Recycled Painting

I have started painting over paintings. It's freeing and scary at the same time.  I have a stack of canvases that have paintings on them that I didn't like or didn't finish. So, I am using them and giving them new life.

Not sure what I'll do with this little painting, it's an 11x14 I think.

But I like it a lot.

Dwindling Summer

It's almost that time again.. another school year.

This year, Maddie is in 10th, Lexi is in 5th and Kylie is in 1st.

Oh my.

We went school supplies shopping last week. OUCH!

And even though it is summer, Lexi has to have her books. Thank goodness for the public library. I think she is closing in on 50 books read this summer!

I have very much enjoyed lazy mornings and fun running dates with Kylie.

She can run a mile and I figure for a 5 year old, that is pretty good!

I've been painting. I delivered these two paintings this week. They are hanging in my school's office next to the secretary. I love having "gallery" space!

And of course I've been working on my grad classes. I completed another 6 hours at the end of July and will start my final 12 of this degree in another week! I have learned so much and have so much yet to learn.

And I have painted some more. 

Have I said that I love summer? :) !! 

It's always sad for summer to fly by so quickly, but I've been back in my room working already and have a great year planned. I'm hoping to focus this year on doing fewer things. But doing the fewer things really well. 

And now..it's back to work full-time. 

A Nontraditional Baby Gift

One of my friends is having her second baby girl. This friend is not a traditional baby pink and frills kind of woman. Nor does she concern herself with what others think or say about how a nursery is supposed to look like.

I love that!

She really likes sugar skulls and the traditions and family stuff that go with the Day of the Dead.

I have no knowledge about this stuff at all. I really had no idea as to where to start when I wanted to paint her a gift.

So I took a good look at her bedding, did a little Etsy research and found some ideas and a starting point.

Here is her bedding.

And a couple of baby gifts.

You get the idea.

Vibrant and bold colors.

So I did some searching on the web for a cool skull drawing that would work to paint. Truly, while I hate stealing someone else's artwork to paint, I had NO frame of reference. I'm just thankful that there was something cool for me to copy!

So I took the drawing and drew it onto my canvases.

Then I used sharpies to color in the drawings. I made a truly rookie mistake here. I forgot to put a layer of paint down first! UGH!! I realized what I had done after I had already drawn all of the skulls. I was NOT going to redo this work.

I used 3 black sharpies and rotated them around in order to keep the ink flowing well. Sharpies work really well on canvas for a project like this!

Here are the canvases before paint.

Ad then I started painting. I painted one color at a time for the most part.

After painting the skulls, I went back over the black again to clean up the drawing portions.

And here is the completed set. I really, really enjoyed painting these. I learned a lot about the process and what I would do different should I create something like this again.

And here is what I did with the left over paint.

A photo posted by emilymclemore (@faithhopeandart) on Jul 19, 2015 at 3:34pm PDT

A photo posted by emilymclemore (@faithhopeandart) on Jul 19, 2015 at 4:02pm PDT

A little more my "style" huh.

but I have to say, I'm really thinking about painting another set of these skulls! Maybe make my own this time!

Finding My Palette

I have very much enjoyed learning about palette knife oil painting from my lessons with Leonid Afremov.  His style is all bright colors and very loud, and it totally works for him.  It doesn't work for me that well. I have found myself struggling with the brash reds and overwhelming colors.  I just couldn't get the color palette to work for me the way I wanted.

So, last week, I did what I ask my students to do.. I took a step back and looked at the pieces that I like the most. I mentally broke down the process and decided that my issue was all of the red in my paintings.  While red is one of my favorite colors to wear, it isn't working in my paintings!

Here is an example. 

I painted this bridge piece per Afremov's instructions.  It was a successful piece, if the goal was to do what I was told. And as a student, that is the goal. I learned the process.  But the piece just hung in my studio and in my mind it was blah.

So finally, yesterday, I changed it. And I made it mine.

I love that the reds and purples are just barely there, providing depth in the colors, but not overwhelming anymore.

I have to say, the colors speak to me.

And carrying it further, here is a brand new painting done completely without red. I LOVE it.

Should you like it as well, you can find prints of it and my other works at Fine Art America.

The start of a new painting series

I painted this today. I've had this big canvas sitting around for months and decided to use it.

I really like how it turned out.

Now I'm thinking about doing a series of girl athlete paintings in this style.  Wouldn't it be fun to have a girl hurdling, a girl playing soccer, a cheerleader, and so on..

Guess I better get to work! :)

A little painting

I got to paint this weekend.

Yippee.

A little paint does wonders for the soul.

I've even sketched out my next painting! 

Music is Good for the Soul!

