Day 23 :: PLANT SALE :: #30in30 Painting a Day Challenge

 harPLANT SALE
by Kim Morin Weineck
original pastel, 6x6"

$125 + $8 shipping

This weekend past I volunteered to work at a local plant sale fundraiser. Volunteering is always time well spent, but this volunteering was doing double-duty as a super-duper workout! The woman I worked with and I moved and watered and arranged and sold and restocked a TON of plants. And it was fun.

The sunlight of the morning at the antique building we were at was GORGEOUS, such a beautiful contrast in warm and cool. I have been working on temperature in my paintings, so I thought I'd take this on as a painting subject today.

The lesson from this piece is that it's difficult to paint the warm gorgeous light on clapboards. It's difficult to keep the color clean and cool where needed and differentiate shadows. What I find most problematic is keeping the painting loose and painterly while still maintaining enough detail to ensure that the piece reads appropriately to the viewer who probably wasn't there and isn't familiar with the scene as I am. (Whew! Long sentence, that last one.)

In the end, this piece was a true challenge, and this is the reason for painting every day this month. I'm stretching myself and enjoying the process. (Italics to remind me of that fact.) Working to include people in my work and cutting myself enough slack that to become familiar with specific subjects means taking them on with intent. I only have mastered marshes because I have been working on them for --- GASP! now that I think of the actual time --- 14 years! ACK!

I'm proud of this one, despite the changes I'd make should I decide to take this one on as a larger painting. Already some of the small works here have been re-imagined as bigger paintings. It'll be fun to show you which ones they are at my show at Gallery9 in Norwood, MA this November.

Thanks for reading! -kmw

Day 16 :: RED BARN :: #30in30 Painting a Day Challenge

RED BARN
by Kim Morin Weineck
original pastel, 6x6"

SOLD! 

This barn has lovely funky angles. At sunset the angles are more pronounced with shadows hanging and falling to accent the angles even more. Offset by the lush greens in the landscape and the gorgeous blooms in front, I think it's obvious why I'd have to paint this scene!

Full disclosure: Argh!! This piece caused me a bit of trouble. Red when lightened is often pink or orange. It's pretty tricky. In shadow colors are cooler. Cooler red is purple. I have so many tones here in the barn reds that I am not used to using. My usual color palette wasn't accessible to me for this building, much as I mentioned in the post for the yellow barn.

Apart from the color, the rigid lines of architecture can be tricky to make feel painterly. It's a bunch to juggle. And so this piece sat on my standing desk waiting until I'd try it again. Feels good to have resolved it.

Friends of ours showed me this place and I was instantly smitten. Instantly! It is magical all times of day all times of year. More paintings will come from this place if all goes according to plan. I pray it all works out and soon! (It's fun to be cryptic.)

Thanks for reading! -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