Brain Dump

Learning to play again, using watercolor , pastel, and acrylic paint...., oh my! I painted with my friend Carlolyn , she reintroduced me to acrylic paints. We played , droping paint in blobs spraying water moving it around , more blobs alcohol , crinkled plastic , palette knife . Medium .... This was the result . I had wanted a Chicago sky line for my chickens.... Not sure how this is going to work. Carolyn , " just look at it, let it speak to you, it will tell you what it needs" true enough. That's what all paintings do.  Sandpaper , watercolor , pastel, taped off sections . The beginning of my obsession with chickens.

After my last day with the kids for the year, I drove back to the Kishwaukee Headwaters to fix my paintings . ( I can see a strong influence of Vincent Van Gogh, 4 days with K-3 , I guess I can't help but channel a little, hahahaha) One was unfinished and damaged from a storm that blew up...... Truth be told it was blowing all day , the gust just came at the wrong time. The other had a shadow and a light that needed to be addressed . Had to do it on location. That didn't take long, but I think I over worked the second piece , the one I remembered to take a picture of. I'm really concentrating on seeing the subtle changes in the prairie landscape using values.  I need to replace my red gel , which was tucked in my my leather sketchbook that has gone missing. 

 Illinois State Beach Looking North February 2014 Illinois State Beach Looking South September 2013 I hope to do a series on Illinois State Beach. All of the shores of Lake Michigan intrigue me. I spent a great deal of my youth and young adult years there and brought my children to experience the same delight. There's something about the shores of Lake Michigan. So maybe the series will end up being about the shores of Lake Michigan rather than this specific shore.

6.5x8 oil on canvas Rush Creek Conservation area McHenry County, IL. 0 to -15…silly me thought I could paint. I took the van that has heated seats and heaters all over, its 15 years old but at the time still worked, this winter was not kind to it. I got out with my camera to help focus and take pictures and run back to the running, warm van. Ha! I was frozen…even with all the prep…all the layers and warmers and hats and thermals. The bite of the wind was just too much. So this was done in the studio and was the first 30-minutes-or-less painting.

Brookdale Conservation Area, McHenry County, IL, a cold March day, sometime in March , funny geese landing on the lake using tails as a rudder Lake Michigan in Milwaukee, WI, 41 degrees Brookdale Conservation Area, McHenry County, IL 4/18  My goal was to go out prepared, make definitive decisions on composition & color, not over think things, not bring my whole studio with me and paint everything I see,  and yes, that would include the garbage can. Plein air painting has been a real struggle for me, my attention is almost non, I'm running with the clouds if they are racing or a hawk if it is stalking its pray, anything happening, I'm observering it, feeling it.  I'm extremely sensitive to my surroundings.  I go into overdrive.  When I went to Jill Carver's workshop in Colorado and the aspens were in full color -- ha -- super overdrive. You guessed it, I was quaking with them.  My whole body………. Talk about Spiritual …….the other st...

I open my studio on Thursday from 6:30- 9:30 pm  to draw and paint from a model here are a few charcoal sketches from this week