House in spring, final, oil on canvas 18 x 24
Plein air painting in the spring sunshine is one of my favorite things to do. I love the fresh colors. Check out my step-by-step page for a how to demonstration. https://my90acres.com/artwork/plein-air-painting-in-spring-time/
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Posted in art, country living, oil painting, old house, plein air painting, Uncategorized
Tagged art, house portrait, kit miracle, oil painting, old house, painting instruction, plein air
A simple spring subject. Oil on canvas, 11×14
I’ve often been asked how I decide what to paint. To me, the answer is obvious. Just as writers are advised to “paint what you know,” so, too, should painters. What interests you? Do you have a passion or special message? For me, just walking out the door will often suggest a subject. In fact, I once had an exhibit which was solely painted from “my 90 acres,” i.e., everything and everyone was from the home place. That was a little challenging as I do get out and about, but it was a good exhibit.
This painting that I completed yesterday is a scene just out my studio door. The dog and some spring bushes. Pretty simple. However, if you look back at some of the famous painters of the past century, regional artists or French Impressionists, some of their best work was of ordinary daily scenes. I don’t live near the ocean or the Rocky Mountains, so my usual subjects are the soft hills here in southern Indiana, small villages, flower gardens, vegetables, my favorite people and places. Try taking a look around your own home town with new eyes. You’ll be surprised at subjects which suggest themselves. Good luck!
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Posted in 100 dollar paintings, animals, country living, painting instruction
Tagged art, country living, kit miracle, oil painting, painting instruction, plein air
Blue-rimmed bowl, still life after Cezanne – final, 18×24, oil on canvas
I just completed this painting which is my interpretation of a still life in the style of Cezanne. Although it is not a copy of any of his paintings, I wanted to challenge myself to interpret his style and used several of the objects that he used in his still lifes. For a step-by-step view, check it out on my Artwork pages.https://my90acres.com/artwork/blue-rimmed-bowl-still-life-step-by-step/
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Posted in art, oil painting, still life
Tagged art, cezanne, kit miracle, oil painting, painting instruction, still life, toned canvas
Chalk Horse, final, oil on canvas, 16×20
This painting was a study in complementary colors. Check out the step-by-step on the pages. https://my90acres.com/artwork/chalk-horse-step-by-step/
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Posted in oil painting, painting instruction
Tagged art, kit miracle, oil painting, painting instruction, toned canvas
OK, so I’m crazy. But I greatly admire the plein air painters who tromped through the woods, fields and villages in the winter to paint snow scenes. I will admit that I haven’t been too adventurous in this area but I actually went out into our woods a few weeks ago when we had our first real snow this season. It was actually great fun but I froze my feet off! Lesson: get some foot warmers before I go out in this kind of weather next time. I had three layers of socks but that didn’t help.
Painting in the snow. Oil on canvas, 11×14
Woods in Winter, final painting, oil on canvas, 11×14
Last Sunday, my friend Laura Pommier and I spent the afternoon painting a still life in my studio. It’s very interesting how two people can look at the same things and come up with entirely different paintings. Well, a little wine, some snacks and lots of good talk. It was an afternoon well spent. Then yesterday I worked on the painting some more, adding the final details.
This is painted on a panel, 12×24 and was toned a pinky-peach color. Notice in the detail images how I allowed that to shine through for an added glow.
The Green Bowl, 12×24, oil on panel
The Green Bowl detail 3
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Posted in art, oil painting, painting instruction, still life
Tagged apples, art, kit miracle, oil painting, painting instruction, still life, toned canvas
OK, I had six days off for the holidays and spent quite a bit out in my studio. Escape from…or escape to….I won’t even go there. Anyway, some time spent nurturing my creative self. A little tea, a lot of lively music. (NO Christmas carols!)
I’ve had this little pumpkin hanging around since before Halloween. I just love the stem of it. This is an 11×14, oil on canvas. Painted in about three hours.
Pumpkin, 11×14 oil on canvas
I was also able to spend a few days creating this blue and yellow still life. Check out my Art pages for a complete step-by-step or click on the link below the painting.
