Scavenger Hunt, Tree, Horse and Wrench

Yesterday, I had a big adrenalin let down. We did play golf and for me I did well. I had a 48 on nine holes. My goal is 54, so nice day! Must have still been a little adrenalin at that time.

Later, Gene went for a bike ride and since it was so nice out I sketched for Scavenger Hunt #70, on wetcanvas.com. For new readers, wetcanvas is a huge artists community on-line with every medium you can imagine. They have 'how to' forums, instruction, photos with no copyright, ect., for all of us to learn from and enjoy. The Scavenger Hunts fall in the Arwork from Life section. Sketches are from life, not photos. Artists take turns making the lists. It gives one the ideas for sketching. I find it useful to keep me sketching and to sketch items that I normally wouldn't, out of my comfort zone. This tree falls in my zone, but the wrench does not. I try to sketch quickly with no pencil drawing and make no corrections. I hope this helps with my painting to use fewer and more descriptive strokes.




Just sat on the deck and relaxed. Item #1, a whole tree or bush. Well, as I said on the last post, our trees are 70 feet tall or so and that doesn't quite fit on a page in a small sketchbook. I sketched a few youpons (holly), the tall ones are about 20 feet tall or so. I like the way they look in the winter. Willowy and simple. I used a red Micron 005 and was out there about 20 minutes.



Last night we were watching a Hallmark movie with Tom Sellek and I sketched #2, my favorite animal. Those that know me would guess that. No live horses around the house so sketched "On Demand" a sculpture by our friend, Charlie Force. He signs them "By Force". Neat, huh? My sketch doesn't do justice to the wonderful bronze sculpture. 20 minutes with the red Micron005.


#3, Spanner (the list was prepared by Firehorse_Australia) for us up here it is a wrench. This one is Gene's Auto Wrench by Black and Decker. He went out and brought it in during a commercial. The teeth are battery operated. Pretty cool. The handle is longer, so bad perspective yet again. :( Same pen and time. I always guess at the time, I never think to check when I start or finish. Between commercials?? I only check the time when I go to write it down.

APS Corridor Entries-Juried Pastel Exhibit

Looming Deadline -- January 11, 2008

Whew, made the deadline with a day to spare. Not easy. The paintings took some time with several changes along the way. Procrastination is a bad habit. I thought I started early enough. I have been in the thought process since this past summer. I didn't start anything until we returned to Texas. I wanted to paint larger than normal and did not want to have to be moving them around in the van.

The work was finally finished and required special size photos as the entries are by e-mail and digital photos. I had hoped to be done by last weekend so that Joanna or Larry could take my photographs. That didn't happen. Then Tuesday was cloudy and rainy, so no photos.

Our Backyard

Joanna took this photo several years ago. I forgot to take one today. There aren't quite so many leaves today, but you can see, the sunny spots are not many!

I read (I can't remember where at the moment .. when I do, I will give that person credit.) that taking photos of pastel paintings in direct sun gives them a clear color with little adjustment needed. It works very well. Yesterday, I made more changes on the paintings and by the time I finished .. no sun. Today was bright and sunny so off to take the photos.

The Tree
Soft Pastel on Ampersand Pastelbord, 18 x 24 inches

First, I set up the easel with the painting and the camera on a tripod. The next part gets tricky as we have seventy feet tall trees in our yard. I find a sunny spot, set up the easel, bring the painting of The Tree out, take a few photos, go inside and download them to see the results. Great, The Tree, is finished. This will be done in no time!

Rocks on the Water
Soft Pastel on Ampersand Pastelbord, 18 x 24 inches

Second, I take Rocks on the Water out and by then the easel is in shadow. Move everything take a few photos, go inside and look. Arghh. There is one of those dreaded three bears up on the top and some extra blue on the left that looks like it was brushed with something. It is hard to see in real life, but glares in the photos. Blue is especially hard to photograph for me. Delete photos. Fix painting. Back to the yard. The sun has moved, find another sunny spot. Now the wind is blowing. The easel has to be near upright to take the photos straight on and all of a sudden the painting blows toward me. I catch it, but I brush it with my hand and the edge of the tripod. Back inside to repair the painting. Have a snack and take a break. Back to the yard and the wind is still blowing. Gene, who has been working on his current batch of wine, helps me hold the easel and get some photos. Ah, these are fine.

The Bench
Soft Pastel on Colourfix sanded paper, 9 x 12 inches

Now,for The Bench. Again the sun has moved of course. This is a smaller painting making it a little easier to handle and the wind has died down. Take the photos and back inside to download them. They are fine. Surprise.

