Day 27 - 30 Paintings in 30 Days!

"A Real Cowboy"

     Growing up on a ranch in Montana, I've seen many cowboys, my brother being one of them.  He rode bucking broncos in rodeos and still to this day, talks like a cowboy.  He has a great sense of humor, and that was one thing that I wanted to portray in this painting. 

     I used my past painting from Day 23 as my model for the cowboy, just added the holster, hat and spurs.  You would think that would have made this an easy painting, but because I didn't have a value study to work from or a color scheme in mind, I really struggled with this one.  Thank goodness for a toothbrush to scrub out mistakes.  I began with a blue/green color scheme in mind, but half way through, I decided that I wanted the sky to be a dark value, so glazing produced the purple/red color.  I like the color scheme now, but it took me 2 full hours longer than it had to, just because I wasn't prepared ahead of time.  Lesson learned!  My favorite part of this painting is the way I hid the word "cowboys" on the left side, and how it repeats the feeling of the fence. 

     This painting is 10" x 10" image, and is available for $125.

Day 26- 30 Paintings in 30 Days

"Climbing to the Top"

I felt like doing an abstract painting today, and I have to confess, there's a national show deadline coming up and I really want to enter an acrylic in it.  So, I read the rules, and found out that collage is approved in this show, but it has to be handmade, and it can only be 20% of the painting.  I have quite a few collage papers that I made some time ago, after watching the Anne Bagby DVD .  It was fun grabbing some of them and adding them to my painting.  I really love collage, and I like using magazines and purchased papers too, but couldn't use those this time, due to the rules.  If you've been following my blog during this 30 in 30 Challenge, you know that I stated that all of my paintings have to be people paintings.  If you look closely at this painting, you'll see the figure at the top right. It is my intention that you won't see the person, till you study the painting for awhile.  It reminded me of a person climbing to the top of his career goals, hence the title.  This painting is 14" x 14" image, matted to 20" x 20". 

poster of first 25 days-30 Paintings in 30 Days!

"First 25 Paintings"

Can you believe it?  I'm 25 days into this challenge, heading down the home stretch!  I discovered a really cool website, www.picmonkey.com which allows you to drag photos from your picture file and create a collage.  However, I can't figure out how to create 30 on one poster, so we'll see if I get that done by day 30!  This challenge has taught me so much.  Perserverance, need for balance in my life, gratitude, creativity, and every day, I can see improvement in my paintings! My house has suffered, my kids and grandkids haven't seen very much of me, not to mention my husband!  We've been eating a lot of restaurant food too.  But, all in all, I'm so glad that I did this!!!  I'm also very glad to be almost done, and get balance back in my life.  Nobody said this was going to be easy! Thanks to all of you who have been following me in this challenge, and who have cheered me on! 

Day 25- 30 Paintings in 30 Days!

"Frazzled"

     Need I say anything more?  At Day 25, I'm running out of energy and feeling totally worn out, totally FRAZZLED!!  This is a self portrait, part of my Crazy Lady series.  I did the 30 minute study of this some time ago, (See below) when I taught back to back workshops.  I like to teach 4 day workshops and then have at least one week to refuel, but this time, I had scheduled these workshops in order to pay for some remodeling that we had done.  Never again!  Although I'm glad that I'm almost done with the challenge, I'll never be sorry that I did it.  Thank you, Leslie Saeta for setting this up. 

     I've got a friend, Karlyn Holman, who teaches many workshops within a year, and I don't know how she does it!  I call her the Energizer Bunny.  You definitely should look into taking a workshop from her.  She's the best!  My paintings are in several of her books.  Click on this link to get to her website.  

     This painting took several hours to complete, but was very fun to paint.  It always works better when I work from a color design sketch.  I use Tombow markers to do these.  That's what I will be doing daily after this challenge is over.  I miss doing them, and I'll pledge to do another year of 30 minute studies.  Did I just say that???!!!!  Below is my study for today. 

Day 24- 30 Paintings in 30 Days!

