Ball and Chain

"Ball and Chain"

8 x 8 inches, oil on canvas panel

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This was a color study for a larger piece - four times larger! You can check that out here. :)

Green Tea and Vitamin C

"Green Tea and Vitamin C"

10 x 10 inches, oil on canvas

$350

Click to buy

Stay healthy, everyone!

Winter Greens

 

"Winter Greens"

18 x 24 inches, oil on canvas

Click to buy

A bit larger than I usually work! Here's a shot of the finished painting in my studio, with the still life:

 

 

I've got a workshop coming up March 2-3 in Portland, OR, and I could really use some help spreading the word! If you know an oil painter - of any skill level - in the area, please consider sharing it with them. Here's a link to all the info. Many thanks! 

- Sarah

Tea Paintings Galore!

 "Silver Surround" 

6 x 8 inches, oil on gessobord

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Each month, I give my online mentorship group a theme to work from - entirely optional, and as a sidebar to their own projects, of course - and this month our theme was "Tea." Here are a few of their fantastic works:

Lately I've been saying that I get more out of mentoring these artists than they do from me. I'm sure it's true - they are such a diverse, talented, and inspiring group, and the things that I get to think about, the problems I get to help them solve, have taken me to the next level in every area of my art practice. I'm grateful. 

Curious what art mentorship is all about? Visit my website for all the info - or my FAQ page here.

The World - A New Painting in My Tarot Series

  "The World"

12 x 24 inches, oil on canvas

$800 

Click to view/purchase

Well, I took a temporary hiatus from my Tarot card series - more like an eight-month "I think I'm done for good" type break - but, proving once again that you never know when it's the last time you'll do something - here's a new one.

The cards are: (In the box) The Tower, The Emperor, Page of Wands, Justice, and - front and center, The World. I chose to leave out the text/titles on the cards. I've included it in previous pieces, but felt like letting the images speak for themselves here. 

Thanks for looking! 

The Green Teapot, and a chance to watch me paint it - live!

 "The Green Teapot"

10 x 10 inches, oil on canvas

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As an artist, I don't often feel that I'm in a "helping" profession. Yes, the arts benefit society hugely, and I'm proud to be a part of that. And yes, when I'm teaching painting, it's incredibly rewarding to be able to pass on my experience to my students. Donating my work to charitable organizations is a different kind of difference-making. I'll never be a social worker, but I truly know how important social work is to my community. So! This Thursday, I'll be participating in a great benefit for Sheltercare, here in Eugene.

I say it's a great benefit, because it really is - it's at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art on the U of O campus, there's live music, great food, a silent auction of local art, and this year, my talented friend Heather and I will be making art, live, during the event. AND our paintings will be part of the raffle - along with our subject, this lovely green teapot.

So, today's painting was just a warmup, you could say!

Click on the image above for more info about the event - and click here to read an interview with yours truly, on the Sheltercare blog!

Green Olives and Tea

 "Green Olives and Tea"

12 x 12 inches, oil on canvas
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Here is my thumbnail sketch for this painting:

And here is a studio shot with my work-in-progress - the still life, my thumbnail sketch on the floor, for reference, and my easel cuddled up close to all of it, for a bird's eye view. In the background, by the window, you can see the still life setup for "The Pattern Beneath All Things," which I was painting at the same time as this one, in the afternoons, with the blinds open.  I had tape marks on the floor, and I just shifted the easel over.  

The thumbnail sketch for this piece snuck into this random shot of my studio desk as well - along with some objects from the painting - the garlic, the blue-rimmed plate. The olives are even hiding in this shot. (Hint: they're in their jar.) I think my motive for taking this picture was to document the excessive number of sketchbooks in play at once. Or maybe I just found the overall scene pleasing. I do love a good jumble of objects.

Painting by Window Light

 "Playa Tea"

12 x 16 inches, oil on canvas
Click to buy

As I mentioned yesterday, in the first post about my Playa residency, one of my goals was to paint with natural light on my still lives. For the past two years, I've been in a studio with very little window light - which has its advantages, but is limiting as well. Although I really enjoy composing with the dramatic shadows cast by clip-lamps, and exploring all the warm glowing colors created by halogen light bulbs, there's just something so serene about sunlight. So window light vs. artificial light is not an either-or proposition for me - I enjoy both - but having the choice? Love it! 

 Here's my setup, on a nice little ledge built above the studio heater, next to a north-facing window. I painted this one in morning light, switching to the feather painting I posted yesterday in the afternoons - an A.M. and a P.M. painting! How very impressionist of me.

Here's how this painting got started. See those gridlines on the canvas? It's a product from Masterpiece I've been trying out, and I like it! 

Of course, I was also moving onward with my daily self-portrait sketches, in the evenings when I was too tired to do much else. This one was done in a combo of water-soluble graphite and white gouache. 

 In between my morning and afternoon painting sessions, I hiked! The weather at Playa changed constantly - and rainbows were an almost-daily occurrence - though not all of them as glorious as this one. Nothing makes me feel like I'm right where I'm supposed to be than seeing something like this:

Yellow Path (aka Lemon Pie, the Sequel)

 

 "Yellow Path"

24x12 inches, oil on canvas

$700, framed

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Here it is, the missing slice! 

I enjoyed playing with all the different yellows in this setup - once I got past my freakout over being out of Cadmium Yellow. Seriously, that's like a chef running out of butter! But just like a chef with enough milk and elbow grease, I made my own perfectly suitable substitute using a combo of Indian yellow and Cad yellow pale. No churning required.

 

A warmup sketch. Getting comfortable with those whipped-cream ridges! Eeek!

