Carol Marine Apples - May 2011

With my confidence up after Blue Drape I tried to duplicate a painting that I like by Carol Marine, a local Austin Impressionist artist. Apprentice artists during the Renaissance learned their craft by copying paintings. I used her painting as practice for duplicating shapes and capturing folds. Carol's original is called "Delve Into Chaos". It is reassuring that Carol still finds folded fabric a challenge with all of her experience. I liked the result so much that I gave this piece to my mom for Mother's Day. Of course since it isn't my work I didn't sign it.

Blue Drape - April 2011

I am probably not alone when I admire how the Old Masters were able to paint fabric. When it was my turn to give a cloth drape a try, you know I was really nervous. I kept saying silently to myself that of course it was possible. The Old Masters painted intricate fabric over and over again. This drape wasn't even velvet. Now that I have done this once, I have confidence that I will be able to do it again and even enjoy it.

Plaster Remnant - April 2011

Well this is different, huh? Jean found this plaster decoration from an old building at an antique store. So of course she wanted us to paint it. What I want to know is, now that we have painted it, what is she going to do with it?

Rogue Lemon - April 2011

I decided to apply what I have learned so far painting from someone else's painting rather than a live setup. This simplifies the problem because many of the decisions have already been made by the original artist. Still it gives me a chance to try to mix colors that duplicate the original. The original was painted by Julian Merrow Smith, an English artist who lives and paints in Provence.

Avocado - April 2011

We completed the tour of the color wheel with Green. Where do we go next? I swear that I was not thinking of the alphabet when I suggested that we paint avocados. I just love the way that they look, and taste for that matter.

The next post is NOT going to be bananas! I promise.

Green - March 2011

Getting the shape of this pepper was tricky, but I like the way it turned out.

Blue - March 2011

What? No fruits or vegetables? Jean thought I wasn't ready to paint blueberries so we painted this little handmade blue ceramic pot that she has. Jean collects little pots so there were lots of choices. I am practicing soft edges.

Violet - February 2011

I am abandoning specific dates in the title since I didn't keep records to show what I did on a specific day. The sequence will be correct though. From my perspective the process is more interesting to share than the details. My hope is that we will all be able to see what I am learning via the little paintings.

This eggplant was a lot more fun to paint than the evil red delicious apple. Can you tell?

Red - Februrary 9, 2011

Mike had grocery shopping duty on this date so he chose this apple as the subject for Red. It was more difficult to paint than I thought it would be. I still don't like it. (sigh) I'm glad this red apple is behind me.

In addition to the color value study, for homework I did the requisite values scale. This should come in handy for reference. These samples watches are the hues in my palate and their complements. For each hue out of the tube (row 1) 100% I mix in 50% white, row 2. Then I add more white to make row 3. The samples along the bottom rows are the complements of row 1. I follow the same process, creating different values of each hue.

Orange - February 2, 2011

Every new painter's friend, the color wheel, gives you a preview of where Jean and I will be going in this painting class. This week is orange with its complement blue. Painting an object really helps me to remember the hues and their complements.

Ta da! An orange orange. The other colors in the unlighted side of the fruit are really much prettier in person. Did I tell you that Jean's specialty is Still Life? I bet you guessed. It's all about light, shadow, and "seeing".

Yellow - January 26, 2011

This is my first effort. The yellow apples gives me a chance to explore the hue yellow and its variations, and its complement, purple. Jean was clever to design the course for me to get a quick result, right on day 1.

This photograph of the study is cropped. The actual study includes samples of each color used with notes about what colors are mixed to make it. These "thumbnails" will be useful in the future if I want to make this color again. "Now how did I do that?" Here is another photo of the apple with the crib sheet.

Next week, on to Orange....



The Beginning - January 19, 2011

My painting challenge started in January as the title says. My first order of business will be to catch you up on what has happened between January and now, the end of August. So let's get started.

My painting teacher, Jean, and I meet and agree on the basic logistics of how we will work together, painting every Wednesday afternoon at her home. Lucky for me Jean lives literally just down the road. I am Jean's first student. When we get together on this Wednesday we are both very nervous. Jean gives me a list of materials to buy for our painting session next week.


We discuss how to approach this class, at least at the beginning stage. The first objective is to learn about colors, explore the color wheel and how to mix colors. Each week we will tackle one of the colors on the wheel, explore its complement and do a small painting using these colors. In this way i will learn how the colors are mixed and how they relate to each other. Jean will paint the study along with me and I secretly hope that she won't be completely bored.