Daily Painting Practice - 30 Self Portraits in 30 Days - Day 3

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Self Portrait - Day 3
8"x10"
oil on canvas board

One thing about painting self portraits that the artist quickly discovers, your features take on new aspects when you stare at them for a few hours each day. Some good , some bad and some just plain ugly. Some things seem to appear out of thin air... or should I say thick air.
For instance where did that double chin come from. It wasn't there 30 years ago!

I'll be at the Sage creek Gallery for the Oil Painters of America Show in Santa FE. so I don't know how I will post for the next few days.

Daily Painting Practice - 30 Self Portraits in 30 Days - Day 2

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Self Portrait No. 2
10" x1'0"
pencil on paper

Something different today. A pencil sketch. Not as easy as I thought. I discovered I don't have a lot of patience when it comes to sketching. I guess that is why I am holding a brush in the picture.

Daily Painting Practice - 30 Self portraits in 30 days - day 1

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Self Portrait No.1
9"x12"
oil on canvas board

I was thinking to myself, "Self", I said, " if I am going to do the daily painting practice and blogging on a regular basis again, I will need to try something a little different.... and challenging."

Well, nothing is more challenging than figure painting and the portrait tops that list. I originally thought of calling it 100 self portraits in 100 days, but I don't think I could stand looking at myself that much. 30 Self Portraits in 30 days is going to be hard enough. Especially since I will be traveling to the Oil Painters of America show in Santa Fe this weekend. I might have to bend the rules a little.

Here's the challenges and benefits I see for those of you who want to paint along.

1. Try to keep to 2 hours or less to paint. (keeps you from taking yourself too seriously)
2. You can paint yourself thinner only if you diet for the 30 days and want to see what you will look like at the end.
3. Try painting from life (using a mirror) as well as from photos.
4. Try painting using different media... pencil, watercolor, pastel. Or different tools and methods... palette knife, large brushes, limited colors.
5. The biggest challenge will be composing 30 paintings ( of a dull subject) that are different enough from each other and interesting enough by themselves to keep painting.

Ok, there is the challenge. Ready, Set,... Go paint!

Daily Painting Practice - Shells -work in progress

I promised I would post again. Surprised? I am. I can't remember the last time I posted two days in a row. I am going to start some daily paintings again soon and I will be posting several times a week again. This is because I will be teaching a daily painting course at the (Joslyn Museum of art) here in Omaha for six weeks this summer. So I better paint what I preach!
This isn't a daily painting. It's one I have been working on for a little while. Sorry but I didn't take a photo until I got this far along in the process. I got the idea for painting shells back in February after our trip to Florida. I thought I might do a few paintings with shells and see if I can get an East coast gallery interested.
This is how I set it up my shadow box. I found these upholstery samples at the thrift store last year. I paid a dollar for a book of them, about 40 samples in the book. I love the variety. It will be interesting to match them with different shells in several compositions.
I started with the wipe off method. Then started applying color with a nearly dry brush and very little paint.
The gold pitcher is getting close and the shells are starting to come along. I haven't done much with the background yet. Perhaps I should have started on that first?

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Shells No1. - Work in Progress
9"x12"
oil on masonite

This stage is a few hours more work. I won't tell you what the difference is between this and the last photo. See if you can see the changes. No wonder I am so slow at this.

I have more photos from the salon show but I will show them next week in another post.

Daily Painting Practice - Salon International and Old Florida

My son called me today and kindly but directly reminded me to get on the stick and stop ignoring the blog. The name of the blog is Daily Painting Practice after all, not Every So Often Painting Practice. I must admit he was right. I have no excuse for the absence( other than being lazy) especially since so much has been happening in and around the studio.
So let me catch you up on what has been happening and give you a little bit of news on things coming up.
Last week I was at the Salon International show at the (Greenhouse Gallery in San Antonio), Texas. I was lucky enough to get two paintings juried in. It is quite an honor considering the quality of the art and other artists chosen. I met so many wonderful people. I had to ask several kind hearted people to take photos for me since I forgot my camera.
The show was truly an amazing experience. One of my all time favorite artists (Daniel Greene) was the judge. His talk about why he choose certain pieces for an award was an art course all by itself. However, the day after the awards dinner, a lot of the artists came back to the gallery in the morning and Daniel Greene gave a few of us critiques of our work. That was like a year of art training in 10 minutes.
Here's my second painting. I met a few artists I have only talked with via email, several who recognized my name from the blog and a few I recognized from art magazines and articles . One pleasant surprise was meeting (Carol Marine), my friend from the (Daily Paintworks) group. We were talking so much about art and daily painting ideas we nearly had to be ushered out so they could close the gallery.
I have more to say regarding the show and also my next adventure, but I'll save that for tomorrow's post.... Yes, I promise to post again tomorrow.
But before I go... Here is the update on the Old Florida painting.

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Old Florida
oil on canvas
20" x 24"

I am not sure it is completely finished so I'll submit it for comments and a virtual critique. What do you think?