Cypress in Fall

I have not posted much on the DAILYPAINTWORKS.COM challenges as I am finding myself with less time to spare for painting. However, this painting I was able to post for the past week's fall colors challenge. Here in South Florida we do not have the dramatic color change that fall presents up North. However, the bald cypress is one of the view trees that does change colors and goes "bald" during the winter. It is like a splash of color next to all the evergreens.

Lake View

Another plein air painting from the park. This is the beautiful lake that you have seen from the boad house paintings. Here I focused on a rather quiescent mood......

Boat House 3

As mentioned a few weeks ago I am now posting another view of the boat house. I got to finish it over the week-end. Wow, what a "growing experience!!! I found myself much more looking than painting. One big thing (besides the size....lol) was that I had to be so much more patient... a smaller painting I finish in one sitting - this one I had to bring to the park four times to get it finished. That is long for me...but I am glad that finally I am able to "push it" further (you big canvas painters know what I mean!)... I guess I never had to really think about that with the smaller paintings. Now, here it is...let me know how you like it.

Four Pears

My favorite subject ..... you guessed it .......fruits and vegetables :o)

Sweet Potatoes

I love the complimentary contrast of the orange on blue - 

Shared Space

I found another plein air painting from last fall. When we arrived one Saturday morning at the park we saw the boy scouts had set up camp over night at our favorite painting spot....

Orange Cocktail

I "squeezed" in some time for a still life. Because there is not much color contrast here, I focused on the glass. 

Tree Umbrella

It has been a while... the excuse is of course I am swamped with work and not much time to paint .... As I was looking through my paintings I found this landscape that I worked on over the summer. The original painting was from one year ago and I was never happy with it. The final version gives much more the impression of full sunlight, agreed?

Back Light

Here an attempt to capture the morning light in the park. I only had about an hour before the sun moved on and everything changed. I love the mood in this painting.....

Bagel Breakfast

Unfortunately I did not get to paint much this past week. All the excitement that comes with the opening of the new school year took up time and energy. I hope to be back in a routine soon that allows some time for me to "play"..... For now, those delicious bagels have to fill in....

Boat House 2

Here is one of this summer's version of the boat house. How do you like it?

Boat House 1

Whenever I can I join a group of friends to go painting in a nearby park. Plein air painters know that painting outdoors is an incredible, almost spiritual experience. Sounds a little crazy? ...but imagine...you and nature.... and being in the quiet observation mode, taking it all in, filtering it and putting out your personal interpretation of it all! That is powerful!!!
Anyway, this is a painting from last summer of the park's boat house which is next to a lake. This summer I was able to paint a couple more views of the building and plan to post it soon.

Happiest Hour

I posted this "Me painting in the Park" picture on the DPW weekly challenge. This painting is a birthday card and Thank you to Carol Marine who has been an inspiration for many. Initially through her daily painting blog and now the Dailypaintworks.com website she has been a leader in creating an online artist community.

Carrots

The hardest part was the different shades of green. Now looking at the painting afterwards...I could have put more darks into the orange color to create more depth? I am going to leave it for now and on to the next painting.....

Tea Mug

It seems the Daily Paintworks' Weekly Challenge keeps me posting...well, it's the fun to figure out creatively what I can do with the challenge. Another great thing is to look at what everybody else came up with. It is amazing how every artist is interpreting the same thing in a different way... This here is a colorful portrait of my tea mug that provides happiness in the morning  =)

Grandmother's Kitchen Window

Painted from a black-and-white photo for the DPW weekly challenge. It was fun to be free with the color. However, the challenge was to match the value. Great exercise!

Cup o'Tea 2

As mentioned earlier - I am returning to the little teapot! This time I focused on bringing more color into the white of the pot and cup. I think it shows more of the character of the forms... I say it is improved from the previous post. Agree?

Palm Window

 #1


#2

Here I have a BEFORE and AFTER of an en-plein-air painting. I was out in the park to paint this in spring. If you are familiar with painting on site, you know how much one has to ignore, simplify and pay attention to color perspective. The first painting appears busy. The middle and background did not go back due to the colors being too bright and light which makes everything pop. The second painting is the new version from last week-end. I went back to the spot and repainted mainly the background. Of course it is now a different time of the year so a lot of colors have changed too. What do you think? Is #2 a better rendition? Is there still something that could be improved? Thanks in advance for your feed back.

Cup o' Tea

This is an attempt to paint white with a dark background and peaches as color interest. I am not too happy how it came out. Besides the photo being somewhat overexposed, the tea pot is still too light and could have refected more colors.... another example of the difficulty to paint white.....

Moonlight Tree

Something totally different - a rather abstract landscape scene in watercolor. I painted this in response to the DPW "The color of music challenge", by Lesley Spanos. It made me think a little about how I would "illustrate" a piece of music. I wanted it to be different from the artist listening to music to get into a relaxed, creative and playful mood. I did not want to paint gestures of my movements to the music nor squiggles to illustrate rhythms and melodies. Maybe associations and emotions that the music evokes? Yes! I love piano music and so I picked Erik Satie's Nocturne Sequences - it is quiet, pensive and has repetitive variations... I closed my eyes and envisioned a moonlit night scene with a tree .... It also helped to break up the usual oil painting routine by using watercolors instead. Quite different in deed...what do you think?