30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day 4

Over the holidays, we took a field trip to the Hsi Lai Temple, a traditional Chinese Buddhist Monastery in Hacienda Heights, California.  The temple building is gold and red, and once you enter the grounds you are treated to several wonderful gardens in and around the courtyard. The colors I chose to represent Hsi Lai in this abstract piece are alizarin crimson, yellow ochre and sap green. 

30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day 10 - Cloud Study

"Cloud Study"

Oil, 6"x6"

I love painting clouds.  Nature always surprises me with the forms and shapes it creates.  I never get tired of looking at the clouds.  You also don't realize how many shades of blue there are until you are painting the sky!

If you are interested in purchasing "Cloud Study", email me at lisampaynestudio@gmail.com.

Emerging Pink Poinsettia

"Emerging Pink Poinsettia

Oil, 8" x 8" on gesso board.

I have been working on some pieces I hope to put in some upcoming shows. I really liked how the Emerging Gerbera turned out last month so I really wanted to try going a little bigger and thought it would be the perfect entry for a holiday show.  Fingers crossed!

30 in 30 - Day 30 - Garlic Emerging with palette knife

"Garlic Emerging"

Oil, 6" x 6" on gesso board.

$100.00 

Click here to purchase.

2 years ago I took a workshop with two fabulous painters, one painted with bright, transparent colors and the other with a palette knife. I did great with color and I was horrible with the palette knife.  In spite of the demos I couldn't hold the knife or move the knife correctly - I had palette knife block!  Since this 30 days of painting had a lot of experiments in it, I thought I would try another emerging painting using the palette knife and I loved it!  So, Leslie Saeta, it only took two years but I now "get" the palette knife.  Thank you for this 30 Day Challenge and for your patient palette knife training long ago.

30 in 30 - Day 29 - Gerbera Emerging

"Gerbera Emerging"

Oil, 6" x 6" on gesso board.

$100.00 

Click here to purchase.

For a while I have been thinking about doing a painting where the object looks like it is materializing out of the background. I made a few piles of paint in different shades and then painted the flower in first, starting with lightest shade first.  After I put the flower in I started on the background, starting next to the flower and working out to the edges of the board.

30 in 30 - Day 24 - Green Shades

"Green Shades"

Oil, 6" x 6" on gesso board.

$100.00 

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I was reading about the Metropolitan Museum of Art's opening today, "50 Years of Collecting Islamic Art". With the story, an image was posted of a circa 1700 tapestry from India, "Chand Bibi Hawking with Attendants in a Landscape". The detail in the landscape is beautiful - hills of cream, brown, pink and green - so many different shades of green. The many greens in that landscape are what inspired this abstract piece.

30 in 30 - Day 23 - Just Peachy

"Just Peachy"

Oil, 6" x 6" on gesso board.

$100.00 

Click here to purchase.

You never realize how many colors are in an object until you paint it. This peach has reds, oranges,  and yellows - nature is just marvelous.

30 in 30 - Day 19 - Tulips up Close

"Tulips up Close"

Oil, 6" x 6" on gesso board.

$100.00 

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How close could I get to these tulips and you would still know they were tulips?  I love the variety of purples in the flowers especially against the sage green background. The challenge was making the tones different enough for you to see the variation.

30 in 30 - Day 17 - Gerbera Gold

"Gerbera Gold"

Oil, 6" x 6" on gesso board.

$100.00 

Click here to purchase.

Not only the reflection but the different colored reflections in the flower and the stem attracted me to this piece along with the multiple shades of yellow and orange.  I love the simple subjects that have so much going on.

30 in 30 - Day 16 - Alizarin Gerbera

"Alizarin Gerberas"

Oil, 6" x 6" on gesso board.

$100.00 

Click here to purchase.

I could not resist buying these flowers when I saw their gorgeous color.  I brought them home, put them in a vase on the counter, and the cat tried to eat them.

30 in 30 - Day 12 - Ode to Yusuke Yonezu

"Ode to Yusuke Yonezu"

Oil, 6" x 6" on gesso board.

