Pearl...

Pearl 
 

Had fun working on this photo. Pearl was a feral cat when young, so she is very shy and always has a worried look about her.  It's very rare that she is able to just 'chill', which is why this was a special moment.  Believe it or not, the eyes were barely touched in post processing, only lightened up a smidgen because the one on the left was too much in shadow.  Instead, I focused on blurring and lightening everything else in order to draw the viewer in to the focal point, her beautiful blue eyes.  You can see the larger image at my photo blog.  Have a good day.

My New Photoblog: Dunn in Time

It's been a while since I last posted but I've been trying to learn Photoshop CS5 and Lightroom3 simultaneously (now you can see why it's been a while)! For people out there that do digital processing, I think you'll understand and appreciate how time-consuming post processing is!  I just hope to have fun with my photos and it not become a drudgery, but for now I'm enjoying the experience of manipulating my photos to enhance the 'mood' of the image. Below are my first two photos.

Purple Majesty

Coneflower2

 Thanks for the visit, hope you are all doing well!

Experimenting with Water Mixable Oils

Oh dear, it's been so long since I lasted posted!  Life sometimes gets away from us though and so does my art.  I completely missed our 2 feet 'snow of the century' (sixteen inches at the house) as I was out of town, so no pictures; however I may create some from the videos my hubby made.  I would have loved to take a walk in the hollow, but I was spending time with my mother at the time, and no silly snow can come near topping time spent with Mother. 

 Also, a few days before Christmas, we lost our beloved Gracie, the other Lynx-point Siamese to a horrible disease - Vaccine Associated Sarcoma (VAS).  It is still so hard to believe that our two special cats were with us for only 5 short years and that their lives were cut short by diseases we never even heard of.  Layla died from 'Bobcat fever', which is a disease carried from a tick-bite.  It was even stranger that they became ill so soon after we had taken in the three cats that had belonged to my husband's aunt upon her passing.  Layla became ill only a week after they arrived.  It's strange too how we learn about life lessons through death, not just the loss of our human relatives and friends, but how much we can learn through the loss of our animal friends as well.  I just hope the world of veterinary science is working hard and fast on a cure for both of these dreaded (which it seems surely could be preventable) diseases.

Our beloved Gracie

and Layla, 2005-2010

So, as life goes, I've been busy with personal things other than art, which explains the sparse posting, but I did manage to start the painting below back before Christmas. And I so appreciate those of you who follow me for staying with me!

I have to admit I've been purchasing the Winsor Newton water-mixable oils here and there each time I would venture to the local craft store, knowing that I wanted to experiment with them.  It just seemed a natural transition since I love working with watercolor so much but I've missed the texture of oils.  So when I began this painting, it was fun and I was thinking it was very much like oils, but I soon discovered there are some things that are annoying.  One is that although it's called 'water-soluble', I don't think the makers of this product intend for it to be used like a water-based paint such as watercolors or even acrylics, where one uses water as they paint for thinning, blending, etc.  When I tried this, not only did the viscosity change to a degree that I found unpleasant to work with, it made the brush harder to control.  So I went to my friend, Google, and did some research.  I found that others had these problems too and that I was using the medium the wrong way.  In other words, the advise I found from experienced water-soluble oil painters, was to only use the 'water' for cleaning purposes and occasional thinning of the paint when mixing on the palette.  Instead of using water for blending on the canvas, use the 'water mixable oil painting medium'.  I used the Winsor &Newton brand simply because it was being sold locally along with their 'Artisan' water mixable oils.  Come to find out, on the forums, this seemed to be the medium of choice also.  I resolved to using the water mainly for clean-up of my brushes and just a tad for thinning and mixing of on the palette.  Then I'd place a very small amount of the medium occasionally on the palette for dipping just the tip of my brush into before picking up a color.

The colors of my palette were: alizarin crimson, cad. red deep, Indian red, raw umber, raw sienna, yellow ochre, cad. yellow pale hue, lemon yellow, thalo green, french ultramarine blue, cerulean blue, and titanium white.

