Day 18 of 30x30 - Tree and His Person

Should art be intuitive or thoroughly thought out and planned? The truth is, there is space for both approaches. Most of the time, I combine both, with heavier leaning towards pre-planning. I start with a general idea and, most likely, a sketch, and then let my gut lead me in terms of color choices and general development of the painting. I almost never just jump in and start making art...but I really should do it more often. The little painting above happened by itself, without me having the slightest idea where I was going when I put my brush on the paper. And there you go, it's a tree, and it's kind of mystical, and there is a person :)

How do you do it? Do you trust your intuition or tend to micromanage every stroke?

Day 17 of 30x30 - Ikea Chair

I had this intense desire to paint a chair. It came to me as I was falling asleep a few nights ago and it would not let go of me! I noticed that at a certain time in the afternoon, the sun hits our weathered backyard IKEA folding chairs and they somehow become architecturally interesting...So yesterday, I painted one of them. I still feel awkward doing acrylics but it helps to lower expectations and just let things happen :)

Day 16 of 30x30 - cowboy in progress

Still need to do a little bit of work on this one but I'm pretty sure it will be finished today. This is a commission for a local family, their father/grandfather who passed away last year. I was intrigued by the reference photo and the character in it. It also reminds me a bit of my blacksmith painting.

Day 15 of 30x30 - pastel!

I took advantage of Artist Network TV free trail and learned a few things about pastel yesterday. Like the difference between hard pastels and soft ones and when to use both (hard pastels to layout and build layers and soft ones - to bring in rich colors closer to the end). This is not the first time I've used pastels, and I have a decent size collection of them, but I don't have a lot of experience. It was pretty fun (especially once the kids went to bed). I am still enjoying the 30 Paintings in 30 Days challenge!

Day 13 of 30x30 - together

Reference photo for this painting was the winner in one of the contests during my recent Gratitude Giveaway Facebook extravaganza. I loved the story implied in the picture: a parent (or grandparent) and a kid exploring the nature together. When I was little, my grandma used to take me mushroom-picking. We would get up before dawn, walk to the bus station, and take the bus outside the city. We would walk through cool, misty forests, with sunlight breaking through the trees and the ground smelling with leaves and pine needles. Sometimes, it would be a meadow with wild strawberries and raspberries or a creek with unbelievably clear water. I loved those days.

Day 12 of 30x30 - portrait sketches

These days, I rarely find myself without a commission to be working on. Right now I have four. It's a good thing because:

- I get paid for what I love doing.

- Most clients let me "do my thing" without micromanaging. They know I know better :)

- I actually like bringing art into their lives by painting something (or someone) they already love.

There are some down sides to doing custom work, of course, but I'm okay with them for now.

The two sketches today are for portraits of two brothers that I will be working on over the next few weeks. Thumbnail sketches are what I do after reviewing the reference photos and before starting the work on the paintings. I find them helpful in many ways, such as getting familiar with the subject, figuring out format and composition, getting a feel for the colors I may use in the painting, and communicating to the client my vision for the portrait. Sometimes I do several sketches and let the client choose...people like having a choice :)

Interested in commissioning a painting? Go here.

Day 11 of 30x30 - still life with eggplant

Yesterday was my son's first day at a local preschool/day care. He was there the whole day, which means, even with another baby at home, I had time to paint, respond to emails, make calls, update websites, and paint! It was awesome! I felt like I had an unbelievably vast amount of time to do (almost) what I please with.

I painted this still life arrangement from life. No drawing, no planning, just letting the paint run. When I was done, the eggplant and tomato were sacrificed and made into a pretty yummy dinner :)

Day 10 of 30x30 - mixed media

Tried another something new here. The texture underneath (which is much more pronounced in real life) was made by accident. I was mounting a sheet of watercolor paper on a hardboard panel with extra heavy gel medium. It didn't quite work as I wanted it to, so I ended up taking the paper off and mounting a new sheet with regular consistency gel (which worked just fine). The leftovers of the extra heavy gel on the first sheet created interesting texture, so I saved the paper for later experimentation :)

I missed another day of 30x30 yesterday :/. I kind of expected to not always be able to do daily painting but it makes me sad when I'm busy with "life" and can't paint :(.

