Rising

"Rising" 

6 x 6 palette knife painting on Arches paper for oils.

The third in my series "The Secret Life of a Tulip"

This is my favorite so far. Who knew that tulips were so 

incredibly sexy? 

Awakening

"Awakening" 

 6 x 6 palette knife oil on Arches paper for oils.

I have really been enjoying painting on this paper; it stands up 

to the palette knife with no trouble at all. Some say it's too 

absorbent, but I don't have any problems - maybe because I use

the paint right out of the tube with no medium.

I hadn't thought about framing or mailing. Have discovered that to 

do either, the painting needs to be mounted onto a backboard. 

Though I'm not happy about the extra work involved, I bought

a sheet of Crescent mat board & some Liquitex fluid medium 

to use as a bonding agent - this was the advice I got from

a nice guy at Arizona Art Supply. I'll let you know how it goes.

In a Spin

"In a Spin" 

Click to Bid

Palette knife oil painting on 6 x 6 

Arches paper for oils

The first in a new series titled "The Secret Life of a Tulip"

A few weeks ago, an artist friend and I took a road trip to 

San Francisco to spend a couple of days with my younger son and 

his family. A highlight of the visit was "Tulipmania" at Pier 39.

Absolutely hundreds of tulips were on display.

I was wandering along taking photos of bunches of 

tulips, then noticed my wonderful daughter-in-law, Laurie,

with her camera and her nose right inside a tulip!

Soon we were all spying on the intimate details of

tulip anatomy and a couple of us were getting

excited at what looked like a fantastic new series.

Granny Smiths take the Stage

"Granny Smith #1  

I'm still having lots of fun with apples, but am about to start a 

new series, so stay tuned. 

More Apples

Top: #44 - "Pacific Rose" - color breaking. Who knew there were so many varieties of apples!
Palette knife oil painting on 6 x 6 Raymar canvas panel. 

Bottom:  #45 - "Pacific Rose II" - destroy & rebuild. Palette knife oil painting

 on 6 x 6 Raymar canvas panel.

Someone recently gave me a copy of "American Places" - gorgeous photographs by Elliot Porter, text by Wallace Stegner and Page Stegner. I thought I would be most interested in the photos, but Wallace Stegner is such an amazingly good writer, especially about place, that I find myself reading a page or two every time I sit down to a meal. (I know, I know - I should be putting my attention on the food.) 

I've always enjoyed his novels and think if my history courses and books had been taught and written by him, I might have enjoyed them much more.

Apples

At the top is #38.  "Opal" - destroy & rebuild. Palette knife oil painting on 6 x 6 Raymar panel. I used Winsor Violet (dioxazine) to mix the colors and am not sure I like them - will do this one again and eliminate that color to see how it changes.

On the bottom is #41 - "Opal II" - color breaking. This time I didn't use the violet for mixing and I like it much better. 6 x 6 palette knife oil on Raymar canvas panel.

Though I've finished with the 30/30 Challenge, I seem to be embroiled in the 366 Days of Art in 2016 Challenge started by a sketchbook group. So, I'm keeping the momentum going as best as I can for as long as I can - it's certainly a great habit!

Results of the 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge!

I had such a great time painting these, and, for the first time, I managed to get 

30 paintings done in the allotted time. All are just palette knife oils, 

6 x 6 inches, on canvas panels, or Arches paper for oils. 

Another group issued a 366-day challenge to do art every day throughout the year. 

Not sure if I can do that successfully, but I'll sure try.