Blue Shutters and Geraniums

This was the sixth lesson and was given as a gift to my daughter. So interesting, this technique that has changed my way of painting. I am finding that putting this color in my own paintings is certainly a challenge but I love the colors. They bring me joy.

This was a bonus painting and was  given as a gift to my grandson and his wife. So much fun. I have two more  bonus paintings to finish to complete this series. Then on to the France workshop!
Wishing you all a wonderful 2017 with much prosperity, painting, color and joy.

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Daisies, Blue Jars and Geraniums oil paintings

This was the fourth lesson.Again a challenge but I am loving this techniques. Thin blocking in and then thicker paint on top. I am so excited about this that I am going to sign up for her online course, Painting in Province. I have been doing my art journal. It was difficult during the holidays to keep up and the regular journaling has not been done regularly but hope to get back to that as the holidays are mostly over. Will be putting away Christmas Decorations as I want to get back to painting. This painting was given to my good friend Danae. The Sunflowers were given to my three granddaughters.

This was the Fifth Lesson and I love how it turned out. This is a gift for my son and daughter-in-law. I will tell you about the 6th lesson next week and the extra painting. I still have two bonus paintings to do and want to get them done before the France Workshop.

My websites:

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Sunflowers!

 The top Sunflower painting was Dreama's painting for the third lesson. It was hard to follow but I am happy with the painting. All three are 8x8 oils. I have really enjoyed this process. I bought some sunflowers after the first painting and did the next two.. The wet background with the transparent paint really works on the Gessoboard, not so much on canvas board. I am anxious to do more flower paintings withthe Ball or Mason Jars.

I have worked on another painting as a gift and cannot show it yet.

This process is exciting and much different than I am used to painting. So much more impressionistic.

Hope you have your holiday shopping almost done. Mine is done. I only have to get some fruit for our Christmas Brunch compote next week. My tree and decorations are up.  I did buy Garth Brooks Christmas Together Album and have been listening to that...of course my CD exchanger on my music system died so had to get a small boombox and that works great.
I have one more Sunday to work at Kingwood Center Gardens and then I am done until April when they open for the season so hope to get lots of painting done..
Will try to get the next blog finished for next week. #sunfloweroilpaintings.
My websites:
 http://judyfischerwaltonfineart.weebly.com
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New Process in my Paintings

This was the first painting of the my new class from Dreama Tolle Perry. It has been a wonderful class full of joy, and inspiration. So......since I seem to have trouble getting to painting, I decided to put this saying on a panel for inspiration.  I used an oil/Gamsol mix as a medium and put juicy colors down over the permanent magic marker, then I added thicker paint on top of the wet painting. Then I did another one.This helped me learn the process of thin transparent wet underpainting and then thick opaque brushwork.

 Then I was ready to do the cupcake. I literally fell in love with this process. It made me crave a cupcake but resisted running to the bakery. So then I practiced another one., my own colors and design. I am so excited about these paintings. I had fully intended to post every week of the six week course but life intervened, plus a computer crash didn't help. I did keep painting each week and will make my posts weekly through the course. Dreama's course is more than a painting course. She encourages meditating, journaling, gives lots of painting tips, and you get continual positive uplifting encouragement. I am really hoping to do her Painting Paris, her next workshop. I will work on each week's post this week and schedule them. I am very behind in posting in my websites and doing my newsletter so am hoping to get those up to date while I am off work from Kingwood Center Gardens. I have two Sundays left to work and then I am off for January, February and March. Of course I will keep painting. I have some beautiful poinsettias to paint and some lovely flower photos that I took before the weather set in. I will also show you some of my art journal pages next time. 32 degrees here in Ohio the past few days. So enjoy until next week.
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,http://judyfischerwaltonfineart.com
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First of 30 paintings in 30 days

Took me a while to get going today. I have been doing some pen and ink and watercolor studies in my art journal so decided when I am short on time will do the pen and ink studies. That is better than no painting at all. I thought I would attempt the 30 paintings in 30 days and that would get me working. 

I did finish a 16x20 oil commission for a retiring Board Member as a gift .

I was happy with this painting and I believe everyone else was also. It did take me a while and I have done no other paintings except watercolor sketches in my art journal.

I did get two paintings juried into the Springfield Museum's Ohio Plein Air Society Show PARKS IN PLEIN AIR. We are guaranteed one painting but I got two in so I am thrilled.

Rutherford B. Hayes Center , Summer Blooms, 10x8 oil and Malabar Farm State Park 8x10 oil

My process is to make a small black and white sketch about 2x4 inches. You can see the design easily that way. Then I block in the big masses with  color similar to the final color. Many times I may prepare my canvas with a transparent red oxide or alizarin crimson , especially if there is a lot of green in the painting.  If the painting is very detailed I will put a pencil drawing before the prep color. Otherwise I will put the drawing on with a pastel pencil. Once the masses are filled in with thin paint it is time to start building the color, dark to light. It is very tempting to put the details in but they must wait to be able to stand out. After the painting is dry I will spray with retouch varnish. I usually try to  photograph the painting before the spray to eliminate glare. I photo on a sunny day in the shade of my porch. You can always use a white sheet over a chair with the painting on the seat and you get under the sheet and photograph. Then I frame and add my business card and information about the painting on the back of the painting. Any questions, you can email me at jwalton15@neo.rr.com.

