Preparing canvas boards

Spent the day preparing canvas 8x8 and 8x10 boards. Used flexible Modeling Paste first in and x type brushstoke, then two coats of Gesso with a little sanding on the bumps. Finished 24 boards. That should hold me for a while! I have been fascinated by the 8x8 format. Makes for interesting compositions.

Herb Garden 2

I was definitely intrigued by those pots in the herb garden. I wanted to do this painting the day before but we had to move due to spraying in the rose garden. I also wanted it to be an 8x8 but only had an 8x10 panel. If I cut it down the composition changes. I don't like it as well as the day before painting. The greens are a challenge and the amount of different foliage is a challenge also. What to eliminate to make a good painting!Sometimes painting a formal garden makes it difficult to do melodic lines!

Herb Garden 1

This was done on Monday June 6th in the early morning before it got too hot. I especially like this painting. I feel the composition works well, the planes read well, and the color is much to my liking as I feel lately my work has been on the dull side. I am hoping that the Chris Leeper workshop coming up will help me with this as his work is brilliantly colorful.

Kingwood Garden

This was done on June 4th at the OPAS paintout at Kingwood Gardens. Certainly a challenge with all that green. I did get some good critique remarks by Debra Dawson and she also suggested some lighting changes, which I did when I got home. Not perfect but I am learning to do greens and planes!

Kingwood Mansion

Painted this today (Memorial Day,2011) Very hot, 92 degrees, buggy with all the rain this year. Difficult to design as there was so much lawn but I didn't want the Mansion to be the center of interest. I think I am getting better at trees but still have problems with my greens.

Memorial Day 2011

This this weeks's Daily Paintworks Challenge,OUTSIDE MY WINDOW. I actually painted outside my front door! Had a hard time designing the flag. It was blowing pretty good. 92 degrees today. Attempted to design a composition so that the piller wasn't in the middle of the canvas and the flag was in the upper right third of the canvas. And then there were all those greens!

Malabar View

This was done plein air at Malabar Farm last Saturday 5/21,2011. It was one of the first nice days we have had here in Ohio.I got the background a little wet and it was difficult to put it cooler. I changed some of the tree shapes and some of the shadows to make a more pleasing painting.