Wednesday, December 31, 2008

year end inventory

"Lightly Ruffled" 44 x 48 acrylic on canvas "Pinkie" 34" x 36" acrylic on canvas

"Orchid Carolyn" 44" x 48" acrylic on canvas
The last 3 flower paintings for 2008. Done. I've been working on them all fall. They each now have an inventory number and just need framing. I use 1" x 2"s that I cut to size on the table saw for most frames, usually pine. I'll paint the wood red before the gold coat goes on.


Tuesday, December 30, 2008

young red shouldered hawk

Visitor to our yard this week. The swinging of the wind directional didn't bother it at all as it hunted for grasshoppers.

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Gus and the Shrubbery


Short film by Janvier Miller, "Gus and the Shrubbery" Go to Gustaf Miller.com to see his art work. He and I have enjoyed a great life in art together.

Friday, December 12, 2008

bobcats

Two wild bobcats visited our field this morning then slipped off into the tall dune grasses and our seagrape and cabbage palm woods.

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Seagrape Studio

" Seagrape Studio" 46" x 50" acrylic on canvas
This painting of mine was donated by the patron to our local hospital. It now hangs in the board room where all can enjoy the view from my studio here in Florida. Keep gifts of art small. The recipient might have different taste.

Saturday, December 6, 2008

3-4 hour sketch painting en Plein Air

"McKee Garden en Plein Air" 36" x 42" acrylic on canvas
The directness of a quick painting has a charm that a fully worked canvas often loses.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

en Plein Air

This week I'll spend 3 days painting at McKee Garden. Proceeds from the sale of art work will benefit the Garden and the Cultural Council of Indian River County. They've used one of my paintings from last year's event for all the advertising. Because of this annual event I have done many paintings of water lilies.

Saturday, November 22, 2008

"Turkey Tom"


Turkey Tom 46" x 50" acrylic on canvas
Happy Thanksgiving

Monday, November 17, 2008

Monday, November 3, 2008

Art League of Daytona Beach show


3 person show will be up until Nov. 28th.





My work is the large canvases along with Ellen Fischer's paintings and Jacquie Fort's baskets. The work goes well together. It's always instructional to see one's work in a new setting. Lighting is so important.


Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Poppies

acrylic on canvas 46" x 52"

This image is on the Candler Gallery show announcement this November.

Friday, October 24, 2008

Painting in Jan's Florida Studio


Florida Studio

PEONY

acrylic on canvas 46" x 52"

This is now at the Candler Gallery for the November show.

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

transition

Painting the outside of this Massachusetts house for several days now. Doing chores before leaving. It will feel good to relax in the car for the drive to Florida.

Thursday, September 25, 2008

sketchbooks


Large canvases are done for the summer. This is the time when I head back to my sketchbooks. It's a way to work-out ideas of what to do next once settled into my Florida studio.

Monday, September 22, 2008

Friday, September 19, 2008

"Mauve Orchid"

46" x 50" acrylic on linen Last of the summer large paintings to be finished. I've gotten tired of painting with mauve.

Monday, September 15, 2008

"Rock Face" in process...


"Rock Face"

46" x 50" acrylic on linen canvas This summer we've been hiking almost every day. These rocks are on Blue Hill Reservation outside Boston. I made changes from the photo I started with. I raised the horizon and brought the rocks down to the bottom of the canvas. I make the refinements in my studio because the outdoor light is so bright.

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

serigraphs

"Cut Flags" in process=
"Cut Flags" 18" x 23" silkscreen print - edition size of 95.
I don't do screen printing anymore but I still have some images from when I was printing full time. I had to stop screen printing because of the toxic fumes. Even with a double face mask filter system the solvents made my nose run. I did all the printing by hand using oil-based inks on Arches 88 rag paper. I'd enjoyed the challenge of color separation the process requires. It would take me a month to finish one image. Paintings take me a month but with prints I'd have lots of copies. The first step was always watercolors. Next, I'd select the one I thought would be the best as a multiple. In other words, have mass appeal. I'd cut stencils in the evening, adhere them to the screen in the morning and mix-up the colors. The afternoons were for the actual printing. It was a steady rhythm of work.