"Garden Walk"

My intention was to start a full sheet acrylic painting today, but then decided to do my 10" x 10" painting first, and work out the colors in it.  After completing this painting, I'm still undecided about my colors for my big painting.  One thing  I will change about the full sheet is to eliminate many of the small shapes, and to unify shapes more.  Don't get me wrong.  I like this painting, it's just not one that I would enter in a national competition.  As it was snowing outside... yet again..... I craved Spring flowers, so I decided to paint them.  Then I got caught up in watching golf on TV, and so the second painting didn't happen today.  This painting is available for $125. 

Day 23: 30 Paintings in 30 Days!

"Big Shoes to Fill"

Today's painting is to pay tribute to all those husbands and fathers out there.  My husband is a real keeper, and this is especially for him.  Dick is such a great supporter of my art and even though he is the main bread winner in our family, he always makes me feel so special.  When he used to help me out at outdoor art fairs, he even wore the name tag, "Mr. Karen Knutson".  Here he is, a very accomplished businessman, and he's making me queen for the day, actually queen EVERY DAY!  I like the design in this piece, with an abstract F in the background to symbolize father, and the papers piled on the table, because Dick does so much paper work for everyone in our family.  Taxes, bookwork, receipts, banking.  I used one of my 30 minute studies for my reference, so this painting was a pretty easy one today.  The image size is 10" x 10" and will be a gift for my husband.  I will be making cards out of it, though if you would be interested.  They will be available for $10 for a package of 4. 

Day 22: 30 Paintings in 30 Days!

"Doing the Happy Dance"

Today's painting was done in honor of my friend, Connie, who had her last chemo treatment today.  She's doing the "happy dance", and has visions of long glorious hair growing back in the future.  This has been a long difficult journey of many trips to doctors, some good news days, some bad news days, and

many anxious days awaiting news from tests.  Connie taught me so much about "taking lemons and making lemonade out of them".  I'm going to make cards out of this painting, and she will get the first one.  Thank you, God, for protecting my dear friend during this healing time.  Connie is a gifted artist and also writes great poetry.  Here's a link to her blog:   http://conniecuthbertson.blogspot.com/  This watercolor painting is done in the illusionary painting method and is size 10" x 10". 

Day Twenty One- 30 Paintings in 30 Days

"Girl with Attitude"

Guess I shouldn't be surprised that this isn't one of my favorites.  I kind of had a bad attitude today, myself.  So, it stands to reason that the girl that I painted would have both hands on her hips, with a real attitude.  I'm needing a break today, but did my challenge painting anyway.  I so enjoyed doing an abstract yesterday, that I think I'll go back to that tomorrow.  I have learned so much during this challenge, and am very thankful that I'm doing it, but I look forward to the finish line!

Day Twenty- 30 Paintings in 30 Days!

"Hidden Agenda"

Starting this painting as a total abstract, my plan was to include a woman at the last minute.  I had an all day painting day with my friend, Lana Grow and we had a great time trying to make a total collage painting like Carrie Burns Brown does.  Her DVD is one of my favorites.  Below is the painting before the changes.  When I got home, I knew that I would have to get the acrylic paint out and fix the painting.  I like that I have her right in the center of the painting, and yet, I got away with it.  (In my opinion, anyway)  I believe that the dark big shape on the right side of the painting adds more weight to that side of the painting, thereby disguising the fact that she is in the center.  What do you think? I called this painting, "Hidden Agenda", because I like the fact that the viewer doesn't see the woman right away.  This acrylic and collage painting is image 12" x 12" and is available for $295.

Painting BEFORE changes

Day 19- 30 Paintings in 30 Days

"Girl with a Secret"

Nearly 2 years ago, I visited a coffee house in Texas, and saw this girl wearing a fun scarf, and I asked her if I could take her photo so that I could paint her.  Wonder what she would think of the way that I abstracted her image?  Again, being influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright, this painting was a pleasure to paint from start to finish.  However, it took 8 hours to paint!  For my reference, I used a color sketch that I had done while I was in Texas.  I'm finding that my 30 minute sketches are so valuable as I do this 30 day challenge.  This painting is 10" x 10" image.