30 in 30 Daily Painting Challenge Sept 2018 Collage of 30 pieces

Here is my collage for the end of the Sept 2018 30 in 30 Daily Painting Challenge.  I actually finished with more pieces than these 30 which is a first  I loved the fluid painting, it was so magical in it's flow and colors.  Really loved doing these and cannot wait to do more.

Day 30 of 30 in 30 Daily Painting Challenge

It's here.  The last day of the challenge.  I went for doing my largest piece, an 18x24.  I used a lot of colors.  I had a lot of fun with this challenge and faced my fear of working larger and with bolder colors.  Cannot wait to keep making these fun fluid paintings.

18x24 Acrylic on Stretched Canvas

Day 29 of 30 in 30 Daily Painting Challenge

Only 1 day left of the challenge.  I went back to a dirty pour with some colors I had plenty of left.  I tried the black edges look again.  I really love how this turned out.  Nice big cells and contrast.   I've been taking a class in microbiology and this painting reminds me of the cells and protozoa I've been learning about....

 Movement

16x20 Acrylic on Stretched Canvas

Up close of cells...

 

Day 28 of 30 in 30 Daily Painting Challenge

Oopsy, I ran a little behind.  I managed to get a painting done last night for Day 28 and then forgot to post it.  This is another attempt to swipe and then I poured down the canvas over the white swipe to get these lines of blended and playful color.  I used just primaries, yellow, blue and red.   So I can't decide which way to hang this fun piece.  What do you think?..... 1, 2, 3, or 4?....

1. 

2.

3.

4.

 

Day 27 of 30 in 30 Daily Painting Challenge

I love the blended energetic and bright colors of this one.  It's small but I love the different shapes that popped through the beautiful blends.

I am struggling to keep from spiraling into deep overwhelm, anxiety and pain this week with having to work, starting classes, trying to finish this challenge, keeping up with home life, extreme pain in my feet and a sick puppy.  I told myself not to paint unless I have time after my online classes but I have found that coming home from work, if I take a time and paint a piece around dinner, I feel a piece of my anxiety shrink away, my art soul is fed for the day even if it is a frustrating process sometimes.  I need the art for my soul.  I can focus better on the school work after I have splashed color around on canvas. 

Let It Go

8x10 Acrylic on Stretched Canvas

Day 26 of 30 in 30 Daily Painting Challenge

I tried to do a swipe technique last night which takes a lot of paint and papertowels, it's messy.  I over-swiped, losing the white but still like how it turned out.

Day 25 of 30 in 30 Daily Painting Challenge

The challenge is catching up to me as I juggle full time work, full time school, building on a piece of property and caring for a sick pup this week...  Here is a trio of paintings I did a few days ago that I thought looked similar to an oil slick.  It's hard, once again, to capture the metallics in these paintings and I sometimes think they're too dark in certain light but are brilliant in other light.  each square is a 12x12 and the small one is 6x12.

Day 24 of 30 in 30 Daily Painting Challenge

College starts today.  I've been prepping for about a week and then was out of town this weekend so I am finding myself short on paintings and will be scrambling this next week to get some posted to finish this fun challenge... Art is still needed in my life to maintain sanity and peace so it's important to keep creating even through the crazy schedule of working full time and taking full time classes... I also noticed this is my 100th post on this blog!!! 

Another 16x20- I tried some pretty color combinations and two cups for the flip cup dirty pour.  I need to get brave and try one more swipe before the end of the challenge...

16x20 Acrylic on stretched canvas



Day 23 of 30 in 30 Daily Painting Challenge

I’m back to doing the large paintings, 16x20....

Day 22 Of 30 in 30 Daily Painting Challenge

I was working on this one when the pizza boy came to the door and demanded my ID and signature... off came the last pair of gloves I had to use during the pour. By the time I teturned to it, Brett told me to leave it alone, he liked it just like this. LOL

1. Lost
2. 12x12 Acrylic On Stetched Canvas

Day 21 of 30 in 30 Daily Painting Challenge

My paintings have been turning out dark.  This one still popped color from the black and I love the details in the cells and the iridescence in this one with the fuchsia and gold colors that are hard to photograph. 

