Challenge for March, Clouds

This month's challenge is to create artwork of clouds.

This is a small sky painting, worked with a palette knife.

" A Touch of Blue"
SOLD

www.CarolASchiff.com
www.CarolSchiffStudio.etsy.com

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This was a sunset over the Indian River Lagoon. A sunset can be beautiful, even when facing East.

 Lagoon Sunset

Carmen Beecher

www.carmensart.etsy.com

www.carmenbeecher.com

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This is an exercise I often give my students because it's simple and a great way to have success in watercolor. It gives experience with masking fluid for the white reflections, washes and changes in value. We paint the sailboats last. Like the icing on the cake, they complete the picture. 

Sails and Clouds

Watercolor by Jean Thomas

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This oil is from a photo I took right in Palm Bay.  It was at a secluded little park right on the river with lots of trees and shade.  A great place to relax, read, enjoy the water, breeze and paint.   I used both brushes and a palette knife for this painting of a little outcrop of trees and those big, beautiful clouds.

Along the River

8x10 oil

donnavinesart.blogspot.com

donnavinesart.Etsy.com

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Clouds are fun in watercolor, and much less work than in other mediums. This painting depicts early morning in San Francisco Bay.

Mary Warnick


Titanic Cloud

Kathy Garvey

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This is 18 x 18 on cradled board, The Perfect Storm, oil

I started with a photo of a storm rolling in while the sun was shining and then let my imagination go wandering.  I love looking at this piece and some days find it relaxing while other times I see it as turbulent: The Perfect Storm. 

Cindy Michaud 

Small Landscape Painting, Palette Knife Painting, Small Oil Painting, Daily Painting, 6x8" Oil

Did you ever have that feeling, that you just want to get away?  Away from the hustle and bustle of life, the job, the town, .......just everything?

This little painting, is my idea of that perfect get away.  It's on a quiet mountain road, snuggled up under the trees, but not so far from civilization that I would not want to be there alone.  In other words.....PERFECT!

Oh, to waken to birds chirping, and leaves falling softly to the ground.

I have not added this piece to my Etsy site yet, so feel free to contact me here, if you are interested in purchasing.

Have a wonderful day!

35% OFF Original Art

www.CarolSchiffStudio.etsy.com

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One Year from Sketch to Completed Project

by Kathy Garvey

I finally finished a project idea today and in logging it, I discovered it was exactly a year from yesterday that I sketched it up. On March 21 of 2018, I was visiting Burke, VA and gathered some wonderful leaves. The idea for a wall hanging using one of the leaf shapes came to me that day. I was going to draw it up in Illustrator when I got home and print it to linen cotton canvas at Spoonflower.

The original sketch in my sketchbook.

But then, as an experiment, I decided to try to paint it on rice paper instead...and mount it on fabric. I got started in April but couldn't find the heavy duty rice paper I wanted to use and was disappointed in the weight of the one I opted for, so I put it aside. Recently, I decided to revisit this project. If it worked, I wanted to figure out how to do it, what order to do it in, and take all my supplies with me to an upcoming retreat in Kentucky where I knew I would find many more beautifully shaped leaves.

It wasn't quite as easy to do as printing to Spoonflower. After ironing the rice paper to cotton using a bonding interface, the tips of my leaf started curling. I decided to stitch a black trim edge to the leaf to firm up the edges. I cut off its supports to do that. Still curling.  After painting, still curling. Finally, a layer or two front and back of Matte Varnish made it stiff enough to not curl - which made it very hard to stitch supports back on it. So, a year to finish what probably only took me about 16 hours. (Some of the steps are pictured below. Click to make it big enough to view.)

Top left to right, drawn and mounted, painting started, painting almost finished.
Bottom left to right, trying to figure out the supports, stitching them, trimming and adding yarn.

It's now complete and hanging on the wall. Finished size is approximately 26"x30". I'm trying to decide if it's worth doing again or maybe I should go back to Illustrator and Spoonflower. Time to deliberate before I pack my bags. It might rest on finding the heavy duty rice paper I want! Ralph's Art Supply is trying to help me with that.

