Venice #2 - 20" x 16" - Acrylic and graphite on Masonite - $500

I finished one painting of Venice today. My brother and his wife went to Europe and took a bunch of pictures. I hijacked them – the pictures, not my brother and his wife – and plan to paint a bunch of them.

Tuscan Fields #3 - 14" x 11" - Acrylic and watercolor pencil on Masonite - $300

PAINTINGS COMPLETED TODAY: 3
PAINTINGS COMPLETED TO DATE: 68

This painting is my favorite of the three landscape paintings I did today. It has a very simple composition. It has large areas of color that are fun to paint. The foreground red and yellow areas aren’t too big or too small.

This is the first one I painted today, and I got a lot of painting energy out in this one. I didn’t have to think about anything and was just able to paint.

Lavender Fields - 14" x 11" - Acrylic and watercolor pencil on Masonite - $300

This one turned out well. I love the lavender fields in France. (Not that I have ever been there).

I don’t usually use this color, but I might have to get a tube of it. I don’t like to spend a lot of time mixing colors. I prefer using the color straight out of the tube.

Tuscan Fields #3 - 14" x 11" - Acrylic and watercolor pencil on Masonite - $300

Today I finally got around to painting. Thanksgiving week has been BUSY!! Tuesday, I was at the dentists all afternoon.

I lead the young men’s youth group at our church. They are working to earn money for summer camp and other camping exploits. One gentleman in our congregation offered to pay a large amount of money if the young men would come and shovel mulch and spread it around his property.

I went with 7 young men and we worked for about 5 hours. It has been along time since I have done physical labor that hard and that long.  That was on Wednesday (School was out for the young men) and I was totally out of commission on Thursday. Friday I was still sore. And today, Saturday, I decided to paint. I worked on 3 Tuscan Landscapes on 3 small panels (14 x 11).

They turned out well and I like them a lot.

Abstract Lakescape - 14" x 11" - Acrylic and graphite on Masonite - $250

I am fortunate to live near a beautiful lake, and drive by it every time I drive down the hill. jIt is hard to find the perfect shot, because I am not a photographer, but I jog around it a couple times a week and capture the essence in my mind. This is an attempt to capture the qualities of the lake in an abstract way. It wasn’t turning out the way I envisioned it until I went a little crazy with the colored pencil and put some energy into the painting.

Mr. Blue Sky - 14" x 11" - Acrylic and graphite on Masonite - $250

PAINTINGS COMPLETED TODAY: 3
PAINTINGS COMPLETED TO DATE: 57

Mr. Blue Sky” is a favorite Electric Light Orchestra song. This painting started as a grid on a page. I started playing with the lines and changing them here and there and this house with clouds and an asterisk shaped sun appeared.

Tuscan Fields - 18" x 14" - Acrylic and graphite on Masonite - $500

PAINTINGS COMPLETED TODAY: 1
PAINTINGS COMPLETED TO DATE: 49

Today’s painting turned out well. I ran out of prepared boards, so I had to go back to the  18″ x 14″ boards that I can’t find frames for.

I found some great photos of Tuscan landscapes online and used one to compose this painting. I outlined a lot more than I have been doing. I think it works.

Fields #2 - 20" x 16" - Acrylic and graphite on Masonite - $450

PAINTINGS COMPLETED TODAY: 3
PAINTINGS COMPLETED TO DATE: 46

I was busy all morning, but forced myself to get downstairs to the studio after lunch. Why is it so hard to get started? Painting is fun, but it really takes effort to get into the studio. It is kind if like exercising. I live by a lake and love to walk or jog around it, but it is super hard to get out of the house and go do it. Insane.

Anyway, I did three paintings today. An acrylic landscape, an abstract painting and a painting of teacups, an old favorite. The landscape is large (16 x 20) and the other two are small (for time’s sake).

Maori Abstract - 12" x 12" - Acrylic and graphite on Masonite - $250

I have rigged up several lights so I have enough light in the studio. I have one overhead, and then two lamps on either side of where I paint. That gives me enough light to see clearly and the lights on the sides cancel out the shadows. It is nice.

Heartland - 20" x 16" - Acrylic and graphite on Masonite - $400

PAINTINGS COMPLETED TODAY: 2
PAINTINGS COMPLETED TO DATE: 42

Today I painted two pictures. I hurried through everything I had to do this morning and had a few hours in the studio. One I am really happy with. I designed it from my memories of going with my father to fix peoples’ horses on ranches in Southern California. My father was a horse vet and I used to go with him during the summer and hold the horses for him.

The other painting is an abstract, kind of based on satellite imagery. I love doing satellite searches on Google Earth an Google Maps. Streets and houses and crops. They all form a really cool pattern.

Abstract #14 (Satellite) - 20" x 16" - Acrylic and graphite on Masonite - $400

These were both 20 x 16 paintings. I have moved up a size because there are more frames at Michael’s for that size. The trouble with painting larger pictures is they take more materials, but more than that – they take more time. Even if I hurry and speed right through a painting, it takes a couple hours per painting. I am really thinking that if I don’t hurry and get at least one painting done a day, I may not complete 100 paintings in 100 days.

The days when I could kick back and do four paintings in a day are over I think. No makeups now. I have to work daily to make my quota.

Great Wall #2 - 18" x 14" - Acrylic and colored pencil on Masonite - $300

I redid the Great Wall piece and am happy with it. but I really like the one I did in the meantime, “Fields.”

Fields turned out well. It was difficult because I wanted to add more detail than I should have. There were some large round hay bales in the foreground that I just couldn’t get right. I tried to make them “just shapes” but they looked too real. I will have to figure out how to abstract small things. All in all I think it went really well. And the Great Wall turned out well too.

So, this week turned out really well. I am happy with what got completed. and I like the new direction I am headed in.