Sieve

This is the last of a tryptich (see last two entries for the other two).

Can Opener

Corkscrew

Finally back to painting. Oct. 1st I became a student at the Hein Academy of Art, where I will finally get some formal art training, something I've always wanted to do. It looks like it's going to be a great experience. Jeff Hein (you can look him up on the internet) is a very fine young Utah artist whose work is contemporary realism. I expect to become better at drawing and to refine my painting skills, without fundamentally changing my style. In the meantime, I am painting three or four mornings a week to keep my hand fresh, while my afternoons at the academy focus primarily on drawing at the moment.

Even the Little Brown Bird......Final

Here is my solution as to how to display this multi-panel painting. It was accepted into the Utah Arts Council tri-annual show, "Utah '08: Painting & Sculpture". The panels are mounted on a wood grid, made by me. When you use a non-conventional format like a multi-panel painting, you have to be creative as to how to display it. It's asking a lot of the organizers of a show to place nails in the wall in just the right configuration to satisfy your design! Best to do it for them.

Even the Little Brown Bird......

Finally, this is the multi-panel painting I've been working on for so long. Submitted it for a Utah-wide show. We'll see whether it gets in the show.

Total dimensions: 36"H X 42"W

Shoulders and Necklace

8" X 8"

Another installment for my nine-panel painting. Within a few days I'll be able to publish the whole thing.

Black Cropped Pants

Another panel for my multi-panel painting almost done. I'm feeling obliged to post paintings to my blog, even though I'm no longer on a schedule to produce daily paintings. This one reflects a second day of work on the painting. It, again, may undergo some adjustments later. I found it very hard to work with black (or, dark darks). It wasn't so much finding the variations on black that worked, but the application of the paint itself. It was very hard to paint the darkest darks into the painting without accidentally lightening them too much with the surrounding lighter shades. Every painting is another lesson learned.

Sandalled Feet

Doing "more serious" paintings, i.e. paintings that I spend more than a single day on, as with my daily paintings, is reminding me of how much I enjoy finishing off a painting. This one may not be quite done, but I've spent two days on it, now. I like the much greater control I have putting down a second layer of paint over the first one. This is one of the paintings for my larger grouping of paintings (including the flowered dress and the green sweater).

8" X 8"

Flowered Dress - Third Day

I wasn't happy enough to post the "second day" version of this painting. For once I was smart enough to hold off on publishing my latest effort until I had a chance to evaluate it with the benefit of time having passed. This is close to, if not, the final version. Of course, I need to see it with the other six more or less finished panels of this work to feel confident it's where I finally want it. I have until Sept. 25th to finish the whole work.

Green Sweater - Third Day

I'm happier with today's effort. There are still a couple of details that need to be worked on, but this is better. Back to the dress tomorrow, or on to another of the panels.

Green Sweater - Second Day

I had a tough time yesterday with this painting. I covered the surface with Liquin, and then wiped it down before painting, a practice I've not had trouble with before, but this time made the second pass at the painting very difficult. The paintbrushes just seemed to drag across the surface and I couldn't put down a nice flow of paint. i felt like I had very little control over the brushes' application of the paint. I'll post it anyway, but I don't think there is much noticeable difference between the first day and this one. I'll go into it again without the Liquin and see how it works for me.

Green Sweater - First Day

First pass at a second panel for the new multi-panel painting. 13 1/2" X 10".

Flowered Dress - First Day

First day's effort. This is the first panel of a multi-panel painting.

30" X 10"

LBB #3

For now, this is the last of my series of Little Brown Birds.
If you are interested in bidding on this painting, click here.

Another LBB

I never thought I would be painting birds, but yesterday's experience was so satisfying, I've done another one. These little brown birds (LBBs) do of course have formal names, but I'm ignorant of them, and I like it that they are rather anonymous to most of us and therefore still have a freshness that other, better known, birds don't have.

Little Brown Bird

My bird-watching friends call these little no-name birds, "LBBs". I think they deserve a proper name. I've never painted a bird before, but am planning to include one in a future painting, so this was practice. I liked doing it. Maybe I'll do more.

Her Shoes, Her Life

This is my composite shoe painting - so far. No doubt, I'll modify it slightly as it sits on my wall a few days, including perhaps going back into individual paintings as well as organizing them somewhat differently.

Revising the Image

These are revisions of prior daily paintings. Sometimes I can't resist, when a painting sticks around for a while, going back into it. Today I went back into all three of these paintings, muting the background, changing the colors of shadows. It is all part of a plan to modify several of my shoe paintings to become part of a larger, multi-image painting. I like them better with the revisions. But you can be the judge, if you like, by comparing them to the original images on these dates, from top to bottom: "Arm Candy" on May 1st, 2008; "No Shoes" on May 20th, 2008; and "Serious Shoes" on May 9th, 2008. In a couple of days, I'll display the completed work.

Pink Sandals

If you saw this painting yesterday (Aug. 11th), it probably didn't seem as pink or bright as it looks now. When I looked at the photo compared to the actual piece, I realized the photo hadn't properly captured the brightness of it. So I re-photographed it. Amazing how the light or surroundings of a painting impact the colors recorded by the camera.

Green Fantasy Slippers

I'm finally back, following a long trip to Bolivia and Colombia and another one to do the RAGBRAI (Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa). It's been too long and it was great to be back in the studio again, though it took a while to get back in a groove with the paint, the brushes, etc.

Another Hiatus!

