercolor

Painting popcorn ball flowers (hydrangeas) instead…

Hydrangeas (popcorn ball flowers)
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Have you ever been so sleepy you’re just slap-happy silly? That’s how I was yesterday. I’ve been trying to change my schedule to get up early and go to bed early but after a few days of doing the former but not the latter, I was so sleep-deprived yesterday afternoon that I just stopped making sense, even to myself.

When I get over-tired, instead of thinking, “sleep,” I think I’m hungry and crave carbs (and now research is showing that sleep deprivation causes weight gain and other health risks…see here and here).  So instead of eating popcorn (or going to bed at 7:00), I decided to paint these “popcorn ball flowers” (as my sister and I used to call hydrangeas when we were kids…and I thought everybody did until I Googled “popcorn ball flowers because I can never remember their real name, and discovered only recipes for making flowers out of popcorn and no references to hydrangeas!).

First I had to refill my watercolor palette because a couple weeks ago I’d washed out all the funky old paint that had been in there for too long. Some of it was getting moldy and all of it was dirty.  Before refilling my palette, I did color tests of all my paints to decide which pigments I wanted to use now. I love organizing things, so this was a perfectly soothing task for a tired mind.

Finally I was ready to paint, and grabbed my homemade 6×8” sketchbook filled with hot pressed Fabriano Artistico paper, and this bouquet of hydrangeas from my yard that I’d plopped into a drinking glass the day before. Instead of starting with my usual ink drawing, I used pencil and then painted using more of an oil painting technique, starting with the darkest darks instead of the lights.

Maybe it was because I was so tired, but I had so much fun, just being playful as I painted and not worrying about the outcome. As usual I wished I’d stopped about 10 minutes sooner and someday I’ll learn that “when you’re 75% finished you ARE finished!”  Some day….

If you’d like to know which pigments I settled on, click “Continue Reading for the details….

Continue reading “Painting popcorn ball flowers (hydrangeas) instead…”
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Flower Art Glass Oil Painting Painting Plants Still Life

Orchids in Green Bottle & Mental Spam

Orchids in Green Bottle
Oil on panel, 14×11″ (larger)

I love painting glass and was happy with the way this bottle turned out. I tried to use the same free and fun approach I take to painting glass in watercolor and it actually worked this time. I wish the flowers were as easy.

It’s easier to show off the beauty and delicate nature of flowers in watercolor than in oil paint, especially white flowers. In watercolor you don’t use white paint, but rather leave the brilliant white of the paper for white areas.

White oil paint can look blueish, cold, chalky and dull so in oil painting you have to create the illusion of warm glowing light by placing either dark or subdued, neutral, or grayed colors beside the white so in comparison it looks bright.  It also helps to add a little yellow or orange to white paint to warm it. I tried doing all of the above in this painting, but still struggled with the white flowers, scraping and repainting several times.

I read an inspiring and funny post on singer Christine Kane’s blog called “What Spam Can Teach You About Inner Peace.” It’s really worth reading if you have one of those annoying inner critics who says mean things about you or your artwork. While you’re there, check out another post of hers that is helpful for artists and/or self employed people, “How to Get Off the Hamster Wheel.”

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Life in general Oil Painting Painting Still Life

Jumbo Apricots – Quick Oil Study

Jumbo Apricots - Quick oil sketch

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I did this painting before bed last night, giving myself just an hour or two to complete an oil sketch. The panel I was using was a bit slick so the paint wasn’t sticking as well as I’d have liked but I was reasonably pleased with the attempt.

While I was painting my wonderful next door neighbors brought me a huge bouquet of flowers for my birthday. For some reason, as each of the three kids and their parents said “Happy Birthday!” and gave me a hug I said “Happy Birthday to you too!” It wasn’t until I’d said it three or four times that I realized it made no sense. Since English is their second language, maybe they thought that’s just another odd American custom (or another odd Jana-ism). They already thought it was weird enough that I was spending my birthday evening by myself in my studio.

But of course painting is what makes me happy and I get to do what makes me happy on my birthday. I told them I’d paint the flowers the next day (and then realized I’d already started painting them as I’d answered the door with several painty brushes in my hand, and the paint was getting all over the bouquet wrapper.

I started the day with my annual tradition of a hike to Fat Apples Restaurant for a French Apple Pancake with my sister, my niece, and my best friend Barbara. We’ve been doing this every year for at least ten years and it was great spending time together and the pancake/souffle was perfect.

About the painting: Oil on panel, 10×8

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Flower Art Gardening Life in general Oil Painting Outdoors/Landscape Painting Plants Plein Air Still Life

Hydrangeas Plein Air & Creativity Interview

Hydrangeas plein air

Oil on panel, 6×8″ (larger)

It felt so good to get outside and paint this sunny afternoon, even if it was only for an hour on the side of my house by my trash cans where this small hydrangea is finally starting to blossom and grow.

