Self-delusions and Painting Progress

I got a big fat box of new stretched canvases yesterday! I love getting new supplies in the mail. It's like it's my birthday and I'm getting a lovely gift-- that I had to pay for, but still!
Then I check my bank account balance and say to myself, "Oh Hannah! You shouldn't have! You REALLY shouldn't have!"
Having a lot of blank canvases, or paper, and fat tubes of paint lets me trick myself into thinking I have an endless supply. I can be less stingy with my usage, and don't worry so much about making every canvas or sheet of paper turn into something great.
Otherwise I can save and save, waiting to use my limited materials on only the grandest ideas, which never actually works in improving the quality of my work and only makes it more disappointing when something doesn't turn out and I've used up precious supplies. And I've missed trying a lot of ideas that might have been grand after all.

These new canvases, while still relatively small, are larger than what I've been painting most of the year. I'm really enjoying the challenge of working a little larger again, and hope to use more of my smaller canvases in some plein air painting this autumn.
But we've been stuck under cloudy, rain-spitting skies for the past several days, and I've been working indoors. Here's an update on the painting I began on the 21st:
The top of the large tree has become much more defined, the foreground has been filled in and given some grassy, weedy detail, and the sky is smoother and a bit lighter.
I can't wait to get my brushes messy again! :)

Blustery Beginnings

A day as gloomy, blustery, and beautiful as today was going to influence anything I painted. I began a new 16 x 12" oil painting this afternoon. I worked on the sky, and had just started to block in the tree and landscape when it got too dark. Blurry pic, but here's what it looks like so far:

Also, I was very happy to be featured today on the Artisan-Denizen blog! It was fun and challenging responding to the interview questions; it can be hard to express myself through words (thanks for including pictures, Wendy!)

September Watercolours

Does it make sense that while we were without water (the old cistern was being replaced) I just had to paint with watercolour?

8x10" watercolour

A Roadside, 2.5 x 3.5" watercolour

September Tree, 3.5 x 2.5" watercolour

The bright clear days, fields changing to autumn hues, and trees clinging to summer green-- I had to paint something! And washing out oil painting brushes without running water was not very appealing.

I've had to stick close to home a lot lately, and after a much needed (but very short) ramble one evening I did some quick watercolour sketches while colors and places were fresh in my mind. This is such a beautiful time of year.

Happy to have water again, and hoping to work on some of my incomplete oil paintings very soon.

A quick overview of August

Didn't do as much painting in August as I hoped to do, but much of it was a feast for the eyes, which I hope to interpret in paint later on.
Here's a brief look at last months work:

Showers of Gold, plein air done on August 11th. 6x8" oil on linen. See previous entry. :)


Green Corn Moon, 8x10" oil on linen. The moon on August 14 rose in a blue-gray dusky sky, where clouds that covered it blended into the clear sky above. Did a sketch late that night while the memory was fresh in my mind, and painted the following day.


August 22, 2011, 5x7" oil on linen
A little 5x7" plein air painting of our rusty Quonset shed in the evening light. It was a hard day, and it was great to stop and appreciate the beauty light gives to the most mundane objects.


August 25, 2011
Footbridge plein air, 10x8" oil on cotton
Last meeting of my little oil painting group that met bi-weekly this summer. You guys did great, and were so much fun. :) I hope you keep on painting!


8x6" oil on linen
August 28, 2011, plein air painting under a beautiful cloudy sky, with the sound of the wind blowing through the poplar leaves. Goldenrod and Queen Anne's Lace and thistles.


And a peak at the first step in my next project, studying the face and form. It will get better, and I'm so thankful for friends who will sit for 5 hours and not get mad when the artist inserts sarcastic lines into romantic movies meant to entertain the sitter. You're the best. :-D