Sunrise

12x12 Acrylic on Stretched Canvas

Day 20 of 30 in 30 Daily Painting Challenge

This one shows the progression of a pour painting that was a little too thin and sitting on an uneven surface as well as sitting outside on a humid day....  Extremly disappointed in losing such an awesome pour but it was a great learning experience...

AFTER POUR/SPREAD

 

1 HOUR LATER

NEXT MORNING

Something had goofed and so I added blue to bottom but I missed a photograph after I added blue.  It was the first time I'd still been able to move paint the next morning, it was still so wet. 

5 DAYS LATER, DRY

EVOLVE

12x12 Acrylic on Stretched Canvas

Day 19 of 30 in 30 Daily Painting Challenge "Surprise"

I had every intention of pouring over this one after making it.  I let it dry a couple days and when I went to pour over last night, I was surprised to see the metallic copper color had popped and interesting shapes appeared that hadn't been there before.  The metallic copper in this is so shiny and beautiful but the camera just doesn't pick it up, so much prettier in person.  Although some of the colors combinations did not turn out as I had liked, there is so much movement and surprise in this piece, I decided to save it.

This is an interesting and unpredictable art which is why I think I enjoy it so much.  I only have so much control but am forced to just let go and have fun and not worry too much. 

 Surprise

12x12 Acrylic on Stretched Canvas

Day 18 of 30 in 30 Daily Painting Challenge

I loved how this one turned out while wet as shown below but when it dried, it got really dark which was disappointing.  That's one reason I prefer Oils to Acrylic.  Oils maintain their color better.  But it was a beautiful piece when I first poured it.  This one was interesting, I tried the colander effect again but hated it so then I spread the pour and it ended up these lovely Southwest like lines.  I really loved the color, but, again, it turned out too dark once it dried.  I am hoping varnish or resin will bring out these striking colors again....

Southwest Style

12x12 on Stretched Canvas

Day 17 of 30 in 30 Daily Painting Challenge

This one was inspired by my berry and granola yogurt I eat in the mornings but turned out much more blue than anticipated.  I guess there were a lot of blueberries in this yogurt.

Follow Me

14x14 Acrylic On Stretched Canvas

Day 16 of 30 in 30 Daily Painting Challenge

I asked my friends and fluid pour painting group members to help me decide if I should post this painting or not on my daily painting challenge.  I wasn't sure if it was just a jumbled mess that would be embarrassing to post or if people saw something in it.  I received an overwhelming amount of thought-provoking responses that helped me look deeper into the soul of the painting and into my artistic soul. 

After creating the piece, I had thought about naming the painting Cancer.  The colors and energy felt like fear and anger smothering out peace and happiness as cells were overcome with disease...  I looked up the meaning of the colors in the painting and found yellow can represent peace and happiness but also represents disease.  Red initiates feelings of anger, energy, power and the lost past... It seemed fitting yet too controversial and naming it Cancer encouraged too much negative reaction for hurting memories which is not how I want to contribute to life.  I want to offer happiness, joy and whimsy and not focus on the negative that can devour our souls if we let it.   But cancer is an evil fact and we simply cannot escape the ugliness, anger, fear and helplessness that cancer causes.

 It's the first piece I've done to create so much conflict on why this dark painting unintentionally came out of my usually cheerful, bright art soul.  I see myself as a very, very simple artist, mimicking the beauty and whimsical side of nature in my paintings and I ponder how this painting came to be from my own hand.  Possibly from watching too much Criminal Minds or SciFi shows?  Or did the energy of frustration from my nerve pain expose itself onto the canvas?  Or maybe, quite simply and TRULY, I only attempted to save a painting with the mixed paint I had on hand...

Regardless of unintentional or subconscious reasoning, this piece gave me another nibble at the possibilities of freeing my imagination from the chains of perfectionism and judgement that I so tightly wrap around my life and within my art.

I have decided to name it Conflict.

