Daily Painting Sept 2017 :: No. 20 of 30

A third of the month is left! I still have a lot to experiment with. Today's painting is about thick paint. If asked if I liked thick or thin paint, I'd have to say that the jury is still out on that.

Daily Painting No. 17 of 30

3x3" original oil

Tired of marshes yet? I so love them....

Thanks for reading!~kmw

Daily Painting Sept 2017 :: No. 19 of 30

Today I've been updating my blog with the paintings I've been completing daily this month. Blogging about the work is a nice component to painting because I think about the work a little differently. Blogging isn't fun when you take eight days off and try to catch up ;) 

This painting is about the underpainting. It was orange and I left a lot of that showing. Then I added more to it. I love how it came out!

Daily Painting No. 19 of 30

3x3" original oil

Thanks for reading! ~kmw

Daily Painting Sept 2017 :: No. 18 of 30

It's been a struggle to get these daily paintings complete. They are small little works, and I thought they'd be easily integrated into my schedule, but September is a true challenge of time management. 

Mixing color is the name of the game. Painting with pastels is about selecting a stick of pigment and determining color harmonies. Oil painting adds mixing the paint on top of all of it. Fun and difficult as a challenge.

Daily Painting No. 18 of 30

3x3" original oil

 This marsh piece is starting to feel more like autumn. A little different palette for me, but I like it!

Thanks for reading! ~kmw

Daily Painting Sept 2017 :: No. 17 of 30

Back to some palette knife and some brush and trying to say a lot with fewest marks I can muster. It's tricky. 

Daily Painting No. 17 of 30

3x3" original oil

This ominous sky was inspiring. I took it in an abstract route and liked it in the end. The nuances in blue make are beautiful in person. In fact, the whole piece is some sort of blue.

Thanks for reading! ~kmw

Day 6 :: RIVER :: September Daily Paintings

RIVER
original pastel, 6x6"
©2016 Kim Morin Weineck
SOLD

Day 6 and it's shaping up to be an insanely busy month. School began August 30th and I somehow thought I'd get a jump on things so September would be of ease. Alas, no such luck. I'm drained and may need a pep talk to even start on a painting tomorrow. Content like that is really supposed to make it into blog posts. My bad. 

The pastel above was painted after my bold, quick, play with the acrylic below. I am SO IN LOVE with how this pastel looks. The colors, the marks, the scale of the shapes and the rhythm of the darks make me so happy. This is one that I will have a hard time parting with. This is one that I think of when I talk about being a painter of marshes so often that my husband calls me "Marsha."

Working in acrylic and 18x18' is a whole new animal than the 6x6" pastel pieces I have done in the past. It's day six but I have done a stack of 12 paintings so far. These six 18x18" acrylics are interesting. The compelling part of this challenge is that pile. I want to see it grow and I want to improve when it comes to the acrylics. 

RIVER
original acrylic, 18x18"
©2016 Kim Morin Weineck
Studio lighting made photographing
this piece a bit difficult tonight. 

The reason for the acrylic starts is to take them somewhere different: to play with color and see the composition differently so I don't seem formulaic in my pastels. Honestly, I so enjoy doing the pastels because I can do them with relative ease. When it comes to brushes and color mixing and larger scaled works -- it's not the same. I feel a bit tense.

Today's tension in the studio was palpable. Experimenting with marks and color started happening late in the painting near when the bus was coming. Tomorrow's new piece hopefully will continue where this one left off, because I was nearing somewhere I liked! 

PRICING NOTE:  I am taking this challenge to heart and taking risks. The work created is a labor of love and learning. For this #30in30 challenge my pieces are experiments and priced accordingly. Each piece is $50 ($10 shipping if you're not local) rather than $125 for my usual gallery-worthy work. Only my pastels will be available at this time. Email kimweineck@gmail.com to purchase. Of course, thank you! 

Thanks for reading! ~kmw

Day #26 :: APPLE :: January Daily Painting Challenge

APPLE
by Kim Morin Weineck
original pastel, 6x6"

$125 + $8 shipping

We all have these days -- when you aren't in the flow. Wow! I threw away three painting starts tonight. It was hard. It's like my alter-ego showed up tonight in my studio and decided to 'have a go' at pastels.

Ha! The struggle is usually overcome with ability or vision. Tonight I lacked both for a while. 

Here is my single apple. The colors are fun. The marks are vibrant. Some of the color notes are unexpected. 

Tonight I could have fallen upon my comfort references and painted the landscapes I love. A marsh or a hay field or a beach would have been fun, but I really took the idea of a painting challenge to heart and thought I'd push myself. 

