His and Hers

                                 6x6 Bid on this Painting

This week's DPW Challenge was "paint your shoes". I was going to just paint my own "hikers" but then I thought it might be fun to tie mine and my husband's together. How's that for romantic?
I've been madly painting the last few days, starting my new series based on people at vintage car shows. It may expand into people at other public venues, as we went to a bike swap in Tucson yesterday and I snapped some reference photos. This weekend there is a vintage car show and chili cook-off in Amado, a town just south of us. My camera and I will be there!

A Mother's Love

                            6x6  Bid on this Painting
The DPW Challenge this week is "Paint Your Pig". I have a "pig", but I chose instead to use the photo that was provided. The expressions on the faces occurred purely by chance, giving me the idea for the title, "A Mother's Love". I think the little pig looks contrite and she (Mom) looks concerned and slightly disapproving.

On the Green

                                    6x6 Bid on this Painting   

I separated my older daily paintings into 3 piles. One pile is "fine as is" (I could change my mind about any of those). Another pile is "project for improvement" . The third pile is for "paint-overs". I think I've learned a few things about composition lately. Took me long enough! I'm starting to really "get" the concept of linking my shapes, both in color and value. This painting is an example of one that I painted over using what i know now. I think it's a much stronger painting. The painting I posted yesterday I decided doesn't work. I ended up with ambiguous focal points- the bright green lawn and the sunlit corner of the house. Because I'm trying to feature the house, I am working on toning down the lawn and increasing the interest on the corner of the house. Will post the "new and improved" version soon.

Green and Gold

                                      Bid on this painting
It seems I only paint the little ones any more when the DPW Challenges occur. I am working on my Spain/Portugal series whenever I have the opportunity to paint. I know I'll get back to the dailies later. This challenge was to paint rectangles of color based on what you are observing. I quite like the effect, and it renews my resolve to be more careful about making color fields interesting with the application of a variety of related colors.

Poster Boy

                                               7x5 $90
This was taken from a reference photo of a man posting a notice. Somewhere along the line I decided that he was a boy instead. I also updated my photo on yesterdays post. It's funny how you sometimes don't notice errors until you see the photograph. I realized I neglected to paint the bottom portion of the black cup on the top. Thus it sat at an improbable angle in the glass below, and the perspective looked wrong as well.

Do I still have blog readers???? Since I returned from vacation I haven't received hardly any comments. I miss getting feedback! I would love to hear what you respond to- positive and (constructively) critical.

Brothers

                                     6x6 $90

Two boys by the fire; even as a girl I have memories of hours spent playing with a stick in the flames. This one may turn into a larger painting. My husband is leaving tomorrow for a one week trip, and that means lots of painting time for yours truly.

Outside the Cafe

SOLD

I'm back!!! Today was my first painting day in over 2 months and it felt great! We were scheduled to return from Europe on May 25, but we changed our tickets to fly home early because our grandson was born early on May 21. We are pretty smitten with the little guy- Ryan Andrew Sandberg- and we have been trying to spend some time at least every other day with him and his parents. Then, of course, there's been the mail and other household stuff to attend to. Also, I told myself that i had to edit my photos and finish the Spain blog before i could begin painting. That took so much time!!!!! But it's done, and there is now a slide show of our trip as well as a blog completely outfitted with pictures. You can check it out at www.jedandlayneinspain.blogspot.com if you're so inclined. If you click on the link above the slide show you will get a better viewing version with music. 

So- about this lady. We had lunch at a seafood cafe in this old fishing village called Afurada- near Porto, Portugal. I took numerous photos of the outside of the building, primarily because there were guys frying fish there, but then this great old lady wandered by! I'm wary of photographing people without their permission, so I just proceeded to take more photos of the restaurant- and there she was-none the wiser. 

I painted 4 paintings today!!! I'm pretty sure I will end up doing a series of larger paintings based on my trip. There's something energizing about "re-living" the experiences by painting from them.

Right Out There

                                          6x6 $90
This is another of my made-up houses; this one is waterfront! I'm out of town until May 25, so any purchases will have to wait to be shipped.

Cluster

                                   6x6 $90
This may be the last painting I post before we leave on Tuesday. I do have a few that I can pre-post for later viewing, and I intend to check in from Spain occasionally with a photograph or 2, so I hope you will continue to follow my blog. Anybody who is especially interested in the Camino de Santiago, can follow my new blog at http://jedandlayneinspain.blogspot.com
 I'm getting very excited about the trip now. We have our packs weighing only 10% of our body weight (including sleeping bag!) and I gave myself a traveler haircut with the electric cutter set at 3/4". I wasn't going to wear earrings, but I think I'd better so people will know I'm a "girl".
I know I'm going to miss painting, but I will be taking photos and getting lots of ideas.

