1940’s Love Story Continued

1940’s Love Story

A 1940's Love Story (see December 31, 2016 post for the graphite collage study). Watercolor - on Arches paper - I had two separate photos that I had to work from, and I had to make up a shadow for my mother. Since today is Memorial Day, it seems like a good time to share this.

It Was Tough Duty - But Someone Had To Do It

Just got back from vacation and as the title shows, it was tough duty, but somebody just had to do it. As you can see from these 2 last blogs, the food and beach were regimens that just had to be done. I mainly kicked back and absorbed the sights, sounds and smells, but also used my handy camera to capture scenes that I would like to paint. Probably the most "work" I did was in trying to keep up with my gesture drawing. It was fun to just relax. I will try to post some scenes later (either painted or photos).

In the meantime, I had started a painting with my new supplies from Jerry's Artarama that I had ordered. I had gotten some new acrylic medium that I wanted to try out, along with Ampersand's "The artist PANEL" primed smooth. As usual, it was an experiment. I had to stop and go on vacation (sigh) and now I am at that stage of "What do I do next?"

So here is the latest and, no I don't think that it is quite finished yet.

San Antonio Japanese Garden Bridge

Left Over Paint

Because I had left over paint, I had to try to use as much of it as I could. Saving acrylic paint is not easy (although it can be done). Luckily, acrylic paint can be layered. Because this is an experiment, that is exactly what I am doing, and because this is an experiment, if it doesn't work out, it's not a problem.

Still working on it

Glad this is an experiment. The comments below will clarify why.

What NOT To Do When Painting With Acrylic

Unless you want to create a dress with polka-dots on it, do not, I repeat, DO NOT answer the phone while painting with acrylic, especially if you have any Thalo Blue paint on your brush. Why? Because, if you are a watercolorist, you will instinctively grab a tissue to dab up the excess paint and with every dab you will create terrific little dots - like you would want only on a polka-dot dress, and not in the sky of a landscape painting.

So, now I am back to square one with this painting and seriously thinking about the merits of the trash can. All is not lost. The upside of today's work is: I have learned how to add subtle polka-dots to a dress, and I started another painting, which so far, I have not managed to destroy. Now, if necessary, I can ignore the lack of color harmony on the bottom portion of this painting - unless somehow I can figure out how to add fifty zillion birds to the sky.

Other Possibilities:

• There is always Gesso.
• I can buy acrylic medium and use this as the base painting for another experiment!
• I can tear this painting into funny little pieces and use it in a collage.
• I need new wall paper for the bathroom. (not an option - The painting isn't large enough and I would probably have to add pterodactyls to the sky in order to cover the spots.)
• I can paint the sky white and see if that makes things a million times worse.
• I will figure out something.

One last thing, be sure to edit your post before hitting the "post" button. You will almost always find errors.

Worked On The Painting Some More:

Above, I have my original composition.

Above, I tried turning the original composition upside-down.

Just Had To Try This In Acrylics

For those of you who have followed my series San Antonio Japanese Garden Waterfall, I have one more painting that I did - this time in acrylics. I have kept this to the same setting in order to get an idea of what I can manage to capture in the different media and what I need to work on in each one. That seemed easier to figure out if I kept all the paintings basically the same. The first was more of a drawing, in Prismacolor markers; the second, watercolor; the third, oils; and the forth, acrylic. It was fun and at times exasperating - especially when I had to remind myself to work with the qualities of the particular medium I was using, rather than battle it and try to make it work like another medium. Someday, I hope to simplify it down to a simple pen and ink drawing. That may be awhile.

So here is the acrylic:

San Antonio Japanese Gardens Waterfall - acrylic

Today, Do I Paint or Do I Market?

Today I am trying to decide, do I paint or do I market. That may sound like a really easy question to answer, but is it? I feel like I have so much to learn still in both of those areas. I still don't understand what a hash-tag is, or when and why you use one. I feel like I am trying to be a juggling act between painting, working a job, trying to learn how to market my own work, and my kitchen that keeps yelling out, "the dishwasher is almost empty and you have tons of rinsed dishes that need to be washed" (some exaggeration) - then there are the clothes that could stand to be washed or put away. Then there is some music that I need to make sure that I know. And, I'm sitting here trying to figure out how productive it would be to try to paint, and watch Lynda.com at the same time if I buy a month's worth of viewing time. She's got some great "how to" videos.

So, I guess the first thing on the list after this post will be the dishes because I have recently washed some clothes, and I can crank up the music so that I can hear it, while doing the dishes so that I will be prepared for that event. I would also like to finish the free video that Lynda.com provided. I am halfway through an 11 hr training video for the latest version of an older program that I have. You might say, "Why waste your time on it if your version is the older version?" I guess the answer is, I still get insights from the newer version, and right now my schedule and budget don't have room for the one month deal - but it is on the back burner, simmering.