After all that challenging work, I'm tired, BUT ----

I'm also quite pleased with my apple. 

Thanks for reading! ~kmw

Day #16 :: ICE :: January Daily Painting Challenge

ICE
by Kim Morin Weineck
original pastel, 6x6"

$125 + $8 shipping

The notes and iPhone photo for this painting look nothing like this image. In fact, I'm going to show you my thought process for this piece! I had fun and think you may like to see the progression from start to finish painting. 

This painting on your screen doesn't do the painting justice, either. The sky here is odd and fluorescent where in person, the effect is more dynamic and smooth. The bottom photo gives the best representation of the painting.

As I said in a previous post, my mind is like a viewfinder, scoping out new paintings everywhere I look.  Sometimes when I see big shapes and angles, I take a cruddy photo with the intent of working it out better in a painting. Sadly, this intent is often not followed up on, and I have a ZILLION poor photos laden with the potential to be something better.

Until today!

My photo with big shapes and GRAND plans! 

Sure, this photo (which I cropped perfectly to be a fantastic square composition) is fine. If I were to paint it as is, the result could be a lovely calm piece. When I originally sketched out my shapes at the onset, I had in mind I would do a color scheme similar to the one shown, but give it a bit more oomph. You can see my original color mapping below. 

(left-top) The draft close to the photo and
(right-top) finished piece with imagined color
The finished piece under my two drafts

Something gnawed at my creative mind and told me that the grays and blues were too staid. Even my intellectual mind agreed! I drew the image again and laid in color on top of color and played with color relationships and balance. It took a few layers and corrections to get where I thought the piece was best before I started on today's painting. 

Tim just visited me in the studio and asked if the painting were from a place we frequently walk on a Cape Cod beach. I smirked knowing that this piece is actually from the newly constructed neighborhood being built near our home. 

He then mentioned that the piece looked and felt cold. Isn't that neat? The painting is oozing pinks, yellows, deep maroon, orange -- all warm colors, and he is agreeing with my thought the the painting looks cold. What power we artists wield! 

How great is it when your spouse totally backs you up and they don't even know that they are doing it? Tim so affirmed the lesson of tonight's studio time: 

 
*You don't have to paint exactly what you see. The viewer is only going to know what you make them see. Make it matter. 

*Play with color relationships. Convey what you want, but stretch yourself. Say more with color than what is there, and study color relationships. Work them out before getting into the painting. The effort will pay off in the end result. 

A big painting and seeing lesson tonight. I feel so teach-y!

Thanks for reading! -kmw

Day #15 :: JANUARY :: January Daily Painting Challenge

JANUARY
by Kim Morin Weineck
original pastel, 6x6"

$125 + $8 shipping

For those who paint with pastels, I've been painting with a lovely complete set I purchased at the beginning of this monthly painting challenge. When looking at my work, I would guess the new set arrived for the eighth painting. The marks changed a bit and my palette broadened.

My go-to set for a while was Sennelier's plein air half stick set of 80 colors (funny how 80 color options isn't enough) because of its range of intense color and neutrals. My newest set is Gallery Mungyo Handmade soft pastels full set of 200 colors from Jerry's Artarama. If you're interested in adding to your pastel collection, take advantage of sales, coupon codes, and free shipping. Today's price is waaaaay more than what I paid, FYI.

With 200 pastel colors to select from in this set, I finally don't find myself saying "I wish I had this one color..." For this manufacturer, this is it. And so I force myself to make it work, and that is good practice!

Of course, despite the 200 (!!!) colors to choose from, I needed different blues (of course I did.)
What an important lesson that is. It took me a spell to figure out what sort of blue I wanted for the sky, the roof, the house itself, the snow, and the large evergreen. Some of that negotiation is visible in the finished product, but I am thrilled  with my result.

I'm getting good practice on painting buildings and it's obvious this monthly painting challenge is in winter --- everything is snow and cold and I have so many nocturnes. It's been SUCH FUN! For those in my neighborhood, this is the wonderful antique home on the corner of Miller and Myrtle streets. The candles in the window are still up and they make me happy each time I drive by.

All my posts end with a thank you, but, goodness! It's day fifteen and I have to thank all who have read, commented, liked, and encouraged me along the way. I appreciate your support more than I have words to express.

Thanks for reading! ~kmw

Day #14 :: WARM SPOT :: January Daily Painting Challenge

WARM SPOT
by Kim Morin Weineck
original pastel, 6x6"

$125 + $8 shipping

This afternoon I had to pick up our youngest from an after school activity and left a teensy bit early so I could scope out the area near yesterday's painting. I had such fun painting last night's piece, and thought I could take more inspiration from the spot. I wasn't let down. 