I had to add more supports than I initially planned. And then I wrapped them in a fun
coordinating yarn that doesn't really show up in this picture.

Cat Painting, Animal Portrait, Small Oil Painting, Daily Painting, 6x6 Original Oil

I always enjoy painting animals, so it is no surprise, that when I hosted a photo contest, on my  facebook page, I chose a kitten, as the winner.

Purchase here



I could not resist painting this adorable kitten.  Below is the original image, sent in from Sandy, in Florida.

I asked readers, to inspire me, by sending in their favorite images.  The winner received a giclee print of the finished painting.

I had so much fun, that I am thinking of holding this contest monthly.  Check out my facebook page,
Carol Schiff Studio, and join in the fun.

Carol Schiff
www.CarolSchiffStudio.etsy.com
www.CarolSchiffStudio.blogspot.com

Prepping for a new adventure

by Kathy Garvey

I have just started preparing for an exciting month long retreat in the hills of Kentucky. I’m hoping to photo, sketch, paint and Photoshop all of the spring leaves and flowers I encounter. Like Evangeline who seemed to spring unbidden from my pen shortly after a fun stint photographing snails in the Everglades, I have a strange affinity to all things leaves, flowers, snails, birds and bugs.  Can’t wait to get started!

Poppy Painting, Daily Painting, Small Oil Painting, 12x16" Floral Oil Painting

My friend, Donna, was kind enough to share her gorgeous photo with me, and allowed me to paint the image.

purchase here

I did some minor rearranging on it.

detail

It was a fun project, and I hope you enjoy it.

Thanks for reading my blog today.

Carol Schiff
www.Carolaschiff.com
www.CarolSchiffStudio.ety.com

Windswept Tree and Wildflowers, Landscape Painting, Daily Painting, Small Oil Painting, 6x8" Oil on Panel

Somedays, everything just feels right!

Purchase here


It doesn't happen often, but this was one of those days.

Hope you have "one of those days" too.

Thanks for viewing my blog today.

Carol Schiff
www.CarolASchiff.comwww.CarolSchiffStudio.etsy.com

Peaceful River, Original Oil Painting 10x8 River Scene in Florida

This is a study for a large painting, a commission. I first used photos of the Dora Canal, but it is impossible to paint it without most of the canvas being green, so I opened it up to get more sky and reflection. There will be more 'critters' in the final.

Carmen

Small Floral Painting, Daily Painting, Small Oil Painting, 8x10" Pink Floral Oil Painting, Palette Knife

I wanted to create a soft, soothing floral still life. Painted on .75" deep canvas, with painted sides. Finished with a light spray of varnish to enhance and protect the colors.

Purchase here

I worked with both brush and palette knife, but 90% of it is the knife.


Hope you enjoy it!

Carol Schiff

www.CarolASchiff.com

www.CarolSchiffStudio.etsy.com

February Challenge - An Artwork Inspired by a Song or Poem

For our February challenge The Pieces of 8 were to create either a work of art based on a song or poem...or even a song or poem based on a work of art. How one meets the challenge is an individual choice. Here's how some of our members responded.

Carol's response to the challenge.



"A Call From Mother" by Carol Schiff
16x20" Oil on Canvas

A Pirate Looks at Forty

Jimmy Buffett

Mother, mother ocean, I have heard you call
Wanted to sail upon your waters since I was three feet tall
You've seen it all, you've seen it all
Watched the men who rode you switch from sails to steam
And in your belly you hold the treasures few have ever seen
Most of them dream, most of them dream

Yes I am a pirate, two hundred years too late
The cannons don't thunder, there's nothing to plunder
I'm an over-forty victim of fate
Arriving too late, arriving too late
I've done a bit of smuggling, I've run my share of grass
I made enough money to buy Miami, but I pissed it away so fast
Never meant to last, never meant to last

And I have been drunk now for over two weeks
I passed out and I rallied and I sprung a few leaks
But I got stop wishing, got to go fishing, down to rock bottom again
Just a few friends, just a few friends

I go for younger women, lived with several a while
Though I ran them away, they'd come back one day
Still could manage to smile
Just takes a while, just takes a while

Mother, mother ocean, after all the years I've found
My occupational hazard being my occupation's just not around
I feel like I've drowned, gonna head uptown
I feel like I've drowned, gonna head uptown

Songwriters: Jimmy Buffett

A Pirate Looks at Forty lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

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Carmen's response to the challenge.

