A Flying Leap

© 2012, R.L. Delight. "Offerings For Tethys", 6"x8" oil on canvas board.

I am taking another big step on my artistic path. I am working hard to develop my painting skills and have decided to take up daily, or almost daily, painting. I am working on the small paintings in the morning and spending the afternoons working on studies and my larger paintings in progress. Daily paintings start stacking up fast so, even though it is a big step for me, I have decided to start selling them through the wonderful art site, Daily Paintworks.
Here is the first painting I am putting in a Daily Paintworks auction! There is a button at the top right of the blog which will take you to the auction if you are interested. I only have one painting up so far but more will be coming. I will probably be making a few blunders at the beginning but I am sure the process will smooth out in no time.
One of the wonderful aspects of living on the coast is the beach changes on a daily basis. The sands shift around, rocks are exposed one day only to be completely covered with sand the next. So many things, from interesting creatures and seaweeds to all sorts of unfortunate debris, wash up with the tides. Visitors build whimsies, and sometimes destroy the natural elements of the beach. The ocean tides wash the beach clean again.
One day on my morning walk I came across these wonderful structures depicted in my painting. They lasted about a week before the tides took them one by one. These had such an elemental feel to them, harkening back to the days when the old gods and goddesses were honored. Tethys is a sea goddess, the White Lady who provides and protects the seafaring folk, and takes away as well.
Life is suddenly quite busy again. I am learning to prioritize very fast! I will be posting again on Wednesday.
-Renee

Sweet Tea

Sweet Tea, oil on panel, 6"x6", R.L. Delight

Here is a recent "daily painting". I am getting faster, sort of. This painting took four hours but I spread it out over three days and worked on other drawings and paintings as well. This is only a portion of the still life set up. I will be moving on to painting a larger painting of the entire set up. I thought it would be fun to do a "quick" painting to start with thinking that it would be a good warm up as well. I have to say, painting the sugar crystal candy is fun! The hardest part of this little painting was keeping the time limit down which meant it isn't as finished as I would like it to be. It is good to loosen up some of my expectations a bit.
Yesterday I had such a full schedule I was not able to post on this blog on my usual day. I plan to build up a couple of reserve posts to take care of that but I really do like posting as I go.
This post is a short one as I am spending today catching up and getting everything lined up to go in the studio. It will be interesting to see the difference between this and the larger painting which I will be spending a bit more time on. Once I get it underway I will have to see if I can make a space for another daily painting set up. I am trying to get the time down to three hours or less.
The winter weather is back which makes for good studio time but I am also getting things in place to be able to go out the door with ease for when those sunny days arrive.
-Renee

A Fortune Teller's Childhood

A Fortune Teller's Childhood, 6"x6" oil on panel. c. R.L. Delight, 2012

Here is my latest not-so-daily painting! I am getting faster. I finished this one in about 5 1/2 hours. I am trying to get them to no more than three hours long. I want to be able to paint a daily painting and spend the rest of the day working on longer and larger paintings or improving my drawing skills. This one was a lot of fun. We have a cute little candy store in town, like many of these ocean-side villages. The store sells what is called nostalgic candy in addition to lovely chocolates and truffles. It is a tiny store but very well stocked. I can't resist all the bright colors and fun shapes. Included in the painting above are wax lips, a giant jawbreaker and chocolate coins. I was impressed and intrigued by the sculpting of the waxed lips, not bad! I knew I had to paint some waxed lips one day when I spotted a burly biker dude with a gray pony tail and dressed in biker leathers walking down the street with wax lips from the candy store in his face. I had to laugh and I definitely wished I had my camera.
I would have liked to paint this at a different angle with not quite so much of the backdrop. I am limited in the room and equipment I have. I am working on getting that changed.
I love painting the daily paintings. They give me space to play, learn, and experiment. 
I plan to spend tomorrow building a very special prop and working on a composition for a deeply personal cause. I will have more about that in the next few weeks.
Off to raid the candy store, -Renee

Back in the Studio

The studio is still being put to rights but I knew I needed to get back to the easel so I started up again. It has been a couple of weeks. I needed to take that time to re-arrange and be ready for a new productive year but, UGH! I forgot how hard it is to start back up after a longish absence. Everything feels clumsy and I feel rather dull and awkward trying to paint. I am gritting my teeth and keep working in spite of the voices of doubt and disparagement in my head and through what I know as Resistance, with a capital "R". I am starting to get back in the groove but not without a struggle. I think next time I will do my best to not take so much time off.
I am very new to daily painting. For that matter, I am fairly new to painting period! I am realizing that it isn't just my lack of skill that is contributing to the length of time it takes to make one small painting, but I have also been trying to paint too complicated of a composition. I am going to finish the current painting in progress and then simplify, simplify, simplify. Deep breath and keep going. Here is my progress so far with about 5 hours (most daily paintings are 1-3 hours) and more to go:

Oh yeah, I am aware of all the things that need to be corrected and I am just in the blocking in phase. I will fill in the history of the objects when the painting is finished.
To finish up this post, I have been inspired by two wonderful women this week. One is actually a young girl and her story is both uplifting and so very sad. Jessica Joy Reece was 12 years old and had two brain tumors with no cure. She chose to spend her time not only fighting the disease but spreading joy to other kids through making "joy jars" to give to kids fighting cancer. I had "liked" her page on Facebook, something that I don't always do. Over the months I came to admire her courage and positive loving outlook on life. She started a foundation called NEGU (never, ever, give up). She did so much, and touched so many people in such a short time. She seemed to be hanging in there but the other day took a turn for the worse and suddenly passed away. I realized when I read the news (with a bit of swearing and many tears)  how much this brave young girl really touched me. How can I give up on trying to be anything but my best now? I can't, so NEGU is now my motto too.
The other inspiration is someone I had posted links to before. She is an artist I greatly admire and is painting in a manner that I am striving for myself. Here is a link to Terry Strickland's latest blog post. Take a look at her current painting in progress. It is a contemporary painting of the Three Fates. I, myself, have had sketches for a painting of the Three Fates in my notebooks to paint for a few years now. Being a weaver and spinner as well as an avid reader of books, I have come across descriptions of the three fates many times and love the picture they paint in my head. Mine will be different of course but along the same lines idea-wise. I don't have the painting skills to paint the picture yet but will sometime, in the next year or two. I am looking forward to following her progress with the painting.
That is all for this week. I will be heading over to post on my Renee Weaves! blog now.
-Renee

