Day 19

8x12 oil on canvas  "Wild Verbena" 

In the spring of each year wild verbena makes a bold statement all along the roads and fields all over Georgia.  Sometimes I just have to pull over and just thank God for all the beauty He sets before us.  I've tried many times to transplant wild verbena, but never been successful; the best I can do is try my best to capture the inspiration in paint.  

Lesley came to paint with me this afternoon and we started on a seascape, but she had to leave early so I thought it might be best to put that one aside and wait until she can come back and we can pick up together where we left off.  I worked most of the afternoon but was interrupted by yellow kitty again this evening. Yellow kitty was so very hungry and his little belly was all sunk in so I called Anna Mary to see if I could come get a cup of food.  Some folks borrow sugar, not me... I borrow cat food.  LOL  After getting yellow kitty calmed down, I went back to painting and painted the wild verbena inspiration painting above.  All in all it was a good day painting and I'm ready for day 20!  Can you believe it!   

Day 18

8x10  Oil on archival panel  

Everything was going good until I got to the white waterlilies.  I just didn't have the time or energy to deal with putting in the shadows which would made the waterlilies read right so I just opted for some quick outlines and a blue-yellow play of lines.  Given more time I would like to do this painting again and make the waterlilies totally white and take more time with the water droplets. 

I love this composition and really love the movement of the water.  All in all, I'm happy so it's on to day 19. Not sure that I will be able to do another catch-up painting this week, but we will see.  

Catch up painting

11x14 oil on canvas  "Through the grass" 

This is the first effort today.  I'm using this as a catch-up painting since I did not get to paint this weekend. After posting this one I will only be one behind my goal of 30 paintings in 30 days. 

My self critique tells me that it certainly could stand some darker values and certainly could do something with those blue blobs of paint I added at the end trying to tie the painting together.  Still there are certain parts I do like and I will keep this maybe tweaking a bit more with some glazes after I live with it for a bit.  

Day 17

11x14 oil on canvas "Azaleas with Dogwoods" 

Today is day 17 and I painted two this afternoon trying my best to catch up.  This was my second effort taking a painting that I had previously done and painting over the shapes I did not like so that I could retrieve it from hanging in the Landfill Gallery.  I'm a great deal happier with this painting now giving it a new life today.  The photograph is not good as the camera picked up reflections from the wet paint, so I'll photograph it again when it is dry.  Moving on to day 18.  

Day 16

12x12 oil on archival panel 

Today is day 16 of the painting challenge and I am 2 paintings behind, but I think I can catch up given a little luck and determination.  The painting today again is challenging me to get the ellipse right and try my hand at glass again. I paint more landscapes than I do still life,or at least I did when I was painting on a regular basis, so returning to still life for a little while feels good.  

Day 14 and 15

Well, as I told some friends, "I am a complete failure".  LOL  I did not get to paint Saturday or Sunday as so much activity was happening around this house it was impossible.  I painted in my dreams, however.  And, you should have seen what I painted!  Both paintings were awesome, the best ones yet.  LOL

This is part of why I didn't paint this weekend... enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmJIIDm-Hvo

Day 14

Blank...will catch up

Day 13

8x10 oil on archival panel  "Time to Sail" 

Yesterday when Lesley was here we talked about different ways to paint and tools to use.  I pulled out several books to find examples and my book of Monet's paintings was one of them.  This morning the book was still out so I sat for a little while looking and smiling and just enjoying another cup of coffee in the studio.  When I put the book down I was totally in my Monet Mood.  While my painting has only a faint handshake to his work, I did play with dots and dashes of color keeping my palette pretty limited and just had fun.  I do think it is time to sail, don't you?  On to day 14.  

Day 12

                                          12x12 oil on archival panel

Today was a fun day as I had a friend come paint with me.  We decided to paint the same subject from a photo reference and had a ball watching each other paint.  This is my painting and the following is Lesley's painting.  What fun!

Day 11

6x6 oil on archival panel 

If you guessed that this is Peanut Butter Candy, you are right.  Somehow I never got the color of peanut butter just right in this painting but really enjoyed the effort.  

If you want to make some, you will need 

• 1 small potato
• 2 pounds confectioner's sugar
• peanut butter

Boil the potato either whole or sliced.  Slicing the potato will just make it cook quicker.  Then drain the water off and mash the potato until creamy.  You should have about 1/4 cup of potato but you might not need all of it.  

Put one box of confectioner's sugar in a large bowl and begin adding in the mashed potato a teaspoon at the time.  The potato will make the confectioner's sugar melt.  Alternate adding confectioner's sugar and potato until you have a consistency that will hold together so you can roll the mixture out like rolling dough.  

Place  your potato/sugar mixture on to a sheet of wax paper  so you can roll the mixture out into a rectangle making the thickness be about 1/4 inch.  The size of your rectangle will depend on how much sugar and potato you actually used when you were mixing the two together .  If you want to make a small batch, you would use a little potato and a sugar and you would not have used all the potato or the 2 pounds of sugar.  

Spread peanut butter over the rectangle and then roll up into a log like you would a jelly roll.  Once you have the log rolled you can refrigerate immediately and just slice off 1/4 inch slices  as you need it or you can go ahead and slice all of the log into peanut butter candy rounds.    Enjoy.