Jenny's Green Teapot

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This teapot belongs to my daughter. It's quite small and sits on a bookshelf in her livingroom. I notice it every time I visit. I thought it would be fun to paint.

Red Pear with Grapes and Lemon

This is a do-over of a painting that I did a couple of weeks ago. I wasn't happy with the original, so decided to experiment with it. I got rid of the plate and added a white cloth, muted the lemon a bit, and tried to bump up the contrast. I'm learning more about notan in composition, and intend to do some practicing with light/dark.

Tomorrow is the first day of the Carol Marine workshop. I have all my gear packed and am ready to go. I can hardly wait!

Red Pear with Lemon and Grapes

I'm really excited...the countdown to retirement is almost over. I have been a project manager for a health insurance company for 20 years. As you can imagine, I'm SO done with it and now I'm ready to spend my days painting. Although my last day of work is January 31st,  I only have 15 actual working days left. I have the great, good fortune to have a spot reserved in Carol Marine's workshop January 20-24, just the week before I retire. Carol also lives in Eugene, and will be giving her workshop in Eugene's twin city, Springfield. So much to look forward to this month!

This painting is another attempt at fracturing. I love the technique and will keep practicing.

September Challenge #12

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Hooray! I finished my painting before midnight! I'm posting it this evening and will add it to the 30 Day Challenge tomorrow morning. Last evening's painting was really difficult, but this seemed to go pretty smoothly. When a painting starts going south, there is probably a point when it's better to give up and start over.

Anyway, this was fun to paint. I'm a fracture convert!

September Challenge #11

Just a quick post. I'm running late this morning, so will wait to comment until this evening.

Update: This painting just gave me fits.  I was still working on it at 2:00 a.m. this morning. (That's why I overslept!)

I think there were two reasons for the struggle. The first problem that presented itself was my old nemesis, composition. I thought this arrangement looked ok, but once I got it on canvas, I wasn't happy with it - I need to do more work on composition. The other struggle was with the yellow color...maybe too acid. I use a simple five color palette and can mix most colors with it, but the mixed yellow for this painting wasn't what I was looking for.

I'm just whipped from not sleeping last night, so this evening's painting is going to be something simple...although that's no guarantee that I'll get it finished at a reasonable hour.

September Challenge #10

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These are zinneas and bluebeard from our garden. I'm continuing to use Julie Ford Oliver's fracturing technique, and I'm enjoying the process. It took me a long time to paint this, but I'm happy with the way it turned out.