Red Pear

Painted this pear entirely with a palette knife, which is a departure for me. When I took Catherine Kehoe's class this summer, she urged us to mix paint with the knife and not the brush for cleaner,truer color. I have been policing myself to do this (lapsing back to mixing on the palette as I was taught at The Lyme Academy ). One way is not more "right" than the other, for me it is about finding my own path, discovering what works,what excites, what facilitates my expression at a particular moment in time. And this morning, with the pear on a sunny southfacing windowsill, the knife was the way to go!

Red Bosc 8x10

This weeks challenge from The Daily Paintworks, choose one subject and paint it for 10 minutes- and 10 minutes only. It helps that these are small studies; I divided the 6x6 into 4 squares and did 8.  Carol Marine suggests to paint what you see, not what you THINK you see. I'm going to use this exercise again, learned so much from 80 minutes of intense focus.

Pear 3

Same pear seen from another vantage point. Hmmm,do I continue with the pear or move on to something else? No pears at home and it's so cold I don't want to leave the warm house.Really cold spell here in the Northeast. Am I changing the subject? Yep, how do those daily painters do it?

Pear 2

The next day, at a different time, so of course the light changes it all. I wonder if I should be using a box set up? That worked pretty well when I painted the angels last month.Feel like I'm getting back to basics with this simple (ha, not easy) set up. A good way to start the new year.

Pear 1

After looking at (and being inspired by) so many blogs of artists who paint daily, I've decided to spend some time doing small studies of simple objects. I am curious to see how it affects my abilities to observe, to edit, to simplify, to get the paint ON without being fussy. No expectations, no judgment, just painting.