"Conflict"

14x14 Acrylic on Stretched Canvas

Day 15 of 30 in 30 Daily Painting Challenge

Half way through!!  Scrambles for more paint, floetrol and canvas have begun for this new art I have been exploring. 

What do you see in this one? 

 

Lost

14x14 Acrylic on Stretched Canvas 

Day 14 of 30 in 30 Daily Painting Challenge

I love combining a lot of colors to get these galaxy like paintings.  I tried another round which I love as the pours don't have far to cover and I can play with swirling the cells more.  The photos just don't capture the iridescence and depth.

The Final Frontier

Acrylic 8" Round Birch

Day 13 of 30 in 30 Daily Paintig Challenge

Wanted to try a pour with metallics and black and white.   The metallic gold, silver and bronze is hard to see in the photo but is pretty in person. I used to do a lot of rock hounding and this reminds me of the Oregon Jaspers and petrified woods.

Petrified Wood

14x14 Acrylic On Stretched Canvas

I found myself pining for larger containers to pour with for these larger paintings.  At lunch, I stashed the accidental double cup for my water and the cover to my pie in my purse on my way back to work.  Apparently this is a sign of someone who's become addicted to pouring.  And so it begins... LOL

Day 12 of 30 in 30 Daily Painting Challenge

Tried new color combinations and having black space on edges. 

Enlightened

14x14 Acrylic on Stretched Canvas

Prineville Plein Air

I spent this last weekend in Prineville, working on our property.  I took my oil paints to try and paint plein air for the first time.  My husband asked that I paint the property as what I am imagining it will look like with some of our ideas we'd discussed.  I sat in the sun and stared in the direction of where the grain bin house, atrium, grain bin art studio, garage, juniper fence, eucalyptus trees and lavender field would be on our one and a half acres and attempted to paint what wasn't there. The scale is way off and the driveway looks like a large lake instead of a small turn-around.   It was very difficult and I am not happy with the result but it was a learning experience for sure and I am considering it a study so I can do another, larger painting of our property for my husband I to look at for inspiration.  Here are some lessons I learned this weekend:

1.  With one half my face now the shade of a tomato, an umbrella and hat are on my wish list.

2.  The paints dried out quickly.  

3.  I need something to put the paper towel roll on.

4.  Remember the palette.

5.  Remember the correct easel for plein air.

6.  Know my brushes better.

I didn't think I would ever share this little pathetic first attempt to paint outside but this blog is my learning log for painting.  In addition to celebrating the joy of creating beautiful pieces, the bad ones need to be documented too because that's how I learn from my mistakes and how I'm able to see progress.  

Future Dreams

11x14 Oil on Canvas Panel

Day 11 of 30 in 30 Daily Painting Challenge

I use black and white a lot in the fluid paintings but I held back on the black in this painting.  It popped with very bright colors.   I love square shaped canvas and I discovered these 14x14 ones to use this week and love the shape and size.   I have been struggling with using enough paint with one cup for my larger pours and it's definitely a learning process on how much paint to use for what size canvas.

Be Bold
14x14 Acrylic on Stretched Canvas

I have been stacking up a lot of paintings and finally hung some up so they'd be safe and out of the way.  I need to find frames for the rounds to hang them but hung most of the canvas paintings. 

Day 10 of 30 in 30 Daily Painting Challenge

Another 16x20 fluid pour painting.  This started out as a pastel pink and purple painting and as I added pours and spread, it got darker and developed into a darker, yellowish,orangish,pink with splashes of purple and white.  I still have a lot to learn to retain larger cells when I spread the pour but I do like the different textures and colors in this one.  It's much more vibrant than the other ones I think.  I let it crackle as well, I believe this is a flaw in the eyes of pour painters but I found it gave it a beautiful texture.

Pushing Through Chaos
16x20 Acrylic on Stretched Canvas

Day 9 of 30 in 30 Daily Painting Challenge

After listening to Artists Helping Artists' podcast from Thursday and with the help of my husband pushing me, I purchased some 16x20 canvases and tried a larger fluid pour painting.  I love creating cells and blending multiple colors. The larger canvas gave me so much space to work with.  I am hooked.