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The latest Plein Air paintings, new colors, new challenges

I am still working three days a week and it is so difficult to find time to paint, let alone time to write my blog. I have been trying to sketch with a Sharpie ultra fine marker everyday. On Saturday the ninth I did an 12x16 pastel with Johannes in a paintalong. I do wish I would have done it in oils but I learned a lot. I did use the PanPastels to start the block in. It is very challenging to paint a forest of pine trees and make each one different. Each side different on each tree, each tree a different color, Each tree on a different plane, no triangular trees. My poor deer....I could not get his face bright enough. If I was going to paint pastels much I would buy some sticks for making finer lines. The pastel pencils just don't do it. I used sanded paper. This is a painting that will never get framed.

Then Thursday I got to paint with my artist friends at Kingwood. The summer blooms are just starting and I chose the fountain view. I painted to the left of the Terrace so the large pot sits off to the side to make a better composition. I used a toned canvas and was happy that some of that showed through the painting and I wiped out the lights.It was very humid and my canvas was still moist with the Gamsol. I then put in my darks with Greenish Umber (my favorite dark) It is great for trees, especially evergreens.Black with variations of yellow make wonderful greens. The light changes so fast. I took a photo and made a black and white sketch where I saw the light in the beginning. I have learned to do that to keep my light consistent. The scene is completely changed by the time I finished.

Then the next Thursday we all went to the Bellville Park and I painted the little waterfall. It was a spillway . I am experimenting with some new colors, inspired by Dreama Tolle Perry. I love her paintings and colors. Depending on the price, I would like to take her online course in the Fall. So this was the first time I brightened up my work with her palette. This was also a challenge as it had rained and it was cloudy so I had to imagine the sun. I really had to work on my rocks to make them believable , so make them recede, and then to do the water so it did not fall evenly. It actually ran down a flat slab but that was boring and made straight lines, so had to change the way it fell.

Saturday we artists drove to Fremont to the Rutherford B Hayes Center for a paintout with the Ohio Plein Air Society for the Hayes 100th Anniversary. It was a three day event but we could only go for one. It was a beautiful day at a  beautiful place. There was lots of shade and most everyone was painting the house. I wanted to use my new bright palette so I found a spot with a vase of flowers. Again the light was there in the beginning and at the end but I did my black and white sketch and took photos.The painting looked too dark probably from painting in the shade and looking at the light. The eyes change things so I did brighted things up.  I have been toning my canvas with either Transparent Red Oxide or Transparent Brown Oxide or Transparent Orange Oxide. Again I wiped out the lights and used the Greenish Umber for the darks, blocked in all the puzzle pieces and left the flowers for last. I varigated the steps broke up the lines with sunlight ar skylight, broke up the stone lines with bush branches, enlarged the flower area and exxagerated the colors. I did have to glaze the further post to set it back. So I broke up straight lines, varigated colors, created depth, made the four corners different, eliminated clones, kept the no fly zone around the edges soft and muted and varied my edges. Rules! Thanks to Johannes Vloothaus. I feel good about my new palette, lots of colors right now and will probably eliminate some after experimenting.

I can see my paintings are starting to look like I want, more exciting color, more impressionistic brushwork.

I also purchased some new books on Amazon... Daily Painting by Carol Marine about painting small and often to become a more creative, productive and successful Artist, Art Before Breakfast, a zillion ways to be more creative no matter how busy you are, and Shut Your Monkey, how to control your Inner Critic and Get More done. I am slowly working my way through these. So more sketching daily, more small paintings. I did buy some 6x6 canvas boards. I also painted a birthday painting for my Great Granddaughter. So now, I need to paint daily and start a commission .

I have started the commission but the daily painting just is not getting done. I have taken a lot of photos from Kingwood and my flowers at home. My  grandson put in about 10 feet of Hostas he dug from his home , and I brought some free plants and put in half of them last night. Worked today and it was terribly hot. 92 in that ticket booth and then I went to my great granddaughter's for the end of her 1st birthday party.

#waterfall,#oilpainting,#Pastels,#Kingwoodcentergardens,#RutherfordBHayescenter,
#Ohiopleinairsociety

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Grand Canyon and Peonies

I had a staff meeting on Thursday so was only able to do a quick sketch with My plein air painters. Friday was spent on errands and cleaning and laundry. The Grand Canyon painting was done as a paintalong with Johannes. I really enjoyed this painting as it really popped with the background being done. I did have trouble with the rocks. Everytime I do a paintalong I learn so much. How to create depth, how to look for clones, varigating my colors, making abstract shapes.It is an 11x14 oil. I had a hard time keeping up and did photo the progress with my phone but unable to upload to my laptop. I will have to take my camera for photos.

The rain knocked my peonies to the ground and they had just bloomed! I brought them in and painted them. I loved painting these and working with the brushstrokes.It is a 8x8 oil. I am getting better at getting depth in the petals. I painted the flowers first then I decided to do the background with green umber and then put other colors into it.It was really wet so did not photo well.
My iris are gone already. I really wanted to paint them.

I had really hoped to have more days off to paint and thought that was scheduled but due to vacations, etc, I have to work more again. I will paint Thursday through Saturday. Oh shoot, have a doctors appointment in Columbus on Friday but maybe can get something done that afternoon.

I have been doing little sketches everyday so I am happy with that.