Challenge for January 2021:CMYK

 The challenge for the Pieces of 8 for January of 2021 is "CMYK" suggested by member Jean Thomas. Jean left that wide open to interpretation so here are the results!

Kathy's response to the challenge:

Small 6x7 inch mixed media (postage stamp, micron pen, colored pencil, watercolor) 
on 140 lb hahnemuele sample paper from Ralph's Art Supply.

Small 6x7 inch mixed media (postage stamp, micron pen, colored pencil, watercolor) 
on 140 lb hahnemuele sample paper from Ralph's Art Supply.

10x10 inch acrylic on wood board

I had a little fun just playing with only three colors and black in each painting above. 

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Carmen's response to the challenge:

I used one of my paintings as the background, then cut out letters over it. This was all done in Photoshop. I spent two weeks in ICU at Holmes Regional Hospital and the nurses were amazing. I resolved then to do something for them, so today I finally felt good enough to make this banner on the computer.

carmenbeecher.com

carmenbeecher.blogspot.com

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Jean's response

Lately I've been doing small sketchbook watercolors, and did a series of fish. 
I looked at this one and thought, "cyan, magenta, yellow, and black."
With a graphic arts background, this format is very familiar to me. That is what makes everything in print, "full color!"

He's not any type of fish, just a CMYK fish!

Challenge for December: Do a Painting Using Only 50 Strokes

Carmen: This challenge is really challenging! A painting done using only 50 strokes. What a great exercise this is for making us simplify.

When I got to the last stroke my hand was itching to do just a couple more details, but I resisted.

Carmen Beecher

 "50 Strokes of Chicken"

 www.carmenbeecher.com

www.carmensart.etsy.com

www.carmenbeecher.blogspot.com

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Donna:  50 strokes, no problem...after the 4th try of 4 different subjects  I finally had something!!

There are lessons to be learned here but let's just say pick something simple, a stoke is a stroke be it long or a dab, roundish strokes somehow cover more. You will notice the original photo is upside down by this time I had learned that 50 strokes is not a lot, the pear would have to stand alone.

A pear in 50 strokes

donnavinesart.etsy.com
donnavinesart.blogspot.com

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Kathy: I kept trying with this challenge. I never managed to produce something I liked well enough to leave alone after only 50 strokes. Of all my attempts (3 different birds and a butterfly), this was my best and it kept the closest to 50 strokes.

Left: 20 strokes, Middle: 33 Strokes, Right: 50 Strokes

 I was supposed to stop there!

I had to finish this little chickadee and did not count how many strokes that took! 

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Fay: Above is a photograph of a great white egret in flight. It was taken by my late friend, Tom B. Sanders, and is used as the cover for a book of his photographs of  birds along with the poems of his wife, Bonny B. Sanders. I recently helped Bonny format and edit this book. I was so taken by this image, I decided to use it for my challenge, seen below.

This challenge does not meet the requirements of 50 strokes (or pieces of paper), but it comes close. There are 47 wing feathers, 6 additional pieces of paper for the head, shoulders, shadows on the wing span and legs. I added one outline of the eye in black, filled it in with yellow and surrounded it with the typical green found around the Great White's eyes. It took 2 strokes to make the black feet. If I have counted correctly, I am still under 60. I should have made fewer feathers. No going back now.

Fay Picardi

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Denette: Above is my fifty strokes although was more sixty strokes. It was interesting but not my cup of tea. 

Glad I tried it and learned a lot. Denette Schweikert. 

denette.net 

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Carol: I am an oil painter....in a slump!  However, I am away from home for 3 months.  In the interest of saving space, I left my oils at home and brought a collection of watercolor, pastels, and alcohol inks.  I wanted to stretch myself, and maybe ignite a new interest in my art.

This is a watercolor, and oil pastel painting.  My reference photo had many, many more trees, but I could not add them in under 50 strokes.

This is a second try; a scene from Sanibel Island.