Painting Together, Painting Alone

 "Blueberry Tart"

10 x 10 inches, oil on canvas
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I love a new project - and I have one this week! I've been attending open studio sessions to draw and paint the figure for years, and lately have found myself wondering - could that model (no pun intended) work with still life? Get a group of like-minded artists together to paint, chat, and share a still life set-up...why not?

The inaugural session of the Still Life Open Studio was this past Thursday at Whiteaker Printmakers' Annex - the same space where I recently taught a figure painting workshop. There were six of us in attendance, but I brought enough subject matter for a small army of artists. Tea and lemons....shocker!

The fruit tarts were a change for me. First time painting one - and I loved the shiny fruit! 

Underpainting to finish. I always start my still lives the same way: with a wet-toned canvas in a warm neutral orange, then a value block-in in thin paint. I recently made a video for my online mentorship students demonstrating my whole process. If you enjoy watching it, give it a thumbs up on YouTube - I'd appreciate it!

Talking to myself in an empty room....no wonder I was craving a group of painters to hang with!

More Tea!

 "Green Tea with Lemons"

10 x 10 inches, oil on canvas

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A second stab at my still life from yesterday. I just shuffled the players around a bit! 

I made a pencil sketch for this painting - which can be seen here. AND! I recorded almost all of this painting-in-progress on time-lapse video, and strung the clips together into a 4.5 minute segment. Watch it here, on YouTube.

....And have some more tea!

Green Tea

 "Green Tea"

10 x 10 inches, oil on canvas

$250

Available here

I drink a lot of tea. Mostly generic black tea with lots of cream and sugar....but it's nice to have these fancy tea bags around for painting! The multi-colored individual packets are a fun element to experiment with in a still life set up. 

Here's my work-in-progress. Remind me to use this painting if I ever need a great example of an analogous color scheme:

And here's the sketch that started me off. More sketches like this can be found on my Pinterest page!

I'm teaching two workshops this month in Eugene. March 12th is a one-day Intro to Oil Painting class, and the weekend of March 19-20th, a 2-day still life workshop for oils or acrylics. I guarantee hard work and lots of fun. I mean, I haven't had a student cry yet..... :)

Tea With a Spoon....A One Dollar Auction!

 "Tea With A Spoon"

9 x 12 inches, oil on canvas

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This was my demo from a one-day still life workshop I taught at Sequoia Gallery + Studios in Hillsboro, OR last month. One day is simply not enough time for a still life junkie like me, but it was a great group and we did a ton of painting in that short amount of time.

Luckily, though, my next still life workshop is three solid days!

Here's just a little piece of our still life setup at Sequoia. Think this looks like fun to paint? Join me for my next workshop, at Oregon Society of Artists, in Portland, OR - October 9-11. Info and registration here.

Taking a Trip

 

 "Lemon Tea on Whidbey"

12 x 12 inches, oil on canvas

Click to buy

Last weekend, I drove up to the Seattle area for a visit with my friends at Brackenwood Gallery. Eight years in the Pacific Northwest, and this was my first time in Seattle! It was also my first time meeting the proprietors, Jason Waskey and Mary Jo Reynolds, in person, though Jason and I have been art-blogging buddies for many years.

 On Saturday afternoon I set up my easel and painted in the gorgeous, watery window light. Many friendly gallery-goers stopped to chat with me.

Here's the finished product, with my subjects. You may recognize some of them from my First Friday demo in Eugene two weeks ago!

 

It was an honor to visit - and paint at - this beautiful gallery. Pictured below: Fiorella, me, Mary Jo, and Jason. 

Another highlight of the weekend was getting to visit Jason's studio and see some of his works-in-progress. He and I will be having a two-person show at Brackenwood in October. So I guess I'm just going to HAVE to go back!

 

 Twist my arm, right? Whidbey Island is such a beautiful place! And did I mention, there are wild bunnies? On the left is the morning view from my hosts' kitchen, and on the right, offering the bunnies a snack. Heading back to the mainland on the ferry,  the views only got better: 

An Opening, A Painting...and A Video!

 

 "Summer Tea"

12 x 12 inches, oil on canvas

Available here

Last Friday was the opening reception for my show at Oregon Art Supply. It was also First Friday Artwalk, and I had lots of company while I worked on this painting in the gallery.

I love doing painting demos. People ask the greatest questions. Sometimes I forget why I do things the way I do...but there's nothing like having to explain it out loud to remind me!

 I also got to give a little talk about my work....this clip is only two minutes, but if you'd like to watch the other eight (I know, don't give me a microphone, it's trouble!), you can do that here.

Still Life Painting: The Next Level!

 "Teacup Demo at Shreveport"

8 x 8 inches, oil on canvas

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My second workshop in Shreveport, Louisiana (read all about the first one here) was a group who'd painted with me last October. Besides being incredibly flattered that they'd come back for more, I was excited to see how their work had progressed, and try out some new ideas!

We worked on edges, paint handling, color mixing, and stroke economy....

...we took a field trip to the art supply store, and had a varnishing demonstration.

Also they plied me with King Cake!

(I got the baby!)

On the last day of the workshop, we set up a new, large still life, and used limited palettes - one of each of the primary colors, plus white. Below right you can see my demo palette: I chose Alizarin Crimson, Cerulean Blue, and Yellow Ocher.

 

 My painting had very muted yellows, as a result, but the color harmony was automatic. We all learned a ton about the unique properties of the three colors we chose!

"Limited Palette demo at Shreveport"

9x12" oil on canvas

Thanks, Ladies, for being such a great group! Can't wait until the next time.