Today is the next to the last day in the 30 in 30 Challenge. I've been enjoying myself so much that I found myself dragging today's progress out. I took my time with the initial sketch and then spent about part of both the afternoon and the evening working on the painting.
These donkeys are part of a group known as the Begging Burros at Custer State Park. They came right up to the van and stuck their noses in looking for food. There are so many of them, they block the road and wait for food handouts.
I painted these two Begging Burros on a 6" x 8" Raymar art panel with water mixable oils.
I'm afraid that none of my photos of the paintings in this series do the paintings justice. At some point, I'll have to re-take photos of them all. It's best to take photos of artwork on a sunny day with the art in the shade. Those kind of conditions in the mountains of Western North Carolina in the winter just don't occur very often. But the next sunny day that comes along I'll find a shady spot and photograph them all and get them re-posted.
Thank for stopping by. I hope I'll see you again tomorrow.
susan
www.susangarriques.com
susan@susangarriques.com
After several days in a row of successful animal portraits, I decided to tackle another landscape. And I'm very happy with the way it turned out.
I came across this scene when we were camped in Marin, California. There was a protected marsh area behind the campground with paths for walking - including dog walking. We'd been away from any kind of nature for what seemed like weeks (and was only a few days), so the marsh was very soothing to my soul. Like putting moisturizer on dry skin. The mailbox in this painting was actually a place to pick up a bag for dog waste. There was a bucket next to it to place filled bags in, which I left out of the painting. We found lots of "doggy waste pots" along our travels and this one was the most unique by far.
This was painted on a 5" x 7" Raymar art panel using water mixable oils. I really like using these Raymar art panels. They are made with MDF board that has canvas on one side and a gray melamine on the back that keeps it from warping. They are 1/8" thick and are perfect when I go plein air painting (painting outside). I picked this 5" x 7" panel today with a particular frame in mind. It's a pretty little frame that I picked up a maybe a year ago and still haven't found the perfect painting to put in. Maybe this will be the one.
Thanks for reading - I'll probably be doing an animal again tomorrow, so I'll see you at www.suzun.blogspot.com then!
susan
www.susangarriques.com
susan@susangarriques.com
I really surprised myself by choosing this scene to paint for today's painting, the 16th in the Challenge. First, yesterday's painting wore me out (click here for that post). Second, last night was the first night I went to bed with no painting planned for the next day. Third, landscapes, as I've mentioned before, are definitely out of my comfort zone. As I painted today, I think my problem with landscapes is TREES. They are very difficult paint - at least for me.
With that in mind, I'm pleased with the way this little painting turned out. It is 4" x 6" and on gessoed watercolor paper and painted with water mixable oils. The last morning we were camped at Yellowstone, we woke up to dense fog and temperatures about 26 degrees. We took the dogs for a walk down by the lake. The little bridge leads back to a section of the campground.
It's been raining here since Monday and that rain has kept me painting at my drafting table so that I have better light. I'm missing my studio and standing up to paint. Maybe next week.
Oops. The rain just turned to snow. The dogs will be so much happier with snow than all the rain.
Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see you again tomorrow.
susan
www.susangarriques.com
susan@susangarriques.com
For some unknown and obviously crazy reason, I decided to paint a landscape today. Totally out of the comfort zone on this one.
This scene is a river in Montana, somewhere on the western side of Yellowstone National Park. I remember being amazed by the colors of the grasses along the river. Browns, yellows, oranges and greens. Some of the prettiest landscape we saw on our travels.
This one, again, is painting on a 6" x 8" sheet of gessoed watercolor paper.
If you've seen this blog before, you know I've been working on a series of paintings from our trip. I have some more finished paintings to post, but I've been a bit too busy painting to do much more posting than the daily painting. I'll get them up here soon.
Thanks for stopping by.
susan
www.susangarriques.com
susan@susangarriques.com
