A Week of Daily Paintings to Close 2014
"The holidays have a way of bringing new tasks into our daily realm..." -this is my excuse for neglecting to post on my blog in December. After weeks working on Christmas commissions this month, the holiday itself left me with time in the studio; it also filled my mind with memories of Christmas Vacations past, when the school holiday meant time off from both my full-time position as a high school Special Education aide and my part-time job as a tutor. Christmas vacations permitted me large swathes of studio time between hockey games and family activities (which usually revolved around hockey).
Remembering how back then I'd dreamt of the life I'm living now- having entire days to work on my art, I wanted to commemorate what this time of year used to mean to me and CeLeBraTe my freedom today. I decided to paint a week's worth of daily paintings between Christmas and New Year's. I'd planned on seven, but ended up w/ nine. Here are eight of them:
#1/9
Mare & Colt in Brown & Gold
12x16 oil on canvas
For these paintings I pretty much chose random photos from my reference albums-like this back-side view- scenes I might not spend days painting. This was about the negative space between their legs. I learned a lot doing daily paintings in 2013 because they were approached as exercises and not projects. This held true this week as well. This painting is a little brighter in person.
#2/9
Heathcliff
12x16 oil on gallery-wrap canvas
I decided to paint some wildlife this week. I haven't checked my reference photos, but I believe it was a doe and not a buck who'd shed his antlers, but it just looked like a male in the end, so I called him Heathcliff. I guess it could be a doe named Heathcliff. We had a female dog named "Moose" and a doe rabbit named "Chester." I hadn't painted a deer in ages, so this was good practice for studying their faces.
#3/9
A Purple Pair Plus One
18x20.5 oil on panel
This is one photo I've wanted to paint since I snapped it near Jackson Hole in 2013-not in these particular colors though. Daily paintings allow you to experiment with colors and compositions in bold ways. After so many commissions, I was ready to play with this series. I'll redo this one soon with normal colors.
#4/9
Comfort
24x20 oil on panel **Sold**
Alla prima means "all at once," which is the way I love to paint. Once the paint dries, I'm no longer interested; this is why daily paintings appeal to me. I lost track of time with this one, painting into the night. This photo was from the elk pasture in Sheridan. I took artistic license and removed the chain link fence.
#6/9
Curiosity
12x20.5 oil on panel
This is from another photo I've loved since I snapped it years ago. I'm sure I'll try to do it better one day, but the thrill of painting it quickly literally made my day. It was all about the pink shining through the doe's ears and, of course, the light.
#7/9
Impression: March
4.75x12 oil on panel
The majority of painting for this day was actually on a commission, which I'll post later, but I did make time for a quick little one too. Snow shadows have long intrigued me; I wanted to imply snow without trying to. I love to paint on textured salmon-colored panels for the wild places where the colors play together. I'd like to explore this scene in a larger format as well.
#8/9
Sojourn on the Bullhead
20.5x36 oil on panel
It took approaching the scene as a daily painting to get over the fear of failure in portraying the water with these pelicans. We rarely see these birds in this part of Wyoming, but these were just a few miles from my home, stopping over on their way to somewhere else. Painting this as a fun expression of what I felt when I'd first shot this pic made it a kinda successful painting. I'm sure it would be more successful had I taken my time with it, but it wouldn't have been nearly as much fun, nor educational. This painting was about solitude and brush strokes.
#9/9
Afternoon Thaw
14x18 oil on canvas panel
This was an afterthought upon completing the pelicans in a timely manner. I can see from the photo that I'll be blending some areas on the faces, but the composition warrants further investigation on a substrate more substantial than an old canvas panel. What I like about it is the simple color palette and the dramatic light on the backs of the cows. Yes, I'll definitely do this one again!
I'm so pleased to have taken this challenge to celebrate my studio time in this manner. Alla prima, carefree studies like these teach me about quickly capturing the main idea in each scene, whether it's the light, the feeling or the composition. When I go back to commission work this week, it'll be with a new energy that might infect all my 2015 paintings with things I learned in the last week of 2014.