Still life, blue bottles and lemons, final. 18×24 oil on canvas
https://my90acres.com/artwork/still-life-with-blue-bottles-and-lemons-step-by-step/
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Posted in art, oil painting, painting instruction, still life
Tagged art, kit miracle, oil painting, painting instruction, still life, toned canvas
Dos Palomas final. 18×24 oil on canvas. Added some cooler tones to counteract the overly warm tones.
Earlier I showed you my procedure for setting up a simple still life. This is the final painting. I used a toned canvas. If you’d like to see a step-by-step demonstration, click on the link below or go to My Pages and view the steps.
Posted in art, oil painting, painting instruction, still life
Tagged art, kit miracle, oil painting, painting instruction, still life, toned canvas
Final set up. Cup with silver spoon. Fixed silver foliage later.
It’s not always easy to set up a still life for painting. It’s much more than just throwing a random collection of stuff on a table. Check out my page for How to set up a still life for a photo story of one of my recent works. I’ll post the painting later.
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Posted in art, oil painting, still life
Tagged art, kit miracle, oil painting, painting, painting instruction, still life, toned canvas
You may have wondered where the heck I’ve been the past few weeks. The truth is that I was preparing to have an open studio sale. This is where you invite your friends, former patrons, even the public in general to come to your studio to buy some really great artwork at some really great prices. In other words, to relieve you of the crap you’re stumbling over all the time.
It dawned on me this summer that I can’t keep creating paintings without moving some of them out the door. I used to do several art fairs a year and was pretty prolific at making work for sale. Since I’ve had a full-time job for the past several years, I don’t have the opportunity to get out in the public to promote and sell my work. Yes, I still do exhibits once in a while, but it’s difficult to sell the work and hold the job. So…..
After being totally fed up with tripping over boxes of paintings, I decided that it was time to have an open studio sale. I haven’t had one in several years so it took some planning and organization.
Generally I like to have the sale in the fall, well before the holiday season. If you wait too late, then everyone is busy. Autumn is pretty in my part of the world and everyone is still relaxed enough to enjoy a ride to see the trees.
I had my sale on October 20th but began promoting it at least six weeks earlier and planned for it even earlier. I designed postcards, mailed them out to about everyone I could think of locally or within an hour’s drive. This included co-workers, relatives, friends, patrons…just about anyone I could think who might be interested. I mailed out about 160 postcards and gave away many more. I promoted it heavily on my Facebook page, too. The general rule of thumb is that 40% of the people you invite will come and about 20% will buy. I’ve found that about 25% of the people I invite will attend but 95% will buy. Nearly everyone bought multiple paintings, too. It was a very good day.
I’ll add my back time list here soon, but generally, you need to plan back from the time of your event. (This is what I do for my full-time job so it’s pretty natural to me.) I began telling everyone the date as soon as I set it, even though I didn’t formally send out my postcards until about six weeks early. Clean your studio. Make your inventory. And price your work as if you really want it to MOVE. I put fire-sale prices on my work. Yes, this was way cheaper than I would normally sell the paintings, but I asked myself, how much longer do I want to keep moving these around? Also, there is the matter of stored paintings not being in the best conditions. Do you want to let them sit there and mildew or do you want someone to actually put it on their walls and enjoy them? I chose the latter. Some people got some really great deals. But I got a lot of cash and lots more space. 😉 Works for everyone.
I will note one thing is that I didn’t put everything I have created for sale. I kept back my best or newest work. Most of the work I sold were older pieces or what I call my practice pieces. These included many of my plein air pieces, too. So now I can buy more art supplies to create more paintings! Yeah! I also recommend actually removing your best pieces from your studio as I had people digging through my storage of things I didn’t even have out for sale.
In general, this is what I do for an Open Studio Sale.
I’ll come back soon to put up my actual check-off list.
Good food and beverage is always an enticement. The wine and coffee were outside.
Display in the front studio.
Display in the back studio. Notice the extra light. That really seemed to help.
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Posted in art, painting instruction
Tagged art, oil painting, open studio, painting instruction, sale, selling art
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