Lilacs & Limes

Don’t you just love lilacs? The smell is just yummy. I cut these in my daughters yard and had to paint them. I had some limes in the house and I love the purple and green together.  This is oil on a 8” x 10” canvas.  

Painted outside Tuesday for the first time in downtown Lebanon Ohio. Painted on a street corner with semi trucks flying by and lots of people to talk to. Always challenging and mostly fun, have to admit I enjoy it more in a peaceful place. I recommend it if you haven’t tried it, so great to paint from life.  

SOLD 

Quiet Day in Lebanon Ohio

Hi Friends, painted this a few days ago, this is a sweet Historic town just north of me. I will be there in a few weeks painting on location so I was practicing from a reference photo. I was trying to be impressionistic and not get caught up in the details, I may add some people but not sure. This is oil on a 8” x 10” linen panel.  Good to see you!

Some changes

Hi! Thanks to those of you that took time to give me your opinions on the painting with the orange awning. Here it is once again, maybe finished? I reduced the size of the awning and kept the orange but killed the intensity of it. I brightened the sidewalk and did touch’s of color on my people hoping they would stand out more and put a cleaner color down for their skin tones. Walking away from it for a bit and I’ll come back to it and decide if it’s finished. Gosh they’re never perfect and I’m not sure if they are ever finished, lol. 

I do have those rare experiences where a painting seems to paint itself and isn’t that a joy? We live for those don’t we? 

Good to see you!

Adding more people

Hi Friends , this is another plein air painting from last summer and I added a couple. I called it Window Shopping, I felt they looked like they had stopped and were looking in the window.  This is oil on a 8” x 10” linen panel painted in Madison Indiana.  Still working on the last post, thanks so much for your input. I had it critiqued today by the other group I paint with and I’m making changes. 

What do you think?

Painted this one Monday and Tuesday. I put this up for critique and here’s the feedback they gave me.  They liked my people which is great as that is what I’m working on lately.  They thought I should remove that black flowing flag behind the orange awning which I agree with.  Some different thoughts on the awning though,  brighten the edge and darken the top was one suggestion, another person didn’t like orange at all.  The building in my reference was pretty cute, the green building and the orange awning caught my eye but of course as the artist I can make it any color I like. I considered even a black and white striped awning but I want the people to be my focal point and I wasn’t sure about that. So give me your thoughts on this awning please, anything else bother you?  This is oil on a 8”x 10” linen panel, I really like the feel of painting on linen and even though I use a lot of stretched canvases I find I like a more rigid surface.  Thanks in advance for your thoughts.   

Adding some people to a older painting

I painted this last summer plein air.  A street scene in Milford Ohio, that wonderful turquoise color of the awning drew me to the scene. I pulled this painting out and thought I’ll throw some people in the scene.  I think I like it, it adds an excitement to a quiet scene.  What fun, I’ll be revisiting some other older paintings to see where I might add people.  Thank you

Practice practice practice

I taped loose canvas to a panel and I’m busy painting people.  I’m having fun with this. I am thinking once these are dry I’ll throw them in my painting bag for references when I paint outside,  of course if I catch people sitting down I may try to quickly throw them in when I’m out.  Off to fill up the whole panel with little people, lol.  Good of you to stop by. ❤️