Yusuke Yonezu is an illustrator and I saw his work for the first time last year in the Kinokuniya bookstore where they were selling a calendar of his illustrations.  The title of the calendar translated to "Simple Life".  His seemingly simple lines say so much.  I did not do him justice but I enjoyed trying.

30 in 30 - Day 11 - Spooky Gray Palette

"Spooky Gray Gerberas"

Oil, 6" x 6" on gesso board.

$100.00 

Click here to purchase.

Here we have Gerberas in gray tones.  I was hoping to evoke something spookier this time around.

30 in 30 - Day 10 - Halloween Palette

"Halloween Gerberas"

Oil, 6" x 6" on gesso board.

$100.00 

Click here to purchase.

I seem to be in the Halloween mood so today I thought I would experiment by doing a painting I had done previously of pink gerberas using a Halloween palette of black, gray, purple, green, orange and yellow.  How do you think Halloween translates to the Gerberas?

30 in 30 - Day 9

Oil, 6" x 6" on gesso board.

This is a study I did of a Cripps Pink apple. My goal was to do a quick study with as little color mixing as possible to see if I could capture the essence of apple.

30 in 30 - Day 8

"Skeletea"

Oil, 6" x 6" on gesso board.

$100.00 

Click here to purchase.

We have an amazing plant nursery and gift place near by called Roger's Gardens.  They go all out with amazing Halloween merchandise.  One of the items I could not resist was the skull and cross bones ice cube tray which I had to try out immediately.  I think adding these ice cubes to green tea makes a perfect Halloween refresher.

30 in 30 - Day 4

"Experimental Calla Lily"

Oil, 6"x6"

$100

Click here for more information.

This calla lily was all about the experiment.  Normally I do a photo shoot of what I am going to paint. Inspired by my plein air experiences, I painted this flower from life.  I used a walnut oil based paint by M. Graham which I have been using for plein air and I painted this on a gessoed board instead of a linen board.  Not bad for an experiment.

Suzu - Stage 4 - FINAL

I was so disappointed that I could not post this last night.  I came down to find the rainbow beach ball of doom spinning on my screen, though nothing else was moving - CRASH! I tried restarting and that did not help. My husband tried to "repair" the drive and it could not complete the repair.  So, tonight our computer is checked in at the Apple store and we are hoping they can diagnose the problem.  In the mean time, my son, who is away at college, graciously allowed me to use his computer to post this to you.

So here is the Final Suzu.  The face is thinned out, the mouth is smaller, and the ears are a darker tone.  Her eyes are a wild black.  It wasn't until after we got her home and got some antibiotics for her eyes that I noticed that they were actually a light icy green. My next portrait of Suzu will have to be one that shows her pretty eyes in their calm and soothing state.

I hope you enjoyed the Stages of Suzu!

Suzu - Stage 3

In Stage 3 I added more of the dark, medium and light tones in the body, face and ears.  I added features to the nose, mouth and eyes and then painted in the red background.  I even signed it but there is something not quite right about the face.  I will have to revisit her face in a final stage to see if I can adjust whatever it is that is bugging me.  Usually, when I leave a painting overnight and come back to it, I either love it after all or see what needs to be worked on.  Until tomorrow!

Suzu - Stage 2

In stage 2 I have blocked in her dark tones, then some of the light and medium tones. One thing to note, white is never white.  It is rare that I use white straight out of the tube on the painting.  If it is not some shade of gray, there is nearly always some other color mixed in, however light.

30 Marketing Ideas in 30 Days - Showing a work in Progress - Suzu

This is stage #1 of a current painting in progress.  First I take care of the blank canvas problem by covering everything with a terra rosa paint mixed with some mineral spirits. I then draw or map out what I want to paint, blocking in the dark tones and wiping out paint to indicate the light tones.

After we lost our cat Rosy, my husband decided he wanted to give a home to another cat.  This is Suzu.  She is an adorable Japanese bobtail cat we adopted from a rescue group.  She weighs only 6 lbs. which is full size for a female Japanese bobtail. Though small, she is packed full of energy and love.