Creativity Interview

I was interviewed by Creativity Coach, Liz Massey and she posted the interview on her blog today. If you’d like to read about my creative process, thoughts on inspiration, overcoming artistic blocks, etc., please stop by her excellent blog. While you’re there, check out some of her other interviews. I was especially intrigued by her post about “clutter-busting with one sentence journaling.”

Painting lessons learned the hard way

This week I’ve been mucking about in the studio trying to fix the compositional problems with my painting of the ladies at the farmer market. Today I gave up on it and moved on.

The struggles I had with it were a good reminder for me about how important it is to resolve compositional issues before starting to paint (like the area where you couldn’t tell hands from plastic bag from shopping cart handle).  Also a good lesson that if a painting’s initial framework isn’t working, it’s better to start over than to spend hours and hours trying to fix it. Although I really liked many parts of that painting, it just wasn’t working as a whole.

Inspiration at 87

My sister and I joined my vibrant and adorable 87 year old aunt and her two sons (our cousins) who I hadn’t seen for 30 years for lunch today. It was so inspiring to see how youthful my aunt is — she drives, goes bowling with her girlfriends, and takes long walks several times a day with her Border Collie.

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Glass Painting Sketchbook Pages Still Life Watercolor

Better than Plastic: Blue Glass Water Bottle

Blue Bottles
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While eating dinner, reading an art book and drinking water from this bottle I became fascinated by the bottle and had to immediately go paint it. The bottle came from from Trader Joes filled with sparkling water. It makes a great reusable water bottle. I washed off the label and just refill it with filtered tap water and a squirt of lemon from my lemon tree and then refrigerate it.

To avoid buying and throwing away tons of plastic water bottles (you’re not supposed to reuse them because they can’t be cleaned properly) I’ve tried a variety of lexan, Nalgene, and stainless steel water bottles. I like to use this glass bottle at home (it’s too heavy and breakable to be portable) and a Kleen Kanteen stainless steel bottle with a sport cap when I go out.

What did we do for water before water bottles and car cup holders? I guess there were thermoses but those weren’t for water. I remember carrying a large purse to middle school in order to carry my big can of hairspray, but I know I never carried water.

When I was a kid, doctors didn’t recommend drinking 8 glasses of water a day like they do now, but they did recommend cigarettes. One cigarette brand ran ads in medical journals with the claim that its cigarettes were “Just as pure as the water you drink.” One of the most infamous cigarette advertising slogans was associated with Camels:”More doctors smoke Camels than any other cigarette.” That ad appeared in medical journals and the popular media for eight years.

About the painting: 6×8″ on Arches cold-press 140 pound watercolor paper in my handmade sketchbook. Mostly Winsor Newton paint plus the bright turquoise on the right side of the big bottle from Kremer Pigments. The funny shadow on the right actually looked like that but it made me happy because it reminded me of the amazing pot and shadow studies, which I adore on Alison’s blog, Scribbles Adagio.

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Flower Art Glass Landscape Oil Painting Outdoors/Landscape Painting People Photos Plein Air Still Life

Farmers Market Diversity, Roses & Revised Painting

Roses Re-do

(Larger) Finished but not satisfied…

Saturday I walked to the Farmers Market at El Cerrito Plaza with the plan to make some watercolor sketches. After half an hour exploring, taking photos and trying to find a spot to sketch I realized I needed to get out of there.

That happens to me sometimes; one minute I’m enjoying the sights and sounds somewhere and the next I just have to leave. Maybe it’s a blood sugar thing—it was time for lunch—or I’d just had enough of crowds and sun and wanted to get back to the studio. Since it’s my Birthday month to do whatever I please I didn’t push myself to stick it out and get a sketch; instead I headed to Peets Coffee for an iced-latte and a nice long walk home.

I took photos of the glorious produce displays at the market, but I couldn’t resist sharing this photo that captures the wonderfully diverse womanhood in the Bay Area. I wish I knew what the rest of her pants say:

Diversity @ Farmers Market

New Camera

I got some great photos at the Farmers Market (that inspired two paintings in progress) with my new camera that is quite compact but has 10x optical zoom. A few years ago I bought a similar camera but for twice as much money and it’s four times bigger and heavier and less competent. I find it amazing how some technology just keeps advancing exponentially while others, like cars, just keep chugging along, not that much more sophisticated all these years later, than Model Ts.

Revised Painting:

Below are a couple or previously posted plein air paintings that I decided to try to finish up (or finish off, as the case may be) in the studio.

Continue reading “Farmers Market Diversity, Roses & Revised Painting”
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Life in general Painting Sketchbook Pages Still Life Watercolor

Asparagus, Peach & Painting with Children

Aspargus & Peach
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The kids next door brought over a plate of delicious Mexican-style barbeque tonight courtesy of their Papa who’d cooked it. I invited them to come back after dinner to join me in the studio. Now that they’re a little older (2nd grade and 6th grade) I decided to let them try acrylics instead of just watercolor.

