Getting Ready for the 2016 Art Studio Tour

Painting display boxes for prints 

I am getting my studio ready for the 2016 Stanislaus Artist Open Studio Tour in April.  Painting boxes, painting gesso on panels, matting work, and just plain cleaning too. Hope you can stop by my studio!

 

6x6 Daily Paintings in the sun to dry after varnishing

Painting gesso on panels for painting

Last week, Turlock artists met at the Turlock Library and put up a display of our work. Drop by the library and see our work.
Tickets / map are available at the Carnegie Center for the arts in Turlock, the Mistlin Art Gallery in Modesto. 

 

Orange Juiced!

 Day 12 Wednesday, March 23

ORANGE TOAST

I wanted to do a quick and small 5" x 7" painting and still had my red daisy from yesterday's painting.  I noticed a tall wine glass on my shelf and dropped the daisy in it with the piece of mistletoe.  Added the orange and voila!   "Orange Toast"  5" x 7"  This size sure seems small after enjoying the 6x6s. 







Day 13 Thursday, March 24

ORANGE JUICE

My orange tree is loaded with oranges so painting them has been a good practice.  I have painted them whole and sliced them, but what about juicing them?  So out came my juicer.  This time I added some scrap booking paper to the background.  A fun touch, don't you think?  "Orange Juice"  6x6  Yum!  Orange juice tastes so good.  One thing I discovered as I painted.... orange juice is not ORANGE at all, but quite YELLOW !

ORANGE MUG AND ORANGE JUICE

Day 14 Friday, March 25   I painted an orchid this day which was fading fast and I wanted to try a capture it now.  I will post that painting later.

Day 15 Saturday, March 26  Shopping at the Dollar store and discovered some very colorful mugs to try. Now if you don't think orange juice is really yellow, compare it to this bright ORANGE mug!  The little owl figure is from Mexico where I spent part of a summer.  He is so cute.  I think I will add him to more of my paintings!




 Trying to get ready for the  
Stanislaus Artist's Open Studios.
Hope you can drop by and see my Daily Painting progress.
Saturday,  April 23  and Sunday, April 24th
Tickets are available at 
Carnegie Art Center in Turlock and Mistlin Art Gallery in Modesto.

More Orange Paintings

DAILY PAINTING - A PAINTING A DAY - More Orange Paintings

ORANGE WREATH  6x6  oil

Day 7 - Saturday, March 19
Time to rearrange the fruit.  The oranges seemed to form a circle so I call this one "Orange Wreath".  I am getting the hang of painting oranges!  So many colors!  Tried a bright orange background this time.  It is fun to add a bright color to the background.  "Orange Wreath"




 

ODD STRAWBERRY OUT  6x6

Day 8 Sunday, March 20th
When I was re-arranging the fruit the strawberry fell out of the bowl.  It looked so sad and seemed to want to jump back into the bowl!  So I call this one "Odd Strawberry Out".

PANSY WITH SLICED ORANGE

Day 9 Monday, March 21st
Ok, what to do with oranges next?  Why not slice it!?  So out came the knife and the orange was cut up.  I wanted to add a spot of color purple and so I added this purple pansy.  I discovered that purple is a difficult color to paint.  The pansy is the most vibrant purple and it is not easy to capture in paint.  Did a lot of experimenting with mixes.  To balance it all, I added purple to the background.


Day 10  Tuesday, March 22nd
So now what?  Why peel the orange, of course!  But I got it half peeled and the curl was so interesting I thought "Why not try it?"  Tree trimmers were here today to take the mistletoe out of our tree, so I picked up a few pieces to add to the bowl.
 So here it is.  "Orange Peeled"  6x6

ORANGE PEELED   6x6

Wet - still on the easel

ORANGE SPIRAL WITH DAISY

 Day 11 Wednesday, March 23rd
Playing with the orange, the peel fell down and out of the bowl.  Well, OK  lets run with this.  But to add some more color I picked one of my beautiful daisy flowers in the garden.  I kept the mistletoe as I discovered it makes a pretty shape. "Orange Spiral With Daisy"  6x6




HOT TIP:  Since these paintings are small, 6x6, signing them is difficult.  I want to make sure I honor both my parents with my first AND middle names, so my signature is long.  I tried all kinds of things to use.  And Bingo!  I found the perfect tool!  I had a dried up Sharpie Extra Fine marker pen and tried it, writing directly into the wet paint.  Works great!  Just wipe it off often.  Try it!


See you later.  Thanks for reading my blog.  Come back later for more of my daily paintings.
Hope it inspires you too.

A New Resolve - Paint Every Day!

