Blazing Maples

Blazing Maples, Acrylic on Crescent Board, 8"x6", NFS

Day 28 of the 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge - #24

In this painting, I decided to leave out the reflections and just concentrate on the foliage.  I like the brilliant colors but I'm not too enamored of the overall result.  I think I'm done with foliage for a while. I'll have to think of something else to do for the last two days of the challenge.

Maple Reflections

Maple Reflections, Acrylic on Crescent Board, 10"x10", $125

Day 27 of the 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge - #23

I'm still playing with the autumn foliage/reflections thing. I tried working a bit larger in this one - it's 10"x10" in stead of the 6"x6" Gessoboards I was using. I wanted to make the foliage really pop the way it does on a crisp autumn day.  It's always a challenge to figure out how much bright to put in against the neutrals, complements and darks. This works pretty well in spite of the amount of pure or close to pure hues that I used.

Note: To purchase this painting, please click here. You will find yourself on my website where you can make your purchase or browse through the other paintings.

Autumn Reflections

Autumn Reflections, Acrylic on Crescent Board, 10"x10", NFS

Day 25 of the 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge - #22

In this painting, I continued my exploration of trees and reflections. As I experiment with using the squeegee to create the trees and reflections, I'm trying to get a handle on what works and why. In this painting, I like the amount of looseness, but wanted a little more color in the reflections. Since the reflections are the result of picking up paint from the trees with the squeegee and blending it in the still wet gray-blue paint in the water area, it will be difficult to change later. Definitely something to pay attention to in future paintings.

Spruce Reflections

Spruce Reflections, Acrylic on Gessoboard, 6"x6", $75

Day 23 of the 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge - #21

The other day I started a painting of an apple. It was the end of the day, after I had completed two others and the results I was getting were not pretty. So I took my squeegee and smeared the whole thing restoring some smoothness to the board and erasing the apple. Once dry, I thought it had some potential for something totally different.  I used that board for this painting. It had all the right colors and patterns to go for some spruce reflections.

While I was painting, I also fixed yesterday's foliage painting, so I am now offering it for sale as well. You can see it below.

Autumn Foliage II, Acrylic on Gessoboard, 6"x6", SOLD

Note: To purchase these paintings, please click here. You will find yourself on my website where you can make your purchase or browse through the other paintings.

Autumn Foliage II

Autumn Foliage II, Acrylic on Gessoboard, 6"x6", NFS

Day 22 of the 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge - #20

I'm still a little behind but at least I'm not losing ground. This one is another foliage and reflections piece. It's a little quieter then yesterday's but still has lots of pop.  Our own trees haven't turned yet, so I am working from memory.

Note: This painting is not for sale just now. I can see a few things that need to be fixed and I will wait until that has been done before I attempt to sell it.

Autumn Foliage

Autumn Foliage, Acrylic on Gessoboard, 6"x6", $75

Day 21 of the 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge - #19

I took a couple of days to think about what to do next. I know - I'm supposed to do that a bit faster during the 30 Day Challenge, but it just didn't happen.  I wanted to figure out what to do next using the technique I used with the pears and apples. This is one of the things I came up with - pretty cool.

In this painting, I started with an orange ground. When that was dry, I painted colorful patches of what I originally thought would be reflections of trees in water using a palette knife. Then, using my trusty squeegee, I pushed the colors around to blend and distort them. While that was drying, I stepped back to see what I had to work with and thought it might look better upside down.  Good thought, because it turns out they made better trees than reflections, although I ended up with reflections, too. After letting it sit overnight, I adjusted the tree shapes, and some unfortunate patches of color, added the tree trunks and water ripples and declared it done.

Note:  To purchase this painting, click here. you will find yourself on my website where you can make your purchase or browse the other paintings.

Psychedelic Apples

Psychedelic Apple, Acrylic on Gessoboard, 6"x6", SOLD

Day 18 of the 30 paintings in 30 Days Challenge - #17 and 18

I have to admit that I am having a hard time staying focused on painting.  Our weather has been a non-stop continuation of the sunniest, hottest days of summer. While Septembers are usually pretty nice, they are also usually cool enough to encourage studio time. But, this year?  This afternoon, I am going to the beach! In Vermont!

That said, I decided I really liked the effect of my last pear and had a lot of fun playing with the broken patterns, so I thought I would play with that concept and technique some more. The painting above is my first try. I love the shape and colors, but my value pattern isn't as strong as I would like.  On the second painting I used more pastel colors for the background with the intention of making the apple pop more - I like that one, too. I will be playing with this some to see where it might lead.

Pastel Apple, Acrylic on Gessoboard, 6"x6", $50

Note: To purchase these paintings, please click here. You will find yourself on my website where you can make your purchase or browse for more paintings.