Starts and Finishes, and The Graduate

"An Apple a Day"

© Nancy Laliberte

4" x 4" x 1-3/8" acrylic on gallery-wrapped canvas

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Yep, I'm still here. It has been an incredibly busy spring! My painting time has been just small chunks here and there and so 4" x 4"s (I like to call them Petite Peintures) are the perfect size for working on those starts and finishes of the painting process. It's learning to work through the exciting, adrenaline-filled starts, the middle "what the heck am I thinking? this isn't going to work" talk, to the finishing touches that make a painting come together. It's the process--experimenting with brushwork, subject matter, color, lighting and all of that good stuff that makes me keep coming back for more. 

This painting looks great sitting on a shelf or desk and would also make a great teacher thank you gift.

The (happy!) Graduate

And a congratulatory shout out to my daughter Erika who recently graduated from Wausau East High School as co-Valedictorian. She will be heading to Ripon College this fall. I think the smile says it all. 

It's a Wonderful Life continued

 

Apple studies

Some more goodies from the Carol Marine workshop I attended earlier this month. I did a few of these to keep practicing the concepts we were learning. 

Three Cherries value study

5" x 4"

I did a few of these, too, to work on seeing values. One can never practice these enough, IMO.

Door County night life includes miniature golfing in case you didn't know. We had so much fun and Carol hit the most incredible, wackiest hole-in-one I ever did see.  

For my wall of fame :-) Thanks Carol for a fabulous week!

It's a Wonderful Life

Apple Pair

© Nancy Laliberte

oil on panel

In my last post, I mentioned I was headed to Door County, WI, for a painting workshop with Carol Marine. WOW what a workshop! would be the best way to summarize it. Carol is an amazing teacher. Somehow in the way she explains concepts, she knows the right analogies that work for my brain. I had A LOT of aha! moments. Now, I need a few months for my hand and eye to catch up with my brain and I am actually very excited about that-- The Process! WooHoo! Thanks, Carol!

Apple Pair is the first painting I did at the workshop. It was all about incorporating shapes, saturated color, highlights, shadows, edges, transitions, and about 500 other things you need to remember in painting. I think Carol was going easy on us as she wanted to make sure we would come back the next day. ;-) 

Time(d) for Apples

© Nancy Laliberte

oil on panel

A timed painting exercise in getting the essence of our subject in one or two strokes per color. Not as easy as you may think, but really fun and challenging. 

Genius at Work

Carol's Completed Demo Painting

Note the handy panel holder the painting sits on--check out Carol's blog on how to get one of those. It really makes working on a 6 x 6 surface so much easier. 

I will include more about the workshop in my next post--which will be this month yet. I think my summer travels are over. It's been a sweet time filled with family and art!

More Delicious

"Onesome"

© Nancy Laliberte

4" x 4" x 1-3/8" acrylic on gallery wrapped canvas

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Another in the Petite Peinture Apple series. These paintings often start out as a "study" but soon take on a life of their own. Time stands still and that is what I love about painting. BTW-Did you have your apple today? Delicious!  

Delicious

"Twosome"

© Nancy Laliberte
4" x 4" x 1-3/8" acrylic on gallery-wrapped canvas

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We had a big snowstorm yesterday so it was a good day for painting a still life. Apples are great subjects--they sit still, don't talk back, actually, their simple shape allows for some good color and light exploration. Yummy!

This piece is from my Petite Peinture (French for little painting) series. The painting wraps around all four sides and looks great hanging on the wall or resting on a shelf. 

Charrette

"Apple Pair"

© Nancy Laliberte

6" x 8" oil on canvas panel

$95

Last week I had the wonderful opportunity to partake in a painting charrette with my good friend and fellow artist Val Berkely. A charrette is often referred to an intense period of work by one person or a group of people prior to a deadline. Val has a cabin on the south shore of Lake Superior near Ironwood, MI. In her cabin is a 12 foot long table which makes a great space for a temporary studio. While we didn't have any specific deadlines, we did have a focus and an intense period of work. Our focus was to experiment with water-soluable oil paints, specifically the Cobra brand and its mediums. It took a little getting use to, but we liked the paints; I loved being able to blend and work alla prima. We did not care for the mediums made by Cobra---too smelly and gave me a headache and Val itchy eyes. The apple painting was a piece I did with the Cobra paints, minimal water and no mediums.

While we waited for the in-floor heating to get up to temp, I successfully started a fire in the stove--on the first try. Might have to audition for Survivor or something.

A whole new spin to "painting warm-ups."