OCTOBER CHALLENGE - Water

That was a quick month! This month the topic of our challenge is water. My first chance to choose. I had so many ideas, water is pretty universal, but when I sat my huge honking bottle of H2O on my painting ledge and saw the sun shine through it, the choice was made for me. I thought if I carried around a gallon plus bottle, I'd drink my quota for the day. All that resulted in was a collection of half-finished gallons of warm water with lots of backwash. I'm back to smaller ones. Here they are!


Water Bottle
16x20"
oil on canvas
$350

Waterbottle
20" x 16" (50.8cm x 40.7cm)
oil on canvas
$350 plus $15.95 shipping and handling in the US
E-mail me for International shipping rates or other inquiries.

Fish Tale oil on hardboard 8x6"
© 2009 Diana Moses Botkin





Sprinkler Park 11x6" oil on linen
© 2009 Robin Cheers






Ocean Waves oil on canvas 18x24"
Marie Fox





Half Full 8x8" oil on board
Michael Naples





Cool, Cool Water 8x8" oil on panel
© 2009 Vicki Ross

OUTSIDE MY WINDOW 1&2 again

These two were done some time ago, but have recently been purchased, so I did a little freshening up on them before shipping. Thank you so much for the tips on Liquin and the use of alternate support surfaces. When I say I know very little about oil painting, it's not false modesty. I know the salad dressing would have been so much easier to do if I'd done some investigating instead of diving right in. Oh well, nothing like on the job training and the generosity of my fellow artists.

The pups are simply amazing! Their names change every hour. I think Taz, formerly Little Richard, aka Dignon, has finally gotten the hint that my earlobe is not going to express mother's milk. I spent two weeks listening to Cesar Milan's book while working, I've downloaded all manner of instructions on being a strong pack leader and was determined to do it right this time. However, it didn't take long before I surrendered to the little tykes completely. They're crawling on our heads, nibbling on our fingers and are already spending far too much time in bed with us. Devlin ran the house and was kind enough to let us stay, provided we paid the mortgage. Seems like old times and we couldn't be happier.

THE PUPS ARE HOME!

These are now my favorite photos on the planet! Well these and any others we take from this point on. We picked the critters up this morning! We are now parental units again! We were playing on with them on the bed after lunch and a potty run. I set up the camera as they were literally attacking Tim's face with kisses. These shots are the result. It took about five minutes for the three of them to fall asleep. And Devlin is present and accounted for, in the form of Arfrod, under himself's hand.

We just keep looking at them. They're just too cute to comprehend and I just cannot stop smiling.

KEN'S

8x10"
oil on linen
sold

Oh my did I have a time with this commission! Great story behind it but I'm not sure I'm at liberty to share. I hate when people say that. Anyway, I searched high and low for a nice smooth,small linen surface and ended up with nubblies and imperfections everywhere. The lettering has been the bain of my existence for weeks now. Plus the drying time was ridiculous!

Lessons learned: patiently look for the right support, use acrylic or add something to the oil to make it dry faster when doing a job with lettering. Arrrrgh!

Also, I was so busy working on our challenge here at home, I thought I had weeks until the next Moses Botkin Challenge. Not!

PINK CURLERS STEP 4

16x20"
oil on canvas
in progress

This is as far as I can take it without some drying time involved. This is a great experience, sharing progress of the painting with himself, coupled with his own interpretation of the same image, the house is fairly alive with creativity! There's also the buzz of new babies bouncin' off the walls. I've been working upstairs for awhile, but will have to move downstairs so the I can keep their schedule solid which will speed up their potty training. So excited!

Thank you to all those who weighed in on Pink Curlers progress! Your words are very much appreciated and inspiring. I had a comment on Lemon Thru a Drinking Glass and it made me think. The comment stated that ..."I have so much trouble with glass...." So do I actually, at least when I think of what I'm painting as what it actually is, I bump up against my very own predetermined, self-inflicted limits which are, on the whole, completely untrue. I didn't paint glass. I painted a series of tonal values of varying temperatures arranged in a predetermined pattern by a light source or more simply stated, I painted what's behind the glass and then painted a lighter value of the that color coupled with with the bright highlights and tints of the glass itself. I think. You get my point.

I just stubbed my toe on the folds of the coat this morning. I always have such a hard time with folds, I thought. No, actually I don't. Not when I break them down to large shapes and then pick out some of the smaller shapes, paying careful attention to angles and temperature.

Himself is starting his canvas today! This is going to be fun! October 20th, I'll be posting both side by side. No pressure Northport!

A NEW APPROACH

NFDP

As I worked on our challenge today, the challenge himself and I set that is, Tim would step in when I took a break and take some snaps of my progress. Of course there was the usual, "Stop now! I'll buy it!" and " Leave the jacket unfinished, with the chalk line showing!" All good suggestions, but alas, his is due the 20th so he'll have an opportunity to do just that on his canvas. Still, he's got a point. I'm deeply moved by unfinished art and yet always feel I need to make neat, make nice. But perhaps in time that will come. I can see my style changing with each new painting.

I'm feeling free again. I suddenly realize I don't have to stop painting the paper studies altogether, I can simply wait until I'm moved to do so again. Same with the bugs. I can have casual relationships with my subject matter, don't have to marry and then divorce them.

My reference for this painting comes from a photo album I've had around the house for years. A friend, who I've since lost touch with, wanted me to do some paintings from some of his shots, mostly taken around NYC. He had an incredible eye and finding this album was like finding buried treasure. I hope to do many more from this book of gems, I'd forgotten he'd never taken it back.

It's going well and I might be done by Monday. We'll see. I thought I'd wait and post with Tim's but I'll probably do some work on it between now and then and re-post. I like the way he's grouped the shots, they make a nice graphic I think.

Later.

LEMON THRU THE DRINKING GLASS

LEMON THRU THE DRINKING GLASS
20" x 20" (50.8cm x 50.8cm)
oil on linen
$450 plus $29.95 shipping and handling in the US
E-mail me for International shipping rates or other inquiries.

It's not done, but I'm impatient, again. I'll let it dry for a bit and then see. I had put it away for a while and saw it yesterday and thought, take it out, see what happens. Himself thinks it works. Of course the voice doesn't. Whatever. I'm painting again. It feels great.

It's been a wonderful day. Birthday Boy has a few days off and it's time to laugh!
The Puppy Fairy is probably somewhere over Europe right now.