While I had the tripod out I went ahead and took some photos of some older paintings from Bolivia for a project for May. More about that later. The next looming deadline. These are oil paintings which don't do as well in direct sun with the reflections, even though I have them varnished with matte varnish. These paintings I just hang on the garage door and photograph in the shade. Much easier. I will have to work on them on the computer to adjust the color, though.

Hours after starting, the photos of the three pastel paintings were downloaded and I prepared them for the e-mail. Trimming, sizing, naming, pricing, and getting the e-mail entries ready and sent. I have an older program called Adobe PhotoDeluxe. It works well, but is not as nice or quick as Photoshop. Of course, it was much cheaper .. it came with one of the computers or a printer. It has certainly been a great thing for me. I have had a web site for a long time and have sized and prepared many hundreds of photos. Also resize them for the blog and my web site.

As you can see, it has been a long day. I'm tired of all three of my paintings at the moment. It will be nice to see them with new eyes in a few days. We will find out if we are accepted into the show on February 15, the show is in March. Juried shows give me mixed feelings. It would be great to be accepted into the show and receive recognition with a ribbon and prize. Artists have to realize, though, that each competition is not the final judging of our work. Artists receive a prize one time and are not accepted another time .. with the same piece of art. Even the judges see the same work differently on different days. They have to look at so many, quickly. It must be boring at times ... and then they find one that talks to them. But, it may not talk to you or to me. Hmmm.

Susan Carlin is working on the same deadline. You can see how she is coming along on her pastel painting of "Afternoon Flight". She works quickly and paints portraits so well. Like me, though, she is working under pressure. You can check out her blog and read about her new studio/gallery opening soon in San Antonio. Go Susan!

Regina Burchett did not put herself through the agony of this deadline. She has another, all her own, coming up. She will have a solo show for the month of February, 2008, at Kerbey Lane Cafe in Northwest Austin at 12602 Research Blvd. Along with the twenty or so paintings on the wall, she will have some miniatures and other items for sale there as well. I really like her new one, Morning Fog. See you at Kerbey Lane for lunch or dinner to check it out??

I will work on the WIP post for the Rocks on the Water and post it in a few days. You may be surprised at the twists and turns it took.

A Game of Tag

Photo on the road between Elgin and Bastrop last Sunday.

I enjoy being tagged and I like to read everyone's secrets, but I really hesitate to tag anyone else.. Here is a quote from the last time I was tagged:

6. What is your worst quality? I can't make a quick decision, I'm wishy washy. I couldn't decide which questions to answer. I was going to answer them all, but didn't want to get into morals. :) I didn't know who to tag, so I tagged everybody that reads my blog. Thanks.

So, consider you ALL tagged again. If you want to play, let me know and I will put your link here. That way, things will go on and for those of you that haven't been tagged, are feeling left out, and want to play (I know you are out there), well, here you are then. You can see who I probably would tag in the links to art blogs below. Scroll down and go look at some wonderful blogs. Thanks again.

Here are the rules:
1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog. 2. Share 5 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird. 3. Tag 5 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.(I used 6) 4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

I was tagged this time by Linda Blondheim. (This link is to her web site.) She is a great artist in Florida and is generous and sharing with her art know-how both in painting and in business. She was a caterer so offers recipes as well. (Do you remember the macaroni and cheese sandwiches?) You can read her facts and see who else she tagged here.

Here are some new facts. By that, I mean something I didn't tell you when I was tagged before. These are really from the OLD days.

1. I was the Socorro County Rodeo Queen. I was a barrel racer. I haven't been on a horse in years or had on any boots.
   
2. My daily uniform is jeans and shirts. Sweatshirts and sweatpants in the winter. I haven't had a dress on in years.
3. I went to airline school in Hollywood and worked for Continental Airlines as a reservation and ticket agent.
4. I took a correspondence art class and never finished.
5. I was a grease monkey. My dad had a service station. I pumped gas, changed tires, greased cars. It was fun. After all, Gene worked in the station catty-corner from ours.

Pastel Painting Rocks and Water WIP

**Note added January 10
Per Gene's comment .. he was right about the bushes, I nearly finished the painting and was sort of happy with it. Then realized how right he was and wiped it off and had another go at it. I am taking the final photo today, now that the sun is out and will post the photos as I went along.... Hopefully you will agree that it is now a better painting. :)

Original post:

This is the start of what I am working on. I have advanced quite a bit. I started with an under painting of pastel softened with water. I will post the progress in one post as a demo when I finish.

Soft Pastel, 18 x 24 inches
Ampersand Pastelbord