Oil Painting, Landscape and Cattle, Sketches

I am letting the oil painting I worked on yesterday and today simmer over night. After the oil "sets" you can check the details and colors better. I'm not sure if the cows are right. It is a little difficult to make them look like cows when they are so small in the painting. It has been good to dabble in oils. I have the 10 tube set of the Winsor-Newton Artisan Water Mixable Oils so work with a limited palette. It is different to work with a brush and mixing colors. Changing media once in a while makes me think a little and challenges my skills.



I'm including my hand in this photo to give you an idea of size, 8 x 10 inches. It is hard to imagine when you look at paintings on line. After the painting is finished I will take a better photo. You can click for a larger image.

My Mom always called the calves, blossoms. When they are lying in the grass and you see their big ears she thought they looked like blossoms. Especially the Herefords with their white faces. I have always liked cows. They always seemed serene somehow. I haven't painted many, maybe it is time to start.

I painted this pastel, Tres Amigos, 8 x 10 inches, of my sisters yearlings a few years ago. She has the painting.

The new Scavenger Hunt 131 is in full swing. I did get a couple sketched night before last. As usual, sketched freehand in my small sketchbook with a Micron 05 pen. About 25 - 30 minutes is my estimate.

Number 1, something you open your mail with. The knife has been around for ages. The handle was missing so that is why we started using it for mail and wrapping packages (cutting the paper). Gene put a handle on it a couple of years ago. The other is a modern version of a letter opener, plastic with a small blade in the opening. Much safer I imagine!

Number 2, famous. The artists on my daily calendar are supposedly famous. Most of them I have never heard of so I skipped to May 28 to find a Claude Monet. Strange calendar, you place the top page behind the stack and then when you get through the stack one time, you turn the double sided pages over and there is the last half of the year.

I added some higher chroma colors on the plein air landscape I painted last Saturday at the suggestion of Michael McGuire a wetcanvas plein air painter. It looks better, but no sun to get a photo. The sun was shining when we were at golf, but it was overcast most of the afternoon both yesterday and today. You know that in my yard, I need the sun to hang around, each sunny spot only lasts a few minutes and when the clouds come and go, I don't even have a few minutes!

Tomorrow is donating blood and the last regular season baseball game, a double header with Alabama A & M. It should be interesting. But, no photo. Maybe on Sunday.