"Against The Current"

16x20 Acrylic on Stretched Canvas

Day 8 of 30 in 30 Daily Painting Challenge

The U of O Ducks started football this season.  With them on my brain, I tried this 8x8 pour.  I tried to move my pours to our art table inside the dining room but it ended up a disaster and so I will be moving back outside for now.  I didn't get to heat the cells out of this one so it's a little different than the others.   I overheated the white and you can see ridges in it below but now that it's dried a couple days, those ridges disappeareed. I can't wait to go get some gold paint and try another Duck pour. 

Smothered

8x8 Acrylic on Stretched Canvas

Day 7 of 30 in 30 Daily Painting Challenge

I tried using a black canvas with this painting.  I started out trying to spread black around edges for a particular look but it didn't work so I spread the color pour around whole canvas.  I struggled to fix the painting and did another pour in the lower corner to keep adjusting the painting.  I finally heated the painting to bring cells to the surface.  I wasn't sure I liked it and asked my fellow pour painters and they all seemed to like the composition and my husband said it was one of his favorites.  It goes to show you that, as Brett always says, my opinion doesn't matter with my art. Haha!  It darkened a bit when it dried.  I still am not sure I like the composition but I do love the colors and cells.

I think a lot of people think it's just simply pouring paint and doesn't involve skill to do but it provides a look you can't paint with a brush or knife.  It involves calculations to mix the paint, fluid, water and silicone to provide the correct consistency to cover where you want and to develop the size cells you wish to create.  It also involves deciding which colors to layer that will create the right blend you search for.  Deciding what thickness or transparency colors will create and account for how the brand of acrylic paint you use will darken when dry. After making all of these decisions, you must plan how you'll pour for your composition and then it takes steady, patient hands to spread the pour so you don't lose your cells and also to create color combinations and patterns.  After the paint is spread where you want, you make the decisions to heat the paint carefully and slowly, picking where to bring up color, crackling and cells and where to leave it alone.  Though it seems an easy art for people to pick up, there is a lot to decision making and patience for a painting to become what you want it to be. 

With these paintings, it's best to study the painting zoomed in to see the richness of color blending within the cells.  Give it a go and see what you see when zoomed in...

 "Tranquil Chaos"

11x14 Acrylic on Stretched Canvas

Day 6 of 30 in 30 Daily Painting Challenge

This acrylic fluid pour painting on 8" round birch reminds me of a planet.  The smaller pours retain their pour shape better but I am finding I love the larger paintings, I can see more in their movement and colors.  But I still love this little dude.

 

"Where Are We?"

Acrylic on 8" Round Birch

Day 5 of 30 in 30 Daily Painting Challenge

Even though the daily painting challenge coordinator, Saeta, made it clear to just have fun and not worry about making one  every day, I started to panic last night that it was 7:30pm and I hadn't started on my painting.  Then I realized I have been painting a day ahead and still had time on Day 5 if needed but I still managed to finish a fluid pour painting and am really happy with the style.  The colors are fun, a little too much orange I think but I still like it.  I had watched a YouTube video showing that I should leave some white space around the pour to give viewers' eyes a place to rest while they study the painting.  I tried it by first adding white to the canvas around where I was going to pour, then flip cup poured and then tilted the canvas so the pour ran into the white but not all the way.  REALLY cool effect, I really love how it turned out.   I had poured over a botched pour from a few days ago.  It's nice to learn how to reuse the canvases without wasting them.
 

"Looking Ahead"

Acrylic Mixed Media- 8x8 on Stretched Canvas

DAY 4 30 in 30 Daily Painting Challenge

I managed to spend most of the holiday in my PJs working on art which was fantastic.  I painted with my oil paints and palette knife, a fluid pour painting on 8" round birch, worked on weaving and a little sewing.  I suppose my perfect day is rotating between art projects all day, coffee in hand of course.  It makes it hard to go back to work though.

