Thirty in Thirty Day 28 Dancing Leaves

A group of snake plant leaves.... May put some more color... like the fresh spontaneous feeling
Used a green toned canvas brushwork and palette knife and a little scratching...

Oils on canvas wrapped cardboard

6 x 8 "

Well the real story was thatI overworked this to death... so I showed the first layer... scraped, sanded rubbed till all you could see was faint red and green leaves... worked on it today and here is the result... 

Red is a bit too bright much duller in original.. I like the greens in the first layer better... 

Second Layer

Thirty in Thirty Day 26 Potted Plant

First I want to tell you all about a great source for HD photos that are amazing, Unsplash.. I found this site through Chris Lally's blog when she posted Themes for Artists to Explore in Paint... They are absolutely amazing... said that before.. Chris is up to about 100 themes already..

This is a WIP... worked on it some today... but it's not quite finished and already dark and raining out.so
I photographed using my smartphone ..needs some tweaking. This was done from one of the references from Unsplash that just cried "paint me"  Used both brushes and palette knife.

Oils on canvas covered cardboard

8 x 6 "

Reference Unsplash

Thirty in Thirty Day 21 Orange Leaves

Can't believe that we are in the final stretch.  It has just flown by.

Just two simple leaves from a branch... Tried to mimic the bokeh photography effect.

Oils on canvas wrapped cardboard

8 x 6 "

Workshop Concept Project January 2016 Our Community Center

In between the thirty in thirty challenge we had our first workshop challenge for 2016.We were supposed to go on a painting outing a few months ago but because of the security issues, it was cancelled. So instead of drawing inspiration from nature the project focused on our Community Center where we meet weekly. The instructions were to paint an aspect or concept, not necessarily an interior or exterior view.

We could work in any media on 40 x 40 cm wrapped canvas. These canvases would then be placed in a sort of floor mosaic.

I photographed a few of the artificial potted plants that are in the lobby.  Made a tight crop of one area.
The background I painted with oils and cold wax. The leaves and shapes from newsprint and worked on with my Caran d'Ache neocolor I crayons.

It was interesting to see the different approaches. Most were focused mainly on our art activity. I always enjoy these projects for several reasons. First they help to unify the group and second they force us out of our comfort zones making us think out of the box. I was a bit disappointed that not all took part.

At Heleni's suggestion, I made changes to the cutout leaves in the center to open the composition.

Revised Collage

Oils and cold wax 

with crayons

40 x 40 cm

Oils and cold wax collage

with crayons

40 x 40 cm

Here are few photos from the event thanks to Shoshi Tal photographer

Thirty in Thirty Day 10 Floating Leaves II

Here is the second of the floating leaves. The first was here day 8.  Worked on canvas covered cardboard 8 x 6 ", wet on wet impasto paints. I know there are some flaws that I will fix in the leaves but there are times that you have to STOP... I saw in the reference the tree reflected in water hope I succeeded!!!

Oils on canvas covered cardboard

8 x 6"

Thirty in Thirty Day 8 Floating Leaves I

Oils on canvas covered cardboard, Done wet on wet with impasto paints, no medium. Used both brush and palette knife with this. Really enjoying the process of wet paints, still not in complete control.

Used a file from morguefile for my reference and cropped in 2 sections, this is the first.

Oils on Canvas Covered Cardboard

6 x 8 "

Thirty in Thirty Day 3 Patterns of Leaves

I don't recall offhand where I read this but sometimes in a painting that hasn't worked out as you planned there are still sections that have worked.  It was suggested to photograph those "sections" before reconstructing. I now remember where it was... Serena Barton in her book Wabi Sabi Painting with Cold Wax,  She was discussing creative reconstruction when sometimes we have to let go of a favorite part of our work. When cutting up two older works, I found interesting sections that could work on their own that I hadn't noticed as a whole.

This next painting/sketch was built on one of these cutouts.

Crayons on cutout piece of collage on cardboard

8 x 6 inches

Original cutout

pieces of newsprint got loose

Day 19 30 in 30 Challenge

Leslie's 30 in 30 Challenge

17.5 x 25 cm

Oils on cloth covered Masonite

Interesting photography doesn't always make good paintings.. Found an interesting photo that I had made of the shadows on the wall.  I had done a photo manipulation and tried to capture the same feeling in painting... didn't work...

Oils on a cloth covered masonite board with palette knife and a piece of Scotch-Brite!