DAY 30 OF 30 PAINTINGS IN 30 DAYS

watercolor 6 x 6 inches

Whoo hoo!   I'm posting my 30th painting for the month and sitting down with a glass of wine to celebrate.  I started cutting mats for them this afternoon and was so rewarded and pleased with myself looking at them all.

Tomorrow, I'm going to return to work on my year of the snake print until it is done..... I have one block cut already.  My studio needs a day of cleaning up, and I'd like to cut some more mats.  I could list a dozen other thing that need to be done,  but I want to keep painting. 

For the month of February, I'm setting a goal to paint at least two small paintings a week and also to spend 6 days a week painting for at least 2 hours.  I'm hoping and pretty sure I will do more and spend more time than that.  I'll see if I need more commitment to get more done.

This last painting for the challenge is of a cup that my husband gave me for one of my birthdays and it is my favorite.  Tea always leaves a residue with our hard water, so I don't use it very much because it is hard to get clean.  My dear husband appreciates this since he does most of the dish washing around here.

DAY 29

watercolor and gouache 6 x 6 inches 

With only one day left of the challenge, I'm beginning to be a bit apprehensive about ending my daily painting, afraid that without the challenge and commitment that I will not keep painting.  This month of painting everyday has been very satisfying and I really want to keep the momentum up,  but  I have other things that I need to do that I've put aside this month.  And I want to work some on larger paintings.   I know I need a commitment to myself, including painting some larger pieces and some almost daily painting.... I must decide just what exactly that promise to myself will be.

DAY 28

 watercolor and gouache 6.5 x 6 inches

DAY 26 AND 27

 watercolor 6 x 6 inches

 I didn't post this yesterday, as the puplish color was all wrong the first time I painted it.  Then I put some gouache on it which was worse. This morning, I managed to take most of the gouache off which took a whole lot longer than it did to paint it, and what is left is what it is.

watercolor  4.5 x 7 inches

 It was a joy to paint this one, after spending what seemed half the morning fixing the previous one.  We had about  a foot of new snow and it was 9 degrees C this morning. These are the trees out a north facing window.

DAY 25

watercolor 8 x 10 inches

 There are 18 of these Tundra swans hanging out in a ditch along the road to Bartlett Cove and they don't seem to mind cars stopping and people taking pictures of them.  I went there with a friend yesterday and  came home and started painting this from one of the photos I took.  There seem to be more and more of them staying here for the winter and this is the first time I've had such a close look at so many of them.

DAY 24

watercolor 4.5 x 7 inches

I painted the sky from my window one day last week and added the rest while sitting in my car on the beach road yesterday. 

DAY 22 AND 23

 watercolor 6 x 6 inches

 I  scanned this last night but really was unhappy with it and too tired to do anything about it, so decided to skip a day of posting.  I made some changes (not easy with watercolor) and it looks a bit better. 

watercolor 6 x 7 inches

It was a really busy day, but besides fixing  yesterdays piece, I painted the bananas and drove to the beach and painted a second piece while sitting in the car.  So at last I'm ahead.

DAY 21

watercolor 6 x 6 inches

 This was another one that took longer to draw than it did to paint.  I've been looking at photos to paint from, and tomorrow's painting might be a landscape...... or not.  I've got lots of little things around the house that haven't been painted yet.

 

DAY 20

watercolor 6 x 6 inches

Its getting time for me to make a woodblock print for Baren Forum's  Chinese New Years exchange.  I got as far as getting my tools and wood out, then I decided to paint them.

DAY 19

watercolor 7 x 6 inches

It took longer to draw the jar than it did to paint everything.  I'm going to do something without ellipses tomorrow.

DAY 18

watercolor and gouache 4 1/4 x 4 inches

I found these little Chinese cups year ago in a shop in Seattle and have painted them  several times.  A couple of them are sort of lop-sided, so I'll let that be the excuse for the less than perfect drawing. 

DAY 17

watercolor about 3.75 x3.75 inches

A smaller piece today, and it got painted a lot faster.  My set up was originally larger with another little bowl and the olives were in a larger bowl with a pattern and there was maybe going to be a spoon, but after the olives were painted, I decided the arrangement wasn't going to work.  I wish I'd put the garlic a little to the left.    Hopefully, tomorrow I will finally get a day ahead.

DAY 16

 watercolor 8 x 6 inches

I love the shape of these heavy old mugs.   My husband calls these "boat cups" as they were what he always used on his commercial fishing boat.... they didn't tend to move as the boat rolled around, and didn't break when they did.  I don't remember where the coffee pot came from but love its shape too.  The bottom of the wooden handle is broken off.... I think it must have gotten burned at one time.

DAY 15

watercolor 6 x 6 inches

Yahoo!  We're half way through with the challenge.  I'm really developing respect for daily painters.  It takes lots of dedication.   Always in the back of my mind is the thought of continuing this after the 30 days.  So far I haven't gotten ahead on the number of paintings with any redeeming qualities.  And so far, I haven't had any other commitments to speak of.   When the 30 days are up, I'll make some sort of commitment, I'm sure, but don't know what.  For now I'll keep concentrating on this month.

Today's painting was a little more successful than yesterdays, but as always there is something I don't like about it.  

DAY 14

 watercolor and gouache 6 x 6 inches

I"m still enthused  about painting everyday, but not so enthused about what I painted today.  This is the better of two that I did today. I still haven't gotten ahead in my numbers of paintings... at least not of ones that I want to show anyone.   I'll try to do better tomorrow. 