Sunday, August 31, 2008

Janvier Miller, Start of Rock Face Painting



It is fun to start a painting outside in summertime.

Friday, August 29, 2008

"Long Shoots"


(in process shown below)
46" x 50" acrylic on canvas Almost finished. I'll be picking over this one for awhile. All those twigs! Choosing a title can be tricky. My husband suggested "Stump Suckers". Then there was "10th Month", "October", "Broom Growth", "Twigged"...

Thursday, August 28, 2008

"Queen Anne's Laces"


First of the summer set of work to be finished. 46" x 50" acrylic on canvas

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

summer studio


A fan brush makes multiple lines. It speeds the loading on of grasses. I now have 3 canvases underway for these summer months. It takes me about a month to finish each.

Janvier shows us some of her newest large acrylic paintings.

Saturday, August 9, 2008

Studio visit

"Magnolia"


Just signed this painting an hour ago calling it "done". What finally made this flower painting work was adding some yellow on the petal edges that unfortunately doesn't show very well here.

summer studio





A fan brush makes multiple lines. It speeds the loading on of grasses. I now have 3 new canvases underway for these summer months. It takes me about a month to finish each.

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

J. S. Bach

Music is very important to my studio work time. I sometimes start the morning with Bach contatas. Then maybe next his "English" suite in g or the Musical Offering. I've started a third big canvas, grasses. The orchid and shrub paintings are coming along.
Good article in the N Y Times today about boredom contributing to creativity. Because we're here such a short time each summer we don't socialize much. It leaves a lot of down time for the studio. It's hard self-starting sometimes. One trick I use is to leave some little thing undone the day before. This gives me a place to start. Once underway momentum and music carry the energy on.

Saturday, August 2, 2008

David Hockney

I talked briefly with David Hockney once in MOMA. "A Bigger Splash" is a movie showing one of the ways he works. Here an assistant traced a photo projection onto canvas for him to paint. An opaque projector would have made my twiggy painting a lot easier to do. The refinements today= Bugs? Buds? Twigs and more twigs.... it's coming along.

Thursday, July 31, 2008

dagger brush


I've two paintings going now. One is of an orchid for the Florida show. The 2nd painting is of shoreline brush by the pond we often walk to. I'm finding I don't have the right brush for painting the twigs. Best would be a dagger brush that has a long point and is flattish. I've been using acrylic medium to get the paint to flow. I'm striving for graceful, tubular twig lines. A liner brush, which I also don't have, would make dark edging easier. I need a trip to the store or to loosen-up my application. If I put in 2 hours in the studio I consider it a good work day.

Monday, July 28, 2008

acrylic on paper

"Sofa Sketch" 30" x 32" acrylic on paper


This is the sofa painting on the wall in the last posting of my Massachusetts studio. the sofa, too. I've never made it into a large painting.

Massachusetts studio

This photo was taken while I was working on a project of fruit and vegetable paintings.

Friday, July 25, 2008

"Wood Ducks"

acrylic on canvas

38" x 42"









This is the last of the duck/bird series of paintings for now. Some paintings take longer for me to decide that they're finished. Paint supplies came today from http://www.utrecht.com/. I've used them for years. Watch out when buying cerulean not to get their "hue" but the "chromium".

Our grand daughter at camp in Maine called us from the top of Mt. Washington. I loved hiking the Presidential range at her age, too. Our other teenage grand daughter did a watercolor along with me yesterday. When we finished we ate the cherries in our still life.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

"Parrots"




acrylic on canvas
Mergansers 46" x 50"
This painting was done in Florida. The new owners have pet parrots.





Saturday, July 19, 2008

"Black-Crowned Night-Heron"

I'm refining another painting done 2 summers ago. I've added rocks in the river, a hidden fish, and made the bird smaller. Still working on the wood ducks, too. This hot summer weather slows me down.