And Then There Were Two

"And Then There Were Two", Oil on Gessobord, 6"X6", R.L. Delight

Here is the finished "daily painting". I realized when I finished that I hadn't really planned ahead as to where to sign it. I will have to remember that. I just used my initials as my name would not fit. As I mentioned in the previous post, I am having a lot of fun painting these and so far several ideas for compositions have presented themselves. My next painting will not be of fruits and vegetables but will be a still life.
We had a wonderful model at the life drawing session yesterday. She has a very unconventional beauty and is the first model I have drawn that I felt I would like to paint a portrait of. Please don't misunderstand, all the models both male and female that I have had the privilege of drawing have beauty! One of the joys of life drawing is the realization that the human form is quite beautiful in all of its variety. Yesterday's model just had that special something that clicked with me. I hope I get a chance to paint her one day soon.
Now, I wonder how many daily paintings I will get done this week?
-Renee

Daily Painting-Sort of

I was planning to post this a bit sooner but still had to take the following pictures. Unfortunately, a big storm rolled through and stayed for a few days.  I was unable get good enough lighting to take the pictures nor bring them outside due to the gale force winds and pounding rain not to mention the thunder and lightning. I was finally able to take some pictures yesterday during a short break in the weather.
In the previous post I explained why I decided to try my hand at daily painting. I have given it a try and have decided that... it is totally fun! I am thinking it will be a great way to improve and develop my skills in both painting and drawing. At the moment, it takes me more than a day to paint them. The idea is to spend 1-3 hours painting them. I work that long before moving on to my next scheduled task for the day but so far they haven't been finished in that amount of time. I figure I will get faster as my skills improve. So here is the first painting that I posted the set-up picture of. I haven't named it yet.

Oil- 6"x6"

Both the first and following paintings use pumpkins and squash from our local CSA (community supported agriculture) They are quite beautiful and I couldn't resist painting them. Here is the next painting I did called "Pumpkin Sage":

"Pumpkin Sage", Oil, 6"x6"

The final one is actually almost finished but I took a picture early in the process so this is in progress. The title will be "And Then There Were Two" in honor of my very first drawing teacher. I couldn't resist these beautiful pomegranates when I saw them at the local grocery store.

The background is a lovely rich color. I still have a tiny bit of readjustment to make and then it will be through. I will finish it tomorrow and post it this weekend. My plan is to start selling these paintings starting in the new year. I want to get a few under my belt first. They add up quickly and I have a few compositions lined up. They won't all be paintings of food I promise!
Speaking of food, I wish all of the folks in the U.S a Happy Thanksgiving today and wish all the rest a beautiful and plentiful day.
-Renee

Home Art School Evaluation

It has been a while. I have been caught up in the perfect storm of studies that are really not interesting enough to post, the performance of a reader's theater play that my husband has been directing, and wonderful visitors. I have hardly had time to catch a breath until now. I spent what precious time I had in the studio, much to my content. I have now been through a full four weeks of my self-created art school schedule and it is time to sit down and evaluate what worked...and what didn't work.
The verdict? Well, parts of it worked. I have realized that there are differences beyond just a lack of a teacher (other than myself of course!). The most obvious is that a school program is tailored for many students. I am in a class of my own. That means I only have to meet my own needs. One would think that would be obvious but I must confess, it didn't really occur to me. I guess because I was just concerned with a getting a structured study going and the school model is what I know.
So, I am changing things around again. I have no problem with that as not only is it an interesting journey, I want to find what actually works for me, not what should work.
I am always studying and researching, like most artists I know. The other week I got a link to a workshop that is being conducted at WIFAS, where I had my last workshop. The workshop is sold out and I had no intention of attending but I was intrigued. I looked up the teaching artist who is Carol Marine. Not only is she a "daily painter" but her workshops are sold out for the next two years! Wow! I was so intrigued with her process that I decided that painting a 6"x6" painting a day would be a great way to get some study in. Since, in theory, the painting takes 45 minutes to 3 hours, there would still be time for other studies such as drawing and working on larger compositions. She sells her paintings on a daily painting auction website here. I like the idea of the possibility of earning while I learn as even at 6"x6", the paintings would stack up over the year.
So, amidst the plays, appointments, and visitors I started my first daily painting. I could only get an hour in here and there so it is not technically a daily painting. I am also finding that I need to work a lot faster and not obsess over detail, which is probably a good thing at this point. Here is a picture of the still life set up I am painting.

The pumpkin and squash come from our local CSA (community supported agriculture) box. I will be doing a couple of paintings based on the contents of the box because they are fun and the veggies are beautiful. The painting is not yet finished but is close. I have already learned a lot. I think working through so many paintings will be a good way to get some skill with the medium, specially since I am still so new to oil paint.
So, the schedule is going to be refined and tweaked. I am working on both long and short-term goals which will also add to the refinement. That is pretty much it for now. I will have at least one painting to post next week, probably more. I will leave you with a picture of the bounty we received in our final season's CSA box of glorious abundance.

Until next post!
-Renee