Overturned Mushroom

Overturned Mushroom
oil on gessoed cardboard, 4 x 6 inches, 2010

Little Stripey Mint

Little Stripey Mint,
oil on gessoed cardboard, 2 x 3 inches, 2010

Snowy Afternoon

Rooftops in the Snow, oil on linen on panel, 10 x 8 inches, 2010

I did this out the smaller studio window this afternoon. Snowed again all day today. It has not amounted to much as yet, just a lot of cold wetness melting in the streets and sticking to the old piles of snow. And scaring the populace, with our fresh memories of the recent blizzard and power outages. It's certainly pretty though!

P.S. Today's theme is "perspective" over at Illustration Friday, and I think this fits the bill. What luck! I am almost never in at the start for that meme. ;-)

Thyme in a Bottle

Thyme in a Bottle
oil on linen on wood, 6 x 4 inches, 2010

I might go back and touch up the label a bit more tomorrow or the next day. The paint is too thick and wet for me to get further detail in. BTW, I truly did not even think of the song title till after I'd posted the image! Now I've got it in my head....

Ripe Berry

Ripe Berry
oil on gessoed cardboard, 3 x 3 inches, 2010

This may have been my fastest one yet. And I can't even see what it really looks like, because it was dusk when I started painting and after only about 15 minutes I dropped my brush and raced out the door to pick up youngest son from his after school activity. When I got home, night had fallen. I've never managed to set up good artificial lighting in my studio, and rely entirely on daylight. I may be in for a huge surprise in the morning! Well, never a dull moment when you are a painter.

Quick Eggs

EGG TRIO
oil on gessoed cardboard, 5 x 7 inches, 2010

Illustration Friday's theme this week is propagation, and I thought these eggs had at least a whiff of that about them. Another super quickie.

Star Fish

Starfish from Eric, oil on canvas, 3 x 3 inches, 2010

Snow Man

Snow Man
oil on gilt cardboard, 8 x 6 inches, 2010

Maybe I will start a new blog category: speed painting. The way I am using this term, it is a subset of alla prima painting and consists of getting the image onto the canvas in the fewest strokes possible. We are talking half an hour or less! Speed painting was necessitated in this case by the pain of painting while looking into the white glare of snow...excruciating. I wore a hat to cut the glare but even so...ouch.



My youngest son took this picture of me as I was crouched on the landing painting (I think he was very pleased that I was painting his snowman!) Very circular..taking a photograph of someone painting a sculpture created by the person taking the picture. Am I dizzy!

Tangerine with Leaf

Tangerine with Leaf, oil on canvas on wood, 5 x 7 inches, 2010

Yellow Onion

Yellow Onion, oil on gilt cardboard, 6 x 8, 2010

Little Jar

Little Jar of White, oil on canvas on wood, 3.5 x 5 inches, 2010

I'm enjoying these little tossed-off pieces, these painting "scales". The problem is having time and sufficient light to take a good photograph! I seem to finish in the late afternoon, when darkness has already started creeping into my studio.

ADRIFT

Adrift is this week's challenge at Illustration Friday. I'm several days late but I suddenly realized this piece, fairly recent too, would fit the bill. I painted this in September on Monhegan Island off the coast of Maine. The sun had just set but the afterglow lit the harbor with an eerie cool glow. Rusty Spear's boat drifted, loosely tethered, on the glassy water. I stood there, up to my ankles in beach scum and painted as fast as I could. A local walked by and asked me if I wanted a beer but I declined, too caught up in my painting (and also, truth be told, too shy.)

This was one of the few pieces that needed no re-working later. It is rough, but it expressed how I felt, standing there at dusk at the edge of the world.

Gathering Dusk, oil on canvas on wood, 11 x 14 inches, 2009

Tulip Head

Tulip Head, oil on canvas on wood, 5 x 3.5 inches, 2010, N.B.Miller

This is from a bouquet my husband gave me yesterday on Valentine's Day. I love tulips!

I am trying to do A Painting A Day, but even at 3.5 x 5 inches, I am not a one day painter, it seems. I always want to go back and adjust even just a little teeny bit. I am "letting go" after the second pass, though and moving one. These are like practice scales, and my goal is to simply keep on doing them, not fuss each one to death.

Snowy Evening

A Very Quick Sketch
from my studio window, just a few minutes ago. About 30 minutes of painting in all. I am challenging myself to paint every day...even if it just a few strokes. Trying to beat the winter blues.
We are actually in the midst of a blizzard as I type, and I had just gotten started when the lights went out. I kept painting and after a few minutes they came back on...yay! I was trying to get a tonal thing going, but I am not sure I succeeded. It was actually easier to see the values when the electric light was not on. This painting might benefit from later glazing or scumbling, but whatever...it was an experiment.

Light in the Window, oil on canvas on board, 4 x 6, 2010

One Persimmon

Vincent's Persimmon, oil on canvas on board, 5 x 7, 2010

My cousins Mary and Keith were visiting a few months ago and brought me some persimmons grown by their friend Vince. The others rotted quickly but this one lasted through my painting of it...my studio is a bit like an icebox that way. Anyway, I just finished its portrait yesterday (the leaf is still intact although the fruit is no longer glossy!)

Neighbor's House

Neighbor's House, oil on linen, 6 x 8, 2010

I'd call this a plein air piece except that I did it out of my studio window yesterday afternoon. We got 22 inches of snow over the weekend! I hadn't painted snow in a long time...fun! Wish I had a bigger view from my studio window but you make what you can out of what you get, right? ;-)