Hawaii Paintings for Class

 Here are two paintings I completed during my Winter 2010 painting class. Both are reproductions of paintings that I saw in

Maui in December. I wanted to try to capture the colors and light of the originals.

This first is from Front Street in Lahaina. The original was painted by Larry Moore during a Maui Plein Air Event. I reproduced his painting called "On Front Street". His work is much lighter and airier than mine. And his is in oil. Mine is acrylic,
12x16".

It was a good exercise in using brighter colors and contrasts, and trying to work more with basic shapes instead of details. I'm a detail kind of person, so it's a challenge to be more expressionistic. I like that messier look, but it doesn't come naturally to me (except when it comes to housework and cleaning - then I'm plenty messy).

Here's Larry's website: www.larrymoorestudios.com/field_studies.html

The second painting below is a reproduction of an oil painting by Jan Bushart, another Hawaiian plein air artist. The original is called "The Workhorse", (referring to the tractor). She uses great colors and beautiful greens and blues in her paintings. Jan also uses wonderful loose brush strokes, which is something I need to learn.
Jan's website: http://curlyjan.fineartstudioonline.com/

I wish I could have purchased both originals. These were good learning exercises and are strictly for personal use. My copies pale in comparison with the originals.

Mixer Head

Our first assignment for painting class this term was to make a face collage. We used face segments from various magazine photos to create a new image. I used the eyes from a Michael Jackson photo, the lips and chin from Halle Berry, the nose from an anonymous model and the mixer/bowl/earmuffs from an educational magazine. I found the butler body from another magazine and added the pug in place of a piece of cake.

Some students kept the different colors and styles from each strip, but I blended the segments into one face. I can see that I made the eyes, nose and lips smaller than in the collage - and I left off the mascara. I may play around with those a bit more. I reworked the face color and shading since I first posted this. I really struggled with the face colors and blending...it's a new challenge for me in paint. The acrylic paint dries so fast that blending is difficult.

Photo Collage 

I hung this painting in my office and people have asked me what it "means", or what I was trying to convey. Mostly it was just for fun, but I may have to make up something more esoteric!

This is 18x24 on canvas board in acylic.

EP

Painting of Retro Fan

Tonight I finished the last painting for my Fall class. Earlier in the term we put together a still life display using items from the Art department prop closet. There was a whole bunch of stuff including a skeleton, some vases, bottles, a toaster, a tea kettle, a plastic baby doll, and this old fan.

I recently saw some prize-winning paintings of retro/50's appliances in an artist's magazine. There was an old Electrolux canister vacuum cleaner with hose and an old electric mixer. I wanted to try something similar with this fan.

This was a fun project but it was a bugger to paint. I had a hard time getting the blades and metal cage to look right. I like it! It's 16"x20" in acylic.

EP

Yellow Headed Blackbird

Here's the other painting I've been working on in class this fall. I've always wanted a painting of a Yellow-Headed Blackbird.

When we were kids we spent summers at Lake Poinsett in South Dakota. The Yellow Headed Blackbirds hung out in the swamps near the lake. Grandma always looked for them when she came to stay with us.

So, here's my version. I think it's almost done, but will have to see when I go to class on Tuesday. This painting is 12x16 in acrylic. It started out with a very pale background, which was too pasty looking. I changed it to pond colors.

Cousins Painting Reworked

I'm taking a painting class again this fall. I took in my summer painting from the old snapshot and got some good ideas for making the background better.

I repainted the house and the window reflections. My teacher noticed the house eave in the window reflection on the original photo, so I added that. He also pointed out that all of my background house and ground textures were the same style and were too bright. They needed to be grayed down a bit, cleaned up, and shadows defined.

I retouched the figures too. I think this is getting better and almost done now. Although, seeing this on the screen, I realize that the clouds and the tip of the building corner all converge in the window reflection...I'll probably have to fix that. This is 16x20" in acrylic.

Here's the original photo:

Hawaiian Flower Painting in Progress

I ended up changing the background color to better go with the wall color, which is a "cork" color.

Here's my almost finished Red Ginger painting. Since the last picture, I worked on the flower, reworked some of the leaves, and put a few more colors on the leaf edges. I'm close to being done.

The background color looks better in person.  I'm not so sure I like the flower petals - they look too sculpted.


I started making the background Naples Yellow.  But changed it to go better with a cork colored wall paint.

Here are some earlier versions and close ups:

Almost done, before I changed the background color and added some accent colors.

Later version, adding colors and definition

1st Block-in sketch

New Tropical Flower Painting Blocked Out

Last night I blocked in the shapes and colors for a new painting - it's 16x20 in acrylic. I'm using a photo from our June trip to Maui. I can't remember what this particular flower is called, but it's a waxy, tropical blossom with beautiful variegated leaves. I have to decide how much to include in the painting and what colors to use in the background. So far I've just put on a thin wash to determine shapes and composition. I'll still tweak some things.....