Day 8 of 30x30 - underwater

Pretty sure this is my first underwater scene! The reference photo is from Monterey Bay Aquarium. I've had it for years and thought it would make a good largish watercolor painting, whenever I get to paint it. Well, the time has come, and in the spirit of adventure, I did this in acrylic. I also took some progress photos and will post a step-by-step soon.

You might or might not have noticed that I missed Day 7 and did not post yesterday. This is mostly due to the fact that my painting time the night before got sabotaged by my son throwing a fit while climbing his bunk bed, falling and hitting his head. Normally, it wouldn't be a big deal, but Elijah has hemophilia. We wanted to make sure there was no internal bleeding and took him to the emergency room. He is fine.

Northern Lights - more collage!

I am almost beginning to like my "failed" paintings more than my "successful" ones. The reason? Because I can tear them into pieces (and that is satisfying in itself :)) and make collages out of them. I am thoroughly enjoying the quiet, wondering, intuitive process I just discovered.

What do you see? How does it make you feel?

Day 5 of 30x30 - Golden Pear

After the acrylic pear, I wanted to paint one in watercolor. By the time everyone went to bed last night, I was wiped out and needed my daily painting to be quick. It seemed like a good opportunity for my watercolor pear!  I grabbed a piece of paper, started painting and immediately knew it was Lana. The paper handles so much different from all the other brands I use. It seems to have almost no sizing, so the paint doesn't move once you put it down. It's harder to do blending and soft edges. On the pros side, it shows layers of different colors so beautifully. You can almost take them apart as a puzzle.

In case you are wondering, this is not the same pear that I used for the acrylic painting. That one fell prey to my 9 month old daughter's excellent food-finding skills...

Day 4 of 30x30 - Returning

Another abstract piece today. Instead of writing a long description of how it was made, I will give you the sequence of layers:

Layer 1: Illustration board.

Layer 2: Acrylic gesso, pushed around with a palette knife to create the ridges.

Layer 3: Watercolor wash over the whole surface.

Layer 4: Gesso "float" - watered-down gesso applied in a vertical stripe. I masked the edges of the stripe with artist tape.

Layer 5: Graphite pencil in the gesso stripe.

Layer 6: Conte crayon line on top.

Layer 7. The reddish spot on the bottom was competing with the red line, so I added some more graphite to tone it down. Done!

matted ACEO original for sale

Little Yellow Boat

 

30x30 Day 3: back to Yupo

Last month, I really enjoyed virtually walking the streets of Bratislava, the location of December 2012 Virtual Paintout. I took quite a few reference screenshots, and one of them was one of some tourists pointing their cameras back at the Google Earth vehicle taking pictures of them. This painting was based on that screenshot.

In the spirit of being creative and adventurous and all, I tried a new resist technique on the figures: contact shelf liner. The process is actually remarkably close to what I used to do when airbrushing architectural presentations in Ukraine. You cover the whole surface with the liner, draw the design on the liner, and then cut out your shapes with an X-acto knife. Leave the liner on the shapes you want to stay protected, take it off everywhere else. In this case, I left the liner on the figures for the first wash.

30x30 Day 2 - care for some acrylics?

On Day 2, I was obviously still feeling adventurous :). As a matter of fact, I think I will be adventurous the whole first week! I gave acrylics another chance yesterday, and it didn't turn out as horrible as my last attempt. This time, one of my main objectives was to not overmix the paint once I put it down on the board. It...kind of worked..sometimes. The pear itself has at least two layers of paint on it :).

At this point, painting in heavy body acrylics feels a bit laborious, definitely requiring more effort than watercolor. I know that it's not because acrylics are hard but because I don't have much experience with them. I never took a class or had somebody show me how to do it, so it's just part of figuring it out.

