30 Paintings - Day 26!

All month I have been managing to paint a few days ahead of my posting. This is good in one way: I haven't had to worry about not getting a painting done each day.  However, I  don't always remember what steps I went through to create some of the pieces.

#1091 - Golden Sunset - 5.5 x 8 acrylic on watercolour paper

I think that this piece was the other half of yesterday's painting "Rays" although it now bears no resemblance to what it was before. I know I used a lot of gesso to really create texture, then some pretty thick paint to cover any of the previous paint still showing. Using a palette knife I added the final touches. I don't know why, but when using the knife I often end up with a scene of trees and rocks - I have to get out of this rut!

Check Leslie's Blog to see some great art!

Thanks for visiting  - it is great to hear from you!

30 Paintings - Day 6!

I am not sure if today's painting is abstract or impressionist but it was fun to do and I quite like it.

#1071 - Spring Blossoms - 8 x 10 acrylic

I only added some alizarin to my palette but it is amazing how much difference one colour can make. I use a stay-wet palette so my paints stay good for a long time. I have almost finished the colours I started with on Feb 1 and will be introducing more variety as those get used. I am also reusing some old canvases - saving money and clearing out some questionable art.

I have been seeing some really interesting art from the other artists in the challenge and I hope you will check things out on Leslie's Blog

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by.

Another Busy Week

My husband and I are always saying that it is a good thing we are retired because we don't have time for a job. We also don't have time for that other problem - boredom. There is always something to do!

I currently have three private students and, although the snow two weeks ago cancelled classes, we are back on schedule. Most of the time I don't get a completed painting when I am teaching because I am demonstrating the techniques. But, last week I was able to do a painting that I really liked.

#1009 - Sunset Memories - 7 x 10 watercolour

We worked from a photo my student found on the internet. I made some changes to my painting while Ed stuck with what he saw in the photo. BTW - Most of my students don't like me taking photos of their work - especially a WIP.

Something else that has kept me busy for the last while is adding labels to my blog posts and putting hashtags on my Facebook and Google+ posts. Using hashtags is new to me and I have trouble remembering to use them, but I think they could be a good tool. When someone clicks on a hashtag a number of posts from different people, who also use them, will be accessed. This potentially gives me a wider range of people who will see my paintings, not just my friends and followers. The labels are a bit different; they only refer to my blog. However, this can be useful too. For instance, when I briefly mentioned starting my bedding plants this year a couple of people asked me about that. Now, the labels will take them to a previous post all about that subject.

I have also been doing a bit of quilling lately. Using some photos from the internet as reference, I made some new Christmas ornament designs and some new cards.

Quilled Dragonfly with Poppy Card

Quilled Dragonfly with Primrose Card

And finally, I have signed up for Kat Sloma's Liberate Your Art postcard exchange. If you haven't heard about this you can find out about it here - Kat's page  Luckily I have lots of cards on hand that I was able to modify to fit the postcard guidelines and they will be in the mail later this week.

That is just a few of the things that have been keeping me hopping. I keep wondering when life is going to slow down but I figure that busy is better than bored - lol.

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