Daily Painting Sept 2017 :: No. 12 of 30

Simplicity in painting is difficult to figure out for me. I see all of the minutia and want to reference all of it. In my studio, the most frustrated I get is when I'm putting in too much and can't make it work.

Daily Painting No. 12 of 30

3x3" oil on 5x7" oil paper

This piece is about simplicity. What color is in the distance? What about the sky? These studies are teeny at 3x3" and I don't have a lot of wiggle room to convey everything. How can I made it work?

Oils, too, are tricky. Imaging painting with smooshes of colored butter. Lines aren't as easy to make. Hard edges get blended. Color ends up in color. It's a joyful medium when you let it do its thing. I love it hate it love it again numerous times in each painting.

Daily Painting No. 12 of 30

3x3" original oil

My struggle here ended in a nice spot. I love the color and light harmonies. Feels like September in my neighborhood field, just like I had wanted.

Thanks for reading! ~kmw

Day #19 :: DOG WALKER :: January Daily Painting Challenge

DOG WALKER
by Kim Morin Weineck
original pastel, 6x6"

$125 + $8 shipping

People in paintings add scale and the personal, storytelling element to the piece. People, though, are difficult to make interesting and not too engaging to the viewer. If I paint a really great painting of my own children, what are the chances that someone else would want that painting, or that I would want to part with it? 

The saying goes that you should paint from your heart, what you know. When an artist doesn't do that, something about that comes across in the end product. With everything it seems to be about finding balance. 

The January Daily Painting Challenge for me is a chance to exercise some muscles. People aren't my strong suit. Neither are dogs. But we have two wonderful daughters and a new puppy, so it's time to insert them in my work more! 

Today's painting of our youngest walking Hunter was a challenge (appropriate during a challenge, right?) to make look painterly and interesting. At one point I almost took out our daughter which would only leave the pup. My mothering instinct prevailed and she remains a great element of scale in the painting. She also lets me use colors in painting that often just stay in the box. Turquoise! Coral! Scary bright green! Hurray! 

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 #1 :: SNOWY FIELD :: January Daily Painting Challenge

SNOWY FIELD
by Kim Morin Weineck
original pastel, 6x6"

$125+ $8 shipping

Happy New Year! It's always busy through the holidays and tonight is New Year's Day and my dad's birthday. The girls will resume school on Monday and, while I feel busy crazy right now, come Monday, normalcy has the potential to resume. Perfect time to do another Daily Painting Challenge facilitated by Leslie Saeta.

The bummer of a January painting challenge could be the subject matter. Today I took our puppy, Hunter, for a walk and here is what I planned on painting tonight. Quick notan sketches in the field made for easy studio work tonight.

Subjects like this are my favorite. Depth. Foreground. Grasses. Color. Hmmm -- the color on this was a challenge and were so difficult to render on my computer. It's day one of the challenge and I'd bet I'll be writing that more often than I care to.

When I paint I strive to communicate a lot through the colors I choose. I want them to be somewhat unexpected. Today I got that right!

Thanks for reading! -kmw

Day 39 :: BLUE CLOUDS :: original pastel, 6x6"

BLUE CLOUDS
by Kim Morin Weineck
original pastel, 6x6"

at The Drawing Room, Marion, MA

Tonight and tomorrow I'm hosting an Open Studio event at my home studio. When I came up with the idea it was to showcase my #30in30 from September. As the time came to welcome in people to see my work, I got a bit nervous. I'd never had people in to my art-making space like this, and I wasn't sure what to expect.

Well, the last of my guests just left and the night was SUPER! I'm so honored at their efforts to come and support me and my work. Such kindnesses were said. The conversations really were helpful for me in understanding how others see my paintings. It was great to have the feedback. I so enjoyed myself and hope those who came had fun, too.

Tomorrow Open Studio continues from 10am-2pm. It is an understatement to say I'm looking forward to it.

Earlier today I did this painting of that same field in my neighborhood. The marks are quick because I had a lot to do. Still, I loved how it came out. The immediacy of it is sort of neat.

Thanks for reading! -kmw

Day 32 :: WIND SOCK :: original pastel, 6x6"

WIND SOCK
by Kim Morin Weineck
original pastel, 6x6"

$125 + $8 shipping

The field in my neighborhood which I find so inspiring used to be an airport. Lucky for us, planes don't take off and land there any longer. We still see vestiges of the property's former use, like this pole for the wind sock, even though the fabric part has been long gone.

