"Country Morning" (oil on linen; 10" x 8") sold

sold

One summer day last year, during a plein-air painting workshop in Fairfield, PA, I was up early to start painting.  I arrived at Willow Pond Farm, where the workshop took place.  It was going to be another hot day.  With morning dews in the grass, all was still fresh and filled with hope.  I looked up as I was walking by the 200-year-old stone farmhouse.  This scene filled my vision. I was momentarily transported to heaven.

If you send me your pictures to kimstenbergart@gmail.com, I may make paintings out of them.  How fun is that!  At the end of September, I will do a drawing and one lucky person wins a free painting.  You can buy the painting anytime, but there is no obligation.  Thanks!

Today is Day Nine of Leslie Saeta's 30 in 30 Challenge.  21 more paintings to go!

"Room with a Sailboat" (oil on linen; 8" x 10") sold

sold

"Room with a Sailboat" is another painting for my Facebook friend, Elizabeth.  It is her new conservatory, where she likes to stitch.  There were other knickknacks on the window sills, but the sailboat model in its prominent location gave the painting the title.

By the way, I will be participating in Leslie Saeta's September 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge.  That's a lot of paintings!  I have never painted that many and blogged that often in a month.  Do you think I can do it?  Let's make it a team effort!  Please send me your pictures to kimstenbergart@gmail.com.  I am waiting for your pictures of pets, houses, vacations (without people in them), favorite places, gardens, hometowns, etc.  I will do a drawing and give one painting away at the end of September.  Thanks!

"Morning Harbor" (watercolor on Yupo; 20" x 26") sold

sold

As you know, I used to be a daredevil watercolorist.  I would occasionally pull out a full-sheet of Yupo, the  slick, synthetic "paper" with zero absorbency, let my hair down, and do the wild thing.  With Yupo, the artist has very little control over the painting process.  Paints puddle in oddest places and do their own crazy stuff.  "Red Sails" is the probably the best Yupo painting I have ever done.  I absolutely adore its drippy, watery, lyrical quality.

"Red Sails" (watercolor on Yupo, 20" x 26") sold

"Morning Harbor" is another watercolor painting on Yupo.  It depicts a harbor in northern England bathed in the morning light.  There are no puddles in the painting!  I don't know how I was able to pull it off.  I probably tried a few times to get it just right. (The Yupo surface mars easily; one cannot make corrections easily.)  If I had not told you, you would not have thought it was a Yupo painting.  It has an airy, serene, whispering quality.  Which painting do you like better?

"Peonies in Morning Light" (watercolor on paper; 7" x 7") sold

sold

"Peonies in Morning Light" was painted a little differently from my other watercolor paintings in "Spring Fever" series.  It had to do with the delicate pink peonies bathed in morning light.  If I had left the ground pure white, they would not have sung; instead, the painting would have looked anemic.  I first applied several layers of gradated washes on the background until I felt right, then I painted the subject.  I love the result!

"Sheep Country, Yorkshire" (watercolor on paper, 10" x 6 1/2" each) sold

sold

"Sheep Country, Yorkshire" was an interesting exercise in Carolyn Gawarecki's class that I took several years ago at the Art League School in Alexandria, VA.  We were to paint a triptych, each painting with a distinct foreground, middle ground, and background.  Then we had to assign the different values (light, mid-tone, and dark) to the three parts in each panel, never repeating the same scheme.  Colors were a secondary consideration and we had to focus on values.  A big headache!

The above painting is what I came up with.  The left panel has a light foreground, mid-tone middle ground, and dark sky; the center panel has a mid-tone foreground, dark middle ground, and light sky; and the right panel has a dark foreground, mid-tone middle ground, and light sky.  As it happens, the left panel has the feeling of an early morning; the center panel, that of the mid-afternoon; and the right panel comes across as a scene at dusk.  How about that!  Good teachers exercise our mind and force us to grow.  Thank you, Carolyn.