FIRST OIL PAINTING OF THE YEAR

Here it is the end of January already, and I only have one finished painting to put here.    And I am so behind with my computer stuff.  I have lots of emails to answer, my postcard postings are behind though at least I've done 6 each week, and my 2 woodblocks are done and the exchange ones off in the mail.  But new resolve for the next month to get more painting done.  I started a new oil and a larger than usual watercolor last week.  They are coming alone, but today I'm catching up on the internet.  After a lot of trouble earlier in the month, it has been working well lately.

 

9 x 12 inches, water mixable oil

This is a stand of mountain hemlock that I've painted several times before, more often with late summer sun making them glow. I need to work on the lower right side.  So often, I don't see the weak spots until I've put the photos here.

I seem to need a sunny day to get a decent image to put here, and we've had a few the last few days. Thankfully, I remembered to take this outside and take a picture yesterday, as it turned overcast again today and snow or rain is on its way. 

SMALL STUDIES

Last week, I finished another oil painting and  spent hours on one of the older ones. Maybe it will be dry outside today so I can take some photos.
  

Since the beginning of the year, I've been again posting my little watercolors and gouache on my other blog.  I'm pretty proud of myself for having a post for every day.... on Sundays I've given myself a day off and post an older image and I'm often a day or two late getting my posting on.  These are usually from life and  only one each day, but on  Saturday, inspire by blog postings by both Nathan Fowkes  and Sherrie York  I did the 3 mountain ones on this  page using images for reference from old slides that I had scanned , thinking more of finding a good composition than I usually do. I'm determined to keep doing more, trying different arrangements and view points.

Well, off to a new week.  I seem to have something else to do almost everyday that keeps me from spending the whole day in the studio. On Monday mornings I do a couple of hours at the local second hand store and I'm already late.

PEAR WOODCUT

PEAR  woodcut 11 x 5 inches

Wow, I switched to the new Blogger editor  (Maybe its not all that new, but I just found it) and can put a larger picture here.  I did but changed it because it was too big for the window. 

I finished  my other print and am somewhat pleased with it. It took a lot longer than I expected. I used 4 blocks, 3 were reduction, and I think there were 17 passes.  I ended up with an edition of 33 and a couple of artist proofs.  28 of them will be included in a Baren Forum exchange. 

The printing stuff is put away and I'm anxious to get back to the oils tomorrow.

WOODCUTS CONTINUE

I've been cutting and printing for over a week now. I finished printing the Year of the Rabbit yesterday. I used 2 blocks reductive. Had some problems with the trees, but like it otherwise.

Still working on the other print.... Its reduction with 4 blocks. I've done 10 impressions so far and have 7 more, I think. Loving and hating it.

BACK TO THE WOODCUTS

Yesterday, I got back to the struggle with the woodcut exchange print. As I said before, coming up with a good image is a challenge. I spent much of yesterday going through old photographs, looking for something I could use on the specified 13 x 6 inch paper. I finally went back to some sketches I had done before Christmas of pears and whipped out this watercolor.



It is 12 x 5 inches, which will leave a half inch border. The scanner left an inch off the bottom which was dark brown.... I may leave it off the print too and I'm not sure about the background color behind the pear. There is also some of the image missing on the right; why, I don't know. There will be more shadow in the pear. The paint ran together because I was in a hurry and couldn't find my hair dryer.

I really wanted to do a landscape, but everything I came up with was really complicated. I'm feeling relief that I've finally got a design.