Another Project - Snag Changes Plans

I had planned to be blogging about the Victorian Belsnickel project today, but I ran into a snag.  Rather than go into it here, I will write about it on Sunday when I have things back on track.  It will make more sense when I show it with photos.  Today I will show you some photos of another project I have been working on behind the scenes.

When I was blogging about my goals for the year, I had written that I had purchased some small art tiles with the intent of sketching and painting on them to try and improve those skills.  The tiles are small, only about three and a half inches square.  The small size allows me to do something fairly quickly.  That way I can do a small landscape without having to paint or draw a lot of detail or focus on only a small element of a scene rather than try to paint a whole still life.  Time is precious for everyone, and not having enough time to spend on a painting or drawing is one reason I tend to put it off.

I have been working on the tiles off and on since the first of the year.  Some of them are okay.  Some need work.  A few went straight to the trash.  I don't like to draw or paint because I am not good at it.  However, if I don't do more of it there won't be any improvement.  So there you have it.  Perhaps there will be some improvement over the year.  I'll post pictures every once in a while.

The first picture is inspired by my recent trip to California.  This is not actually a place that I went, but rather it is a composite of images from various things that I saw: palm trees, the ocean, a rocky beach, and Catalina Island in the distance.  This was just a watercolor painting.  I did not sketch anything on it other than a horizon line.

The bird picture was a sketch that was then painted with watercolors.  I guess it is an improvement over my last bird pictures.  I think it seems more animated than my last bird pictures.  I painted a blue jay once but it seemed like it was made out of wood it was so stiff.  And my folk art peacock painting was so horrible that I don't want to think about it.  I keep it around only to remind me that I am improving. 

The last two pictures (I am presuming that they show up in the same order.  That is not always the case if they come to you via email.)  are paintings inspired by snow on the field.  Long time readers may remember that I did the field project a couple of years ago where I took pictures of the field down the street on a weekly basis.  The trees on the far side of the field and the road along the edge of the field may look familiar. 

With my field photo project, I had planned to show the growth of the crop that was planted over the course of the summer.  The joke was on me about that.  The field went up for sale and nothing was planted because the property did not sell until almost the end of the planting season.  The field lay fallow all year, and lay fallow this year as well.  I am hoping that this means the new owner is allowing it to lay fallow long enough that it can be used as certified organic land.  Otherwise, I am concerned that the person is planning to build on the site eventually.

Anyway, the remains of the stubble and furrows from the last planting are now barely visible unless you look closely.  When we had snow a few days ago, it covered the field it was an interesting mix of yellow sun highlights and purple shadows along the furrows.  I tried to capture the essence of that, but not very successfully in this case.  I used acrylics, and the yellow dried much darker than it appeared when wet.  In this case, the pictures actually look better in person than in the photographs.  For some reason the yellow appears much brighter in the photo than they appear in person. 

Well so much for this blog post.  The weather radio just blared an alert that the weather had changed from a winter storm watch to a winter storm warning.  If I do not post on Sunday, it may mean that we are without electricity.  I am hoping that we are going to be on the edge of the storm and not get the full brunt of it.  The low end snow estimates are for five to eight inches of snow with sleet and freezing rain.  The high end snow estimate is for twelve to twenty-four inches.  Compared to people further north, that may not seem like much, but around here that is a lot of snow.