30 paintings in 30 days

# 30  Simplicity  "6" by "6"  

Whew!  I did it!  Was a little tough this week due to complicated family issue; but I was determined to finish this challenge.  It really was great to do.  I was able to accomplish what I set out to do; paint from life and not photos, and do 30 small paintings in 30 days.  I tried many different techniques; which I always love to do, and I enjoyed painting the still-lifes.

And now with the new snow fall, and the new warm boots; it's time to  load up the car and go paint outside!!!

30 paintings in 30 days

# 29  Opposites attract  "6" by "6"  $50.00

Last in the "woodcut" oil paintings for this 30 day challenge.  It really is fun to paint on a dark background; the colors "pop" right away. Really had fun using opposite colors on the color wheel here; I like how they contrast with each other.

30 paintings in 30 days

# 28   "6" by "6"  $50.00

I have been having so much fun painting starting with a dark background, that I decided I would do a series of 4 of these.  Today was # 3. Today I used  colors that are opposite one another on the color wheel.  These paintings remind me of wood cuts, and I've always loved wood cut art work.

30 paintings in 30 days

# 27  Reds and yellow "6' by "6"  $ 50.00

This was fun to paint, with the bold red colors of the apples and the variety of yellows in the daisy.  I'm liking using a palette knife for flowers, it seems to work well to form petals.  I'm trying to use a variety of brush and palette marks to create each painting.

30 paintings in 30 days

# 26  Hot Sauce  "6" by "6"  $50.00

Well, thank goodness Leslie gives us 48 hours to post our paintings, because I didn't get to paint until late last night, and it turned out to be a wipe off.  Not good to try and paint late at night when you are tired.  So I got up early and did 2 paintings today.  Once again the background on this painting is not blue, but  nice shades of grey.  Too bad it won't photograph like that. If I try and adjust the painting color, then the peppers and tomato aren't true to their colors, so here it is. Whew!

30 paintings in 30 days

# 25  Gerber Daisy  "5" by "7"  $50.00

Well, I decided to try something  new for this one; painting with a palette knife.  I haven't really painted with a palette knife , other than to put a little color in a painting, or a line.  Quite challenging; think it works well with flowers.  I'm glad I tried this, but now I'm back painting with  my brushes!

30 paintings in 30 days

# 24  Tea Time  "6" by "6"   $50.00

I have done this before; started with a dark or black background, and then painted on top of that.  I thought that would work well for this little composition since it had such bright colored objects. It's always fun to try new or different things, and I had fun painting this way today.

30 paintings in 30 days

# 23  Oranges  "5" by "5"   $ 40.00

I used both big brushes, and a palette knife to do this painting.  Interestingly, my panels have become smaller, but my brushed have become bigger! I rarely use a palette knife, but thought it would be fun, and it helped me apply more paint.  I have now done 3 little "5" by "5" paintings; "lemons", "limes", and this one.  They are for sale for $40.00 each; and $100.00 for the set of 3.

30 paintings in 30 days

# 22   "5" by "5"  $50.00

I'm ontinuing to paint with a large brush and loose paint strokes.  Enjoying doing this and working on cool and warm colors.  Limes have such beautiful colors in them, fun to do!

30paintings in 30 days

# 21  "5" by "5"  $40.00

I thought it would be fun to try something a little different for a few of these still-lifes.  I decided I wanted to paint more loosely, so I used one large brush to paint this little picture, and went down to a 5 inch square panel.  I tried to work on both cool and warm colors in the lemons.  The background is really a grey-green color; but once again it photographed bluish.

30 paintings in 30 days

# 20  "6" by 6"  $50.00

Can't believe we are already up to day 20.  I have always loved this little pot, and wanted to capture it's shape in this painting, and thought the red tomatoes would be a fun compliment to the black pot.

30 paintings in 30 days

# 19  "6" by "8"  $ 50.00

I love this shallow wooden bowl form Ethiopia that my friend lent me.  It was just the perfect size for the 3 apples I wanted to paint.

