An Alabama Cow

24"x18"

Oil on Canvas

This is my submission for this week’s challenge on Karin Jurick’s “Different Strokes From Different Folks” blog. Once again, my goal was to do something quick and loose. I failed on both counts. It’s somewhat loose, but not quite my goal, and I messed with it way too long.  I thought you might like to see a couple of WIP pics of my process.

I started out fine. I did a loose and sloppy sketch with thinned out paint on a toned canvas:




Then I slopped some paint around:

Then I did too much refining. After my husband looked at it and said, “What happened to loose?” I went back over it and slopped some paint on it again and tried to be messy.

Maybe somewhere between picture 2 and 3 would have been a good stopping point. I’m finding it very frustrating that I can’t seem to do loose well, but I’m not going to give up. Yet.

New York Stock Exchange

This is my version of Karin Jurick’s photo of the New York Stock Exchange, painted for the Different Strokes From Different Folks blog. This was a good challenge for me. It is something I never would have chosen to paint. The photo is a huge scene of the NYSE, and I had no desire to paint the whole thing! I cropped the original picture a few different ways, and chose the one I liked best. But I really wanted the guy with the red coat, so I changed things around and painted off of two of the crops. I purposely chose a small surface for this painting, so it would be impossible for me to obsess and paint too much detail. It was a bit of a departure for me, but overall I’m happy with the way it turned out.

"Wall Street"

6"x6"

Oil on Board

(SOLD)

Another Portrait

This is a small painting of my daughter. My intention when I started was to create something loose and expressive. So I didn’t draw it out first, I just blocked in the shapes and then refined from there. And refined, and refined. I should have stopped earlier, when it was still somewhat loose, but I couldn’t do it. I was obsessed. I finally stuck it in a frame to keep myself away from it. If it wasn’t framed, I’d still be working on it. A little blending here, a little shading there.

4"x6"

Soft Pastel on Suede Matboard

The Bean

I painted this for last week’s challenge on Karin Jurick’s “Different Strokes From Different Folks” blog. For some reason, it hasn’t shown up on the blog, though. Karin asked me if it was a digital painting, which isn’t allowed, so either she didn’t get my answer or she was just busy and it fell through the cracks. It is not a digital painting, though. It’s just me trying to paint loose!

“Cloud Gate”
11”x14”
Oil on canvas

This has to be the strangest thing I’ve ever painted. It messed with my mind. I thought I had shapes painted correctly, but when I’d walk away and come back to it, I would realize I didn’t. After repainting the buildings a couple of times, I had to resort to painting it upside down or sideways, just to get my brain to let go of what it thought was correct. It was a fun challenge, though!