TIP: I painted from one of my photos which I kept individually on my desktop on my computer.  That way all I had to do was click on the photo (using my Windows 'Picasa' I could instantly enlarge to fill the whole screen with my image) and I was ready to paint.  Saved the time of looking for it each time I had the urge and time to paint!  Just find your photo, right-click on it, and choose 'send to desktop'.

Stage 1 of Study: Cone Flowers in the Garden

The painting above began with a free feeling of just having fun.  It has been 8 years since I last worked with oils, so I was excited to 'play'.  However, that quickly turned to frustration when I started on the flowers, as I very seldom do close-ups of flowers like this and I did not want to get in the trap of trying to render too much detail.  It was also my first time to paint my favorite, the cone flower, and every where I turned on the canvas was a challenge - the cones, the petals- how many? Oh, it doesn't matter, just put some in! The stems- good grief, make them look natural but not too big.  Oh no now what, that stem is as honkin' big as a tree!  Exhausted after I won't admit how long, I put down the brush, slapped some Glad Wrap over my plastic palette of WB oils, shut it in my studio cabinet and said (with a few other choice words I won't mention here) "Later".  Then just let it 'simmer' for a few days.  Actually, those few days turned into weeks, but I would go back to it always with a fresh spirit and try again.

Stage 2 of: Study: Cone Flowers in the Garden

The above painting is where I'm now at, and I'm about to call it quits on this one.  Then again, like so many artists I have a hard time with that.  Knowing when to quit, I mean.

I have to share with you another problem I ran into while 're-working' this painting.  It developed too much paint in one area, right in the middle of the picture, and my goal was to let the canvas texture  show through on this one.  So my dilemma was how to get rid of the access paint, as it had already dried.  Water alone won't do it of course because the chemical reaction has already taken place once dried.  After 'Googling', I used the suggestion of just using a very small amount of turpenoid to get back down to the canvas.  Then started over.  It worked fine.

The second and most annoying problem I had was the 'sheen' created by the WN water mixable oil medium.  Because I only 'occasionally' dipped into it, there are shiny spots in different areas on the painting, but I think that can be leveled out by just covering the whole painting with a matt medium.  I happened to come across an original oil I have when cleaning the other day by someone who's been painting for many years.  His painting also has areas of sheen on it where he used oil medium.  Is this normal?  I'm not familiar enough with oils to know is it's okay to have these reflective 'spots' on one's painting, but personally I prefer all or nothing.  If anyone has any suggestions or tips for me and others on these problems with Water-soluble oils or painting with oils in general, please comment,  I'd love to hear them!  Thanks.

I will say, overall, I thoroughly enjoyed painting the flowers and working with a new and different medium and I'd encourage anyone who may be 'in a funk' to try something different too. Whether it's working 2-D or 3-D, or whatever art form, just to step out of the box can be not only refreshing but a new insight to the medium you currently work in. It also gave me spring fever painting the flowers from my garden so I hope to paint more in the future and also more nature 'objects' other than just landscapes.  'Til then, happy creating, Folks...

Rod Lawrence, Tim Ernst, Two Artists' Nature Journals

There are two web journals I'd like to share with you that I really enjoy reading.  I guess one could call them 'blogs', but the way they are written without using blog platforms such as  Wordpress or Blogger, they seem more intimate and therefore more intriguing to me.  Both of these guys are good writers, both have a love and respect for nature (they actually live in the wilderness), and both are great, well-known artists in the area of their specialty.

Rod Lawrence is an author and acrylic wildlife painter.  I came across his journal one day as I was thinking about trying some acrylics and wanted to experiment with creating bark textures, fur, etc. and remembered that I have his book, Painting Wild Life Textures Step by Step (just noticed when making this link that this book is now out-of-print.  You might try Alibris or Amazon - can view inside book at Amazon - or one of your favorite used book sites to locate it if interested in getting one).  After reading a while, I thought I'd look him up on-line to view his website and was pleasantly surprised to see that he occasionally writes about happenings in and around his home in a journal format.  Although his postings are sporadic (like someone else i know), he states he only posts when he finds time and is just trying to give readers a feel for what life is like at his wilderness home in Michigan.

