Saturday, September 30, 2017

Day 30 - Finding a Balance

Finding a Balance, Acrylic on Crescent Board, 10"x10", $125

Day 30 - Thirty Paintings in Thirty Days

I did it! This is the last painting in the September 2017 Thirty Paintings in Thirty Days Challenge. In this one, I toned down the pure hues and let them mix to make more secondaries, particularly greens. Still working on educating my eyes and hands on where the marks should go. I have to admit that I am feeling a lot more relaxed and confident about making these than I was at the beginning of the month - maybe there is hope for me yet!

To purchase this painting, please go to Daily Paintworks - click on the icon at right.

Friday, September 29, 2017

Day 29 - Red LInes

Red Lines, Acrylic on Crescent Board, 10"x10", $125

Day 29 - Thirty Paintings in Thirty Days

I'm still playing with stamping, lines, and squares. This time I limited my palette to black, white and Cadmium Red.

To purchase this painting, please go to Daily Paintworks - click on the icon at right.

Thursday, September 28, 2017

Day 28 - Points of Intersection

 
Points of Intersection, Acrylic on Crescent Board, 10"x10", $125

Day 28 - Thirty Paintings in Thirty Days

Almost there! This is the first time (out of 9 challenges) that I have gotten more than 27 paintings done. And I fully expect to finish the last two. This painting follows on the last couple with the combination of lines, squares, stamping, and colorful passages. I'm still feeling my way around on how to distribute the colors, handle the shapes, and manage the lines and other hard edges.

To purchase this painting, please go to Daily Paintworks - click on icon at right.

Wednesday, September 27, 2017

Day 27 - Crossed Signals

Crossed Signals, Acrylic on Crescent Board, 10"x10", $125

Day 27 - Thirty Paintings in Thirty Days

I like this one. It is a little less bright than yesterday's painting, but it has a lot going on. Three more days in this challenge - and, one last day at the beach (we're expecting 88 degrees today, 65 tomorrow.)

It took a while, but I am feeling a bit more comfortable with this whole abstract thing. I am slowly getting the hang of following my intuition. Just as difficult to me is painting out passages that I like when they don't work in the painting (ooooh, I hate to do that!)

To purchase this painting, please go to Daily Paintworks - click on the icon at right.

Tuesday, September 26, 2017

Day 26 - Chaotic Synapses

Chaotic Synapses, Acrylic on Crescent Board, 10"x10", $125

Day 26 - Thirty Paintings in Thirty Days

They say that patience is a virtue. It is surely something that I don't have enough of. This painting has about a million layers - I added things, painted over them, added more things, etc. In between layers, I had to wait for things to dry. This is usually where I screw things up - I go back into the paint before it is dry destroying passages, good and bad, as I go. This time, I waited. The result is pretty cool.

To purchase this painting, please go to Daily Paintworks - click on the icon at right.

Monday, September 25, 2017

Day 25 - In and Out

In and Out, Acrylic on Crescent Board, 10"x10", $125

Day 25 - Thirty Paintings in Thirty Days

This was fun. I started with a random distribution of bright colors mixing and overlapping them on the board. Once that was dry, I added the black shapes around the edges. Next came the black and white squares, and, finally, the white arcs. It is a fun, sci-fi kind of piece - the arcs and squares remind of technical stuff. My only complaint with this painting is that the colors feel a bit trapped and none of the colors is truly dominant - I think more breaks in the outer border are needed and the abstract pattern needs to lean emphatically in one direction, color-wise.

To purchase this painting, please go to Daily Paintworks - click on the icon at right.

Sunday, September 24, 2017

Day 24 - Looking for the Rhythm

Looking for the Rhythm, Acrylic on Crescent Board, 10"x10", NFS

Day 24 - Thirty Paintings in Thirty Days

My mind wasn't in it today.It's really hot - in fact, as soon as I post this I am heading to the beach. Who ever heard of 90 degree days in late September in northern Vermont? That's just crazy. And tomorrow is supposed to be the same.

In this painting, I was trying to figure out the idea of vertical bands of color - how to make them interesting, and finding a rhythm to hold the pattern together. Some areas of this work, and it might all work somewhat better on a much bigger substrate (more breathing room between the bands and more room for variety.) Whatever. I'm outta here.

Saturday, September 23, 2017

Day 23 - Choose Your Own Path

Choose Your Own Path, Acrylic on Crescent Board, 10"x10", $125

Day 23 - Thirty Paintings in Thirty Days

I was thinking of beads on a string, stones on a path, finding my own way and came up with this. I started with a black and dark blue background and painted the pathways on top of it. My first thought for a title was "You can't get there from here" because the paths of stones are separated by empty space but I decided that most of us can find a way to get to the path we want to be on if we just think creatively, hence the title I chose in the end.

