Tomorrow I turn in "Bossy" my donation to Art Walk for Annie. I hope you'll come to the event and buy a painting to help support Annie and her family! (All proceeds will go directly toward medical expenses).
This oil sketch is mostly burnt sienna & white with a little Ultramarine Blue thrown in for the darker areas. Sketching with paint is a lot like regular sketching with dry materials...there is never a need to feel overly invested in the results...it's all just for fun and/or practice. 
Cathleen Rehfeld tells me that it is great practice to "....paint something in only 15 strokes." I gave that a go here with my colorful bird study. 
Study: Celeste Bergin after Emile Gruppe, Harbor, oil on 16 x 20 masonite
I enjoyed considering the warms and cools of this scene (that I repainted from a previous color study). 
You can see that I am on a bit of a dark and light kick. I was a little tempted to put an umbrella in this scene....but I resisted.
I had a drawing teacher a long time ago who would occasionally insist that we draw with an "alternative" instrument. Remembering that, I used a stick and some brown ink to draw this self portrait. To date, I've done about 11 self portraits. Some are more successful than others. (Just 79 to go...Rembrandt created about 90).
(Bottom photo) Celeste Bergin, Self Portraits, Digital collage
A couple of days ago I wrote about how I am paying more attention to planning drama. In this study I set out to heighten some more orchestrated dark and light. This is a composite of a couple of ideas. I enjoyed painting it, especially for the old time-y sense of it. Great practice!
I like to simplify flowers--concentrating most on the color and "overall" shape. I painted it over a previous painting. Photos below: 1. Establishing basic shapes 2. Putting in warms & cools 3. Final
I love the old style illustrations of yesteryear, so I'm emulating a Collier's Magazine type thing. There is no reason whatsoever for this, except for practice and to try my hand at some "drama". Great illustrators teach us that suggestion is very favorable and that it's desirable to leave things for the viewer to complete with their own eyes.
Just for fun I painted this woman with "up-lights" it's not the sort of lighting treatment you see everyday and she's intentionally "warm". She's painted mostly with the paints leftover from other projects.
Today I went to the Museum Art Book Sale. I didn't know that it started yesterday so I imagine missed out on some great bargains...but I got three books that I'm really happy about. I saw the amazing Thomas Moran Shoshone Falls painting in the Museum and also attended a lecture about the American River in Art. I learned some things about one of my favorite artists, Thomas Hart Benton. At the end of the day I painted a cup of paint brushes. I also put some final touches on my Northwest Nightfall painting. Tomorrow I'll deliver it to the Pittock Mansion for their Winter exhibit: "Northwest Landscape" (November 22-Jan 2). And, what about you? Did you have an artful day?? 
Ah, the rain. When you live in Portland you tend to love it or hate it...no inbetween. I am in the love camp.
Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns. ~George Eliot
I painted this from a photo...it's not finished and it has some "problems" to be resolved....so I think I'll just let it dry and then give it another pass.
The day began with a trip to one of my favorite art supply stores, Muse, where I bought some new pens, charcoal, a new sketchbook & a sharpener. We drove to Ridgefield Wildlife Refuge where I did some sketching (you're allowed only to get out of the car in just one place, the rest of the time the sketching has to take place in the car--which is not a bad thing, it was fun)... At the end of the day I turned my sketches into an oil painting (painted over one of my failed paintings). 
Just a sketch today of the Plymouth "Sundance" that was parked in front of me. In other news...did you know that an Orange Mocha Frappuccino is a mocha with Valencia (orange) syrup and an extra espresso shot..? It tastes like the chocolate orange.... Recommended!
