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

Daily Painting Sept 2017 :: No. 8 of 30

It took eight days for me to get back to the marsh. It's one of my favorite favorite places to be.

Daily Painting No. 8 of 30

3x3" oil on 5x7" oil paper

The more I paint, the more I enjoy taking risks and chances with my paintings, especially when the works are small. They aren't as precious and decisions stand out. 

Daily Painting No. 8 of 30

3x3" oil on 5x7" oil paper

I need to do more of this on a larger scale!

Thanks for reading! ~kmw

Daily Painting Sept 2017 :: No. 6 of 30

Past years I struggled to name each painting and this year they get numbers. Wow is this a great change! Each painting has a story, but sometimes those stories don't make good titles.

Daily Painting No. 6 of 30

3x3" oil on 5x7" oil paper

Today's title may have been something about the dots of yellow in the field. Perhaps something about the way it zings amidst the neutral grasses. As the nights have been so cool, the grasses have gotten beautifully deeper in tone. Funny how neutrals make brights more bright and beautiful!

Daily Painting No. 6 of 30

3x3" original oil

This again is inspired by my neighborhood. How on earth can we ever move from here. It's heaven!

All the paintings will be available on Sunday, October 1st. I'm hammering out the details and think they'll be on my website www.kimweineck.com on a first-come-first-served basis. Each a bargain at $35 because my wish is that they all find good homes and because they are small treasures of great lessons learned. 

Thanks for reading! ~kmw

Daily Painting Sept 2017 :: No. 5 of 30

I have five paintings lined up in my studio like a small parade and I love seeing them! We started in the imagined English countryside and have moved to New England.

Daily Painting No. 5 of 30

3x3" oil on 5x7" oil paper

After years of painting and critiquing I've learned I love small moments. It's a sort of mindfulness in life to notice intimacies around us all. These small paintings feel like snippets of the larger world. It's the world I love to notice. 

Daily Painting No. 5 of 30

3x3" original oil

Thanks for reading. Hope to see you tomorrow! ~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 35 :: SHEEP :: original pastel, 6x6"

SHEEP
by Kim Morin Weineck
original pastel, 6x6"

$125 + $8 shipping

Today is the day I almost stopped daily painting. I added another pastel to the small stack of failed figurative pieces and struggled through this one. No excuses, that is how painting goes.

The greens in this painting were fun spring tones. The deeper notes are blues from cobalt to Prussian. I painted this on an underpainting of ochres. My color relationships are analogous, and I don't think I paint in that scheme too often.

The kids have been in school for a month and I'm the last to be dealing with this cold. I'm going to bed nice and early, thinking of better experiences in the studio tomorrow.

Open Studio is this Friday and Saturday, October 9th from 5-8pm and 10th from 10am-2pm. I can't wait to welcome people into my small creative space! If you're in the area, I do hope you try to come visit!

Thanks for reading! -kmw

Day 7 :: FIELD SUNSET :: #30in30 Painting a Day Challenge

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

at The Drawing Room, Marion, MA 

We are a week in to Leslie Saeta's 30 in 30 painting challenge. I'm developing quite a system: Go through the day, Make dinner, Clean up, Kids to bed, talk with Tim, Head to the studio and paint!

The scene I painted today is near our home. We moved to a wonderful suburb of Boston less than two years ago and have been enjoying all that our new neighborhood has to offer. When we originally drove by this field en route to see our potential house, I was struck by this beautiful open land. I recall having had a feeling deep inside that we had found our home because I was supposed to be near this field and find inspiration in it. How funny to have felt that way when we hadn't even seen the house! And yet, here we are. The little wish I made came true.

This is my second painting highlighting this spot. My piece, "Two Trees" from two days ago was from this field. In that piece the trees are out of view of this composition and are sort of three inches to the right off the painting surface.

When I teach on Thursday nights my students often show me some things they are considering painting. We generally get into conversations about light and how the "light story" is foremost. A week into this challenge I am noticing my paintings have a distinct light story. Whew! It's good to know I follow my own advice!!

Thanks for reading! Until tomorrow --- kmw

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

Day 3 :: BLUE MOON :: #30in30 painting a day challenge

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

$125 + $8 shipping

Day 3 of the 30 paintings in 30 days challenge is a nocturne. Night paintings always get me excited. They are a great example of the artist being more than a camera. We tell our viewer so much that the camera cannot.  

Blue is my favorite color, so I love the chance to play with blues. The camera can't capture all the subtleties of this painting. 

This painting is inspired by this summer's full moons. The field and river in my painting are well-known to artists in my area. Some call this place "Hunter's Field" after the renowned painter Robert Douglas Hunter of the Boston School who oft painted here. I'm lucky to have met him and had a great conversation a few years back when he awarded me an Honorable Mention at the Adams Farm Paint Out event. I was elated to have him recognize my work. He passed away in October of 2014. 

If you're local and want to paint here some day, let's connect! It's a great spot in any season. 

Foray into oils

Pastels are wonderful artist tools. The pigment in your hand can be wielded with aplomb, leaving streaks and strokes on the surface. Each stroke is clean and so telling. I love working with them. Often, though, I talk to people of oils and their luminous surface quality - so very beautiful. On our family vacation I brought oils and my pastels.

©2013 Kim Morin Weineck
FOUR STUDIES
original oils, each 6x6"

The pastel I worked on during vacation is still in process, but these four oils I can post now. They were fun to play with. It had been TOO LONG since I played with these buttery paints. All of these paintings need to be revisited and tweaked for various reasons, but I figured I'd show them now.

Value, color, design, composition -- with oil I have to remind myself to SLOW DOWN. It takes longer for me to develop all of the formal elements of a painting. Perhaps I'm a little out of practice (and that is something I'll correct!)

Can't wait to get back at the oils again soon!
Thanks for reading!! -kmw

VT plein air

My August workshop in VT was a productive time. With so many things I could post, I figured I'd start with a painting. A friend and photographer, Rebecca Skinner, took these photos of me starting my piece. 

©2013 Kim Morin Weineck 
photo by Rebecca Skinner

©2013 Kim Morin Weineck 
photo by Rebecca Skinner

©2013 Kim Morin Weineck
photo by Rebecca Skinner

This day was oddly overcast and posed a challenge (in a good way) to capture the light effects on the landscape. Most of my VT work was small on-location studies which I can work into larger studio paintings in the future.

©2013 Kim Morin Weineck
SUMMER MORNING, VT
original pastel, 7x5"

When I returned to my room at the Amee Farm Lodge I snapped this photo of the painting. Loved the greens. There's something about the Vermont air that makes me want to make art!