Napa

Napa

Image size 31" diameter

Oil

I did finish one of the paintings I mentioned last week.  I started this one a long time ago.  Our niece was married in Napa in September two years ago.  The small wedding was perfect.  It was a beautiful, sunny day, not too hot, and the venue was beautiful.  The grapes were almost ready for harvest and our niece and her groom looked gorgeous in this wonderful setting.  My sister had these paper parasols for all of the guests and I knew that I wanted to paint a vineyard scene on one as soon as I saw them.

I started this painting in acrylic but didn't like the way it looked so I decided to switch to oil.  I painted the sky in oil and then some other project distracted me so this sat unfinished for a very long time.  It feels good to finally finish it.

I tried taking a picture of it with a white background but it didn't work very well so I placed it on the grass instead.  I think the grass gives a nice textural background.    

Pear Study

Pear Study

Image Size 6" x 6"

Oil

I had fun with this palette knife painting.  The colors are much more subdued than my usual paintings.  I almost don't recognize it as one of mine.

It was nice to paint with oils again.  I also worked on a couple of oil paintings this week that have been in the works for a long time (3 years for one, 4 for the other).  I hope to finish one of them for next week.     

The other one is quite large and I plan to continue working on it but it will probably take weeks to finish, even if I stick with it.  At least my motivation to paint both of them has returned.

Mexico Sunset

Mexico Sunset

Image Size 11" x 30"

Watercolor

Finally!  A post where I won't be complaining about watercolor paper!  I'm sure you were getting tired of hearing me moan about such a silly thing as paper.  For this painting, I used Waterford 200# cold press paper and painting on it was easy and predictable.

I haven't worked on this paper for awhile but I've always liked it.  It doesn't buckle like 150# paper does and it doesn't hold onto water so long which causes the paints to blend too much as can happen on 300# paper.

It was fun to play with the soft edges for these clouds.  The reference photo that I used has a boat in it and I will probably paint another version in the future and include that.

Long Shadow

Long Shadow

Image Size 7.5" x 9"

Watercolor

I'm still having paper issues.  This painting is done on Fabriano Artistico and I don't think it will be my "go to" paper.  I like to paint by glazing multiple layers of color and on this paper, when I added layers, the previous layers lifted.  I think that is because there is a lot of surface sizing but I'm not sure.  I know, I sound like Goldilocks...too little sizing, too much sizing....  Also, it is a very fragile paper and I had some problems with it pilling while I was lifting paint.  I think it is a really nice paper for a lot of artists, but it didn't hold up to the way I paint.