30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day 9 & 10

I picked up some copper, silver and rich gold paint by Gamblin and I wanted to see how these metallics interacted with each other and with non metallic oil paint by the same manufacturer, in this case, cadmium orange.  These were done on stretched canvas.

30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day 7 and 8

As you can see, I had to experiment with the gold again.  This diptych experiments with ivory black and pale gold, palette knives and rubber.  I wiped off several versions of each of these until I got something that I liked.

30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day 6

I have had this gold paint for months and have been dying to try it out.  Today it became mountains, shimmering through the white snow.  This painting was done with a palette knife on a board which I gessoed myself.  After the gesso dried, I did not sand it smooth so as to add some extra texture to the piece.

30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day 5

Day 5 of the challenge had me back to the drawing board with this painting.  So, I have blocked out the large shapes again and now I will let it sit a few days and dry before I try a new idea.  Stay tuned!

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 2 and 3

The last couple of days I have been playing with the values on some of the shapes in the middle and scraping off a lot of paint in the process.  I am getting closer to what I want but I am not quite there yet.

30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day 1

We have moved studios and we are now up and running again just in time for artist Leslie Saeta's 30 Paintings in 30 Days January challenge!  I have been wanting to do this large Arcticscape for a while so at least for the beginning of the challenge, my daily postings will be showing the daily progress on this larger piece.  Today I laid in the major shapes with some preliminary color.

It is good to be back at the easel!