Figuratively Speaking - Forever Friends

8"x10" oil

Shelburne Farms is the setting for this scene.  The balustrade is in the gardens overlooking Lake Champlain and the Adirondack Mountains in NY state.  These women are some of the important women in my life.  I feel very blessed to have had so many wonderful females in my life, starting with my mother who was humble, sweet, nurturing, supportive and offered unconditional love.  She taught me to see the world in a joyful way and tried to teach me to not be swayed by silly things, opinions or people.  She was an artist and one of my dreams came true when she and I attended a Dreama Tolle Perry painting workshop together.  I miss her funny way of saying things, her passion for her family and her wonderful giggle.  She wasn't perfect, like the rest of us, but her faults have faded in my mind because her positive qualities overshadowed them.  I remember as a 12 year old hearing her story about her mother's death when she was 12 and thinking I could not go on without my mom.  It helped me start to see her amazing strength.  She couldn't read and would have been diagnosed with dyslexia if they had known what it was back then, and she was left-handed, another deficit.  She was one of 13 siblings and the school decided she was unteachable and was needed more at home rather than get an education.  She was ashamed about this, but I think it just goes to show what a resourceful woman she was.  She went to art school for a short time and joined the Navy as a bookkeeper because she was a wiz with numbers.  She was a talented mom to five kids and the true definition of great homemaker.  She felt insecure about her lack of education, but taught herself to read and educated herself and she and my dad both valued their children getting an advanced education.  I didn't know, until I was an adult, that my mom had been faking her way life because she couldn't read.  So many things made sense then, like: not ever reading to us when we were little, spending nights up reading when we were teens, and the way she wrote notes in beautiful penmanship but would always leave out words.  Vocabulary was important to my parents. My dad taught me the word "facetious,"  and he was a good example of that.  My mom taught me to use "flibbertigibbet," of which she was not at all!  Go Figure!

Laundry Day

8"x10" oil Not for Sale

I felt like painting laundry drying and found this photo I had been given at a Dreama Tolle Perry workshop, but had never painted.  I switched around some of the items in the photo and played with color.  Dreama has a direct approach, starting with transparent colors and then frosting them with opaques.  It gives her paintings a fresh look with very clean color.  I actually did this in two settings, focusing on the darks first and then adding the lights.  It is not my usual working method but I am trying out different things right now.  Since I used her photo for reference, I am not selling this.

Summer Time

8"x8" oil Not For Sale

This is from a photo taken by Dreama Tolle Perry.  She gave those of us who were in her online class, Dream Love Paint, permission to paint from it.  Her painting passion is lovely vingettes with window boxes, flowers, shutters or her cat, Eddie.  She encourages others to paint their passion.  I can be pretty much all over the place in my interests, but mostly I like to paint little people.  I like figurative work in general, but especially children and most specifically my grandkids or children of friends.  I love the work of Karin Jurick who is able to capture people in the most relaxed postures imaginable.  Her work is inspiring, and I am hoping to continue developing my style and subject matter to a level that is different than where I am at today.  Doing daily paintings and studying, learning from others, and from past masters is a good way to grow.

Exercise 7 Not For Sale

12"x12" oil Not For Sale

This was the final piece in the Dreama Tolle Perry online class.  It was a lot of fun to paint and I am happy with the results.  The five things I am taking away from this course are the following:  1)  Wipe the brush off after almost every brush stroke to keep it clean and not contaminating the clean colors 2) make sure to put my mind and painting environment in the right state to focus on the painting 3)  work steady but don't rush and don't let distractions creep in 4)  Make sure the first layer of paint is darker than you know the final painting will be  5)  set up my palette the same every time and keep it clean.  These are things I had been exposed to and inconsistently practiced, but they really sunk in with this class.  The great thing is that I will have access to the videos for the rest of the year to refresh my mind and also maybe pick up 5 more things.

Exercise 6 Not For Sale

8"x10"  oil Not For Sale

This was fun to paint.  Dreama's colors are so bright and joyful and she chooses images to paint that highlight those beautiful hues.  I really struggle making straight lines though.  I think I need to either avoid them or take a drafting class.  It is a good thing that I do a limited number of architectural subjects!

Exercise 5 Not For Sale

12"x12" oil Not For Sale

This was exercise 5 from the online course Dream Love Paint with Dreams Tolle Perry.  Whenever I go to a workshop I always intend to learn 5 new things.  I limit myself because I know that is all I can really focus on and put into practice consciously.  I don't feel like I need to write everything down because I will probably not look back at my notes even though I have every good intention to do just that.  I have taken several workshops with Dreama but I keep returning because it not only positively influences my work, but because it positively influences my life. I have taken some really wonderful workshops but if I didn't identify those 5 things I would put into practice, I didn't grow as much as I should.  I will tell you the 5 things in the next few posts.

