Moses Botkin Monthly Challenge

Windy Beach
12x9 oil on panel

This month the theme was "blue" - in whatever way we wanted to represent it. Well, I had two thoughts - the big blue skies of Texas, which are pretty special, or the blue of ocean. Only it is bigger than the skies over Texas. Those skies are dripping some wet stuff on us lately, for which we are extremely grateful.

Enjoy my fellow challenge artists' interpretations this month!

Holiday Blues
5x7 oil on hardboard

©2011 Diana Moses Botkin

Blues
4x4 silverpoint and oil on gessoboard

©2011 Vicki Ross

Malibu Blue

4x8.75 oil on canvas
©2011 Ruth Andre



Blue Ice
16x20 oil on canvas

©2011 Suzanne Berry

Moses Botkin Monthly Challenge

Well - this was hard to try to depict - Wisdom. I love the idea of an older person like Suzanne painted (beautifully) and the wonderful idea of finding guidance in the good book, or in nature.
I went with the idea of learning from the past... the best way I could depict it was representing a visit to a working pioneer farm near us. It was a stretch, I know.


Helping Hands
10x8 oil on panel
© Robin Cheers

Seek and You Will Find

8x6 oil on hardboard

©2011 Diana Moses Botkin

Wisdom
3x4 pastel on paper
©2011 Vicki Ross



Wisdom
20x16 oil on canvas
©2011 Suzanne Berry




Morning Watch - The Innate Wisdom of Animals
6x6 oil on canvas
©2011 Ruth Andre

Moses Botkin Monthly Challenge

This month it was my turn to pick our challenge! I thought it would be good to paint from a grayscale photo reference - but in color. The idea is to use the black and white photo to gauge your values as you choose color. You can see that for some reason, I gravitated to the purple and green again - just like the paintings in my last two posts! I have to put those colors aside - and yesterday I consciously kept them off my palette.
This was a good exercise. If you get your values correct and have a good composition, then you can really paint any color scheme you want and the painting will work.


Summer Chores
11x14 oil on panel
©2011 Robin Cheers

Below I thought I'd show my painting next to my photo reference. You can see that I did not get dark enough on the sheet in shadow or the shadow on the ground. But overall I did pretty well.



And here are the paintings done by my brave challenge cohorts. I think most enjoyed it. :-)



Fresh Sheets
14x11 watercolor on Aquaboard
©2011 Vicki Ross



It's A Wash
8x6 oil on canvas
©2011 Ruth Andre



Fetching
10x8 oil on hardboard
©2011 Diana Moses Botkin



Untitled
8x10 oil on canvas
©2011 Sharman Owings



Thursday
16x20 oil on canvas
©2011 Suzanne Berry

Moses Botkin Monthly Challenge

Really? Something in or on our car?
Ok - I looked around, even staged a Starbucks cup in my cupholder which would be pretty authentic, but the angles were all wrong. Then I see the beautiful lines of my husband's car. He has had sexy, beautiful cars since I've known him and he races them. They aren't just pretty faces, he goes to the track regularly for high performance driving. Hence the special after-market wing on the back. Can you guess what the car is? And no, I do not drive it.


Aerodynamics
5x7 oil on panel
©2011 Robin Cheers



Just Working
6x6 oil on canvas
©2011 Ruth Andre

Rocket Girl
7x5 oil on hardboard

©2011 Diana Moses Botkin

Cherry
5x5 oil on panel
©2011 Vicki Ross



Old Mobile
6x6 oil on panel
©2011 Sharman Owings

Our challenge was Sharman's brainchild. I can't wait to see what is on for next month! My schedule is about to return to more regular programming as school starts in 8 days!

Moses Botkin Monthly Challenge

Back from NY and right to work! Barely got this done. I could plan ahead of course, but that would just not be me. Below are some really nice paintings on the challenging subject of eyes. I couldn't focus on this challenge, which probably was good for me.
I find that the less I focus, the better I paint. ;-)
My daughter's reaction to posing, rolling those big brown eyes. And to seeing it painted, "freaky."


My Daughter's Eyes
5x7 oil on panel - nfs




Just Thinking About You
4x4 oil on canvas board
©2011 Ruth Andre

Eye of the Storm

5x3.5 oil on hardboard

©2011 Diana Moses Botkin

Helen's Eyes
12x12 oil on canvas
©2011 Suzanne Berry




Lashing Out
5x5 oil on board
©2011 Sharman Owings




Brothers
8x10 each oil on canvas
©2011 Vicki Ross