Late-Night Painting

As a care-giver I keep some strange hours. It can be hard to get work done, hard to start something that will take a lot of time, knowing that at any moment I could be called away. Learning how to manage time, when that time is irregular and unpredictable, is a continuing process. Broken sleep is the norm.
 I find it easier to stay awake than to wake up. If I'll be serving chocolate pudding and coffee at midnight, or we'll be belting out Christmas songs at 2am, I'd rather still be up than try to clear a half-asleep mind. So sometimes when I know it's going to be a late night, and because it's hard to stop once I start, I paint in the wee sma's.

Work-in-progress... at 3 o' clock am.

Produce Prints

Ew, not very nice looking at this point!

 Every now and then I try my hand at screen printing. My screens are whatever fabric I had on hand, painted with screen filler, in embroidery hoops. I recently got a set of colored inks (had only used black and red before) and tried them out for the first time today, printing on muslin produce bags. The colors look pretty garish right out of the jar, but I had some fun mixing them together on the screens.

I'm happy with how the red and blue mixed and came through onto the fabric.

Progression: The colors mixed to a pretty uniform purplish color, and I added a bit more red to the center each time.

 I used some of the muddy color left from the first ones together with more blue, some yellow and white for the next design.

Grayish garlic.

 I like how the first print almost has a watercolor-like look. After that the color gets pretty uniform.

Garlic progression.

Yellow, blue, and white to make a good pea-green.

Pea vine!

Two off the Easel

 A couple of recent paintings:

Wind Across the Fields, 16 x 20" oil on linen/birch panel.

 Love the feeling of the wind blowing across the fields as the weather moves in from the west. A few birds take flight.

 

Anvil Cloud at Sunset, 18 x 14" oil on linen/hardboard panel.

 Crazy skies again. I saw a cloud like this one night and did some quick sketching. The sun has just disappeared, but still illuminates this towering cloud, and the lights of farms across the valley begin to show.

 

These two paintings are hanging out at the local library for awhile.

It's been a cold and snowy month, and my painting has mostly been indoors. But I have a lot to work on- a bunch of new pieces started, and a sketchbook full of potential ones.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Skies

Smallest Fattest sleeping in the shadow of my easel.

Smallest Fattest Niece (and her mother) accompanied me painting today. Smallest Fattest slept while I set up my easel and got started, and awoke delighted to find herself in a hay field and got right to work. After all, Auntie Hannah's painting gear wasn't going to strew itself about the field, now was it? Someone had to take it in hand!

Pretty much finished... 9 x 12" oil on linen

 My eyes are always drawn to beautiful skies, dramatic clouds and fleeting light effects. Painting them seems to be a practice in frustration, but I keep trying.

In any case, it was a great day to be out. :)

Valley Farm

Sometimes, on my way home, I drive up this road just because I like the views. This is one place that has always caught my eye, and it was fun having the chance to poke around a bit and see the place from different angles. There is a collection of old outbuildings, a beautiful little barn, and this lovely old worn farm house.

Old Valley Farm, 9 x 12" oil on linen

 I'd forgotten to put some of my paints back into my plein air gear, which made this a bit more challenging. I was missing my main yellow, and had to squeeze paint from some almost empty tubes to get at the yellow I had, and the blue and white I needed. Oops!

Driftless Art Festival and Between the Bluffs

My booth stuffed full of paintings. :)

I spent September 20th and 21st in beautiful Soldiers Grove, Wisconsin, at the Driftless Area Art Festival. There are so many talented and skilled artists and artisans in this region, and I was delighted to be included in this event for the first time this year. Thanks to the organizers, who do such a wonderful job, and to everyone who stopped by my booth! It was a great and exhausting weekend.

  I was also really excited and honored to receive the People's Choice Award! Thank you, everyone!

Overlook, above La Crescent, Minnesota. 9 x 12" oil on mounted linen.

The following week I was able to get some time to paint as part of the Between the Bluffs plein air event in La Crosse, Wisconsin. All painting was to be done within ten miles of the downtown area, and I did some painting on the Minnesota side of the river.

Another painting done above La Crescent, Minnesota. The sky was filled with low clouds, and as I painted I watched the weather move in. A good day to have an umbrella, even if the mosquitoes did congregate underneath it. It rained, cleared, and rained again, as I painted autumn grasses and wildflowers, and a couple of trees.

September Showers, 9 x 12" oil on mounted linen. This painting received a merit award at the opening of the show on Saturday!

Thursday, September 25th was the quick paint. I walked around downtown for awhile, but ended up down in Riverside Park, along with several other artists. I did this little view below the Cass Street bridge.

It was a beautiful morning to paint, AND I received the quick paint award! :-D

No Wake Zone, 12 x 9" oil on mounted linen.

So it's been a pretty exciting few weeks for me! :) I'm so grateful.

Painting on the bluff-top.

Painting overlooking the edge of Minnesota.

 What a perfect day to be out. :)