~ A NEW RESOLVE ~

 DAILY PAINTING - A PAINTING A DAY

I have been painting for a long time now, but not as often as I would like to.  Recently, I discovered DailyPaintworks.com and it has opened up my eyes to the importance of painting every day.  So I have a new resolve.... PAINT EVERY DAY!  So my new resolve has begun!
I have revised my studio fixing up my easel area, adding a new paint palette to preserve my paint, fixing up a still life area, etc.

DAY 1 March 13, 2016.... painted a yellow pitcher I bought at a garage sale
DAY 2 March 14   painted an orange on a blue plate  5" x 7".
Well, OK... so good so far.  Not great paintings, but I am having fun!

My still life set up

ORANGE BOWL  6x6

DAY 3  March 15  Now I am getting serious..  Set up a sliced orange in a bowl.  This time I graduated to a 6" x 6" panel.  What FUN!  I painted for over 3 hours!    I am happy with my progress.  I call this one "ORANGE BOWL" 6x6 

"ORANGE NEST"  6" x 6" oil on panel

DAY 4  March 16  Now I am on a roll!  Reworked the still life adding a strawberry this time.  Gee, painting oranges over and over is getting a little easier.  There is a lot to painting an orange!  So many subtle colors especially in the rind.  What I have noticed is that it is interesting painting the same subject repeatedly makes me look harder and work at my brushstrokes.  "Orange Nest"  6x6  oil on panel.

"FRUIT BOWL"  6" x 6"  oils

DAY 5  March 15   Now I wake up and can't wait to get to the studio!  Added grapes and rearranged the fruit.  I decided to zoom in and fill the 6" x 6" panel with the image.  The grapes were fun to add. "Fruit Bowl"  6x6  oil on panel

"AVOCADO INTRUDER"  6" x 6"  oil

DAY 6  March 16  Our avocado tree has been dropping avocados for months.  I have to pick them up right away.  Having one in my hand in my studio, I thought, "Why not?  Add it to the still life!" Since the avocado has joined the oranges, I call this one: "AVOCADO INTRUDER"   6x6   oil on panel

ORANGE IS MY NEW FAVORITE COLOR!

CHECK OUT MY NEXT POST TO SEE HOW I AM PROGRESSING!
All paintings are for sale $100 each.  Frames are extra.  Free shipping to USA only.
THANKS FOR VISITING. 
CHECK OUT MY WEBSITE AT:  www.RhettsStudio.com

Art Nature Journaling

I have been enjoying taking a break from painting and just sketching in my art journal.

I spent a few hours along the coast near Lovers Point in Pacific Grove, CA.  It is so beautiful there.  I sat on a bench and watched the fishermen, tourists, birds and the waves.  Then I noticed this little cute squirrel feasting on ice plant flowers.  He sat so still, turning now and then.  After I had made the drawing in the center of my journal page and adding watercolor washes, I wasn't sure what to do with the white border.  So I took out my camera and looked through the photos I had taken of that squirrel.  He was so cute.  So I just had to add drawings of him on my border.  Good thing I took photos, since he disappeared in the rocks very quickly when some hikers walked by.

I love working on nature drawings.   This image is available as a note card if you are interested.

2013 Plein Air Conference in Monterey CA

I just returned from a very fun and informative event in Monterey, CA.  Plein Air Magazine hosted this conference and it was wonderful.  Eric Rhoads and Steve Doherty did an excellent job organizing everything.  We were with over 600 artists oozing with enthusiasm and eager to learn.  Some artists came from New Zealand, Africa, Canada, South America and Saudi Arabia!  I think every state was represented as well. 

We were up very early at 6:30 for Art Marketing workshops.  We listened to speakers and took lots of notes!  Ed Terpening did a very interesting presentation on marketing.

Then we watched some of the best artists painting today doing demos.  Some of the artists were:  Scott Christensen, Don Demers, Peggy Kroll-Roberts, Ned Mueller, Donald Neff, Morgan Samuel Price, Brian Blood, Lori Putnam and Camille Prizewodek!  It was like taking 20 workshops all rolled into one!  They were all awesome! 

The highlight of the event for me was to meet Mian Situ.  What a charming man he is and such an amazing artist!   I honestly think he is the greatest living artist today painting in the realistic style. the entire audience gave him a standing ovation!  Do look at his awesome paintings on his website.  He is a photo of me with him.

It was amazing to see how each artist has their own style of painting, way of approaching a painting, and choice of materials. What I learned most was to keep doing it my own way, but to experiment with new things too!  I love color and want to explore some new paints.  But at the same time I want to try some limited palettes too, with just a few colors. 

I am looking forward to the conference next year!