30 paintings in 30 days

# 18  "6" by "6"  $ 50.00

I redid the painting I posted 2 days ago.  I changed the pomegranate to an apple (think it worked better in the composition), lightened the pears and background and make the pitcher more grey.  I like it better, and now it's done!!  Time to move on!

30 paintings in 30 days

# 17  "6" by "6"  $50.00

Wasn't too happy with yesterday's painting that I posted.  Spent part of today repainting yesterday's; and then  painting a new one.  Got dark before I could finish and photograph them.  Will hopefully do that tomorrow.  This is a small painting I did early on in this challenge; to work on color and value.

30 paintings in 30 days

Pomegranate & Pears  "6" by "6"  $50.00

This pitcher in this painting is actually more of a  grey color,  not blue.  For some reason when I take a photo of my paintings, most of the colors are true to the painting, except greys; which often appear blue.  Not sure why.

30 paintings in 30 days

# 15  Amber Glass  "6" by "6'"  $ 50.00

I love this amber glass bottle, and just happened to think of it today while setting up my still life. Hard to believe I'm already half way through the 30 day challenge.  Still loving doing these paintings; and I'm looking into possibly joining a daily paint  site on the internet after this challenge is done.

30 paintings in 30 days

# 14  "6" by "6"    $50.00

I set up this still life thinking it would be pretty easy to paint.  Not sure why, but I really struggled today with this painting.  Shouldn't have been so hard, but some days are like that.  Got it done just before it got really dark out, so I was able to take a photo.  It's interesting to me, that sometimes when I see a photo of my paintings, I see things I didn't see when just looking at the painting.  Pears really have amazing colors and shapes in them!

30 Paintings in 30 Days

# 13  Daisy with Pears  "5" by "7"  $50.00

I wanted to use a more muted palette in this painting; and liked the pairing of orange colors and greens.  And it's always nice to have flowers this time of year!

30 paintings in 30 days

# 12  Green Bottle with Reds  "6" by "6"  $50.00

Seems I like a challenge; which means trying to paint things I've never painted before; like a clear green bottle.   I bought this bottle at a wonderful little Italian grocery store; and of course had to paint it in my picture.

30 paintings in 30 days

# 11  All Alone  "6" by "6"  $ 50.00

I was busy working on a commissioned  painting today; so decided to do a single pear for my little still life painting for day #11 of the 30 paintings in 30 days.  Sometimes, I think a single object can be quite beautiful all on it's own.

30 paintings in 30 days

Three little onions  "6' by 6"  $50.00

Yesterday was a tough painting day.  Worked on 2 different paintings for about 2 hours each; and in the end; wiped them off.  Much happier with my painting today.  Loved painting the onions; and I liked the combinations of oranges and blues in this painting.

Day # 9  "Salsa Time"   6" by 6"  $ 50.00

Yesterday and today I painted 2 "scrappers", what my friend calls paintings you just throw away!  I worked for several hours on each one, and then sat back and looked at them and realized they just weren't working. Lesson learned; sometimes you can't "fix" a bad painting; you just need to put it aside or throw it away, and start again. 

And so I did.  Tomorrow I will post one of the new paintings I started today.  I started 2 new ones and am liking these better; although they aren't finished.  This is a painting I did this past weekend.

30 paintings in 30 day challenge; Day # 8

The red onion  6"by 6" oil on panel  $ 50.00

Day # 8  I bought this onion at the market, and knew I had to paint it. I loved the shiny colors in the onion and the matte colors in the onion skin.    And then I had some beautiful tomatoes to go with it!

Welcome to my new blog!

Daily Painting # 7  6" by 6" oil on panel  $ 50.00

Here is my post for day 7 of the 30 day/30 painting challenge.  I'm very excited to now have a blog page to display my work.  I'm loving doing these little still life paintings!  I have a feeling I will continue this beyond the 30 days!  I love setting up the compositions, trying to keep them simple but interesting; with lighting that flows across the forms to create an interesting painting.  I have set up just one light that shines across my compositions, and my studio is dark except for a single light shining only on my painting and palette.  I like this new set up very much. It also allows me to see so much more color in the objects I'm painting.