I've been playing around and painting just for fun.Well, actually, all my painting is just for fun, but my music series of paintings is really just completely fun and freeing!

Here is my first one.  It is 2 feet tall by 4 feet wide.

It is currently hanging in our school office.  It's nice to have a "gallery" space to hang my oversized artwork! (and I like for my students to see that I create too!)

This second piece is actually a rectangle as well, but I posted a picture of it on instagram, so it is cropped to a square. My dad is a guitar man and this painint is for him.  I have painted this on top of a different painting, so the layers underneath provide great depth.  I can't decide if I am finished with this one yet. 

My goal is to paint three or four more music paintings before I move on.

But.. Remember this "selfie" Kylie took when I was working on her painting?

Look at it edited in black and white.  I'm thinking I'm going to have to create something with this!!

Looking at Life from a Different Perspective

I'm working on a new painting of Kylie.  Here it is below.

Yes, I am currently painting it upside down.  There are a couple of reasons for this..

The biggest reason is that I was frustrated with it and mad at the paint, so I flipped it upside down to change my perspective (and my attitude!)

Why? Because I was moving right along with my painting and enjoying the process when the paint on the face started bubbling and being weird. 

See. So I scraped off the worst of it.. 

And that led to this.

A mostly scraped off creepy painting!

Ugh!! And very frustrating!!

So I flipped it over and decided to start again.  I knew that if I embraced the canvas as it was, the colors would provide a wonderful depth to the piece that I would like.  I just had to look past the current issues.

So I got some new paint out and got to work.

A little fresh paint and clean paintbrush can totally change an attitude!

And why do I go through the process? 

Cause this little girl is watching me.  I want her to know that paint (or life for that matter...) sometimes doesn't do what you planned. That sure, we can just give up and throw the canvas away, or we can scrape off the crud, turn the situation around and keep going!
  

And when you have this face for inspiration... how can you give up? Kylie took this for me because she saw that I was going to work on her eyes and she wanted me to see their color! 

Oh how I love her!

Commemorating Cowtown in a watercolor

We had ANOTHER snow/ice day Thursday. I'm really tired of this weather, but an extra day stuck at home meant I might as well paint.  

My painting studio is not heated. So my acrylic and oil paints were not in any condition to use.  

So I decided to use one of my canvases and commemorate last weekends race.  

Kylie and Lexi "helped" by offering lots of suggestions and feedback. They let me use their pencils and erasers..

Here is my drawing.  

It's a compilation of Libby running here and the picture that I took of the course the night before the race... with a few artistic changes. :)

I used watercolor pencils and laid down the first layer of color on the canvas.  Watercolor pencils on canvas is weird because the pigment flakes off the canvas as you work.  

I then painted the watercolor on with water and brushes. 

I was planning to go back in with tube watercolors and maybe even a black pen to push details, but I really like the painting as it is. 

So is it finished? 

What do you think?

Art and Soul: A Burlap Lent Banner

Saturday we had our first Art and Soul event at First Presbyterian Church Stephenville! We had a blast! I was nervous because I wasn't sure if we would end up with anyone able to come cause of the horrible flu that has hit every household in town!

But we had a good turn out and I think everyone went home with a banner that they were proud of.

The set up was that we use burlap banners that one of the ladies in the church made. What a huge, huge help this was! Burlap is so messy I don't think Linda is going to be willing to do that again.. glad she made extras! 

I cut out the word FAITH in vinyl letters for everyone.

We strung hemp rope and a dowel rod through the top of the banner and the participants took the letters and placed them anywhere on the banner that they wanted.

They then painted over the letters and anywhere else they wanted on the banner. They had raw umber, burnt umber, black and white paint for this step.

After getting a base coat down, they painted a tree or flowers or something of their choosing.  This was hard for some as they wanted me to tell them exactly what and how to paint!

They did have my sample to look at for inspiration...

And Charlene wasn't shy about offering tips and suggestions!

I also made a few window cross cut outs.  Alisa cut one up to make a big F and one of the boys placed one in the middle of his banner.

The finished banners! I absolutely love the variety!

Even Maddie made one... under duress.  She was hoping that there would be a baby there that she would "have" to hold and take care of.  But I think she and her friend enjoyed the project too!

I love this couple. They are adorable.  They laughed through the entire project about the difference of their personalities.  They remind me of my grandparents.

And isn't this banner nice! I love that she made one that tells the story of her farm.

And woohoo! Lexi got to make one.  After being sick for three weeks and missing two weeks of school, it was nice to see her out and about!

After we painted, we shared a meal together.  

I'm already dreaming up plans for the next Art and Soul event!! I'm thinking a landscape painting...maybe with a palette knife.... :)