This was painted at the Tree Farm in Helvetia. (The tree in the foreground would never have made it as a Christmas tree--too much bend!) For another truly beautiful sky painting with a brilliant poem, visit Pam Flanders.
Tonight's model, Desiree, had a "Something about Mary hairstyle". The other results from the evening can be found HERE.
This is an oil sketch on toned paper. I just used the paints I had left on my palette. Painting is a lot like drawing when it is handled "quickly". It's from a reference of a portrait of Degas. 
A while back some of my artist friends and I watched a Richard Schmid video together. In the video Schmid discussed his palette knife and demonstrated a beautiful straight building wall with it. (We all loved that part!) Friend and teacher Thomas Kitts also showed us a plein air painting he did recently that employed great knife-work in the foreground. I thought I would dust off my knife today too. I used it for the building in this painting. It will take awhile to feel comfortable with an unfamiliar tool. I know I will benefit from practicing more with the knife.
There's a great article on Eric Bowman's blog about painting people. Often my figures come out looking a bit too tutti frutti (I struggled with jumpy color again today). Still--I completely enjoyed painting Rachel..she looked fantastic in a "Carmen" type dress.
After the art discussion at O'Connors today we went to Albers Mill, a commercial building on the Willamette River. We were rewarded with sun! (something we haven't seen in awhile). I did not have my paints with me, but I was happy to "paint" with my Elegant Writer pen (thanks again, Carrie Holst, for telling me about it). As I looked across the river to the other side, I remembered seeing a lot of "storage dome" sketches/paintings on Bill Sharp's blog. He is so good at the urban sketching/painting. Taking in the scenery I said: "Hey, there is Bill Sharp's dome". Check out his storage dome at dusk.
A few years ago, during my first workshop, I learned that an appealing composition can be the "dark foreground". I had that idea in mind when I painted this.
This painting had a little house in it. It looked awful so I scraped it off and replaced it with some trees. It is so important if you are going to paint a house that it be a solid house and not an iffy house. Take it from me.
Last Monday a few PPASP-ers went to The Canvas (1800 NW Upshur) for the free life drawing/painting session from 6:30-8:30 pm. This week I decided to go check it out. It is a great space, we had a very competent (and interesting looking) model and they have an excellent menu along with wine & beer. Remarkably, if you forget any supplies, or arrive without any, The Canvas even provides an art supply store where you'll be able to pick up anything you need. The model is free (but it is customary to tip her). If you are in Portland and you like figure drawing/painting, The Canvas gets my wholehearted recommendation! (I think it is every Monday evening). To see what others did tonight, click HERE.
I didn't paint anything today. Instead I made up my mind that I would clean up my "bunker" studio (in the basement). I can't bring myself to upload the "before" photos. Suffice it to say--My bunker studio was chaos. There were so many things on the floor I had to step around everything. Since it is finally nice weather I was able to take things out the door onto the patio. I put "like with like" and wound up with stacks of sketchbooks, paintings, frames, materials and books. I spent all afternoon on this project and I will continue working on it tomorrow.
This is painted on one of those thick wood panels with a hole drilled in the back (so that it can "go frameless"). After I finished painting it, I wished I'd painted it on a regular panel like I usually do (so that I could consider framing it in the frames I prefer). Well, I like a lot about it!
This is sort of an experiment in repeated shapes. Just for fun.
I painted this a couple of days ago. I wasn't so sure I managed to create adequate distance, but after looking at it today, I think I did. Tonight I added just a little dark to the right side. I like the big size contrast between the little tree and the big tree.
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