I will try this again.

www.CarolASchiff.com

www.CarolSchiffStudio.etsy.com

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Mary: After several really bad tries, I used one color, alizarin crimson, and two brushes, a one-inch flat to begin and a number 10 round to finish.  Fifty strokes exactly.  Not the most interesting painting, but better than the first attempts.  It was fun to try, and just being with the Pieces is always fun!

Mary Warnick

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Everything's Coming Up Roses in our November Challenge

The challenge this month was roses. 

I think every painter, has painted a rose.  It must be the most loved of all flowers.

I have chosen to post two of my favorite rose paintings today, with two different techniques and two very different effects.

The first and was done using lots of liquin added to my paint, which produced a soft, almost watercolor feel. 

 The second was done with a mix of palette knife and brush, and does not depict a perfect rose, but in my eye, it is still a beautiful flower.  It feels much more structured.

Which do you prefer?

Carol Schiff

www.CarolSchiffStudio.etsy.com

www.CarolASchiff.com

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Kathy Garvey

I have a favorite rose painting from years ago that took quite a few hours to create. It's one of my Mom's knock-out roses painted in acrylic on 11x14 canvas.

Knock-Out-Rose
11x14 Acrylic on Canvas

But, for this  month's challenge, I took a few old photos of my Mom's gardens and a lot less time to create what look like a colored pencil sketch and a watercolor. The technique uses custom brushes on a mask followed by several filters in Photoshop, and is extremely versatile and easy. (Click to enlarge.)

A Visitor
8x10 Digital Print

Yellow Rose Watercolor
8x10 Digital Print

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Jean Thomas

Wine and Roses
Oil on Canvas, 10" x 10"

The small wine glass in my painting was made by my great grandfather, Joseph Locke. He was a glass artist first, and also a painter and print maker. He invented and patented a type of art glass called Amberina, when he worked for New England glass company.  Amberina,  a two-toned glassware, was originally made from 1883 to about 1900. It is still made today. 

Also, he loved to paint and flowers were a favorite subject. I'm fortunate to have a few of his paintings and glass. Here is one of roses. (image coming) 

Jean Thomas 

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I decided that paper rather than paint might be the way to go for the challenge this month.  I found some beautiful red tissue with the words love printed on the paper and that was what inspired the collage.  I had to use the tissue in a special way and what symbolizes love more than roses.

Donna Vines

www.donnavinesart.Etsy.com

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"Rosy Outlook" by Carmen Beecher

8x10 oil

 "Why is it no one ever sent me yet

One perfect limousine, do you suppose?
Ah no, it’s always just my luck to get
One perfect rose."

 --from a poem by Dorothy Parker

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This painting is of a photograph I made while on a trip to Canada.  We visited the summer home of President Roosevelt where I found this beautiful multicolored rose.  The painting is now in my guest bedroom.  Enjoy.    Denette Schweikert. 

www.denette.net

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Mary Warnick

I love painting roses, and keep trying to do a better job of it.  Some are better than others, but i keep trying to be perfect every time.  This is the latest one, with this challenge is mind.  I am trying to keep it loose and watery.

Visit the Brevard Zoo

by Kathy Garvey

We have a beautiful zoo in Brevard County that is near and dear to my heart. Some of you may remember the old Houser's Zoo that came under fire in the early 80's as being one of the worst zoos in the country. This was a blow to dear old Mr. Houser who was at the time dealing with cancer and facing selling his orange groves where he housed the zoo. He had been saving animals ready to be euthanized when a circus or zoo didn't want them anymore because of their appearance.

Remember the chimp with one arm - yes, lost it by touching an electrical cord at his prior home. Mr. Houser gave him a home when no one else would. Remember Buckles the elephant chained all day and pacing back and forth in a little circular fence? She lost half an ear due to an injection gone wrong at her prior home. Mr. Houser took her in. The rocking and pacing was only because when zoo visitors were gone she was released to run in the orange groves and play, and just couldn't wait to get out there. I got involved and learned all this when my daughter's school took a trip there and she came home telling me she held a gibbon's hand for over an hour. That was Choo-Choo. If you heard her hoot you would understand the name. Apparently my daughter reminded Choo-Choo of Mr. Houser's own daughter who had helped raise her. There were lots of stories like that and a small band of about 20 people formed the Brevard Zoological Society to secure animals and get land for a bigger better zoo. That was actually the start of our new and wonderful local zoo. (I have all the history files.) The new zoo distances itself from that bad publicity (and thus all of us), but that's how it got started. And I love how far they have come.

