Creative Slump?

I've been working on various aspects of the upcoming exhibition at the Core Sound Waterfowl Museum on Harker's Island, NC and have nearly finished.  All I have left to do is to take my paintings to the Museum so it's a relief to get most of the preparations behind me.

I think I've mentioned it before but after a marathon painting period, I sometimes go into a creative slump where I don't want to see another canvas, paintbrush or tube of paint!  Well, it's happened this time too but I was determined to keep painting through it.

We planted a new-to-us variety of that old Southern staple, okra, and it's gorgeous!  Really, it's gorgeous.  It's a beautiful variegated maroon color with bits of lime green in it.  It's not often that mundane garden veggies inspire me to paint them but did I mention that this okra is gorgeous?

That's why I chose a few pods of it to try to paint through this slump.  I know I haven't done it justice.  Reds are notoriously hard to shade properly - if you add white, you get pink instead of a lighter shade of red.  You can supposedly add yellow to lighten but that doesn't always work either so I just did the best I could with it.  It was a learning piece and I wasn't expecting a masterpiece so wasn't all that disappointed when I didn't achieve one!

Another reason I wanted to paint is that I received some new paint from an order I placed a while ago.  I've been painting in alkyd oils for a while now and I really like them so I ordered some replacement (& new) colors in various brands so I could compare them.  They only just arrived yesterday so I'll let you know what I think about them in another post after I've had time to play with them a bit more.

In the meantime, I'll be in the studio painting!

Oil Painting In Progress

Jill's Boots - Alkyd Oils

This painting is the result of a request from my granddaughter.  She wanted this painting of her western boots entangled with those of her boyfriend and I do like it when my family asks me to paint something for them.  However, I'm struggling a bit with the composition and have to make some decisions as to how to make the boots look as if they're lying on the floor.

Sue, from PencilPix blog, and a friend with whom I paint, both suggested adding lines indicating the boards of the floor and I'll probably do that. 

In the meantime, I still have a long ways to go with glazing to adjust the colors and values and adding some little details.  I'm posting here so you all can crack the whip and make me finish!  I seem to run out of steam for projects before I finish them (probably because I'm such a slow painter to begin with!) but I definitely need to finish this soon.

Thank heavens the alkyd oil paint dries quickly so adding the various layers doesn't take nearly as long as when traditional oils are used.