I also finally got to use my new  Masterson Super Pro Palette. It definitely makes a difference - the paint stays wet. I don't think I will ever use styrofoam plates for that purpose again :). This is what the palette looks like:

The basic idea is a wet sponge on the bottom and special moisture-conducting paper on top. You put your paint on the paper and it stays wet because of this constant supply of moisture. The palette also comes with a lid which can be used as a watercolor palette. I kind of wish it was just a lid, maybe it would make the whole thing a bit lighter. It is pretty heavy for a plastic palette.

Anyway, I intend to do some more acrylic painting in the next 28 days. Maybe I'll try to keep it really smooth next time, or vice versa, use a painting knife. Any tips, comments, suggestions?

30x30 Day 1!

Welcome to my 30 Paintings in 30 Days! I stayed up late last night working on this and I'm happy to be on track (I know, I know, there are 29 more days to go, but I've always had issues with deadlines, so I'm proud of myself for starting the New Year on time!). I considered several themes for this 30x30 project but in the end, decided to just go with whatever I feel like doing that day. Last night, I felt like making a collage. I have been collecting failed paintings and scraps just for that purpose for a while :). Collage as a form of art is a new medium to me, so I am very much open to critique, comments and suggestions. It doesn't currently have a title either, so feel free to comment on that as well!

Coffee in Bratislava

For more information about the prints, please visit our product info page.

My best 12 of 2012

January...was actually something of a recuperation period for me, after all the rush and burnout of Christmas-time commissions and sales. No masterpieces that month. February turned out a little better. In addition to working on more commissions and teaching, I got to play with my paints and went to see a great watercolor show in Fallbrook. My husband, meanwhile, was working on this very website! He really deserves a lot of credit for my success as an artist. Thank you dear :)

March was pretty productive...especially taking into consideration my very much pregnant state at that point!

In April, I had my baby girl! Hands down, my best piece yet :)

May was a bit short on the painting and sleeping side and very generous on the feeding/changing/being overwhelmed side. I did start a full sheet painting of a girl with a sea shell that is still in progress. The ambition!

June brought me a workshop at the Burning House Art Studio (which was fun!) and a "featured artist" pat on the back from Blick.

July. Teaching and commissions. One of them was this:

August was busy. More commissions, more classes, and getting ready for the solo show in September! The painting below was actually a class demo:

The big event in September was FACES, my solo portrait show. A lot of work (especially by my above-mentioned husband, who made almost all the frames from scratch).  Once the show opened, I was able to relax a bit and eventually, paint a few pieces :)

In October, I participated in the one and only outdoor event this year, our local Silver Lakes Arts&Crafts fair. I also managed to do a Virtual Paintout painting, among several other small pieces.

In November, I had the super-awesome Gratitude Giveaway (most of which happened on my Facebook fan page). It felt good giving back to the people who keep giving me their support and encouragement! I also got quite a few 6x6" paintings done for the 20x20 Small Works show at the Eclipse. I am picking up what's left of them today and will be listing them for sale soon.

And December! There has been a lot of packing and shipping, which is good, but also makes me really want an intern for these less than glamorous tasks. Anyone want to be my intern? ;)

So there you go..."12 best of 12" :) Not a bad year at all. May 2013 be even better! Happy New Year!

30 Paintings in 30 Days! Are you ready?

I've been contemplating another painting project the whole past year - something along the lines of a painting a day/week, a month of landscapes, or 25 abstracts. My main stumbling stone is the tragic unreliability of daily painting time. My kids seem to be in some kind of arrangement, where one of them can only nap while the other one is awake. And painting with kids around...well, let's just say I've tried it and it doesn't work for me. Still, when I found out about Leslie Saeta's upcoming "30 Paintings in 30 Days" challenge, I decided that it's a perfect opportunity for me to give daily painting another try. I don't know if it's going to work but I'm excited to get started! Official kick-off is January 2. I am looking for a theme or two to work on, and I might switch media (probably acrylics), at least for some of the paintings. If you have an awesome idea for a theme, please voice it in the comments! And all are invited, so please consider joining the challenge yourself!

Pines at the Lake

For additional information about the prints, please visit our product info page.