Duck, Duck ..........Duck!

I know, I know - I'm pretty sure the phrase is "Duck, Duck, Goose" but there wasn't a goose involved in this project, only the duck.

My husband was straightening up the workshop in the barn and found an old, faded duck whirly-gig with peeling paint that he didn't even know where it had come from.  He decided to cut a new duck and asked me to paint it.  We just put it on a garden post and are now waiting for a bit of wind to see if it works!

Not only are the propeller-like wings supposed to whirl but the duck itself is supposed to rotate on the metal rod.  So far we haven't seen much of either movement but he makes a handsome addition to the garden entrance, don't you think?!

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.

Back to Painting

I'm sure you thought I had quit blogging altogether but the truth is, we've had some family issues that have occupied our lives and repeated trips to both Florida and Kansas have eaten into much of our time.

Unfortunately, my dear mother in law passed away and although my father is still active, he just had his 92nd birthday.  It's difficult to be so far from family so we do try to visit as much as we can while we still can.

I have been painting and continue to be inspired even though I haven't posted any art in some time.  And even though it's been some time since I've painted regularly in oils, I've done a couple of paintings in them.  And I still flit from one medium to another and have just finished a painting in pastel for a friend.  The colors aren't exact but are mostly ok.

And one of my favorite paintings in oil is the following painting of an owl.

I'm not hugely in love with owls as we have to watch out for hawks and owls when our little dog is outside but I do like this painting because it's much looser than I usually paint.  I also painted it on a floor tile that's about 9 x 12" with a sort of pebbly surface.  The surface really grabbed the paint yet allowed it to flow so I could fade out the feathers on the bottom.

I'll be back to show more of what I've painted in the past few months.

Genesis Heat Set Oil Paints

Tulips-Genesis Oil Paints

Boy!  Has it really been so long since I've posted here?  Life has a way of getting in the way of stuff you want to do, doesn't it?

I haven't been painting over the past few months as we did a bit of traveling over the summer then a friend of mine was getting married and I had promised to help with the wedding.

She's married now and I'm beginning to get back to painting!  Being the art supply junkie I am, I bought some Genesis Heat Set Oil paints some time ago but am only now painting with them.

The painting on the left is my first serious attempt with them and since I was concentrating more on how to use the paint than anything else, I hope you won't judge the effort too harshly.

So, what do I think of these paints?

I like them as they have a lot of positive points but they're also sort of "clumsy" to use.  These are not oils in the traditional sense but they do have a synthetic oil in their composition so are allowed to be called "oil paints".  There has been much debate on that point with traditional oil painters not wanting them to be classified as oil paints.

The fact is that the heat set paints are in a class by themselves.  As the name implies, they don't dry until they're subjected to a temperature of about 265 degrees F for several minutes depending on the thickness of the paint layer.  This can be accomplished in a home oven or with a hot air gun such as is used for stripping paint.

This fact is both a pro and a con for the paints.  It's wonderful to have a painting stay wet until you want it dry but because of the limitations of both a home oven and a heat gun, you can only paint certain sizes and on certain supports.  Imagine trying to heat a piece of paper to 265 degrees for 15 minutes or so without it going up in flames or at least getting seriously charred!  Even canvas boards - the kind with canvas glued onto a cardboard backing - aren't suitable as the glue used for these won't hold up in the heat and will cause the canvas to become loose.

Of course there are ways to dry a large painting but it can get costly (think of those large conveyor belt t-shirt dryers).  They do work on the most common painting supports such as stretched canvas and gessoed hardboard which is nice.  The caveat is that these supports have to be gessoed with an acrylic gesso and not a support prepared for traditional oil painting.

Since the paints never dry by themselves, you don't have to clean your brushes or do anything special to preserve your palette from one painting session to the next.  However, you do need to use either a glass, metal, or tile palette as these paints do not react well with plastic.  It's also advised that you cover your palette and brushes to keep dust from settling onto the wet paint.  Again, don't use any kind of plastic wrap for this.  I've been inverting a cardboard box over my palette and it's working just fine.

I'll try to post more about the pros and cons of these paints at a later time.  If anyone has any questions, just let me know!

One For Fun

Kurious Koi

Believe it or not, I'm still working in acrylics and just took this off the easel today.  Of course, like all my paintings, I'm putting it aside to "marinate" and see if anything else needs to be done with it.

This is painted on an all wet-media canvas sheet that I affixed to a prepared piece of hardboard with acrylic medium.  It's a painting surface that I really, really like and may be the reason I'm still using acrylic paints.  For some reason, they tend to go on smoother and handle better on this surface.

I'll try gouache with it next and see how that does and how it works with it.  I have a feeling it will do well but we'll see. 

Still have several paintings either in the works or in my head but have to admit, I'm finally running out of steam!  lol

You'll just have to watch this blog to see what else, if anything, I come up with!

Another Double Exposure

"Our Mother's Legacy" -  acrylic

A couple of years ago, I participated in a joint collaboration with our local camera club and area artists for what they called a Double Exposure Exhibit.  The artists selected photos from the camera club and painted their version of the photo they chose.  Then both the photos and the paintings were exhibited in the camera club gallery.

This time I'm not painting from the camera club photos but one from my professional photographer sister and we'll both show the results at an art show in her home town in Colorado in July.

We chose this photo because it has meaning for both of us.  Our mother was an avid gardener and had a green thumb that wouldn't quit!  After she died, my sister tried to rescue as many of her flowers as possible as my dad is sort of the type to mow the lawn in a straight line whether there are plants in the way or not!  (I do have to say that he's done a really good job of taking care of her remaining flowers though). 

This beautiful clematis bloom is the result of the rescue of a start from Mom's original plant.  The photo of the bloom is lovely with its glowing back-lit petals and it was a challenge to capture that glow. 

You may not be able to tell, but this is painted on hardboard with another, smaller board glued on top.  After everything was completely dry, the whole board was prepped with a primer and several coats of gesso. 

The painting is acrylic (yeah, yeah, I know, not usually my medium of choice!) and is titled "Our Mother's Legacy".

Art Accessories

I know I said I'm painting and I really am but I'm a slow painter and other things have interrupted my actual painting time. 

One thing was the search for 6 inch square picture frames - not to be found locally and really not too many to choose from online.  But, I really like working with wood and decided to make my own frames for these small paintings. 

I've done pretty well with just a miter box and hand tools in the past but I ended up messing up one frame section this time.  My husband couldn't resist harrassing me about it and decided that he'd cut the frame sections.  Well, that meant 4 sections messed up and a trip to our local home improvement store where he bought an inexpensive compound miter saw, something I've wanted for ages.  He also bought this nifty picture frame jig that really works!

As you can see, the miters are about as perfect as they can be but the set-up to cut them took a while to accomplish.  First the saw had to be assembled and checked to make sure the angles were true.  That all took an hour or so.

Then we made a simple jig to cut the frame sections to the exact same length and then mitered each end.  I have to say that saw is really sweet but probably wouldn't be much better than the hand saw if we hadn't made the cutting jig.

So you can see one of those things "cutting" (pun intended!) into my painting time but I really think it will be worth it in the long run.  With just these four frames, we've already "paid" for nearly half the cost of the saw and I have at least 3 other paintings in the works that are not standard sizes so custom frames will have to be made for them also.  These are relatively large frames so the saw will definitely be paid for with them with room to spare!

And I'm also working on the tile coasters doing a little experimenting trying to find a more cost effective way to produce them so I can sell them reasonably. 

And I'm working on producing some notecards for the show in July. 

And, I really am painting!