To purchase this painting, please go to Daily Paintworks - click on the icon at right.

Day 22 - Butterfly

Butterfly, Acrylic on Crescent Board, 10"x10", $125

Day 22 - Thirty Paintings in Thirty Days

A day late on this one, but I'll be catching up today. I painted this one in reverse - I put most of the butterfly colors on first and then painted out the parts I didn't want to keep. Final touch-ups went on top of the yellow. Fun approach that I really haven't tried before.

To purchase this painting, please go to Daily Paintworks - click on the icon at right.

Thursday, September 21, 2017

Day 21 - Spreading Outward

Spreading Outward, Acrylic on Crescent Board, 10"x10", $125

Day 21 - Thirty Paintings in Thirty Days

I have used this color combination before when I was painting portrait. It carries a lot of punch. This has got a lot of paint on it because I kept adding, covering, and changing things until I was happy with it. This was primarily an exercise in letting the paint make crazy shapes and having the fortitude to leave them be.

To purchase this painting, please go to Daily Paintworks - click on the icon at right.

Wednesday, September 20, 2017

Day 20 - Black and White

Black and White, Acrylic on Crescent Board, 10"x10", $125

Day 20 - Thirty Paintings in Thirty Days

Two-thirds through already! I've been playing with some pretty bold palettes the last few days, so today I decided to step back and do something in black and white. I love paintings that are black and white or that have just one additional pure hue added to what seems like it should be boring. Done well, these paintings can have the most amazing impact. And, therein lies the rub - doing them well. I think I got a pleasing pattern of lights and darks here with enough movement and variation to make it interesting. This is definitely something that I will continue to work on.

To purchase this painting, please go to Daily Paintworks - click on the icon at right. You can find lots of my other paintings there as well.

Tuesday, September 19, 2017

Day 19 - Spinning

Spinning, Acrylic on Crescent Board, 10"x10", NFS

Day 19 - Thirty Paintings in Thirty Days

OK. This one had about a hundred potential titles including "Spinning Outward," "Circling the Drain," "Going in Circles," Spiraling Inward," and "Hurricane Anna." Actually the titles are more fun than the painting, but I wanted to try something different and I did that. I started out putting spirals and circles of different sizes and colors all over the board, overlapping them and letting the paint mix. It was fun but there was no coherence. So I started working on creating a focal point while retaining the mic of colors and textures. I think that worked fairly well. In the end, though, this is not all that interesting - a big problem with paintings that feature circles. That's what I learned today.

Monday, September 18, 2017

Day 18 - Sliced and Diced

Sliced and Diced, Acrylic on Crescent Board, 8"x10", NFS

Day 18 - Thirty Paintings in Thirty Days

Bright, bright today.I'm still playing with patchwork colors, crazy lines, splattering and stamping. Random and intuitive.I'm not sure what to do with it, so I'm just going to sit with it for a while. All the wonderful criss-cross lines were made with a credit card dipped in paint - I like the variation in line width and color as the card travels across the dry and sometimes not-so-dry paint.

Sunday, September 17, 2017

Day 17 - Trees

Trees, Acrylic on Crescent Board, 10"x10", NFS

Day 17 - Thirty Paintings in Thirty Days

This one is kind of fun. It started out as an experiment in sprtizing and pouring yesterday but my impatience quickly turned it into a gray mess. So I let it dry overnight and painted over it all this morning using a palette knife to make sure that most of the mud disappeared. I stayed with the color scheme from yesterday and applied it to a stand of trees - very abstracted - I painted what I "understand" to be a tree rather than what a particular tree actually looks like. In the end - not too bad. I think there is more that I can do with this concept and a fresh substrate.

Saturday, September 16, 2017

Day 16 - Patchwork

Patchwork, Acrylic on Crescent Board, 8"x10", $125

Day 16 - Thirty Paintings in Thirty Days

Back to work! Today I revisited the ideas from the "Metalwork" painting from a couple of days ago but with a completely different palette. I like the color combination. I found that I needed to add white calligraphy because the black didn't carry the punch I was seeking.

To purchase this painting, please go to Daily Paintworks - click on the icon at right.



Friday, September 15, 2017

Day 15 - Play Day!

Baaaa, Acrylic on Canvas, 16"x17", NFS

Day 15 - Thirty Paintings in Thirty Days

So, gorgeous day today - I had all the usual Friday errands and chores to do plus I wanted to go ride my bicycle. Focus on painting? Nope. So I brought this one out. It's an old canvas that I covered with green and blue paint and then decided needed some sheep. And here they are. Fun, fast, and totally off-beat.  I promise to focus tomorrow.