It's one of my favorite photo resources for digital work. I encourage you to take a walk there with your camera. Or, buy a membership so you can go often and support it. Below are some of my digital images all taken at Brevard Zoo and also created to promote it.

Thought for the day

Digital art and thought for the day inspired by the beautiful passion flowers in my yard.

"Life is beautiful in all its incarnations. 

We know nothing and yet we know everything. 

We are one with nature, one with God, 

and one with each other." 

by Kathy Garvey

September Challenge, The Perfect Pair or Pear

The challenge for September is to produce the perfect pair or pear. Hmmm....

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How Carol met the challenge

I have painted many, many pears in the last 25 years.  There is something that draws me to them, and their slightly feminine shape.  

This is my favorite attempt, although I would never call it perfect.

Carol Schiff

www.CarolASchiff.com

www.CarolSchiffStudio.etsy.com

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How Carmen met the challenge

Pair of Pears, Watercolor

I really challenged myself and did this one as a watercolor. I was inspired by a watercolor demo last week. It's quite a departure for me, because I seldom do watercolor except in my sketch journal. 

Carmen Beecher

https://carmenbeecher.com
https://carmensart.etsy.com

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How Donna met the challenge

I really, really like painting pears and I have done many over the years. 

This painting was one of my first.  A friend wanted some voluptuous fruit which of course included pears.

But, I think my favorite was a collage I did for a Christmas quilt show.  This is my version of a Partridge in a Pear Tree.

This collage of colored papers and feathers is on a neutral acrylic background.  The pears are of course the pear tree and the feathers on the bottom represent the partridge.  I found some unusual papers for the feathers and tree then created the pears using a lot of really colorful papers.

Partridge in a Pear Tree

18x24 mixed media

www.donnavinesart.Etsy.com

www.donnavinesart.blogspot.com

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How Cindy met the challenge

A quick colored pencil execution of a pear with friend (the perfect pair) as I dash off to another adventure...a week of making mosaics at Wild Acres, NC!

How Kathy met the challenge

I love doing pears! I'm still working on my challenge pears, this time in watercolor.

If I don't get them done, below is my stand in for "the perfect pear," one of my favorites back when I was teaching myself a new version of Adobe Illustrator. 

How Denette met the challenge

I painted this for our PO8 member Cindy Micheau several years ago when she had a pear fetish.  Now it's living in my kitchen so I can enjoy it every day.  Thanks Cindy!

Jean looked at "pair" a bit differently

How about a watercolor of a pair of slippers?
I painted this in color, but converted it to black and white so I could see my value range.
Color tends to hide value, so it's a good exercise to do this from time to time.

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Last, but ....
Fay met the challenge with another homage to Georgia O'Keeffe.

Bosc Pear 

using Georgia O'Keeffe's
Green Oak Leaves, 1923
Oil on canvas. 12 x 9

You can't blame me this time. My friend and fellow Pieces member gave me a vintage address book of high quality O'Keeffe reproductions. I thought the painting pictured above would make a perfect background for my collage of a pear. As I continued to look through the pictures, I realized  the curves O'Keeffe's used in paintings of the hills close to her home resembled the curves of a pear. Et voila! The perfect medium for the collage. The pear above was cut from the print of It Was Red and Pink, 1959, a large canvas of 30x40, also done in oils, whose colors pleased me the most.  I had a hard time finding an intact reproduction after I destroyed the print making my collage.

      The original abstract is on the left. The flipped version which seems to reveal the sky, the hills and the earth is on the right.