Mount Olympus

The final:

I spent 10+ on this.  I'm proud of this.  I'm sending on its way today.

Instead of doing lots of little projects lately, I'm focusing on nicer bigger projects.  And I'm just focusing on one project a week.  I'm taking my sweet time on this mountain. It took about 3 weeks, which turned out to be about 3-4 painting sessions of 2+ hours each time.  But I'm trying to do about 4-6 hours of serious painting a week.

Personally, I would almost like to leave this painting in this state and not mess with it, but I'm going for a little realism, so I must add color.

Valentines Decor

I wanted to do some Valentines Decor, so I painted these.  It also happened that I was doing a baby shower, and needed to update my paintings and finally take down my Christmas paintings.  These might carry over for the spring.  We shall see, but I thought a bike and Eiffel tower were a little romantic.  You can copy these and print them as you like. 

Barn

This was based off an original photo, so this painting is 100% original Libby.  I'm starting to see how an underpainting can really help.  I haven't been able to properly connect the work of underpainting to a final product.  It just really helps the values.

Abstract Landscape

This is an abstract landscape.  It was fun to try out.  I'm practicing doing paintings based off photos, and not just based on other paintings.  I'm learned how to interpret the photo, and it's helping.  Honestly, Russell didn't love it a ton, and that's ok.  I kind of love stuff like this, and I think I'd be a good abstract artist, but it's a little hard to be so daring.  It's really good to try something different. I still like it.

Visiting a Gallery in Cary

We visited my neighbor's art, which is at a Gallery in Cary.  How cool it is to know some real artists. I was unsure if I could really sell at galleries, but I think I'll try it out in a couple of years at our next destination.  I was actually surprised to see how attainable that goal might really be.  The art in the gallery was lovely, but I looked at a lot of pieces and thought, "I can really do that."  That's not something I was sure about before.

I made some stationary for the missionaries for Christmas.

Oquirrh Mountain Temple

Here is a 5X7 Oquirrh Mountain Temple.  I made a nice sunrise effect because it is at the edge of a mountain, with pretty sunrises and sunsets.

One dreamy Saturday I did 4 landscapes.

One Saturday morning in October (I think), the Wayne had to go to a primary program practice at the church.  Russell was a dream, and he took all the kids.  It was a heavenly morning.  I just painted for 3 hours, and I painted for a few hours later in the day.  So I did 4 landscapes (pretty much) in a day, or at least the weekend.  I think I just polished one off.  

While I painted, I listened to General Conference (talks by LDS Prophets), was inspired, and painted some art.  I just love this small 5X7 palette knife landscape.  It was inspired by a Pottery Barn painting, and was a Christmas gift for my friend. 

Here is the final.  The picture doesn't do it justice.  I'm using only cell phone shots these days.  But this had a nice burnt umber underpainting showing through the sky, with just lovely colors.  The texture was rich.  Just love it!

A nice neutral piece.

I did this over one weekend.

Rooster with a palette knife (Reserved for Jessie)

I love love love the way paintings look when they use a palette knife, but I don't love how my wrist hurts after.  I must be a moron, because I can't figure out how to paint with a palette knife without wrist pain later.

Here is a rooster that I've wanted to do for a while.  It's based on a youtube video by Ginger Cook.  (She has great tutorials. I swear, you could be a terrible artist and still make something beautiful with her help.)

The face is still unfinished in the middle one.  Later, I finally took time to finish.  Christmas came upon me and all art projects ceased for a while there.

Here is the final (with some color studies, which have really helped my cloud development.)

A Road Landscape

I think this looks really great in the picture.  It doesn't quite look as good in real life, but maybe it's just because I'm the artist.  I kind of always feel like a picture makes it look better, sharper, etc. I feel like I still need to work on my polishing.  I have always been drawn to bold brush strokes and impressionistic art, but I think I would have greater strength to be loosely realistic in my paintings for a while to hone in some of my skills.  I recognize that I need to build my foundation better first.