Thursday, September 14, 2017

Day 14 - Metalwork

Metalwork, Acrylic on Crescent Board, 10"x8", $125

Day 14 - Thirty Paintings in Thirty Days

I have played with the idea of industrial shapes before. I like the hints of wire, metal mesh, sheet-metal and the like (all done with paint of course.) I used my favorite (for the moment) palette here. Picking and using a small set of colors allows me to become familiar with the possibilities of those colors. This palette is Alizarin Crimson, Golden's Indian Yellow Hue, Phthalo Blue (Red Shade), Carbon black, and Titanium white.

To purchase this painting, please go to Daily Paintworks  -click on the icon at right.

Wednesday, September 13, 2017

Day 13 - Strata

Strata, Acrylic on Crescent Board, 10"x10", NFS

Day 13 - Thirty Paintings in 30 Days

I like the idea of strata as a compositional element. I think the repetition and regularity appeal to me. This one has some of that along with quite a bit of variety but in the end, it didn't really do what I wanted it to. The black lines helped but there isn't enough here to keep me interested. That means I will need to try this idea again - maybe with less color or more structure - I'm not sure yet.

Tuesday, September 12, 2017

Day 12 - Loop-de-Loop

Loop-de-Loop, Acrylic on Crescent Board, 10"x10", $125

Day 12 - Thirty Paintings in Thirty Days

Another intuitive work - this one in red, black and white. I've decided to keep going with the spontaneous, learn-by-playing method since I seem to be finding some interesting ways of applying paint with fun results. In this painting, I started with black and white, swirling them around and together until the surface was covered. Next I went in individually with black, white, and red to create interesting patterns. I think the magic here is in the repetition and the unplanned mixing of the paint.  Anyway, I like it - another tool for my toolbox.

To purchase this painting, please go to Daily Paintworks -click on the  icon at right.

Monday, September 11, 2017

Day 11 - Flower Power

Flower Power, Acrylic on Crescent Board, 10"x10", NFS

Day 11 - Thirty Paintings in Thirty Days

Mentally I stalled today. I started working on this and lost track of where I was.  I like the energy of the "petals" emerging from the dark center and I like the colored bands in the background, but I feel like I didn't integrate them properly - something to work on.

Sunday, September 10, 2017

Day 10 - Busting Out

Busting Out, Acrylic on Crescent Board, 10"x10", $125

Day 10 - Thirty Paintings in Thirty Days

I had a lot of fun with this one. It's totally intuitive using a combination of brushes and a palette knife to get the smooth and textured areas respectively. I love the energy and it was fun to just let the paint go wherever. I also used a color I don't normally use - the red is Golden's Quinacridone Red. I called it Busting Out because it looks like the colors are exploding outward from a central point.

To purchase this painting, please go to Daily Paintworks - icon at right.

Saturday, September 9, 2017

Day 9 - Maelstrom

Maelstrom, Acrylic on Crescent Board, 10"x10", $125

Day 9 - Thirty Paintings in Thirty Days

The news is full of hurricanes and disasters - Harvey, Irma, Katia, and Jose - and that doesn't even touch the political world which I will just avoid here. So I guess I was feeling a bit stormy. Unlike most of my paintings which are designed or planned, this one was totally spontaneous and intuitive. I used Alizarin Crimson, Ultramarine Blue, Indian Gold and Titanium White to create a wild pattern of mostly neutral colors.

To purchase this painting, please go to Daily Paintworks -click on icon at right.

Friday, September 8, 2017

Day 8 - Red-Orange

Untitled, Acrylic on Crescent Board, 10"x10", $125

Day 8 - Thirty Paintings in Thirty Days

This painting is a re-do of a previous work - I used one piece earlier in the week, now I am using another piece to create this one.  I like the red-orange I get when I mix Alizarin Crimson with Cadmium Orange - put that with some Phthalo Blue and you've got some amazing energy. I'm still trying to figure out how to construct a successful abstract - it's not easy. Without recognizable objects to work with, the weights and importance of various elements rely solely on things like relative size, location, saturation and color - and it's all relative. With all that, I think this one is pretty good.

To purchase this painting, please click on the Daily Paintworks icon at right.

Thursday, September 7, 2017

Day 7 - Shoreline Lights

Untitled, Acrylic on Crescent Board, 10"x10", NFS

Day 7 - Thirty Paintings in Thirty Days

I have to admit that this one didn't do what I wanted it to. I think the problem was that I had two different ideas going in and, in the end, neither one won out. I wanted to further abstract the painting I did yesterday, but I also wanted to play with the idea of a small city with lights that extended up the hill over the lake (Burlington does this on the shore of Lake Champlain). In any event, I call if quits on this painting for now - tomorrow is another day (that's what I like about the 30 Day Challenge - rather than mess with this for another few days, I can justify just moving on to a new painting. It's very freeing and it allows me to learn more than I would if I kept messing with the one painting until it was perfect or irretrievably ruined.)

