Studio Notes

 As you can see by this photo the outdoor studio was never completed, so I'm looking at yet another year painting in the 11 by 14 foot living room in which i only have a few shelves on one side to call my own.

I played with my opaque watercolors a bit on some stationery and then ordered in some acrylic paints to blow off my frustrations with over my 6th shut-in winter as I wait for wheelchair van so I can get out of here once in a while.
 

I use heavy body acrylics, and have since the 1970's. The following list is more or less my regular palette:

Cerulean Blue
Napthol Crimson (I used to use Alizarin)
Burnt Sienna
Deep Magenta (also trying it instead of Alizarin)
Brilliant Yellow Green (I used to mix my own)
Burnt Umber
Green Gold (trying it instead of ochre)
Hookers Green
Paynes Gray
Indian Yellow
Sap Green Permanent
Ultramarine Blue red shade
Brilliant Purple ( I got tired of trying to mix just the right purple)
white

I didn't buy a black this time, paynes gray is usually dark enough for me. I'll see how it goes and will order black if I'm wrong.

A Look in My Paintbox, out with the old and in with the new

It's been a very long time since I've bought any new tubes of acrylic paint so I'm planning projects for the colors that  I've got on hand:
                                                      white
                                                       burnt sienna
                                                        cadmium yellow
                                                        bronze yellow
                                                         prisim violet
                                                         light portrait pink
                                                         burnt umber
                                                         payne's gray
                                                         cadmium red
As you can see it's mostly browns, yellows and a bit of red and purple. I had painted sunflowers until I ran out of anything to make nice greens for the leaves.

Now that I'm about out of everything I'll finally get around to painting the still life of all of the pottery that my sister and I made years ago.

A few versions of that should polish off the end of those paints and I'll be able to start fresh with a full set in new colors.

Clearing the old paints out of the way first is the best way to make sure that you don't accidently put a thickened or lumpy paint  into a new painting and spoil it.

I've been meaning to paint that pottery for years, now I'm out of excuses and more or less forced to get it done.

It may not sound like it but I'm actually excited at the prospect of it.

Amazing timing and unexpected surprises

I got started on the round tablecloth I'd hoped to have finished before Christmas and had about 3/4 of it hemmed when I had unexpected company. Yes I used the tablecloth anyway, I simply put it on the table with the finished portions facing my guests and the shaggy bit on my side.

Ron and Karen brought lunch, more paints and a 2013 calendar- just in time too, it was all needed and appreciated.

The really cool thing was that on top of all of that Karen gave me a little sewing lesson on how to make and apply quilt bindings as well as giving me some bindings to practice with just in time for those placemats I've been wanting to make.

Thanks So Much!

You've probably guessed by now that I'm headed for the paints and will post pictures again when I can. (It depends on how caught up I get in them)

A little dab will do ya

 3:00 AM too awake to sleep, too tired to to do much else and 3 numb fingers making it all but impossible to hold a brush. This experience is common to a lot of us and since painting always makes me feel better I apply it with whatever works, didn't have much luck with the knife or the spoon so I just used my hands which improved the circulation in them as well so don't give up. There's always something you can do and it helped me get back to sleep as well.

 Sometimes I just dive into the paint and see where it takes me. Open, happy and relaxed it's easy to "go with the flow". I find myself wondering why people find it hard to get to the place where the creativity happens...It's a natural state for me.

 It's not looking like much yet but you never know what will happen next and sometimes encounter the most surprising images as the colors dance around each other.

 Excuse the glare on some of these photos the light fixture is right over the table and the paint was wet at this point.

I've been lucky, a lot of people believe in my work or just the passion that goes into it. Just last weekend a friend brought some paints-Thanks Ron!

Bright Spots in my Day

Before and After with Iris

A new spin on things

My new paintbox was a makeup box or something that a friend sent but it's just the right size for the outdoor acrylics that I use on my birdhouses. The boring landscape card was the result of experimenting with a number of novelty brushes to see what shapes and textures I could get from them. Next week I'll sit down with some actual landscape photos to work from and see how that works out.