The house with the red door - sold

'The House With The Red Door' - sold

8" x 10" watercolor

private commission

Don't you just love that red door? I do too. :) This is another commission. This one is of the home a Dad and his daughter lived in for 25 years. She contacted me and asked if I'd be able to paint a portrait of this house so she could give it to her Dad as a gift.

I don't do a lot of buildings. Actually I think this is probably only the second house I've ever painted. It was a good change of pace. But what I really liked painting were the trees. I've been wanting to paint plein aire for a long time, and now I want to give it a try even more. I have these grand plans of getting up early one Saturday morning and heading out. . . Haven't done it yet, but I will! One day. :)

Huzzah!

In Which I Paint a Landscape For the First Time - SOLD

'The Storm Breaks'

6" x 6" watercolor

SOLD

This month's theme for the Cook-Waller challenge was winter.  I chose the theme this time and can I just say how hard it was for me to finally pin down what I wanted to paint??

I had all these ideas from pink bottles of children's cough syrup and asthma medicine (a constant in my house in the winter for my youngest son) to kids building snowmen, and finally settled on this landscape (cloudscape?). I was driving my boys to school last week and watched these big dark clouds get broken apart by the sun rising over the mountains and it was SO pretty.

It had a very optimistic feeling too I think. The light was stronger than the dark and was smackin' it upside the head. Take that darkness!! Hi-yaaah!

Seriously though, I love images and themes that have to do with light overcoming dark. It makes me feel hope. Because I think that all of us, whether we're aware of it or not, are fighting our own internal battle of light vs. dark.

And I have pictures of another artist's work that I simply have to share. Here's a shot of the artist at work:

My middle child (who's seven)  painting a project for his first grade class about Komodo Dragons. He worked so hard and was so proud of himself. He had the choice of how he wanted to represent his animal from dioramas to sculptures, and everything in between, and he chose painting.

Can you tell how proud I am? :)))

And here's the finished painting:

Komodo Dragon by MC (middle child) Cook 

acrylic on canvas panel 11" x 14"

Hope you all had a great weekend! See you guys on Thursday. Huzzah! :)))

Landscape! Work in Progress

the promised landscape poll result painting

10" x 14" watercolor (detail)

Finally, here is the landscape that won the 'what should I paint next?' poll a few months ago. Still a work in progress at this point, but coming along.

I've only ever painted one other landscape and it was a big, huge, ugly disaster. So I approached this one with more than a little fear.

But, once I started painting, the fear left and I realized that it's not the subject that was scary, but the idea in my heart that I would fail. Again.

It reminded me that it doesn't really matter what your subject is, a portrait, flower, horse, or even a landscape, what matters is how you see your subject.

Harley Brown said, "I don't know the first thing about a horse's hind end, but I can draw it. A cowboy, or an artist, or anyone, can look at my drawing and say, 'That Harley really knows his horses!'

I don't know horses. I just know how to observe a horse.'"

The man is truly a genius. :)

This is what I tell myself when I'm trying to think myself out of the fear of failure at the easel:

All it takes to remove the fear when you approach your next work is your ability to observe. You are an artist! You know how to observe! You've done it millions of times.

Stop overthinking it.

Stop worrying about that barn and field and just paint what you see. It's really just a rectangle and some abstract shapes.

You can paint that. Because you are an ARTIST.

Now, dear friends, you must tell me. . .

Am I the only one that gives themselves motivational pep talks?

Sure hope not.