1st place in oils @ SKB Art Conference 2012

Things have a way of evening out, sometimes. I ruined a nice plein air painting today due to not having a friend stop me soon enough. So I now have a beautifully toned canvas for tomorrow. I was a little bummed after wiping it out but the beauty of the golden-glowing aspens and being surrounded by fabulous people, it didn't last very long.

I was kind to myself and knew that at least I had showed up to do the work and we can't have successes without some failures; checks and balances, you know.

Tonight was the awards ceremony for the art show and much to my surprise and delight, my painting titled "Revealing my inner self" was awarded 1st place in oils! ( by unanimous decision, one judge said)

What an honor! There are so many talented and wonderful artists here that I feel humbled just to be with them for an entire week.

So my motto, "Never give up", proves to be valid once again. Just when we are down on our abilities, validation can come in many forms. So for all my creative friends who are struggling right now with
this same issue, may this spur you on.

Many other wonderful things are in store the rest of the week; art marketing, Photoshop class, more plein air and hopefully some time with artists, Mark Mahaffey and Greg Beechum.

Guy Coombs and Andrew Denman are doing some fabulous pieces and is inspirational to watch.

Stay tuned for news of some other great artists doing instruction and demos here. Thursday, many of them will be doing a quick draw.

Painting #25 ...........Finding our own Direction

Those darn cherries just wouldn't hold still! Either that or my eyes wouldn't focus........could be my glasses keep slipping....

Not quite finished with this one. I worked on linen today and used very little medium yet it was very slick and hard to get my paint to stay. I will have to add some dark to the background and soften some edges on the cherries. My first attempt to include a doily that had cross stitch on it. Not so simple to try to just suggest it.

Well, just like the cherries, I am still trying to find my own direction!

Finding our own Direction      oil on linen    3.5 x 5"    

Thanks for looking!      Ruth Ann

Painting #24...The One That Got Away

Well, I have a finished painting but it needs some 'tweaking' to say the least. Try as I might, I squinted, I glanced quickly, I turned it upside down ( but then I realized I would have to stand on my head, since I couldn't 'flip' my still life)....

The photo isn't quite accurate. The orange shows up too sharp and intense and there is a glare in a few places. I will take a new photo when it dries down more.

I believe it will work better if I use almost no medium when I have a high key background. Or I need to work in layers with more time to dry, not a one sitting painting. So that is good, I seem to be learning a thing or two...

The One That Got Away   5 x 7" oil on panel  

Thanks for looking.............Ruth Ann

Painting # 23 Sharing the Spotlight

Shopping is fun, but sure takes up a lot of studio time!  People probably thought I was really strange, as I picked through the cherries to get just the right ones; some really dark, some with great lights and of course, many with stems!

That was only part of it...then to choose how to present them! I tried several containers and may paint a few of them. Today, the little cut glass was the one to 'share the spotlight'.

I started out using too much medium, so I had to wait to let it dry; as we were having a thunderstorm and torrential rain with howling winds, it was taking a good long time to dry enough so that I could work on it. Still not quite what I was going for but not a bad effort for the day...

...............now I go eat those luscious cherries!  Have a wonderful evening!

Sharing the Spotlight     5 x 7" oil on panel   

Painting # 19 Lean on Me

What a perfect day to be safe and warm in the studio. Outside it was snowing and blowing, making the roads unfit for travel. So glad my husband had the day off so I wouldn't spend all day worrying about him on the road.

Those pears were getting pretty ripe and the smell made me want to sink my teeth in for a bite, so I had to get them painted. There are two left now.

I had difficulty with the highlight on the red one. The light sounrce I used was a warm incandescent bulb. Therefore the highlight should be warm, right? But it looked so cool and blue. So I know I will have to work on that some but I had to stop, as I was just messing up the good parts, so before I completely destroyed it, I decided to let it rest.

Lean on Me           5 x 7" oil on panel    

Think I'll go "Lean " on my husband and watch a good movie. This struggle wore me out.

Painting #14 Daily C

Okay, so this one took a lot longer than the others. The orange was drying out fast and curling up, so I had to take a photo of it while it was fresh. I started it around midnight and got the drawing on and some values in umber placed, then I called it a night.

Good thing I took a photo because it looked really bad this morning, even though I put water on it. With all this snow blowing around, it made perfect sense to just stay in and paint. I had lots of fun with this one and really got mesmerized by trying to capture the feel of an orange.

Then I finished and realized the rim was off plumb! I redrew the line and messed up the whole thing, as it lifted paint in an area that I felt I had just right....sigh! Well, here it is, reclaimed...

Daily C    5 x 7" oil on panel  

I bought two of these dessert dishes and shared one with my fellow daily painter, Kristen Dukat, so you may see the same one in a painting of hers real soon.

Thanks for looking...............Ruth Ann

Painting #9 "No matter how you slice it...

Some days you have so much pending, you almost forget what you were planning to do when you went to the studio. That was my day. Before I knew it, a couple of hours had gone by and I was running short on studio time to get my daily painting done.

I decided to grab a quick bite for lunch, first. The leftover cherry turnover made perfect desert. But wait, it was too hot to eat and the cherries oozing out the seam just screamed "paint me!". I was already to start when I just needed to change the angle.........too late! Gotta eat it. Yummy! Okay, on to plan B...

I had some leftover fruit that needed to be used or thrown out, so I sliced the orange and then the apple ........but that was a little boring, so I had decided to slice the apple sideways.....wa-la a set up!

The title seemed obvious...........

" No matter how you slice it, it is still apples to oranges..." 

5 x 7" oil on panel        

Painting #2 lemon w shadow

Guess I am making lemonade today in the studio, that is, after I paint it! I was planning to make a needed trip to a gallery in Dayton to pick up some of my paintings, so I never quite got into the right brain. Add several distractions, well, you know...

Hopefully, I will get a chance to redeem myself tomorrow, after I work on installing the photography show at Artspace/Lima.