Friday, January 29, 2010

More new paintings

I have photos of some of the paintings I have been working on this winter. Adding them to the blog today. It is cold cold cold outside now. I really want to start painting plein aire but just do not have the fortitude to work in such cold weather. Some time before all the snow goes, I will get out to do a snow scene probably from the front seat of the truck. And now that this is in the blog I will have to follow through. Right?!! ;-)

The following painting is a water color done on very rough paper.  I did not like working on the paper. It was soft and very absorbent. It just gave me problems. I will try it again but not any time soon.

Succulent In the Sun


This on is another watercolor but this time done on watercolor canvas. This, too, had a whole new feel to it and new ways to get paint on the canvas and leave it where I wanted it. You need a really light hand with the canvas. I really like how the apples turned out they are quite "watercolor-esque" (my word). I have been experimenting with some different surfaces. Haven't found one I like best yet.

 The photo I used for these three paintings are from my trip to Italy in 2005. While I am painting I am reliving being there, feeling the sun and how sore my calves were from climbing up and down the hills. The apples were part of our sack lunch that we brought from the villa that day. BTW what is Italian for apple?

Italian Apples on Old Windowsill

Finally this one is one of my favorite memories from Italy. The city that we were staying in had an old town that was very picturesque. I have lots more photos to use for paintings. This scene touched me -- such a modern little tyke's scooter in the ancient doorway.  Can't you just see the little boy who will be coming back to his little trike after his nap?  I need a good descriptive title for this one. 

Old and New--Young and Old---Shiney and Crusty????

Now on to the next scene from Italy. It is in the ugly stage so I am stalling starting on it.....

Until next time.



Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Another finished

In my last post,  I mentioned that I would have the latest landscape finished and ready to show you. I was skeptical about that because when I went home at the end of a long day, I was really conflicted about the painting. I had a serious problem (I thought) with the lower right hand corner. After a break from it, I came back with fresh eyes and ready to make the finishing touches. Two hours later this is how it turned out. I changed some of the rocks in the lower right so that they were not so uniform. (left brain taking over--a rock is a rock is a rock thinking) Brightened up the back ground and the middle ground boulders. The painting now looks like I wanted it. Low back-lit sun shine glancing across the top of the waterfall and lighting up the rocks. I will gaze at it for a bit. Come up to it with fresh eyes again and see if there are any changes that need to be made. So far I think I can call this one finished.



Italian Waterfall--acrylic on canvas, 24"X18"---painted from my photo taken on site in Italy using the composition and idea of low sun shine on the falls. The photo was dark and colors lifeless so I used my artistic license to change the colors. I remember being so surprised that there was a wild area like this in Italy. When I thought of Italy it was always of the towns, cities and cultivated fields of grapevines, never of a wild park with streams like we find in our own ravines. Silly me---

****************************************************************************

Here is another painting for the show that I completed while I was blogless--From a fun photo I found on wet canvas of a back lit scene that I am drawn to. This one flowed pretty quickly from my brush. The blue in the shadows on the sun stream is too bright in the photo. They are more blue grey in real life and therefore more realistic.



Sun Stream--acrylic on canvas, 20"X16"

I am getting closer to my goal for paintings to hang in the Landkamer Building show space. I want to have another chrome piece done by March and at least one or two more landscapes.  I have been trying to decide what to call the show. Since the two styles of paintings, chrome and landscapes, are so different, I am thinking of a title like--Of Two Minds, Split Personality, Two Sides of an Artist----or-----something similar.

All for now.



Monday, January 25, 2010

Moved to a new blog home

Some of you have heard about my issues with passwords. Thus I am now writing my blog under another title and name. I think this one will be easier for people to find in the future since it has my name in the title. I do want people to know me, Margie Larson, as an artist. So the new blog begins with a copy of the last entry in my old blog. As time goes on I plan to move some photos of my paintings that I produced earlier this year, so that I can have them all in one place. The old blog will sit and not be added too. Here is the old address.


Lately I have been working trying to increase the number of paintings I will have to put into my show at the Landkamer Building which starts in March. Here is one that I have been working on. I have changed it considerably but like to let you know how my creative process moves. I did start with a photo of the falls that I took in Italy. It has changed considerably since the photo I used to paint from was not really that good. It was dark and I really wanted to show the way the low sun lit the small pond and rocks surrounding the little fall. I also wanted to work with water to see what I could do with it. I will take another photo tomorrow morning to show what has changed. About the only thing I have not changed is the composition.


I took today off from the studio -- feeling confused on how to finish the painting without over working it. Also it is probably the worst day of the year weather wisethere is a blizzard going on out there. Our garbage can has blown into the neighbors yard and I have not gone out to rescue it. It is way to cold! It feels good to just cocoon for a change. And then too, I had time to make the decision to move my blog to a new address.

All for now--on to making supper and more cocooning.



This probably seems familiar to those few people who read this blog. I have moved to a new address and hope that I do not make the mistake I did to loose control of my earlier attempt. So here is a recap of my last post on the old blog and on to bigger and better---

TA-DA! Finished! This Greyhound is the most ambitious painting I have every undertaken. It is huge (for me) about 30x 36 inches. It has taken me about two months of working on it to get it done. I think it will be while before I attempt one this complicated and big.
Hope someone likes it well enough to purchase it. Dan has some friends who might like it enough to purchase it. If not maybe they will be inspired to commission a painting of their car -- the shiny parts of it is my preference. This one will be my centerpiece for the show later this spring at the Landkamer Building gallery space.


There is a little cropped off the bottom that I did not notice until I up-loaded the photo from the camera. In the original you see all the Ford logo and more of the chrome trim. I think the viewers eye is carried around the painting very well, from the focal point of the dog's head and feet down to the logo around the trim and back again.

Now on to a new series that should not take so long to finish. I have lots of photos from Italy that are just waiting to get up on canvas.