Again there is snow in this painting -- only a little, though. My previous post was at the start of a major named snowstorm. This one was a mere dusting early in the season. The time of day was dusk, which seems to be a favorite of mine lately. The light is blue. I think this piece holds a very specific light story.

I took liberties enhancing the colors in this piece. Blue is my favorite color, and it's pervasive here. The color relationships are the classic complementaries: blue and orange.

The sky is more dynamic in the original, with confident streaks coming down into the next subtle gradient. At the treeline is a subtle suggestion of a greeny-golden light. It really works with the turquoises in the piece.

The pile of references and notes and drawings in my sketchbook is massive, and I'm loving the discipline of daily painting. We'll see how long I can follow through. I'm bringing my pastels to visit my bestie in New Hampshire. I wonder that I'll take them out for tomorrow's painting....

Thanks for reading! -kmw

Day 31 :: SNOWFALL :: original pastel, 6x6"

SNOWFALL
by Kim Morin Weineck
original pastel, 6x6"

SOLD! Thanks!

It's October 1st and I'm still painting. Before September I painted often, too, but the discipline of making art daily has been a good exercise and is adding a little balance to my life.

This painting is from a stack of photos in my studio which I've been collecting for years. It's been such a joy to tackle these references and see them through to fruition. Excuse the subject of snow, it is only newly fall and the first of October, but this image was on the top of my pile and the colors were so appealing to me. I think it made a good painting.

Snow is tricky to paint. Cold paintings don't look warm and inviting. How can you make snow look warm and inviting? You have to play with the temperature. Cooler in the foreground and warmer as it goes back in space. This atmospheric perspective for white is the opposite of how we usually paint.

And again this is from the field near our home. It's such an inspirational place for me.

Thanks for reading! I'm off to teach my Thursday night class -- 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 12 :: FEELS LIKE FALL :: #30in30 Painting a Day Challenge

FEELS LIKE FALL
by Kim Morin Weineck
original pastel, 6x6"

at The Drawing Room, Marion, MA

We live near a special field, as I've posted about before in posts from Day 5 and Day 6. It's such an inspiring place to say the least.
     The sky is big and uninterrupted.
     The grasses grow and are hayed.
     The light is gorgeous each season.

The light has started to change with the seasons. When I was there recently, after the field was partially hayed, the smell was intoxicating and the colors had altered. While the grasses were green there was a tinge of rusty orange. The treetops are drying and the foliage is just starting....

Here is my attempt at catching this first glimpse of a new season. I painted it softly on an archival suede board to help with the fuzzy atmospheric feeling of the day. 

Day 4 :: LATE IN THE DAY :: #30in30 Painting a Day Challenge

LATE IN THE DAY
by Kim Morin Weineck
original pastel, 6x6"

$125 + $8 shipping
(Some day I'll figure out how to center the "Buy Now" button.)

Tim asked me what the purpose of #30in30 was and I told him it's to set a discipline of daily painting and, with daily exercise, to expand my artistic repertoire.

Holding true to this aim, I've been struggling with green in so many aspects for so long.
     *Green in shadow versus green in sunlight.
     *Green that's in the foreground and greens in the background.
     *Green that's muddy versus green that is intense.
Green causes problems especially in summer when everything is green.

For a big birthday present a few years ago my family gave me the Terry Ludwig set of 90 greens. Ninety! You'd think if you have 90 greens you'd have them all. Not me. I found I was always wanting a variation of the color that wasn't available. Eventually I figured it wasn't the selection but the user. I wasn't using green to its best effect.

This painting is a study in green in sunlight and in shadow. It's from a field near my home near where the town school buses are stored. This field is beautiful all times of the year, and it's a place that I find intimidating for it's simplicity -- gorgeous field, a stone wall, the sky, tall grasses. When a composition is simple, it doesn't allow for hiding a weak result in the architecture of a farmhouse or the dancing light and shadow on clouds. As an artist you're exposed and it's rough.

This painting went through some rough spells. Apply pastel. Keep applying more pastel. Wipe that all off. Do it again. Wipe it off again. Start over. Here's where I ended up. I love it. It's better in person. I need a better camera or the real Photoshop not Photoshop Elements.

Thanks for reading. We'll see what I paint for tomorrow. -kmw