End of September

I got these sunflowers as a gift and what better way to show my appreciation than painting them? They looked so lovely on my bookshelf, so fit with the last days of September that I had to paint them.
I will probably make some more sunflowers paintings since I took a lot of pictures of them.

"End of September" oil on canvas 13x 10 inch

DPW Challenge - Looking Up

"Looking Up" pastel on canvas 12x8 inch

DPW Challenge - Side By Side

For the DPW Weekly Challenge - The Elephant Challenge.
A pastel made on prepared wood board; the colors may vary slightly due to the different monitor temperature. Actually it looks more vibrant in reality.
I like painting animals and I find it easier than many other subjects.
In this piece I wonder If I could have worked more on details.The fact is that I love the simplicity of it and didn't want to lose that with too much information.

"Side By Side" 18x14 inch pastel on prepared wooden board

 More animal pastels:

"Going Home" 18x14 inch - Sold

"Old Friends" 13x14 inch - pastel on brown paper

Please be free to leave a comment bellow; I would love to hear your opinion.

The Sunny Pond

Today I found a new way to prime my boards for pastel in a way that is very similar with the well known sanded paper. The texture also is almost the same; this mean that the surface will hold few layers of pastel without a problem AND being wood is water resistant, which my latest very expensive sanded paper wasn't.

As a test I did this painting on a piece measuring 9x12 inch and I am very happy with the results. I must admit I abused the surface quite a bit but it held the pastel wonderfully.

"The Sunny Pond" pastel on bord 9x12

This priming method will reduce my paper expenses for more than half, not to mention that the board is much more resistant than the paper.
All in all a good and productive day. If you like the painting you can find it for purchase in my gallery.

DPW Challenge - And Some Boats

This week DPW Challenge is about boats.
So I pulled myself out of my creative procrastination and made a pastel, this time a bit bigger than the usual daily paintworks.

"Nightfall" pastel on paper 15x12 inch

I love the final result, and the bigger size of the paper allowed me to get more feeling into the sky.
This is not my first boat painting but I wanted to follow the spirit of the challenge and make a painting especially for it.
Here are some more boats I painted ( including the last one) and you can find them for purchase on my DPW Gallery:

The Creative Process

So it happens that I took myself a day off from painting. Procrastination, indecision, lack of inspiration or all of the above. Fact is I have nothing done today and no real excuse.

But...randomly surfing the internet I found this little treasure so now I feel much better with myself.

Because according to this chart I had a very successful day of creative thinking.
Now back to real work!

Blending or Not Blending?

I got stumped over this painterly approach to oil painting. About showing the brushwork and never ever blending. So I started a second entry for the DPW Challenge in oil this time, and a sky painted without blending is really a challenge to me.

The problem is that hunting for that artistic brushwork I somehow miss the important elements of the painting itself; I mix the values or I overstep the original shapes I draw. At some point I cannot see lights and shadows and shapes anymore, only a bunch of brush marks.
Of course I end up frustrated beyond words after I agonized half day over a simple sky with nothing to show for. For the sea I haven't had any patience left so I just put some colors in there and finished with it.

And since the painting is meant to be wiped anyway I started blending here and there, then some more until I was sort of satisfied with it.
Here are the both versions of it so you can see the difference (only the sky is modified):

The blended one                  The raw version

Since my problem is that I don't like the un-blended  version, maybe I should understand that painterly approach is not my cup of tea? Or maybe I should keep trying?
Or... maybe I should stick with pastels?

A lot to think about. I would love to hear about your struggles with "painterly' method, if you have any. Or any opinion in general, and of course which version of this painting do you prefer.
Have a great day and a lot of inspiration!

Edit: in the end I decided to post it on my gallery after all; I'm curious to see the reactions.
You can find it here if you are interested.

DPW The Colorful Light Challenge - My Entry

My entry for this week DPW Challenge is a pastel because I just love painting the sky with pastels. Somehow in reality the colors are more vibrant and alive than in picture; but such is the nature of reality :)

"Last Lights" pastel on sanded paper 10x13 inch

Yellow Oil Paint

When out of inspiration for painting ideas there is always your work space, always full with colorful, messy things. Like this for example:

"Yellow" oil on canvas 8x8 inch

 My yellow paint although almost empty is now a superstar, and so my dirty palette knife. And I really enjoyed making this painting.
Have a great day everyone!

Still Life With Jars

I found it very hard to keep a loose brushwork because I love blending so much. Let me say that again: I just love blending colors.
So I tried this still life with some glass reflections thinking it will be easier. Occasionally I pulled some of my hair out and resisted about three attempts to wipe it out in frustration. In the end I'm quite happy with it.
As about the brushwork this is the best I can do so far. I'll look back at this painting after some hundred paintings down the road and decide how good it is.

Still Life With Jars oil 8x8 inch

There is a bit of glare in the photo since the painting is still wet but you get the idea.
I would love to hear your opinions or even some constructive critique so please don't hesitate to comment bellow.
Have a great weekend!

Already September

A small oil painting I started yesterday but only today I managed to finish. I named it "Already September" as the perfect remainder that summer is already gone.
The reference photo was provided by Viacheslav from PMP site.

"Already September" 12x9 inch oil on gessobord