 "Moon Over Miami"

 

 Moon over Miami,

Shine on my love and me,

So we can stroll beside the roll

of the rolling sea. 

Carmen Beecher

www.carmenbeecher.etsy.com

www.carmenbeecher.com

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Kathy's response to the challenge.

My time for art has been short since September. I've been traveling and also inventorying my Mom's household. She was a graduate of Moore Institute of art, mother of 9, and a talented artist and art teacher. Right now I'm inventorying her overflowing art bin that she gave me three years ago and was so full I never even tried to open it. Here's a look at just her silk screens completed between 1980 and 1986 when she decided to take some serigraphy courses at my old alma matter GWU.

While excavating, I found some prints that only had two pulls (most of hers had at least 15 and some up to 26). It was obvious she didn't finish. But they were printed perfectly and I found them inspiring. So instead of finishing my planned ode to Tchaikovsky's "Dance of the Young Cygnets" that I started for this challenge, I decided to turn on some Mozart...a favorite for both of us ... and watercolor on top of her silk screen. I should have known the oil based silkscreen ink would reject the watercolors! So, I pulled out some art markers and just let the music and Mom's original guide me.

On the left above is one of 13 similar prints I found. On the right is my marker effort on top of another of the same print after about 45 minutes. I wasn't sure if the circle towards the top left was intended to be the sun or a flower. But the music was playing and my markers were dancing away to it. It sort of looks like both. (I highly recommend something fast like markers for Mozart's music! If watercolor would have worked, I probably wouldn't have been able to keep up.) Below is the finished combination - "Me and My Mom on Mozart."  (Click on any image to enlarge it.)

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Donna's response to the challenge.

I have an old poster in my bedroom of Madame Butterfly.  She has survived many moves and style changes because I love this opera so much.   I see her every morning.  Her back is to me and she is gazing out thinking of all she gave up but  knowing in her heart that Pinkerton loves her and will return, sigh.  I am so used to her I didn't realize how powerfully the aria "un bel di vedremo" affects me and anyone else who has heard it until I saw a Gauguin painting which reminded me of my poster and that aria.  This young girl is sitting looking into the distance, alone amid a group of women. I can't help but wonder if her heart is breaking waiting for her American sailor to return.

Siesta after Gauguin

Donnavinesart.etsy.com
donnavinesart.blogspot.com


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Fay's response to the challenge.

Sunflowers 1877  Vincent Van Gogh
Metropolitan Museum of Art

For this challenge, I have reverted to my most insistent creative instinct. I have reversed the February challenge and written a poem based on a  painting.

Twin Towers 

Who can blame the sunflower?

Its energy, its inspiration,

its color, its form.

The way it reflects cultures.

Inspires painters, photographers.

Monet, Gaugin, O’Keefe. More.

In Sunflowers, 1877,

Van Gogh captured essence

with only two blooms.

Made beautiful the simple,

the imperfect, the spent.

Revealed the past is

always present in the future.

An image comes back.

Simply. High in the Alps,

my friends, my husband, me,

each in turn, set one foot on either side

of a low stone which still separates

Switzerland from Germany.

A field of Swiss cows,

their brass bells, their low bleating,

broadcast their heavy pleasure.

An endless field of sunflowers,

each head turning (gira sole)

to follow the sun.

How could we blame that field, that lullaby,

that feeling of a world at peace?

How could we blame that moment in time

for what was to follow?

Just another beautiful September day.

That is, until it wasn’t.

 Fay Picardi

 

Seascape Painting, A Day at the Beach, Daily Painting, Small Oil Painting, SOLD

Stop and smell the salt spray with these seascape paintings.

SOLD


IF EVERYONE HAD A BEACH....THERE WOULD BE NO STRESS IN THE WORLD!

SOLD

A day at the beach is always a good thing.

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