Thursday, July 17, 2008

"Mergansers"



acrylic on canvas

46" x 50"

Finishing touches to this painting from last summer went on this morning. Later today we head to Providence for their monthly Gallery Night. There's a new school/work space for artists called the Steel Yard. They do community outreach with a bike repair class, pottery, and metal welding.

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

November show

http://www.meghancandlergallery.com/ To see a few more flower paintings go to this web page. It's where I'll be having the show in November.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

preliminaries

This is an example of acrylic on paper as I try to decide what to paint on my new canvas. My gallery in Florida wants me to paint flowers. They can sell them. I'm having a show there in November. I'm considering doing more big flower paintings but experimenting with landscape and still life first. Cropping with newspaper is an easy way to see different views of an image. Sometimes a preliminary on paper is worth saving.


Monday, July 14, 2008

acrylic on paper preparation

http://sanmiguelicons.com/ This is my sister-in-law's web page. I love her and her work.
Today I was thinking about my next canvas and what a corporation might like to hang in their office. I ended up doing acrylic on paper of shrubs by the pond we often walk to. We picked alot of wild blueberries and blackberries on our hike. Delicious. Still finishing-up a magnolia painting I'm working on. I always have several things going at the same time. It's helpful to switch around but over-whelming if I try to work on more than three at once.

Saturday, July 12, 2008

new stretched canvas

One of my favorite things is a newly stretched canvas ready to paint. As I finish-up some duck paintings I'll take the extra bits of paint and slather it on the new canvas. After a few days I'll have a good underpainting surface. Maybe then I'll also have figured-out what subject to paint next.

Friday, July 11, 2008

portraits of my grand daughters




The first instruction I got was from my mother on how to paint portraits. She had studied at NY's Art Student League. She'd have a friend pose for us and set-out the pastels. Dark green and alizarin for face shadows, dark background to contrast beside the light side of the face. Summer is our extended time with our grand daughters. They posed briefly for these portraits but then I had to work from photos I took. Oil paint would have been easier to work with. Acrylics dry darker so it's much harder to work back into a surface. These portraits were done awhile ago. The girls are teenagers now.

Thursday, July 10, 2008

paper first



This small acrylic on paper is 12" x 12". It was a preliminary for a large painting I did of teapots. Working most of a design out before going on canvas saves alot of energy and paint!

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

"Red Rose"


acrylic on canvas
46" x 50"









Tonight is Corporate Night at the DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, MA. I've been in their loan program for years as well as included in the museum collection. This evening is special because our 16 year old grand daughter will be going to the event with us. "Red Rose" is one of my paintings in their program. The sprinkling head on a watering can is call a "rose". Watering cans have been a favorite subject matter for several paintings.

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

"Storm Struck Pine"




"Storm Struck Pine" is a small acrylic 18" x 20"
"Massachusetts Studio" acrylic on canvas 46" x 50".
Summer of 2007 this was selected for a show at Audubon's Moose Hill center in Sharon, MA.
Today we delivered work to the Munson Gallery in Chatham, MA. Cape Cod. The yellow painting is of my studio here in Walpole. Our son has a smaller version of this painting done with a blue palette. It's now in Seattle hanging in a red room. You can partially see a study for the Great Blue Heron painting on the wall behind the easel.

Monday, July 7, 2008

"Buffleheads"






36" x 40" acrylic on canvas

The big size of the bufflehead ducks were fun to paint in 2005. Downsizing and adding two more ducks has made it a better painting.

Sunday, July 6, 2008

"Outdoor Goldfish Bowl"


Taking the indoor fishbowl outside in summertime made wonderful complicated designs.

22" x 18" acrylic

first post

In this blog I intend to show my techniques of working in a studio alone, a year's work. I change studios twice a year, North and South. I often start by revising paintings finished the year or two before. Looking at paintings after a time away allows for a fresh perspective.