Another Painting, and Progress Pics

I just finished tweaking this this morning.  Whenever I finish a painting, it sits on my easel and I walk around the house and stare at it.  And stare at it some more.  And I always find things that need tweaking.

Here are the progress pics:

I started with a BRIGHT red background.  Did I say bright?  It's a little loud!  Then, the sky and furthest hills.

Next the tree trunk and branches.  For some reason I love this stage!  I see a problem with one of those branches.  It's one of those things I tweaked this morning.

Then the foreground and the picnic table.  I painted the picnic table twice, because the first one was too small.  I know it's giant oak, but that doesn't mean the picnic table needs to be doll sized!  And, no, I do  not have a pic of it!

Then, it's time to add the feast!  That's a blue ball jar in the background.  Love it.

This painting is my practice for live art that I'll be doing for the women's retreat at Camp Elim in a couple of weeks.  (that's http://campelim.com/ if you're interested)  I know that artists frequently do a 'study' before doing the real painting.  I think it's generally meant to help them nail down the tone and colors.  From what I've seen, it's usually not as detailed as the final product.  But there will be a silent auction the weekend I'm painting, and I thought I could put the smaller painting in the auction, so I wanted it to be somewhat nice.

The only thing left to do is put a wire on the back, and it'll be ready to hang.  Oh, that, and figuring out what's in that lovely magenta pitcher!!

I call this "Invitation".

Canvas #2 is Finished!

Done!  I loved doing this one.  The blues were great fun.  I just wanted a hint of a crowd, so that they wouldn't steal the focus from the two central figures.  You might not be able to see it in this picture, but I managed to get a reflection of light in the sunglasses...I'm not sure how!  It must be the grace of God all over again!  He always paints by my side.

Finally Progress!

Spring break is a wonderful thing!  Even if you don't have kids in school, I heartily recommend it!!  You take a week and you don't do ANYTHING that's in your normal scope of activity.  Instead you do all kinds of things that you never get a chance to!  It's delightful.

Of course, having enjoyed a week of play means that I made ZERO progress on my paintings.  That proved to be a good thing, though, because I ended up changing the main people in this image!  It's good to take time to ponder!

I'm thinking the crowd needs some serious work.  We'll see...!

Carrots, Anyone?

I found a MUCH better reference pic for a little girl.  This is the first, rough layer of paint.  She'll get better (hopefully!) as the layers get added.

This guy however...

I told you I needed to work on his face.  And I DID work on his face, but clearly not enough!  He still needs some serious help!  Did You hear that Lord?  I need Your help!

I was reminded the other day, that I always SAY that God is faithful.  That He never changes.  That what was true yesterday is still true today.  So, if I've seen God's kindness in helping me paint in the past, why do I tend to doubt that He would help me today as well?  He will, and He does.  Because He has given me this love, and this talent, and He will use this to glorify His name.

"Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to Your name give glory because of Your lovingkindness, because of Your truth."  (Psalm 115:1)

Moving Forward, Slowly

Progress feels good!  Even if it's not yet perfect...not yet finished...having the guitar player sort of fleshed out, and the guy with boxes back on the canvas is a good thing!  I'm learning (did you catch that? LEARNING) that I'll need to do the hard work of having more than one layer of paint.  It's ok.  It'll make for a better end product.

A very wise and skilled artist friend reminded me that if these paintings will be seen from a distance (and they will), then it's perfectly ok, and even better, to have them remain loose.  Even in the details of the face.  So I'm attempting that.  It looks a bit freaky up close:

Just big huge blotches of paint, but the hope is that they'll communicate well from across the room!

This guy's face is a MESS, and I'll have to work on fixing it as soon as the paint is dryer.  And the work goes on!

One Step Forward and Several Steps Back

Notice anything different?  Not a lot of forward progress, that's for sure!  The box carrying dude is now covered over, and the little girl is completely missing!  They needed help.  A lot of help.  It's better than chucking the canvas and building a brand new one!

I'll also have to admit to my guitar playing model that I made him a lefty.  Ambidextrous!

Step One

Remember...waaaay long ago...I mentioned painting a set of paintings for a church in Wisconsin?  Well, I'm FINALLY getting started!  This is just the background for one of the canvases.  That's a bit of a repeating logo ("Re") that the client wanted to fade away, almost like a watermark.  There will be a whole crowd of people on top of this, and most of the red will completely disappear.  I think!  We'll see how it turns out.  Clearly, I paint by the grace of God!

TRUTH

 

"See how great a love 

the Father has bestowed on us, 

that we would be called 

children of God;

and such we are!"

1 John 3:1

From the Archives

I painted this way back in....2003?  I was still trying to figure out if I wanted to pursue art at all.  I had no idea if I wanted to go down the scary road of learning new things and maybe failing!  Seven-ish years later, and it's been a lot less painful than I thought, and a lot more fun!  God has whispered encouragement to my heart, He's surrounded me with gifted teacher/friends, and looking back I can see His kindness over and over again.

I called this "Nations".