September 2 - Yellow Rocker Revisited

"Yellow Rocker, Revisited" without looking at yesterday's painting, I startedt his one in acrylics for the challenge of seeing how I'd handle the subject some years later. The palette is somehow richer, the design is more subtle, and each painting has its charm. The difference is this one is for SALE. It's a 12 x 9 acrylic, and has the lovely layers in the shadows that are so much fun to paint. SOLD to the collection of Sylvia Moran of Ontairo, Canada

September 1 - Yellow Rocker

I have been sitting here trying to sort out my web sites, all three of them are on one server that is completely down and has been for the past half day. I've started the process for moving them so you'll be able to see them again, and because of the hours of work this has generated, I have not been able to do a new painting for you tonight/today.  What a headache, but only for me.
  So I thought I'd share with you a REAL GEM... from long ago and far away, so to speak. One of the early good'uns.
  You sadly won't be able to see it on the web site, until the Internet gets sorted out about where to send you when you type in dailypaintings.com, but I'll share it here with you as I update my sites on the new server. So I cannot send you a link to see it for AOL users.
  This is/was a 12 x 9 oil of a rocking chair I had back in the early 80's, sitting on my old front porch. I painted it from a photograph, and want to share with you some of the details that make it a fairly decent painting:
  1. The values are broad in scope, from the lightest light to the darkest dark; yet there is a relationship of small lights, large dark shapes in mid tones to fall right in the "good design" of Edgar Whitney.
  2.  The colors are analogous, falling into the range of yellow/green with a blue/violet complement to create color interest. Note the AMOUNT of each color, and how grayed they are to keep the balance going.
  3. The use of the illusion of warms in the shadow side of the chair is accomplished by using alizarin crimson and yellow ochre with lemon yellow to keep the palette in line with the "Color System".
  This painting is already in the collection of Steve Kilburn of Lake Elsinore, California.

August 31 - Onions again

"Cebolla" is Spanish for onion, pronounced "see-BOW-yah", courtesy of an artist friend Luz Perez, whose studio is called Cebolla Studio. Today's painting slips back into the acrylic world as I get ready to teach the workshop in Lexington in just over a week. I've packed one box and mailed it off, with some supplies and clothes; the second box will go out tomorrow.  Considering that I pack my supplies padded with clothes I intend to wear, I sure hope the boxes make it to Melissa and Bill's farm before I do! Else I'll be in the same clothes for a while. It's fun to come back to acrylics. The workshop is about teaching students to reach beyond the ordinary way of handling them, and to give them tricks and tips about handling this versatile medium. They may paint horses, but they'll paint them in new and different ways!

My emails have increased, and today I found out I was mentioned in the New York Times.  Not sure about it, because I don't have access to the site (too busy to sign up).  I was wondering why there were so many emails... now I know.  Hmmm, I wonder what they said?
Just SOLD to returning collector Fay Bohlayer of Dawsonville, Georgia.

August 30 - Sunset on the Rocks

"Evening Glow" Today we received our wifi at the new house, and it was fun to collect emails while sitting outside. In the eveing I was watching the doves come down to drink from the bird fountain in the front yard. I looked up just at dusk to the hills behind the house, and saw this light on the rocks of Box Springs Mountain. I know that we are going to especially enjoy the evening light in the Preserve around us if this is any indication of how it is. Original oil, 7 x 5 inches. $100 from the web site at dailypaintings.com.

August 29 - How Now Black and White Cow?

"Life in the Field" Tonight's painting is an extension of yesterday's, in that I have returned to the same scene, and added a cow to a new canvas. The cow seems to know changes are coming, ignoring the viewer and staring off into space. Changed the time of day, too, toward noon, and more of the summer light of California.  
 We're having some wildfires in the region, which makes for some spectacular sunsets with the orange cloud cover creating red-orange scenes. Might make a good subject for tomorrow.
This is a 12 x 16 inch canvas, and incorporates the "mama, papa, baby" design theory as put forth by watercolorist and teacher, the late Edgar Whitney. The low values of the shadow and the black on the cow are the baby. It's a good way to easily divide a canvas for pleasing design, and you can find out more about this from his book "Watercolor the Edgar Whitney Way" (I think... because my books are over at the new studio. This painting is available for $300 from the dailypaintings.com web site for this date.

August 28 - Lost Landscape

"The View is History" This 9 x 12 painting came off my brushes tonight. I have been driving back and forth between the old house and the new and one part of my drive takes me through the last of the open space near our old place. Going through the construction zone that USED to be this view is part of that drive. This WAS a particularly beautiful stretch of California fields, backed by these hills, lit in the morning light of an autumn dawn.  Every year the farmer would plant hard winter wheat, and it would go from green in our "winter" to light gold by April, and then be harvested, leaving the wheel tracks in the stubble. Now all of that is gone, under the developer's blade, and never to be seen again.  Houses, streetlights and parked cars replace this beauty.
  Although it breaks my heart, I also feel a small sense of rebellious satisfaction as I preserve the memory forever.  Original oil, 9 x 12 inches, $200
Available only from the dailypaintings.com site for this date.

August 27 - Canned Corn

"What, Me Warhol?" Moving means emptying out the kitchen, and what is more common than a can of corn? Everybody has a couple of these on the kitchen shelf, and this one didn't get packed today. So it was a late dinner. I enjoyed painting it before digging in, because of the turn of the can from light into shadow meant that I worked through the warms to the cool palette as it slipped into shadow. Ellipses are also a bit fun to do, as the roundness of the can needs to fall back in space. Since I've moved my antique parlor mirror over to the other studio, my "silent critic" is truly silent! Original oil, 7 x 5 inches. $100 available from the dailypaintings.com website for this day.