Tea Time

4"x6" oil

I have been taking an online painting class presented by Dreama Tolle Perry #dreamlovepaint.  It is a 6 week course covering 6 of her images and demos with tons of extra material, instructions, tips and inspirations.  It really is jam packed.  She suggested several exercises including one to paint your tea cup (or coffee) in 25 strokes.  This was my effort with a couple of extra highlights and touches with the scraping tool.  It is a great exercise to try now and again.  Carol Marine is also great at suggesting exercises that are good reminders of important basics.

Blue Chair

8"x10" oil NFS

These are the things I like about this painting:  the vibrant colors, the suggestion of the subject without losing the abstract qualities of the brushwork.  the gray/lavender in the background, and finally, how much fun it was to paint it.  It is the fourth week painting for DreamLovePaint. Oh, I also like where my signature is!

Odd Colors

6"x6"oil  NFS

I am taking an online painting class called Dream Love Paint, hosted by Dreama Tolle Perry.  We painted a cupcake.  Then I listened to an interview with Quang Ho on AHA blog radio, which was a wonderful program, and he suggested painting an image already painted using different colors.  This painting is the result of that exercise.

Snack Time

7"x9" oil

I wanted to see if I could do a figurative piece that had the same kind of color "pop" as the floral pieces done at Dreama Tolle Perry's workshop.  This is more subdued but I still think it has some of the pizazz I like.  It is a method I think I will continue to explore as I am more drawn to painting people and children than I am floral scenes.  Although, I do love flowers and gardening and certainly beautiful paintings of idyllic scenes...but I will leave it to others to do those subjects, at least for now.  Does this piece have appeal to you?  I am not related to this child, but she is a bit universal I think...round and sweet and curious.

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Cupcake

8"x8" oil  

This painting is the result of "Musical Easels" from Dreama's workshop. I started it and finished it, and then revised some things, and in the middle a lot of other people did something to it.  I think it would look great in a kitchen or in a bakery. It is a reminder of sweet things in life.  I have a question for other bloggers.  Do you find that it is difficult to have a consistent on-line presence and also have time to look at the work of others, or to make comments?  This is a challenge for me....staying connected in the myriad ways available.  I should go paint!

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The Wall

9"x9" oil

This is another painting I completed at Dreama's Workshop.  I came away from that workshop with a couple of reminders and realizations.  I try not to remember everything because I find I just feel confused and constrained when I do, so I choose to focus on just a few things.  One thing that really left its mark was that each participant's paintings retained their unique signature style even though we were painting the same image with the same palette and technique.  This kept coming back to me.  Another thing which I really wanted to latch on to, was how to get the brilliant color and little pops of color which is so evident in Dreama's work.  I feel like I achieved that in this painting.  I need to really think about what color combinations excite me and make that a priority in my work, if that is what excites me. 

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Inviting Window

9"x9" oil

I am back!  Hope you missed me.  I have been modem-less for the last couple of weeks and it has been just short of traumatizing for me!  Honestly I am embarrassed by how attached I have become to internet.  It is along the lines of indoor plumbing, electricity and telephone.  If you are familiar with Dreama Tolle Perry's work, then you will recognize this window.  I went to a workshop a few weeks ago and this was one of the exercises.  If your monitor does not show this as a vibrant, warm color scheme, then imagine it is, because her palette is the makings for lovely color.  She is awesome and her workshop was awesome and the other painters were awesome.  We (my friend and fellow painter, Heather Shay) had a great time!

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Sunshine Balconey 6"x6" oil on linen board #356 architecture

This was a group project we did at the recent workshop I attended.  It was like musical easels and everyone had the opportunity to paint on each others' paintings.  It was timed too.  I wasn't a very good sport and had trouble getting into the spirit of the activity.  When all was said and done, I came back to my easel, wiped off the work and redid it with some variation.  It looks like a confetti garden!

Ready and Waiting oil 6"x6" landscape #354

This was the last painting I did at the workshop.  You just can't beat a beach scene.

Guinguette de l'Air oil 8"x10" #353 sold

This was the third painting I did.  I really like this one and sold it at the workshop.  What a fun subject.

SOLD

Shade 6"x6" oil #352

This was the second painting I did at the Dreama Tolle Perry workshop.  I love the luscious colors.

Italian Window oil 6"x6" #351 landscape

I went to a Dreama Tolle Perry workshop and this is the first painting I did.  I loved the workshop and learning how to use transparent colors for an underpainting.  She is a great presenter with loads of useful information.  It was at the Parish Center for the Arts in Westford, MA.  Laurie, our host, is awesome.

PIG oil 6"x6" animal 348

This is a life size ceramic pig of whom I am very fond.  I did this for the Dailypaintworks.com challenge.  I tried to apply the technique I learned at the workshop except that I painted it on a black background and I didn't add the final touches of thick paint and palette knife scrapings.

Old Truck transportation oil 4"x4" #343

This is a new subject for me.  I am attending a workshop with Dreama Tolle Perry for the next few days.