Landscape, Oil 8 X 10

Hi, I was reading Frank Gardner's blog and he said he was posting his 100th painting. Made me curious how many I had posted so I checked back and since October 26, 2007 this is my 105th painting on my blog. There have been a lot that wasn't blog worthy, lol. I've been painting like crazy the last two years and I wish I'd kept count, I think it's probably in the neighborhood of 300 or so in the last two years. I paint a lot of 8 X 10 so of course they are faster to paint. Sometimes I feel I'm doing pretty good and then I have those struggles and think "why am I doing this" . Anyway here is number 105 and I appreciate so much all of the people that check in on me. Starting this blog has been a wonderful thing, I just love reading your comments and I really appreciate the critiques I get from other artist's. Happy painting! SOLD

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Sweet Little Ballerina

I had fun painting this, I took this photo from the reference library at Wetcanvas. Wetcanvas is a great resource for artists, the photos are not copyrighted. I always think that has been one of the challenges with painting, good photo references. If I were entering one of my paintings in a show I would only use my own reference photos though. Anyway, this is in oil on a 8 X 10 canvas panel. In the photo I couldn't see what she was holding in her left hand so I put a little gift in there. Not completely sure of the background, do you like it? I thought she was warm so I did a cool background and then decided to throw some of the pink in there. SOLD

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Days Gone By

Hello, I know I haven't posted much this week but I have been painting. I worked a bit more on the portrait of my daughter, I did more work on a still life that I had started and I painted and wiped off a self portrait. I don't think I'm going to try anymore self portraits unless I paint one from a Glamour Shots photo I had taken 15 years ago, lol. I went to a drawing class on Thursday, first time to draw a naked man. First several sketches were of his face, lol. This painting was done from a photo I took last fall at a park where they were all dressed in period costume. These two fellows were resting under a tree. I tried to keep it loose and not play with the paint too much. It's on a 8 X 10 canvas panel. Hope your painting adventures are going well.

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Portrait of my daughter

Hi, I watched Susan Carlin paint live yesterday, she painted a portrait of herself looking in a mirror. She did a wonderful job as always. I had thought today I might try a portrait of myself but as you can see I painted a portrait of my daughter instead. I started this at my painting group this morning and just finished it, I think. This was from a photo taken on her wedding day. I started out with her head down lower and as I kept adjusting things it moved up, part of the learning process. Susan makes it look so easy but it's a new challenge for me. It's in oil on a 11 X 14 canvas panel. See you soon

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Relaxing, oil 8 X 10

Hi, I've been off relaxing for the last couple of days. My husband and I spent a couple of days in a very quaint town called Madison , Indiana. It's full of historic buildings with lots of great architecture. I took lots of photos and even tried my hand at taking photos outside at night. I may have to paint some of these buildings, you know I will. Good news, I had two pieces accepted for a juried show in September. This piece is called Relaxing, in oil on a 8 X 10 canvas panel. It is available to purchase, $30 plus $7 shipping anywhere in the continental US. 8 X 10 is a standard size and so easy to frame. Contact me at barbarapask@zoomtown.com if you're interested in purchasing it. Have a good day

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Portrait from my workshop

I had my third and last day of the portrait workshop today. I really enjoyed it, Tom Post of Cincinnati Ohio was the teacher. It was a somewhat small class of five so he gave us quite a bit of attention. I like the idea of doing a loose impressionistic portrait of someone. Once you go tight everything has to be right on as you know if you paint portraits. I painted this portrait from a photo I took, I thought it had good light in it. Tom's approach is to keep things loose and check and check and check proportions, he says don't go tight too early you can always tighten up. Anyway here it is, I won't be posting the one from the second day as it's very similar to the first day. I can see a few things that aren't quite perfect but I still like the painting. I forgot to mention I painted it with a #12 bristle brush, all except the earrings.

Portrait workshop

I'm in day two of a three day portrait workshop. We had a live model yesterday and today. This is the painting I did yesterday and I liked it as it was so I stopped, this pose isn't exactly what I painted as I forgot to take my camera yesterday. Our teacher paints all subjects and paints loose. We thinned down our paint and sketched the painting on first but used the largest brush we could and I stayed with that brush the whole time. He said you could continue from here and tighten this up as much as you want. I like the idea of a loose impressionistic portrait. It's on a 11 X 14 canvas panel. Tomorrow we're going to paint from our own photos. I'm enjoying it, he's a very kind man and really wants us to do well. I am going to be brave and post a photo of the model too so you really see how I did. Well, how did I do??? Be nice, lol.

Walk in the park, again

Thought I'd take another try at this. I painted it larger this time, 11 X 14 and changed the colors just a bit. I like the opening in the woods with the orange sunlight coming across the trail, I'm not completely sure of the foreground though. Appreciate your input.

I received an award

This is an honor, I have been tagged by a fellow artist named Dean Haven. This is very much like Tag. It helps us to become familiar with previously undiscovered blogs.

The rules are that if the persons receiving the award decides to participate, they must:
1 - Put the logo on their blog
2 - Add a link to the person who gave them the award
3 - Nominate at least 7 other blogs
4 - Add links to those blogs on yours
5 - Leave a message on each of the blogs nominated.

My nominees are:
Nel Jansen
Susan Carlin
Connie Snipes
Jack Riddle
Pat Meyer
Debra Sepos
Karen Hargett

Landscape- re-worked

I posted this painting a little while back with wip photos. After looking at it for a bit I decided it needed more work. I went back in added sky holes and more color in the trees and reflections. Let me know if you like the changes. It's in oil on a 16 X 20 stretched canvas.