#7

Today's 1 hour daily painting for day #7, a quick still life on 8x10 on wood panel.

#6 - too fast

Today, in an effort to 'whip off' a daily painting for the 30 in 30 challenge I created a monster.  I decided to choose colours I don't usually use ( or like ) pink and a harsh green.  I also tried to get it done in under an hour.  The draw up went well, the colour was a disaster.  Do not want that sucker hanging around the internet after I am gone, so I won't post it.

I am painting daily, so still feel qualified to keep up with the challenge!


Here instead was my most successful endeavour this week so far - Wobbly Apricot tart - mmmm - should have painted that!

#5 - It's a start

Working on my winter series and making them part of the 30 paintings in 30 days challenge - so today's painting is in progress and will take a couple more days to fine tune, trees, skiers, etc. 

We are lucky here in that we get so many bright, sunny winter days.  They create beautiful colours and shadows in the snow. We managed to cross country ski twice a couple weekends ago and planned too this weekend but the  -29 temperatures kept us inside.

11x14 oil on canvas - in progress

Day 4 - return to beach

Today I attempted a quick one hour painting for Day 4 of 30 in 30 days challenge.  Had a major disaster and it was wiped off after a spill of turpentine, so I am posting a very recent quick painting - the beach in Hawaii instead.  

8x10 oil on panel

I got a start on the next painting in my winter series and am feeling good about it.  Once it's dry will start with some colour tomorrow.

11x14 underpainting

Day 3 - Loafing around

 My quick day 3 painting - just spent 1 hour with a bag of flour and jar of yeast.  I seriously need to use a proper camera and stop using my cell phone as the colour balance is off.

The painting was inspired by the loaf below which just came out of the oven and is my first ever attempt at sourdough bread.  This one loaf has been over a week in the making.  But now I have my sourdough starter living and breathing in the fridge, the next loaves should be quicker.  Hopefully it tastes as good as it looks.

Peek at today's work

Today's work was on a larger painting I am working on.  It's going well but needs some drying time before it is completed. Painting #2 for 30 in 30 days challenge.

Portion of Backyard Rink 12x12 oil

Daily painter

I am again going to attempt the 30 paintings in 30 days challenge that Leslie Saeta has each year.  First one - one hour only as I need to get after some other paintings ASAP.

Prepping for a bunch of paintings

So in about 2 months time I have to have 5 paintings ready for my final graduation show.  Prepping for a painting usually takes about as long as the actual painting itself sometime, depending on the size and detail involved.

I am trying to stick to a theme, winter in Edmonton, and have a few pictures and value sketches picked out to try some colour studies with.  Tomorrow I begin the painting part of this endeavour.

Office Work

I have been picking away at a couple of paintings I posted on my blog earlier this month, trying to finish them off and get some critical feedback.  So... I have been painting each day but won't post the same paintings until they are done.

What I do want to talk about is what I have also been working on over the last month - developing my own website. After listening to many Savy Painter Podcasts and hearing numerous artists stating how important it is to develop your presence along side your artistic development, I bit the bullet. Creating your own website can be daunting and time consuming, but also worth it when you are starting out.  When I got a couple of quotes to have a website developed for me professionally, costs were above $2500, depending on how much additional marketing and assistance I would require.  I decided that until I can sell at least $2500 in paintings, I best spend my money on art supplies and honing my skills.  I purchased a fat book about Wordpress, which wasn't really too helpful, as it was already out of date.  What worked best was watching Youtube instructional videos - love the YouTube!!

I spent probably 20 hours now and I have a 'finished' website = click the link to check it out Tessa Stanley Art .  

The process includes:

 - choosing / paying for a web hosting company (I chose Bluehost based on my 'research' of hosts and costs) 

- choosing / paying for domain name for your website

- choosing a 'platform' in which to build your website - I chose Wordpress.org NOT Wordpress.com - this was very confusing at first as I accidentally signed into both at different times.  Wordpress. org is a self build platform versus Wordpress.com has pre-made designs, less work but less flexible.

- After watching a couple different Youtube videos about building your own Wordpress.org website I went ahead and followed along.  Early on in the process I almost gave up, but it got easier the more I worked at it. The resulting website, I feel turned out pretty good for a beginner, considering my costs were roughly $99 - $150 for Bluehost and domain name. $30 for the obsolete Wordpress manual. Time used - priceless.

I am sure when I start producing some really great paintings and want a more professional looking website I can spend some money on paying someone to build and maintain a website for me, but for now I am pleased with the result.  Have patience and try it!

Impressionist style painting

In my quest to find my painting 'style' I am trying to make this most recent painting more impressionist in style.  It is NOT COMPLETED YET and I am still working on the foreground and sky area.  I chose a lighter palette and trying to do more brushy strokes of paint.  I find I am needing feedback and will try to get a critique from the FCA (Federation of Canadian Artists), of which I am a member, and who provide a monthly critique session.

On the weekend my spouse and I had a nice afternoon checking out galleries here in the city.  We were just looking but the  The Front Gallery had a one person show of Kari Duke's work, which I have long admired.  So... our tradition is that instead of buying Anniversary gifts for each other we buy a piece of art every couple of years - we bought this one below - cause we both really like her style and these back alleys are pretty iconic I am sure I have walked down a few while living near the University in the 'ol days.

Progression without an ending

I am attempting two things this year.  One is to do a minimum, 4 hours of painting / drawing or pottery daily to increase my artsy skills.  The other is to spend less time on social media - so I will try to post on Monday and Thursday's only.  Need to fit in work and family life and some fitness too.

I started this orchid (which I finally got to bloom again after 2 years) but I felt like I had squished it onto a too small, cheap board.  Anyhow...a lesson learned.  If I start a painting and I don't feel like I have the correct drawing AND I really don't like the surface (cheap linen glued to cardboard) then I should start again.  I kept trying with this one and grew more 'disgruntled' with it as I went along. Listen to yourself!!

Back after a break

I've been away for a little bit, sitting by the ocean.  Was inspired to try to paint a beach picture -this is in progress.  It is the first time I had tried painting on Clayboard (ampersand) and was not aware that using oils on Clayboard is not really recommended.  The surface is very slick and smooth and absorbent.  It will require a few more layers and a bit of drying time before I get this one right.