Painting a Day 65

More clouds today.  Trying to improve my understanding of how they form and blend and all that stuff.  Late posting today as I was out for a while.

Fluffy Clouds, acrylic on canvas board, 8" x 10"

Painting a Day 64

Clouds are today's subject.  Just clouds, no horizons, or landscapes or seascapes, just clouds.  I think I need to look up some more about cloud painting techniques.  I'm finding that I don't have confidence in my process.  I'm never sure how it's going to look or how (or if) it's going to get to where I want it to go.  Another step in the journey.

Storm clouds, acrylic on canvas board, 8" x 10"

Painting a Day 63

Well, it's been a truly lazy Sunday.  I slept in AND had a late afternoon nap.  I didn't paint until after 1:00 in the afternoon. While I am painting I often think of witty or interesting things to type along with the painting, but usually by the time I come to post they've gone right out of my head.  However today I didn't really think of anything witty as I was feeling singularly uninspired to paint.  On the upside I am happy with the way the clouds came out and I think I will spend more time painting clouds.

Landscape 2, acrylic on canvas board, 9" x 12"

Painting a Day 62

Today I officially enter my third month of painting.  We got up this morning very groggy after a few late nights and some not sleeping very well and almost decided to put off painting till later in the day as we had to leave the house with all the kids by 7:30 am.  It felt really weird to not paint first thing in the morning and I said as much to Geof.  Luckily Geof is a very foresightful man who prompted me to at least start one even if I had to finish it later in the day.  So this is what I got done in forty minutes or so.  at the time I didn't consider it finished.  However upon looking at it further when we got home and I considered adding to it, it seemed enough to convey the mood and the idea I was looking for.  I will explore this idea further one day on a much larger scale.

Curly Tree, acrylic on canvas board, 8" x 10"

Painting a Day 61

Last night at our church we watched Courageous, the movie.  It was fantastic!  Silly me had a cup of coffee after the movie and consequently I didn't get to sleep until after 2am, so I'm a little groggy this morning.  Today's painting actually looks a bit better than what it shows up as here.  The scanner didn't get a true representation of the colour, there is actually more of a range of orangey reds and red together but in the scanned image it just looks plain red.  I also painted it in a different orientation.  Working from a photograph, I had it rotated 90 degrees counter clockwise, but on reflection both the painting and the photo look better this way up!  Too funny!

Up the Maple, acrylic on canvas board, 8" x 10"

Painting a Day 60

Well, it's been smashing morning!  At least for one of our Corning Ware serving dishes ... but accidents will happen and in 5 years it won't matter, so no point sweating it.  Today I'm working on water.  While it may be an interesting product at the end I do no consider today's painting a success.  Maybe if I look at it a little longer, but I think I'll need to work on this particular skill more and maybe seek instruction from someone more skilled in that area.

Water, acrylic on canvas board, 8" x 10"

Painting a Day 59

I was feeling slightly whimsical this morning.  We woke the kids up today and had breakfast to the sounds of They Might Be Giants singing "Fish Heads" and "The Mesopotamians"  Gotta get some history in there for the homeschoolers!  So anyway, still feeling inspired by the pictures from Mars.  I don't know if they (the NASA people) colourize the images themselves or if the colours we see in the pictures is the way it actually looks from orbit around Mars, but I was also thinking of painting a picture of flowing jungle vines.  I decided to combine the concepts, 'cause who knows, maybe one day there will be jungles on Mars.

Jungle Vines on Mars, acrylic on canvas board, 8" x 10"