From Thursday

There was a little time at the end of the day for this still life with African Violets

Origami cranes today

I got tired of looking at myself and figured my old friends the cranes would be fun.

self portrait with plaid shirt and easel

Me at the french easel. 8" x 10". I tried to avoid the temptation to get too into detail because it's a small format. I like it better than #1. Another tomorrow.

self prortrait monday

I missed yesterday. At the end of the week I was so tired with all the classes. It was a really busy week- end with full introductory classes friday saturday and sunday. So I told myself that since I did two on saturday, I could go home on sunday when everyone left. 

So it's a new week and I'm going to do a bunch of self portraits or portraits of anyone who wants to sit. 

I figure they will get better and easier of I keep at it.

saturday with the model

Two 25 minute poses.

Thursday in Murrieta

Today is a very long teaching day and I was lucky to be able to paint along with the class this morning. The hills seemed so brown  until I got quiet and looked then there were all sorts of purples and  yellows. Day 7!



ps: sold

In between classes

This morning I got up and had a new 'like' on my studio facebook page. The person sent me a little computer generated picture of these boxes just as a funny greeting. How could I pass up such a nice suggestion. So I decided that would be the subject of my daily painting today since I have the same boxes in the studio!

Day 5

The Intro to Acrylic Painting class has to do apples all the time so I thought this would be fun. It was. So great to be painting regularly!

Day 4

 

I started this in before class then had another hour to finish after. Blue...got that out of my system.

Maybe a landscape tomorrow.

Day 3

I just had two private classes today so it wasn't such a stretch to sit down to paint. But still hard to decide what to do. I changed the still life around a little. We were talking about chosing predominate colors. Will try a blue since I'm about through with this yellow.

Day 2! 

It would have been the easier thing to bail today. Saturday is killer for me. I teach figure drawing in the morning until 1pm. Then it's afternoon class and the last students left the studio at 6:30 pm. I was standing all day. But I just made myself start, then it was easy. This is a still life that Sarah and Karen set up. YELLOW. It was fun and I might again do it again tomorrow. And get a better photo.

Daily Painting is ON!

  

I'm back from New York full of resolve to get my daily painting back on track. So here's the first. I'll just start with stuff that is around the studio. Like food! This on is 6" x 6" oil on canvas.

Maybe later on I'll write about why I haven't been painting. Mainly it's because I've been so focused on building up the studio teaching.  I have a group of wonderful students but I know they are starting to wonder why I''m not working. This is my attempt to have a better balance.

    

not exactly daily painting

I finished up my application for the signal box at 20th Street and Orange Avenue. Here are the other three images. 

I'll let you know how it turns out. just got a rejection for another proposal. uggggggh

I'm back

Maybe there's something to 1-11-11. I painted all day today for the first time in months...... I completely underestimated how much teaching everyday takes it out of the painting energy. Glad to have such interesting dedicated students but I have been in the studio in the am and not been able to get started. So leave it to a commission possibility to get me going. They want another signal box in Long Beach and while I'm not guaranteed, there is a chance. 

So here's what I did. The clients want depictions of a park at 20th and Long Beach Blvd. They have a community garden. Here are some sunflowers that were in bloom.

Saturday

We had a really light turnout for figure class this morning and I took the opportunity to paint myself. I am going to have to do something about the attendance in this class but today there was nothing but try to be graceful and use the models time wisely. Sarah and Karen were there and got good paintings. Here's mine. This was an hour pose. 14" x 11'.

I'm threatening to start daily painting again. There was so very much worry about money this summer that I am teaching every day. I'm grateful for the work but l know I need to paint to be the best teacher that I can be. More tomorrow.

September 2011

This was my summer to teach. Although the mornings were free, I just didn't get any painting done. Here is the grand total of two that I did recently. I have to rethink this. Both of these were done really fast. The flowers in a morning and the landscape is from a recent event in east Hollywood called Artcycle. They had a plein air paint-off. The paintings had to be done between 2 and 6pm. I didn't finish teaching until almost 5. I rushed through traffic,  set up and just decided not to think about the fact I had a half an hour to paint. I got an honorable mention! One thing that was kind of bad was that I didn't see what Sarah was painting. We did the exact composition which was my bad. Sarah is a wonderful friend and if she was mad, she didn't say anything

July

oil on canvas

18" x 24"

oil on canvas

16" x 12"

I've been so busy with the teaching schedule that I only now have started to paint. Here are two recent pieces. More to follow.

Saturday after class

oil on canvas

6" x 6"

We had a good class on Saturday. several college students came back to draw and give encouragement to the seniors who are leaving town shortly. 

After they left I went out on the roof to paint.

middle of June

oil on canvas panel

7" x 5"

I really have to do some more work 

:(

The end of May, almost

I got painting recently. After Mia graduated and we got back from the festivities in New York it took me a while to get reoriented. I got out on the deck with a student and did the cityscape on Saturday. It's a view I've done before but it's still hard to simplify and make the space work. It was windy and while the rest of the city was warm, it was very chilly on the 14th floor.

oil on canvas 

6" x 6"

Then I started back into a painting that I started two years ago. It wasn't quite right when I worked on it before and I just had it hanging in the studio until now. I'm not sure I am even finished now but I want to enter it in the Tarfest competition in Koreatown, unless I've missed the deadline.

oil on canvas 

30" x 40"

And finally I did this floral from a photograph I took at Susan Frommer's house in Murrieta. She has a native garden that is spectacular and we painted there several Thursdays ago. 

oil on canvas 

16" x 12"