While the fluid painting is fast, fun and therapeutic to watch the cells form within blended colors, oil painting gives me a place where I am challenged and time is completely lost. I search for ways to make the knife work for me in intricate shapes and colors and each painting teaches me how to create illusions in shade and light.   It still baffles me that I have fallen for the richness and impressionistic side of palette knife painting.  I have one side of me telling me to get the details in and make it real looking while my other side says to let it go and just appreciate the rich thick colors and texture of the palette knife.

I still find myself battling within on if palette knife is the way to go for me.  But it seems like it provides freedom to let go and not have control and let things be.  I think we all search for that and need that today.  To not worry about control.. There is too much focus on our need for control now a days.  Maybe that's why I paint this way.  To just let go and let color and texture fill my soul for a small while...

.

"Three Amigo Flamingos"

Oil On Canvas Board 6x6-Palette Knife

"Letting Go"

Acrylic Mixed Media- 8"Round on Birch

DAY 3 of 30 in 30 Daily Painting Challenge

Another fluid painting pour on 8x8 canvas. Experimenting with colors and how they interact with each other.   I have been mostly pouring using the dirty pour, flip cup method.  I will try another swipe for tomorrow's post and see how that goes again.

My husband and I analyzed one of the fluid paintings together, trying to explain to each other the images we both saw.  It is so interesting that each person can see a different image and not be able to see what we see.  It is a view into our own identity of how we see things.  But the most important part that I AM certain of is that it is a ton of FUN to do.

"Hidden In Plain Sight"

Acrylic Mixed Media on 8x8 Stretched Canvas

Day 2 of 30 in 30 DAILY PAINTING CHALLENGE

Day 2- Another fluid pour painting with oranges and pinks and white.  8 inch round.  This one has much smaller cells due to my husband shaking the bottles of medium rather than stirring them.  (He thinks he is James Bond).  I added some swirls of color along the edge to play and experiment.  I am so obsessed with these lately I am looking at the texture on my ceilings and watching the swirls move as these paintings do. LOL 

What do you see?  Help me name this one...

"                                                       "

Acrylic Paint Mixed Media on 8" wood birch round

DAY 1 of 30 IN 30 DAILY PAINTING CHALLENGE September 2018

I have been excited to start the 30 in 30 Daily Painting Challenge this month.  I think I will use my new acrylic fluid pour paintings for my 30 in 30 this time, I am having great fun with them right now.   I love how today's turned out on this 12" round birch but I accidentally flipped the plastic cloth up on it after the first photo.  Needless to say, strong words starting with F were coming out of my mouth.  My husband still likes it but I was so bummed at the mishap.... What do you think?  Which way do you like better?....

BEFORE...

AFTER...

"Galaxy Dance" 

12" wood Birch round.  Acrylic mixed media

FLUIID "POUR" PAINTING

While visiting my mom a couple of weeks ago, she mentioned wanting to try something called pour painting.  I had never been interested in pour painting but she soon reeled me in as we watched You Tube videos and talked about getting together soon to try it.  While perusing the paint aisles at Hobby Lobby, I came across heavenly deals for acrylic paint and soon scooped more than 20 large tubes of colors into my basket.  After debating on colors and settling on a dozen, I traipsed through more stores for the special mediums that created the beautiful cells.  Finally finding the rest of the materials, I got home and plopped the plastic bags onto my craft room floor to wait for my mom and I's next get together.  On one quiet Saturday at home, I couldn't wait any longer and pulled out everything to give it a try out on the back patio.   I watched as the cells developed and fell madly in love with this unpredictable and beautiful art technique.  I have been having great fun with it and learning from my initial mistakes.  The dirty pour technique is my favorite and I am learning how to do a wet papertowel swpe.  Here are some of the fluid paintings I have done this last week....

 Jupiter Sundance 

8" Round On Birch

 

Surfacing

8x8 Stretched Canvas

 Galaxy Quest

8x10 Sretched Canvas

 

Aerial

8x8 Stretched Canvas

 

Time Warp

11x17 Stretched Canvas

  

Breaking Out

8x8 Stretched Canvas