DAY 13

 watercolor 6 x 6 inches

The setup  from yesterday was still on my table this morning, and I moved them around a bit and painted them again.  I really like yesterday's arrangement better.  I played around with cropping it to get a better composition, but will post the whole thing and think about it some more.

I also made some changes on yesterdays painting..... put a little more color in the dishes and fixed the ellipses.... wasn't so hard to do since I hadn't used any staining colors.  I used a little bit of white gouache on the rims.  Now that I've got it scanned again, I see something else I need to fix.

DAY 12

watercolor 6 x 6 inches

I'm really surprising myself that I am still enjoying this challenge.  I suppose there will be a day when I just don't want to do anything, but so far, so good; and its been enjoyable to look at the other paintings each day and read how others are getting along with the challenge. 

Thanks to Laurie Miller on her blog, Laurie G. Miller's Painting Patter, I learned how to make and use a really nifty view finder for drawing and it has really saved time with the little still life paintings.  I haven't quite mastered keeping it steady enough to draw on, but the grid and dots really help.   And her paintings are beautiful, and worth a look.

About the painting for today.... the bowl, plate and spoon all have similar floral designs on them; the plate is the same one as in my day 3 painting.  After doing all but the designs, I liked it and decided to leave as is, but now am seeing some definite problems with my ellipses, so there is more work to be done. 

DAY 11

 watercolor 6 x 6 inches

I almost painted over the table design with gouache, but thought I'd think about it for a while. I''ve been trying o use up some Strathmore and W&N paper that I've had for years....  not like Arches which is the best.  Hope to write more tomorrow, but have to go out tonight and I'm late. 

DAY 10

watercolor 5 x 5 inches



Another painting from the studio window again today.  It was painted with watercolor and I splatter gouache on for the snow again.  I started another still life today.  One of these days I'm going to get ahead with two paintings completed. 

DAY 9

gouache 7 x 5 inches

I've had a cold since Saturday  and today is the first day I really felt bad.  I didn't want to go to the studio, but finally did and finished painting this that I had started a few days ago, the view from my window.  It is snowing again.  It is painted on a gray watercolor paper with  gouache and some ink pen.  I splatter white paint on for snow.  I'm not very happy with it but  it does look better than the scan which for some reason doesn't look like the painting. 

DAY 8

watercolor and gouache,  about 4.5 x 4.5 inches

I'm really starting to like painting these little still lifes.  This is another little bowl made by  Kim Ney, a local potter.  It is a little bowl.... these are cherry tomatoes.  The background is gouache. 

I did some rearranging in my studio today to make it easier to set up the objects.  And again I didn't have time to do a second painting.  I did though make a change in the painting from day 4.

 I just didn't like the blue background.  I put a gray wash on it which didn't work, then used black gouache.  I also cropped it a little differently, leaving more of the table.

DAY 7

 watercolor 5 x 5 inches

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I got back in my comfort zone again and did another little still life today.  I still keep hoping I'm going  to find time to do two paintings some day so I'll be ahead.  I'd like a day to look at the finished piece before I say it's done.   I'm already seeing a couple of things on this piece I'd like to fix.

DAY 6

gouache on matboard  3 x 5 inches

This is another take of the same photo I painted and posted yesterday.  This time smaller... the measurement includes some of the matboard in the scan.  I taped around where I painted before starting.  My plan was to paint this one looser, but almost always when I use a photo, I seem to want to paint every detail.  Maybe I should use a bigger brush. 

The reddish color in the trees are dead lodge pole pine. The photo was taken in late summer.

I'm liking this challenge.  So far, I've been anxious to go to the studio every morning.  I hoping to get more than one painting done some day.  I did part of this one yesterday and started another today, so maybe tomorrow.    

DAY 5

watercolor 3.6 x 5.6 inches

This is painted from a photo I took of Mount Fairweather about 15 years ago.  I was out to the same place I took the picture from last summer and really surprised how much the trees have grown.

I realize now that I will probably do some more work on the foreground, or maybe crop it.  

DAY 4

 

 Watercolor 4x6 inches

Well here it is day 4 and I've finished another painting.  I got a late start today.  We felt the 7.5 earthquake here last night about midnight, and it took me a long time to get to sleep and up this morning.  Thankfully, there was no tsunami. 

The bowl was made by a local potter, Kim Ney and I love it.  I have several other similar ones.

DAY 3

watercolor and gouache 5 x 7 inches

I started this yesterday and it took longer than planned to finish it.  The back ground is done with gouache.   The message is "When one door closes another will open."

DAY 2, 30 PAINTINGS IN 30 DAYS

 watercolor  5.5 x 8 inches

I painted 3 pieces today and started another one, and this is the only one that I dare put here.  The problem with this and the other first 2 which are the same image is the wet on wet wash to make the line of  cottonwood trees. 

I took the photo I painted from yesterday at the airport.  I had taken my grand-daughter, Alyssa, there to fly home to Juneau.  It was quite foggy.  These mountains, the Beartracks, were covered with fog a few minutes after I took the picture.   When Alyssa left, there was fog all around accept up.  Kind of scary, but the pilot said it was clear just past the beach.

30 PAINTINGS IN 30 DAYS- DAY 1

watercolor about 5.7 x 5.7 inches

Today is the first day of Leslie Saeta's 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge.    I doubt that all my paintings will be as detailed.... or maybe I'll get faster at painting.  I want to do more than a sketch for the month.  And will get out my oils before the month is up.

The design in the table is done with gold watercolor which is a powder.  The message from the fortune cookie is  "The seeds of an idea you planted long ago are about to blossom."   I'm hoping.

WHELK

watercolor about 4 x 2.5 inches

 I think this is a lightning whelk.... also called left-handed.