Airplane with final touches

Put the finishing touches on the Blue and Chrome Airplane yesterday. It was a busy day painting and today was a day of just doing other things. I wrote out the notes that I took at the Parish Council meeting last night. I am not used to doing that kind of work any more and it takes longer than it did when I was taking notes for money--before retirement. ;-) Then the Friday Muses got together. We had a new artist visit us. We hope Ruthann Miller can become one of our regulars. She is a multi-media artist with lots of creativity in her work. Later a visit to my Mom to catch up on family goings on and to show her the new painting of the poppies that I finished this week. And finally a casual dinner out with Dan and some street rod friends. Busy day and time to crash for the night.

Here is the new chrome airplane--oil on gallery wrap canvas. 24x 16. Hope you like it.

Pop-Pop-Poppies!

I am happy to show you this one. My sister, Mary, needed something special for her newly remodeled guest bath. She loves her poppies in her garden and wanted to have a reminder of them that lasts longer than the poppies in the garden. She lives in a windy area of the state and could visualize the poppies blowing in the wind. With that good information from my sister I pulled this painting together. It is oil on a gallery wrapped canvas. 24x18. Lots of reds and greens but definitely not Christmasy.

This painting is free and breezy with lots of movement. Hope it reminds you of a wonderful spring day. Thanks for the inspiration Mary!

My next chrome painting is almost done. I am working on the bitsy parts that drive you crazy trying to get the color just right so the shapes read correctly. You can see how it is coming here. My goal is to get several smaller chrome paintings done by mid June for the second Saturday at the Stones Throw in St. Peter. Patty Conlin has given me a place on her lawn for the day. Dan and I are taking some of our street rods over there to catch the attention of the passers by. We want them to stop and look at (buy) my paintings after they look at the cars. 

Air plane hood ornament on blue. Dan, who knows all things automobile -- is not sure what kind of car this one is on. So if you know drop me a note. Other wise, I will be searching for it when we go to "Back to the Fifties" in June. 

Oil on gallery wrapped canvas 24x18. 

New showing set and Plein Air

What a beautiful day! I drove to St. Peter to sign the contract with the River Rock Coffee shop. They were really hopping and I am excited to be able to hang some of my landscapes there for the month of June. Alli the manager said that they get traffic from the Dakotas, the twin city area and all of southern Minnesota. She also said that they have had luck with selling a few paintings from each show. Could I be so lucky/fortunate? They have room for 18 paintings.My chrome paintings are reserved for the Second Saturday at the Stones Throw so I will  be able to hang some of my small plein airs to fill out the space at the cafe. St. Peter is also having a big Spring Fling this month on the 22nd, Patty Conlin, owner of Stones Throw, is having a big to do on her lawn and she said that I could set up then, too. Did I say that I was going to be busy? I guess!

I finished this little painting when I got back to the studio a couple of weeks ago. The photo has been in my camera.

Tenacity--tree growing around a rock at Minnewisinona Falls on the river bottom road near Mankato.

I had to deepen the shadows on this one once I got back to the studio. It was a bright day and my eyes must have been tired. The whole painting was too high key. The deeper shadows really made a difference.

More outdoor painting tomorrow. See you later.

One Down another to go up

It is hard to believe that two months have passed since I put up my show in the Landkamer building. This morning Dan and I took all of the 17 paintings down in in less than a half hour. Clean walls for the next artist to hang her work. This was such a special thing for me. I had NEVER had such an opportunity before. And it was very satisfying to hear that my friends liked my work.

Now I need to prepare for another small show in the River Rock Coffee house in St. Peter a little town just north of Mankato. St. Peter has a very active arts community and I am sure that many people will see my paintings there. I will put up my landscapes. When I talked to the manager there she said that they have room for about 18 paintings. I should be able to do that without the chrome group. I need to keep them down because I also have a little show scheduled for the second Saturday of June at the Stones Throw Gallery in St. Peter. That means that June will be nice and busy for me. YEA!