It isn't Valentine's Day yet so I can't report on how well the Valentine T-shirts rated with the grandkids - you know, the T-shirts that have a cat on them. If you want to know the story on that, you are going to just have to read last week's post: Valentine's Day Is Coming.

Hope you got a chance to view Brian Neher's You Tube video last week. He has a great contest coming up soon. Actually, entries are already being accepted.

Hoping to work on my square oil painting that I started last week using leftover paint and a paper towel (for the paintbrush).  I'll try to share it next week.

If you belong to Facebook and would like to see some interesting art "info" as well as upcoming workshops in different areas of the country, click on my Facebook banner in the upper right-hand corner of this page and "Like" my Facebook Fine Art page:

www.facebook.com/MargoSchwirianFineArt

UPDATE:  Kitchen - MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!, Painting - composition partially solved and some rendering accomplished

Some of the Things Accomplished Since the Holidays

Not a lot "new" going on this week. Got two oil painting studies worked on toward the end of the holidays. One was a palette knife painting, which was inspired by the work of fellow artist Abraham Fisher whom I met through Artist Daily. He has very unusual, beautiful oil paintings, all done with palette knives and colors that are more subdued, more pastel than the colors I tend to use, yet still clean and vibrant colors. My painting was totally different from his, but definitely inspired by his work. Then I had left-over paint that I couldn't stand to waste, and so instead of pulling out my brushes, I went for paper towels and painted a small square canvas panel with left-over paint that would have been wasted. I soon decided that when it comes to oil painting, paint brushes are over rated. This was probably a reaction to the ease of clean-up with palette knives and paper towels.

Well, I have now learned how to "unpublish" after accidentally hitting the publish button before being finished with the blog. Sorry for the interruption. The computer "robots" probably went crazy over my momentary publish. Those things do an interesting job. They make it easier on us when we hit our search buttons - but I digress here.

At any rate, the studies aren't quite finished. I have a tendency to keep experimenting on studies, unless I accidentally create something I am enthralled with, so I will probably keep trying to make these look more like whatever my unconscious expectations are for them. As usual, I am just having fun with my painting, and no, I haven't "quit my day job yet."

After experimenting with my oil paints, I went back and added some more products to my Cafe Press Store, http://www.cafepress.com/margosart. I have even added a shower curtain and a wall clock using designs from my previous blog! I am having way too much fun designing my own products. And, I think the thing that I have had the most fun with this week is my line of baby products: Simply A Rose Organic Baby Bodysuit 

Simply A Rose Organic Baby Body Suit

Simply A Rose Margo's Art, Simply A Rose Bib Simply A Rose Margo's Art, Simply A Rose Sippy Cup Simply A Rose Margo's Art and several different products that could be used as a diaper bag, like: Simply A Rose Sack Pack Simply A Rose Margo's Art, Simply A Rose Tote Bag Simply A Rose Margo's Art, Simply A Rose Beach Tote Simply A Rose Margo's Art. So, check them out!

For other products: Margo's Art or my website at Fine Art America.

It's the New Year

It's the New Year and I'm back. The holidays were great - a total goof-off time. I did manage to squeak out one fast study. A while back I decided I wanted to try to learn how to paint landscapes - not an area that I naturally do well in. That is probably why I am so determined to work on this area of my painting. That doesn't mean I intend to back off from other areas of my painting, but I really feel like a breakthrough in one area of art almost always spills over and helps strengthen other areas. So here I am with it.

It all started with a very simple photo of a striking sunset. My husband and I had just dropped our son off at work and rounded the corner of the parking lot to this open view of land that is quickly becoming diminished. I found myself remembering how open and spacious this area had been in the not so long ago past. It is called progress and I am not against progress; however, I sometimes question if all change is automatically progress.

At any rate, the photo involved a very simple landscape that made experimenting easy and possible. I wanted to take time playing with seasons, color schemes, and paint. So, San Antonio Sunset; Starry, Starry Night in San Antonio; and It Snowed For Christmas were born. They are studies. Something fun. All three are watercolor and all three were painted with a paintbrush as opposed to the study - Atmosphere (based on a different photo), which is also a watercolor painting, but is mainly layers of watercolor sprayed onto the paper. All four are on watercolor paper. These watercolor studies also give a chance to play with the actual paint itself, and see how each pigment reacts. Some pigments actually flow and dance. Others sit almost like rocks (not necessarily a bad thing if you know how to take advantage of that).

San Antonio Sunset

Starry, Starry Night in San Antonio

It Snowed on Christmas

I sincerely hope that you don't tire of seeing this particular scene because I still have more plans for it. You will probably end up being exposed to - Spring - eventually, and other color schemes are always a possibility.

Thanks for joining me one more time. This is the beginning of a new year. Do I have any great New Year's Resolutions?

Nope! I just intend to continue exploring paint, composition, color and whatever else it takes in my own personal great adventure with art.

Happy New Year everyone!

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My Cafe Press Products: Margo's Art