Here's my original photo:

Greek Bistro Kitty

This was the last painting I made for my Spring class. I finished it in June. It's from the Greek Bistro in Kihei on Maui. The restaurant is in a garden-like setting, just off the beach. Several cats hang out in the urns that surround the outdoor patio and this is a painting of one of them. I used a photo from several years ago for this painting, 11x14" in acrylic.

When we were in Maui this year, there were a couple of new kitties at the Bistro. Below is a picture of two of them. I think the one on the left is the same one as in my painting! He looks like Barney, my sister's (The Old Bag) dearly departed cat.








As The Old Bag says...

Orange Kitties
Are the Best!

Dakota Cousins

Here's my most recent painting. It's from an old photo of my husband and his three cousins when they were teenagers. I thought it was kind of cute and dweeby (is that a word??). The photo is an old Poloroid from 1969 or 70. The painting is 16" x 20" in acrylic. I haven't painted many people and find faces and heads to be a real challenge.

Here are a couple of detail shots:

Painting of Car

Here is my second painting from class this term. It's from a photo of an old car on a street. I had a very hard time with the trees and the shadows! I started out on a 16" x 20" canvas, then switched to 11" x 14", which worked better. Now I'm on to the next one. This is week 8 of the term, so I only have 3 weeks left to finish something.

Kauai Chicken Painting

Here's my first painting for my Spring class - it's a group of Kauai chickens. The colors in the painting are a bit better in person. My camera doesn't pick up indoor colors very well and the flash is terrible. I went to Good Will to find a frame - for $2.99! It was light pink and I painted it black with a faint green in the grooves. I didn't include much of the frame in this pic, but it was a great find. I got an $8 frame for another painting and painted that too. This painting is acrylic, 16" x 20".

Winos, Dingbats & Riff Raff

This was my last painting from Winter term. I used a photo from The Oregonian newspaper and tweaked it a bit. It's 18" x 24" in acrylic.

I ended up darkening the lettering on the building front after I took this photo of the painting, but otherwise it looks the same. This place is called the Historic Barge Inn Tavern located in Newport, Oregon, an Oregon coastal town.

This website has a nice article on Newport and this tavern: http://www.oregonlive.com/O/index.ssf/2009/01/newports_piece_of_the_authenti.html

I haven't actually been to the Barge Inn, but I intend to go....one of these days.

Hapuna Beach Painting

This was my frustration painting of the term! I painted and repainted and scrubbed out and painted again. I think I painted over the whole thing about four times. That's one of the great things about acrylic! You can "erase" it.

I tried leaves on the tree - no leaves, a variety of different colors, a mountain - no mountain, clouds - no clouds, flowers - no flowers, umbrellas on the beach - plain beach.

This ain't perfect, but I can live with it. It's 9" x 12" in acrylic.

EP

Cheater Painting

This second painting is a copy of an oil painting by Kevin MacPherson http://www.kevinmacpherson.com/. I believe it's called "Serene Pastures". I found it in a book that I checked out from the library and I guess it reminds me of South Dakota and Minnesota and Iowa. I like green and I like cows....what can I say? This painting is 9" x 12", in acrylic.

This was my first real experience in mixing colors with acrylic. I'd mix a color that I thought was close and found out it was very WRONG. I also found out that I wanted to treat acrylics like watercolor. It was hard to make the transition from thin to thick paint. The original painting is impressionistic and kind of loose, which I had trouble duplicating. But, in the end, I like it. I had this old, antique frame that fits perfectly!

Emma Pod

C3PO

Hi Sparky!

Long time no see. Well, it looks like I haven't posted anything since May 2008! That's damn near a year ago - and entirely too long, I might add. I'm just glad that my blog is still here and my login still works. I had to look up my password though.

Since I last posted, I switched jobs. I had been doing an interim management job for 14 months and decided to return to my academic advising position. It was filled with a temporary person while I was gone. Things were hairy last summer and fall and in late November 2008 I made the switch. It was a bit strange for awhile, but all is going well now! I like working with students again and I'm happy to not be in charge of very much.

In January I decided to take a painting class at the college. We had a choice of using oils or acrylic and I chose acrylic because it's less messy and dries faster. The faster drying is both a good thing and a bad thing I've discovered.

Our first project was to find a picture with high color contrast. We cut out a small piece from the original photo, about 1" x 2". Then we blew the small pics up in the copier and graphed the image to a larger canvas.

I picked an image of C3PO, from Star Wars...just his head. This is it, my first ever acrylic painting. It's 18" x 24" in size. I'm not sure what I'll ever do with this, but it was kind of fun (and odd) to paint.

I'm happy with this image and I learned alot in the process. I'll post the rest of my winter class paintings.

EmmaPod