I'm sorry to report that I won't be back at the easel until early August, when I hope to begin posting daily (5 days a week) again. My husband and I are doing the RAGBRAI ( DesMoines Register Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa) at the end of July and I have lost control of my days due to the need to train for this strenuous trip (477 miles in 7 days). For those who check this blog regularly, please don't give up on me. I'll be back with new paintings in August.

With my friend Esther Cardenas in Colombia

I'm visiting my good friend and artist, Esther Cardenas, in Cali, Colombia. This is an example of the small daily paintings that she has been doing. It is about 4" x 6 " and is an image of a farm in Holland where she recently went to paint with a former student.

Pictures from Bolivia

Here is an image of the great Salar de Uyuni, a salt flat near the town of Uyuni in Bolivia. The photo is taken from an "island" that comes up off the flats, loaded with a type of cactus I've never seen before. The salt flats themselves stretch off into the horizon, an endless flat white gleaming surface. It is supposed to be the largest salt flats in the world, a source of a bare subsistence livelihood for the few people who live nearby in Uyuni.

This a charming photo of a desperately poor family making their living from the salt desert. The husband refines the salt he has scraped off the surface of the desert and his wife, here with her two children, put the iodized salt in one kilo bags which sell for about 14 cents apiece.

From Bolivia

My husband and I have been in Bolivia for almost 10 days now and it has been both exciting and a heartwarming experience. We have found new board members for our scholarship program in Bolivia, identified other universities with which we can collaborate, and have met all of our scholarship recipients and their families personally. Tomorrow we go to Colombia and from there I plan to post some photos from our time in Bolivia.

Painting Interrupted

I've been distracted from painting the last several days because my husband and I are preparing to leave next week for a 3-week trip to Santa Cruz, Bolivia and Cali, Colombia. It has been requiring a lot of preparation. We used to live in both places and have many friends there. We also run a small charitable organization, called B.E.C.A., which pays for college educations for low-income Bolivian students in Santa Cruz. We have 11 students in college now, thanks to donations for many friends and family. A full-year's tuition at a very good university in Bolivia costs only about $750, obviously a huge bargain compared with tuition costs at U.S. universities. In case anyone reading this message has an interest, you might want to check out our web site, http://www.beca-bolivia.org/ We, and the Bolivian students, can use all the help we can get!
I may not be able to do any more paintings before our departure. While we're gone, however, I'll try to post some photos from time to time to let you see what Bolivia and Colombia are like.

Cowboy Boots

-------------

Kickin' Shoes

I revised this one again, brightened it up, and warmed it up.

Cool shoes, aren't they? Not that I'd ever wear them, personally. Too pointy, too high. But fun.

-------------------------

Pink Tennies

No Shoes

-----------------

If you would like to bid for this painting, click here.

Retro Disco Shoes

------------------

If you would like to bid for this painting, click here.

Overcast Sanpete County Day

11" x 14"

Another painting from the plein air painting days in Sanpete County. Next week I'll return to my shoe series.

Sanpete County, Utah in Spring

10" x 14"

My Kentucky friend and I had a great time painting two days in Sanpete County south of Salt Lake City. The people were very friendly, down-to-earth people and the landscapes were beautiful in every direction.

Plein Air Outing

No posting until Wednesday, May 14th. Another painter, from Louisville, Ky., is joining me here in Utah to do a couple of days of plein air painting of the desert in spring. I will post the results of our outing on Wednesday.

Serious Shoes

If you would like to bid for this painting, click here.

Oo la la! French chic

This painting has been revised (as of Aug. 2008) from the original posting. I saw the original as just too dark.

If you would like to bid on this painting, click here.

Snuggle In Shoes

Bridesmaid Shoes

This humble - and much maligned - species of the genus "shoes" also deserves its place at the table.

Arm Candy Shoes

Mary Janes

Ooo! Date Shoes!

I don't really own all these shoes, but they are fun to paint. And it's fun to fantasize!

Tired Shoes

Love those red shoes!

SOLD

-------

It's shoes that interest me now. They seem to embody something important about the people who wear them: their energy, their vanity, their lack of vanity, their work-a-day-ness, their hopes, their discouragement, their sense of aliveness. They're more than something to just keep our feet dry and warm.

Desert life 2 in progress

Decided it was time to get back into some of my larger paintings. This is one in progress, 12" X 24". I'll post updated versions from time to time.

Party Shoes

Tennis Shoes - "Old Friends"

SOLD

In the Show

This grouping of daily paintings, called "Not by Bread Alone", which was posted a few days ago, was accepted into the annual Springville Museum Spring Salon. Those of us who live in Utah take being accepted in the show as an important recognition because it is the premier show in Utah for living artists.

Another Colombian Pot (Revised)

Here's the revised version of Friday's posting (April 18th). As you can see, the pot got a handle, a little bit smaller and more refined.

SOLD

Another Colombian Pot

This painting, and the other South American pots I've posted this week are part of a commission. This one is a little more complicated than the others and I don't consider it finished. I'll post the final version sometime over the weekend.

Colombian Pot, Too

Two days ago, I painted this pot from another angle. I thought this might be more interesting. I have also modified the background on the painting two days ago. I don't know which one works the best. I've posted the new version next to the old one back on the April 15th posting.

SOLD

Peruvian Pot

SOLD

Colombian Pot

Okay, it's two days later and here are some changes I made to this painting. I like the changes. I don't know whether I like this painting, now, better than the new version I did on April 17th.

I'm not convinced this painting is done yet. There's always tomorrow.