I have been painting a group of poppies on commission for my sister. Sorry Mary-- I do not like what I have started and so I am tossing what I have and going to start over. There are just some parts of the painting that I do not like. The composition was hap-hazzard and I need to study how poppies grow before I start on the commission again. I want this to be right for her. So Mary it will be a little longer before you get to hang the new painting.

Speaking of hanging paintings. I finally was able to give my Mom her birthday present. It was hanging in my show from the beginning of March until now.  I did show this watercolor earlier in the blog. Now it is framed in a black mat and frame and looks very impressive if I do say so myself. ;-)

Mom had to wait from her birthday at the beginning of March until now to have her gift at home. Thanks for your patience Mom. We had a hard time trying to find the right wall to put it on. I will be surprised when she finally decides where she will hang the painting. All for now. Tomorrow more plein air.

Plein Air Time!

The weather this spring has been wonderful. After getting my commission done and after the Easter rush, I finally made time to get outside and paint. What a wonderful feeling to be outside and finding so many things to paint. Even though I love going other places to paint. Mankato has many really scenic places to set up an easel. Every where I go I see potential paintings, from the parks, to the bike trails, to the old mansions and the old buildings on River Front. There are so many sights that I have a hard time settling on one and get started painting. Here are three from Tuesday--I have a couple more from Wednesday but need to take photos so will post tomorrow.

I love painting flowers. Could do it all the time. These were blooming in Sibley Park. I set up my easel right under this branch. And painted away. Sighhhh... what a wonderful afternoon.

I love willow trees. I have found a spot on a pond near home that has this beautiful willow on the shoreline. There is nothing quite as calming as viewing the tree swaying in a breeze and reflected in the almost calm water. I think I will be back for more of this tree this summer and fall.

One more of the willow. I got right down to the shore to get this angle. The lady who owns the land the tree was on stopped by to see what I was painting. She mentioned topping the tree and I said please don't do it. I love willows and she said she did too but the sticks that it drops all year long get tiresome. 

I did do some touch up of this one. I will post the updated one later. I did some defining of the trunk of the tree and the reflection in the water. I also found the right color to paint the water once I got back to my studio. I was using a limited pallet and did not have the right colors to mix the brownish/greenish of the water without reflections.

More tomorrow after I get new photos of my other little paintings. BTW these are all 8x10 oil on canvas. I have found that I like using oils much better I use a dryer in the paint. That takes care of my impatience with slow drying oils. I love how they blend but hate waiting time. 

Hope my readers are not impatient like me. More to post tomorrow.

PS--I just read over this post--I seem to love everything. I guess I should say I love to paint! ;-)

Forgeries

Earlier this month I was able to go to an art show of a works by a famous art forger, Elmyr de Hory.  It was amazing how he was able to copy the styles of many 20th century artists. He sold these paintings around the world letting each purchaser think that they had an original--just not an original from the artist they thought they were buying whether it was a Picasso, a Modigliani or a Matisse.  The show booklet had a couple of good reproductions of his forgeries. I was inspired to copy the copies and had some fun pretending to be Modigliani and Matisse for a a couple of afternoons.
These are my takes on Elmyr's forgeries. I am positive that they will not pass any tests for forgeries.

In the style of Modigliani 

I wonder why he did the empty eyes. She seems sad and spiritless.

In the style of Henri Matisse

One of the reasons these were easy to emulate is because they were relatively simple paintings with large plain areas of paint. I had a good time with the Matisse, scraping in the lines in the wall paper and painting the blue lines on the chase lounge. This lady is stylish by even today's standards--just a little midriff showing.

Spring Commission

Spring is defiantly here. It was 81 degrees at 9:00 last night as we came home from Holy Thursday Mass.  It was calm and as warm as a summer night. I was happy yesterday to finish this commission for my friend and her daughter. These will decorate a toddler's bedroom. Pink butterflies were fun to do. I could be really loose and playful with them. I painted these in oil on canvas using quin red for the pinks. It is really strong and you only need a touch of the red to make a strong pink. Here they are for your viewing pleasure. ;-)

Flight of the Butterflies

I hid a few little butterflies in the back ground.

Dotty Butterfly

The turquoise is very bright in this photo -- a bit softer in real life.

Happy Easter Everyone!