Local colour

The school my children attended has a Favours auction recently. I was asked to paint something as part of the favours and I thought that a local scene would be appropriate.Man, did I underestimate how much trouble the sky would give me.I reworked it a few time and fiddled so much it was till wet on the day of the auction, so I put in another (above), possibly more appropriate painting.

So, my dear husband will get this painting for his office. I am still unhappy with the sky, but I like the overall feel. We have amazing weather here in the Waikato...real four seasons in one day stuff. The rain will pour down with ferocity, the sky will have voluminous clouds and yet somewhere, there will also be a patch of blue sky. Crazy wonderful.

I feel good today.

Getting back into the swing of it.

I sold some more cows! I am so pleased and so happy that they went to someone who really knows a cow when he see one...a Friesen-Holstein breeder, I believe! I hope he is happy.They made me happy to paint them.

Now,maybe a sheep lover(in a good way, folks) would like this one!

Primping and polishing

I have painters block.You know the Midas touch, when everything you touch turns to gold? Well, I have the Muddy touch right now! Everything I paint is muddy and wrong,wrong,wrong!!!
So,my usual solution is to stop,clean and think( I do my best thinking when I am in cleaning mode...go figure!) I am reorganising my paints, throwing away old tubes and grotty paint jars, washing and cleaning all my brushes and palette knives,re-arranging canvasses according to size and filing my resource file of photographs and images.I have even gone as far as cutting up old sheets to use as rags and stashing all the rags in a suitable receptacle,draining the turps jar and refilling it(although that made me want an early vodka...I resisted!). And all the time, thinking........block in the colours,use a big brush, stand back,squint,relax and enjoy,mistakes are how we learn,fat over lean(no..leaner than that,Jennie. Think Supermodel of oilpaint lean!).

When I am finished cleaning and thinking, I shall paint.I find it tragically funny that cleaning is my way of exorcising demons.Why could it not be shopping?!

Thanks to Robin Cheers for reminding me of the lessons above and, as always,  for her inspirational paintings.