I covered the table, put out the supplies, including gloves for each of them (I get Costco’s “Nitrile Exam Gloves” in quantity). Then I turned on some music and went to my drawing table to work on this little sketch.

The next time I checked on them, Y had painted my cat (I mean a picture of my cat), a rainbow (standard little girl stuff) and then made a paper airplane which she was painting while E was decorating a little wooden car he’d made in school. They both made Father’s day and birthday cards for their dad too.

They really liked the acrylics since they were brighter and bolder than the watercolor, but what a mess! Fortunately kids, floor and furniture cleaned up easily.

About the painting:
Pentel Pocket Brush Pen to draw, then watercolor and then some Schmincke Chinese White to tone down some of the shadows. I’d be happier if I’d stopped before it need to be toned down. This is in my 6×8″ handmade sketchbook on Fabriano Artistico hot press paper.

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Flower Art Glass Painting Sketchbook Pages Still Life Watercolor

Roses & a freshly cleaned house

Rosy Glow
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I gave myself the pre-birthday gift of a professional house cleaning today, by the most fabulous house cleaner in the universe. She cleans things that have never even occurred to me to clean, and when she’s done the house seems to sigh and say “Thanks, I needed that!”

When I walked in the door this evening there was a palpable feeling of clean and everything seemed to glow. These roses from my garden were perched on the dining room table, adding to the feeling of fresh and sweet.

Having my house cleaned is a special treat for me; a gift I give I’ve recently started giving myself twice a year, for my birthday and for New Years. Those are both times of reflection and renewal for me so it seems fitting to create an environment that is also renewed and has a sense of space and possibility.

About the painting:
Drawn with brown ink on 8×6″ hot pressed watercolor paper in handmade sketchbook; painted with watercolor plus a little Chinese White added at the very end to soften the table top color.

Categories
Flower Art Landscape Oil Painting Painting Still Life

Birthday & Benicia’s Matthew Turner Park

20080601_1040-Benicia-MTurnerPark
Oil on 12×9″ panel (Larger)

Yay! First day of June, and I get to celebrate my (mid-month) birthday all month long. Because it’s a really big birthday, this year I’m going to celebrate all year instead of “just” all month! It’s also the birthday of Jana’s Journal and Sketch Blog, now entering it’s third year.

To kick off my wonderful yearlong celebration, this morning I went to a paintout at Matthew Turner Park in Benicia followed by a visit to the opening of the Outsiders show at Arts Benicia Gallery. Today’s paintout was organized by the Benicia Plein Air Painters, also known as “Da Group.” Da Group is led by Jerry Turner, one of the founders and a prolific member of the Outsiders. It was a very well-attended opening, and a terrific show. There are photos of the paintout and the opening here.

In my painting above a windsurfer scooted by as I was finishing (well, running out of time, actually) so I stuck it in the painting. I’m not sure you can tell what it is, and whether it should be better defined. There’s lots more I could do to the painting, but I’m finding it pleasurable to call plein air studies done without trying to perfect them back in the studio; just appreciating them for the studies they are and all the wonderful sights, sounds, scents and memories of the experience that they contain.

Here’s my first block-in of the scene. My focal point was the orange hill with a little house on top across the water. Those black spots are little bugs who nose-dived into the wet paint (or were blown in by the strong winds today).

20080601_0940-Benicia-wip
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Here’s a photo of the scene. You can barely see the little house on the hill.

20080601_1022-Benicia-photo
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I wrote about this great little park and posted an earlier painting I did there last December here. I remember how much harder it was to paint that day, and how much more I understand now. Progress! Yay!

Categories
Art theory Flower Art Oil Painting Painting Still Life Studio

Passable Painting Passages

Roses detail

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Garlic detail

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I’m learning to appreciate the bits of paintings that work while letting go of the parts that won’t/can’t be fixed. These two sections pleased me, even though the original paintings as a whole were not successful. In both cases I started off boldly, got the big shapes blocked in and immediately painted the two segments above.

Then I got tired, the sun went down and the room in the light changed, the flowers opened in the heat, the floodlight I was using burned out and I didn’t have another, the setup got moved (thanks kitties…see below) and although I tried to fix both paintings over and over I finally decided to cut my losses once again and move on.

I learn so much with each painting, whether it works as a whole or not. I’ve started putting labels on the backs with the year, a serial number and a few words about what worked, what didn’t and what I learned. It will be fun at the end of the year to review my progress.

Fiona taking up modeling:
Fiona wants to be a model

Rose set up day one (and on my bulletin board art by Pete, Alison and John Sonsini‘s wonderful portraits):
Rose setup day 1