Tim Ernst, a nature photographer,  is very well-known in these parts and throughout Arkansas, as well as outside the state.  He lives close to the Buffalo River which he calls Cloudland.  His Cloudland Journal is very similar writing to Lawrence's - about living with nature, but with many more photos and posts.  Although I have a tiny patch of woods and hollow behind my home, I don't live at all in a wilderness area like these two men, which is why I so enjoy reading their journals.  And because I respect the ruggedness of the Arkansas wilderness, I have a great appreciation for the way they live.  Their writings reflect a simple, quiet but sometimes rugged life, yet I'm sure these two men lead very busy lives with such successful careers and can only imagine that they relish being home from their many travels on the road.  I had a chance to attend a slide presentation given by Ernst a couple of weeks ago, promoting his new coffee table book, Arkansas Autumn, and his trip to Iceland with Iceland nature photographer, Daniel Bergmann, but I missed it and of course am now regretting doing so.  I'll just have to catch him next time around.  I came across his journal because I've really been concentrating on my photography lately and wanted to view his recent work.  I hope to some day take one of his workshops.

So sometime on a cold winter's day, like me, you might like to curl up with a hot cup of coffee, tea, or cocoa by the comfort of your own fireplace (or electric space heater) and go into the wilderness via Tim and Rod's writings.  Happy reading, and if I don't get around to posting again before Christmas, Happy Holidays!

Strange Summer...

This has been an allusive summer for me due to unforeseen events, so my apologies to those faithful followers who are probably wondering if I fell off the face of the earth.

I did manage however, earlier this summer, to paint the plein air picture below.  I  had decided to just strike out on my own and really get into painting, as I love doing this. 

Sometimes when I strike out on a venture,  I tell myself, Okay, no just riding around in circles.  Today, I'll make myself find a spot and paint!!  The fear of utter disgust with myself if I don't live up to this commitment fuels my determination to, like Nike says, 'just do it'.   I found this spot, overlooking quiet pastures with the Ozark hills as a backdrop, one of my favorite scenes to paint.  The short gated drives along roads and highways that farmers use to access their pastures offer a perfect set-up spot, which is what I used for this scene.  Just pulled my car onto the little turn-in, unloaded my gear in front of the gate and began painting.  This way,  I'm not down an isolated road, passers-by can clearly see me, yet my car is completely off the road or highway.   Knowing people are passing by and can see me gives me a sense of security, and because I feel safer, I can concentrate on the task at hand, which is painting of course.

Ozark Hills, near Westfork

I still need to add some of the purple darks to the right foreground and try to 'break up' the strong horizontal darks of the tree line shadows across the middle plane of the painting.   This was a quick study, evident in the brushwork, and my goal is still to get values as near correct as possible without getting caught up in the subject matter, and to capture the mood at that moment in time.  I'm also still struggling with getting my pigments the right strength.  It seems I either pick up too much pigment or not enough, but I think that will come with time and painting.  I've tried both methods of: using dried water colors vs. squeezing fresh pigment.  When using dried watercolors in my palette, even if I keep my wells sprayed with a mister, it just takes too long for me (like waiting on a microwave!) to pick up my pigments when painting outdoors. Squeezing fresh watercolor on top of previously dried pigment works best for me.  Whatever floats your boat, I guess.

Oh, regarding a recent post, I did break down and purchase the Holbein 1000 palette from Art Express and I love it.  I probably would have been satisfied purchasing the next size down, because the 1000 seems a bit much for plein air painting, but this one works fine.  I use the thumb hole when painting on site, which is why I wanted the Holbein, to hold the paints closer to me and my painting surface and even though it's a bit large, it doesn't feel cumbersome, and has plenty of wells/spaces for paint mixing.

Well, I hope I get back to painting soon, and I hope you're painting too.  Remember,  just do it...