A New Book!

For Mother's Day I got a book I've had my eye on by Josef Albers. To Open Eyes was written by two of his students. I was interested in it because of his color studies. I've had an idea for years now for a color study I want to do. It will take quite a bit of time and effort, but I think I'm ready to work some more on it. It's progress will appear on this blog I'm sure.

Back to painting and blogging

Wednesday night was the final class for my Emotional Release Class, which turned out to be a success. It was a lot of effort to create a six week class of that kind with all of the handouts and such that go along with it. It was great fun and I'm so glad it's put together. Next time I teach it will be a lot easier 'cause I'll know what I'm doing!

My thoughts have turned back to painting and I'm excited to get back to painting. I need to finish Jade and begin working on Kurt and Julie.

Here it is! (But only about 1/2 done)

My niece Jade, a rising art star, recently told me that she was enjoying painting some paint by numbers. I had the idea of creating a paint by number for her birthday of herself. I soon realized that was beyond my capabilities and that it would be easier to paint the portrait myself, which I have been enjoying very much. Her birthday is today and it's not finished yet, but.....

Happy Birthday Jade !

Love, The Greens

A Full Day in the Studio

Today was a great day in the studio. I started a painting today and was successful in getting all the values blocked in the first day. This will help greatly in painting it faster. Usually I would've posted a picture of it, but it is a surprise. I can only show it after I give it to the person, but I will for sure post a picture then.

A Visitor

One of my favorite people ever, Denice from Houston came to town to celebrate her parent's 50th wedding anniversary. She is only here for a few days and has much family to spend time with and many committments, yet she made time to come see me. I caught this photo of Stone's (9 mos.) first direct encounter with snow!

Some diversions but still focused

Last week my daughter and I went to Dallas with my two other sisters and mother to visit another sister, Julie. We had a great time and want to make it an annual thing.

I feel like I'm moving toward teaching some basic emotional release classes beginning this year. I have the outline for the class but there will be much work to prepare both material and house. I will hold class in my studio. My movitation for getting this all done quickly is to get back to daily painting. Yikes!

A Good Day of Painting

"Citrus Bowl" is turning out a bit better than I thought. If it turns out decent enough it could be my other entry for the Spring Salon. That would be nice if I had two paintings worked to this point that were possibilities for the show in April. If I get them done there might be time to see if I could do something else that would be better. I had better just focus on getting these done!

A Decent Day of Painting

Even though the lovely citrus fruit for my still life has long since shriveled and rotted, I have the photo of it to work from. I feel so rusty from months away from the easel. My still life felt like a good place to start today. I started this work painting from life so to finish it from a reference photo there were some drawing problems to solve. Overall it was a fun day in the studio. It felt like I am finally going to get into the routine of daily painting again!

Thinking of Spring

unfinished, 16x20, oil on canvas

Angels Above Us, 36x48, oil on canvas, 2006

So now that my 'painting a day' hopes are dashed, what should I work on? The Spring Salon is in April. I had a painting almost ready for entry last year that I could finish for this year. This is a juried show at the Springville Museum of Art and is really prestigious and hard to get in. I did get into their Religious and Spiritual Show of 2006 with Angels Above Us, but the Spring Salon is harder to get in. Upwards of 1,000 entries are submitted by the states best artists. My chances are slim but it's a dream of mine to be in the show. Little Jumping Guy (working title) is my best hope at this point. Each artist can enter two works. That is my goal... two paintings entered.

From 'A Painting a Day' to 'A Daily Painter'

Barbie Couch, 5x7, oil on canvas, 1/14/08

Even though I have been away from my easel for many months, I have stayed connected to the art world through the Internet. There is a movement pioneered by Duane Keiser http://duanekeiser.blogspot.com/ of creating 'a painting a day'. Many artists have found a niche for themselves by selling their small paintings either from their blog, website or eBay. This idea appealed to me because I'm so rusty and it might help me get better at finishing my paintings. (Inability to finish a painting not so good for an artist.) Well the day came that I had my canvas toned and ready. Determined to become 'a painting a day' enthusiast, I did it! I even finished it. Mostly because as my painting time came to an end, I had determined that this wasn't really the direction I wanted to go. I was glad that I had tried it. I would never have known had I not tried. I post this painting as a painful reminder that I should never go months without painting and everytime 'a painting a day' looks like fun, to just remember 1/14/08.

Looking forward to A Great 2008!

As I was reflecting on this past year, I got excited for 2008. Last year brought many changes. Major changes in one's life, like moving, often bring stress. I'm happy to leave it behind as I am enjoying my own private office, my fabulous studio and my walk-in closet. Our new house is at the base of the mountain. Every day as I am driving around my neighborhood I'm struck by the beauty of the mountains. The views from my studio are breathtaking. I'm hoping that this will be a place where my creativity will flow and my career will prosper!