Mother In Law Door

6x6 $90

Years ago we were in Nova Scotia Newfoundland and we observed many houses with front doors leading to nowhere. When we asked the locals what that was about they said that since most people never use their front doors they opted not to go to the expense of building porches and stairs. The doors leading to nowhere are known as "mother-in-law doors". Really. Google it. 

I enjoy doing these fanciful architectural structures. They provide a great opportunity to think about color and composition. I think I may go down to Lake Union and photograph some floating homes for reference. 

My little daily painting that I donated to DPW to raise money for the Japan crisis got bid up to $251! I'm so pleased that I can do something I love (paint) and at the same time be a part of such a generous project. They've raised almost $20,000 dollars- and are sure to top that. Wow!

I finally committed to a website. Check it out- www.laynecook.com. Let me know, please, if you find it difficult to navigate or have any suggestions for improvement. I value the experience of other artists!

Two on a Plate

SOLD

A Little Something

                                           SOLD
I really like to paint figurative, but I have a hard time creating strong compositions. I'm trying to use what I've learned from setting up still life compositions to apply to other subject matter. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. With this one, I think it worked. I tried to group my values and I also tried to mix nice neutrals. I also wanted to keep the painting as abstract as possible while maintaining the narrative.

Caffeine Makes Me Jump

                                     6x6 $90
This is actually my second painting for the DPW Challenge. For those who don't know, this week's challenge was to place a white object on patterned cloth and observe- and paint- the reflected colors in the white object. I wasn't happy with my cloth options, so I made my own pattern with colored paper. I like this well enough to use this technique for other paintings.

Cup of Onion

                                   6x6 $90
This is the final effort from my onion painting day. It lacked punch, and I couldn't figure out why. Then I darkened the background, and I like it a lot better. I think I got my cue from Carol Carmichael. The daily painter's blogs are a great source of inspiration and education!

Let the Light Shine

                                  6x6 $90
Enough of Rome. It's back to the still lifes for the moment. I have made a few changes to my Rome paintings (I tend to "go back in" quite often), and I'll replace the images on my postings as they evolve. So this is another "colored water" painting. The teal bottle actually is that color, but the yellow is colored water in a clear bottle. I love the way the egg picks up the color around it.

Have a Seat

                              6x6 $90
When I was painting the onions, I had so much paint left on my palette, that I impulsively decided to paint this chair. I think because I'd been painting onions intensely for a few hours, this little painting was rendered quickly and loosely. It was a nice contrast. Man, I love a good painting day!

I've been having fun roaming the virtual streets of Rome looking for subjects for this month's Street View Paintoff. I'm really getting into this. Since I love to paint people, I look for figures in interesting poses, preferably in light and shadow. I've painted a couple 12x12's and plan to do one or 2 more. Then I'd like to post them and have the comments help me decide which one to enter.

Three Mugs and an Onion

                         6x6 $90
Another onion painting. I felt compelled to come up with a color scheme complimentary to the lovely deep reddish purple of the onion. I decided that I wanted the painting to be mostly cool, but the warm colors would incorporate the onion color. I played around with lots of mugs before coming up with this combo.

The Grim Reaper

                               6x6 $90
Here's version 2 of the onion setup. This time the surface is a 1/4" mdf panel with multiple layers of gesso on it and black acrylic under painting.I rather like the resulting texture. The painting has rather a dark mood to it- and then there's the knife...thus the title. Thanks for all the wonderful comments on yesterday's painting! It was gratifying to see that so many people liked it.

Too Close for Comfort

                         6x6 $90

The flower looks concerned that it's being stalked by the bottle in the back, doesn't it? I love painting glass bottles because they makes these crazy distortions that are fun to paint I'm also quite fond of this relatively monochromatic palette. 

Today has been a fabulous painting day. I have 3 red onions, one of which is sprouting. I painted one setup on a black primed panel (dry), the same setup on a green primed panel (wet), then a whimsical setup using one of the onions and a complementary color scheme, and finally a setup using multiple colors that I tried to tie together by working a little of each into the other. On the first 2, I really tried to do the DPW Challenge of laying down a different color with each stroke. On the second 2, that fell apart a bit, but I was still mindful of the principle. Whew! What a day! I'll be posting these over the next few days.

Crow Standoff

                               SOLD
I took a little liberty with the blue here- I guess no crow ever looks that blue. Oh well, as painters it's our  prerogative to take liberties with reality!