Wednesday, September 6, 2017

Day 6 - Night Lights

Night Lights, Acrylic on Crescent Board, 10"x10", $125

Day 6 - Thirty Paintings in Thirty Days

I took another shot at the nighttime lake scene. I really like this one because it gives me the feel of the lake with the far away lights on the horizon and the closer lights of the next town over.

To purchase this painting, please click on the Daily Paintworks icon at right.

Tuesday, September 5, 2017

Day 5 - The Lake at Night

The Lake at Night, Acrylic on Crescent Board, 10"x10", $125

Day 5 - Thirty Paintings in Thirty Days

The last two paintigs, although carefully designed to work compositionally, felt stiff to me. So today, I decided to try starting with a concept based in reality and abstract it. Since I love the way Lake Champlain (and any lake and the ocean) looks at night, I decided to start with that. This came out pretty well, but I want to take it a step further (tomorrow). There is a surprising amount of light on a large lake at night even apart from the reflected lights of houses, docks, and boats - and what we think of as white light takes on a variety of colors after dark, especially at a distance.

To purchase this painting, please click on the Daily Paintworks icon at right.

Monday, September 4, 2017

Day 4 - Building the Grid

Building the Grid, Acrylic on Gessoboard, 6"x6", $75

Day 4 - Thirty Paintings in Thirty Days Challenge

This paintings is based on another of the value sketches that I created last week. Once I got the shapes painted in, I decided the pattern looked a lot like some seriously messed up argyle socks. So I added some orange patches to break things up and to add interest and then came up with idea of adding grid lines. I think it's pretty interesting now and the underlying pattern and color unity hold it all together. Also, the grid lines serve to loosen up a rigid design.

To purchase this painting, please click on the Daily Paintworks icon at right.

Sunday, September 3, 2017

Day 3 - Dominos

Dominos, Acrylic on Canvas, 8"x10", NFS

Day 3 of the Thirty Paintings in Thirty Days Challenge

A few days ago, I decided to prepare for the challenge by working on a variety of value sketches that I would be able to use for later paintings. I came up with a bunch that were fun with an interesting division of space, and neat shapes and lines. This painting uses one of those drawings. I think the design is quite strong although now that I have paint on it, it looks rather rigid to me. I played with adding some spattering and printing but didn't like the results. Consequently, I painted all of that out and basically started over. I'm leaving it like this for now - you can still see some of the earlier marks, but I didn't want to spend any more time on it. My preference would be to start fresh at another time.

Saturday, September 2, 2017

Day 2 - Untitled

Untitled, Acrylic on Crescent Board, 8"x8", $75

Day 2 - Thirty Paintings in Thirty Days

I cropped this painting from another larger piece that didn't really work very well. Then I added some white passages to make the center of interest pop a little more and to improve the movement of the eyes around the painting.It is much better now.

This painting uses my favorite color combination - Alizarin Crimson, Phthalo Blue (red shade), Cadmium Orange, black and white.

To purchase this painting, please click on the Daily Paintworks icon at right.

Friday, September 1, 2017

Day 1 - Windows

Windows, Acrylic on Gessoed Mat Board, 10"x7", NFS

September 2017 Thirty Paintings in Thirty Days Challenge - Day 1

Another September, another 30 Day Challenge. This time I want to get back to an exploration of abstraction. I am still intrigued and flummoxed by abstraction - making it work and figuring out how to create the paintings that are dancing around in my head.

I called this painting Windows because I felt like I was able to permit peeks into bits of what could be a bigger pattern of colors and shapes. 

Wednesday, March 22, 2017

Cardinal

Cardinal, Acrylic on Crescent Board, 10"x10", $150




More Experiments...

In this painting, I continued the process I was working on in my Goldfinch painting. This time, I started with rectangular shapes in the background and then super-imposed the cardinal on that. I used the branch and the dark shapes to integrate the background and the foreground. I'm still working on that balance thing.

If you would like to purchase this painting, please click on the Daily Paintworks icon at right.

Monday, March 20, 2017

Goldfinch

Goldfinch, Acrylic on Crescent Board, 10"x10", $150

Experiments...

In this painting I started with the colored abstract background in blue, gold, and orange. The colors put me in mind of an American goldfinch. I used black paint to draw in the bird and then added all of the black patterns. That done, I felt I needed to put in the white bars on the wings and tail and a bit of the white under the tail. Once the white was in , I discovered that my eye went directly to the white spots, so I decided to balance them using a white shape behind the head. Still feeling a bit lop-sided, I added the small white rectangle to the left of the twig. I struggled with the patterns and abstract shapes - it's really hard to decide where and how much to put in to get the effect I want.

If you would like to purchase this painting, please click on the Daily Paintworks icon at right.