With sketchbook and camera phone in hand off I went. A quick notan sketch, color notes, and a click from my phone helped to get to this result tonight. Of course after taking the photo I had to go to school, come home, make sure homework was done, clean up, help with dinner, help clean up, etc. etc. before painting. Still, I was excited to see what I could make, and that is such a great feeling!!

When I stepped back and looked at the light in this piece I knew I had got it right. Yay, me! ;)

And I have an amazing painting idea for tomorrow. What crazy color! What beautiful light. We shall see if I can pull it off, but as my friend told me once before an art show, I got this! 

Thanks for reading! ~kmw

Day #9 :: HUNTER :: January Daily Painting Challenge

HUNTER
by Kim Morin Weineck
original pastel, 6x6"

$125 + $8 shipping

Each day I place my pastel on the scanner bed and hit 'preview' and wait. The machine buzzes and whirs and I always cringe as I wait for the image to appear. Each day I am tense with questions. And so it goes....

Artists are like this, I think. We always second-guess what we make and how we feel about it. This back-and-forth effort may be why I'm so tired after painting. The conversations in  my head are intense deliberations of color and shape and mark. Back and forth. During the process there are intense highs (the beginning) and the yucks (the middle) and hopefully the whole mood elevates again as the piece progresses to the end. Of course there are the times you don't leave the yuck period, but there is always something to learn and so off to the next!

If it's not the apprehension of success in painting-making, then I have oodles of stress for the scanning and optimizing. UGH! Despite having had tons of practice, Photoshop and I have a fickle relationship. I do my best, heck, that's my life's motto!

Here is our puppy, Hunter (obviously). He's a hoot. I've always  been a dog person (although cats can be cool, too) and now we are the caretakers of this little stocky fellow. He's a great dog and we've been training each other on how to be owner and puppy. We go on walks in the conservation land in the neighborhood.

We are both in our element in this field. I find wild cranberries. He finds entrails from a coyote kill the night prior. I discover Fibonacci's sequence in the frost-kissed Sweet Woodruff and he delights on the frozen streams and chomps on chunks of ice. Of course it was only a matter of time before he'd show up in a painting. And look how small I made him!

Thanks for reading! ~kmw

Day 26 :: DUSK :: #30in30 Painting a Day Challenge

DUSK
by Kim Morin Weineck
original pastel, 6x6"

at The Drawing Room, Marion, MA 

When I ask what painting subjects people would like to see, the response is often twilight skies and night scenes, and that is a tall order. Painting night and unusual light may be the last subject painters can call their own. Before cameras, artists were the recorders of light and history. With no imperative to record what is seen in a time when we are overwhelmed with visual imagery, dusk, dawn, twilight, and night are still open to wide artistic interpretation. For me, the camera can't quite capture the essence of unusual light. 

In class I often mention that the best reference for me to work from is a terrible photo and my own sketches and notes. When the photo is a crisp and accurate representation of what I'd like to paint, I feel compelled to recreate exactly what I see and become a human photocopy machine. 

References at the times of day that light is tricky for a camera -- dusk, dawn, twilight, night, etc. -- are often the best of photos to work from to make good paintings. The photos are grainy and dark. The color is exaggerated or underwhelming. It's all about interpretation, and that is when artists get to show off their creativity. 

As I've mentioned before, our neighborhood includes a fantastic field which has been featured in six of my prior #30in30 paintings. As September comes to a close, the light continues to change and darkness comes earlier. Our late summer sunset walks are now at dusk and twilight, even when we start them earlier. The color has changed and the greens are browning. I was struck by the colors during a walk in the field. Purple seemed everywhere.

As homes in the neighborhood turn on their lights, there is a new flicker in the landscape. You'll see that first beacon in the distant tree line. When I saw it, I knew I had my next painting subject!

Thanks for reading!  -kmw

Day 14 :: BOWL OF PEARS :: #30in30 Painting a Day Challenge

BOWL OF PEARS
by Kim Morin Weineck
original pastel, 6x6"

at The Drawing Room, Marion, MA

On my studio shelving sit all of the pastels I've done for this September challenge. When I see them in a group I can assess subjects I should revisit and consider my work as a whole. Some artists approach this #30in30 painting a day challenge as a time to fledge out a theme or concept. Seems to me it's been more a chance to establish a discipline of making time in my life to make art. 

This still life is the only one of its kind in the collection of work thus far. I have a lot of landscapes. One animal. One garden. Two architectural. Today is the first still life. I think I'll be revisiting this classic subject.

Thanks for reading! -kmw