"Trombones" 2014

acrylics on watercolor paper

30 minute study

15 Minute Challenge for 2014-07-03

I have gone back and looked at some of my pieces that I felt were destined for the trash bin, and it seems some of them are NOT finished!  Once I have worked on them a bit more I will post the new versions, and if things go really well that piece will end up on my other blog :)  My wife and I homeschool our son.  She teaches the reading, writing, humanities and some science.  I teach some of the science, art, math, language and logic/philosophy.  The other day I came up with the idea of my son and I doing "15 Minute Challenges".  The idea came from an activity our family has done a couple of times, where we all agree on a still life and we have so much time to come up with something.  When the bell rings, it's time to go onto the next still life.  We decided that five minutes per session wasn't enough time.  And then ten minutes was just enough to tease us, so we moved to fifteen minutes.  Basically, the version that my son and I use in our schooling is that we have to create (it's in three stages: imagination in graphite, still life in graphite, "from life" in whatever medium we choose) for AT LEAST 15 minutes.  After the alarm goes off we are free to continue working on the current session.  If things are gong well we usually don't want to stop working.  Last night's session was our third time doing this.  By doing this my son is learning art, and I'm reinforcing what I somewhat already know.  Additionally, it's exciting for me because I'm competitive spirited, and someone having fun beside me is only going to motivate me to have fun :)  Here's last night's efforts.  My son's work is over in his blog at:  www.rhw2art.blogspot.com .....

 What the page in the sketchbook looks like!

 It was supposed to be a tunnel, but ended up looking like a sad man with half his hair dyed black and the other half dyed brown.  The gates are his 'eyes' ;)  

 This is my best still life work in graphite to date.  

"Berry Church"

Expressionists Oil Pastels

I am pleased with the tower and tree portions of the painting.  

Painters Do Sketch

It just occurred to me that people imagine artists creating only pieces fit for a gallery showing, or that painters just paint, everything else comes from the soul.  Our desire to create comes from the soul.  Creating, itself, goes from our minds to whatever part of our body touches the energy last, onto the apparatus, and ends up on the canvas.  Here are hints of my thought process along the way.

Here are some more pieces that I hope to work on again ...

 "Vase & Onion"

Acrylic on canvas board

 "Flask & Flower"

Oil on canvas paper

"Jar & Onion"

Oil Pastel on pastel paper

Here is a piece I did from life, using oil pastels

Given that the oil pastels used in this piece are really cheap, I won't try to do anything more with this one.

Two Onions

This one is not done, and I wonder if will often do daily paintings that I wish to continue to work.  Do they still qualify as daily paintings?  Right now I have no easel small enough to move around the house, so I'm leaving the one easel where it's at, and in the kitchen I'm using a pochade box that I made from a jewelry box, plastic palette, pencil, rubberband, two pushpins and masking tape.

 12"x9", Oil on Canvas Board