Sculpted Peonies in Pink

Sculpted Peonies in Pink
Acrylic over molding paste on wood panel, 14x11
Overland Park Arboretum - Stems
sold

Each day is an experiment when painting.  When using this method, I first sketch out my composition with a pastel stick.  Next, I am working at sculpting the petals more accurately with my palette knife.  The use of the knife definitely becomes easier with use, I rarely have to think about the strokes necessary anymore.  Following this, the paste must dry before the next layer - which takes so long with this wet, rainy weather!  I bet it has taken twice as long to dry as normal!  I paint in with acrylics, unsure of whether or not to proceed with oils.  I have decided to leave it as is.........and I really like something about the white paste on the toned background, too.  I may do one of these in only two tones........there is something timeless about it, almost "cameo" like.  This painting makes 891 in 891 days.

The Poetry of Poppies

The Poetry of Poppies
Acrylic over molding paste on wood panel, 14x11
Overland Park Arboretum - Stems - purchase here

I have struggled a bit with these poppies by the lake.  I've had them sitting on an easel - trying to decide if they were finished -or not!  The sketch was easy, the application of acrylic molding paste went smoothly, but then I am faced with just how to layer on the acrylics.  I am now so accustomed to my oils, that returning to the acrylics is daunting!  So, I begin slowly - glazing in the layers, beginning with the darks.  As I work, it becomes more fun, and eventually I am no longer thinking about the method - only about the color. These beauties were near the lake, but I was tempted to darken the background.......yet, I restrain myself!  Painting number 886 in 886 days.

in progress - it is here that I see how nicely a dark background would work.......

Into the Secret Garden Again

Into the Secret Garden Again
Mixed media, 11x14 - sold

This was my final painting of the Augusta Plein Air Festival.  In the afternoon light, the foliage and blooms of this wisteria glowed against the shade of the garden beyond.  This historic house of H.S. Clay is now a beautiful bed and breakfast, full of charm and an amazing breakfast that simply must be experienced!  This scene was the first to grab my attention when first arriving into town, and it took me the entire event before I could find the time to paint it!  I first sketched this out on an acrylic underpainting - which was a loosely stroked montage of blue, alizarin crimson and green, so I started with a dark surface and worked to the light.  I then used a palette knife to add the texture of the foliage and blooms - where the light was catching the most.  After this step was dry - not long on a warm day, I started in with the oils.  The whole process created a rich depth to the landscape.  This is painting number 856 in 856 days.

Of Garden and City

Of Garden and City
Acrylic over molding paste on panel, 16x12
Brush Creek Art Walk - purchase here

sketch & molding paste

On the lawn south of the Kauffman Gardens, I started this painting with the buildings of the Plaza in the background.  After the initial sketch with pastel, I took my palette knife and sculpted in the detail.  Using a heavier hand on the trees, grass and flowers, and a lighter one on the background, I built up the layers until satisfied.  Allowing this to dry briefly, I started another one of zinnias.  I don't like waiting for anything, so when something requires drying time, I always work on a second and sometimes a third painting in the same technique - so by the time I am through with them - my first one is dry.  I then start blocking in my masses, using extra caution over the molding paste.  The thicker parts take longer to dry, and I don't want to shift the paste.  Now, I push and pull the color to reflect how this beautiful landscape affects me.  So much of a painting is a reflection of that specific time and place, and how I respond to my surroundings.  This was a lovely, warm day with gentle breezes - SO welcome after Friday's cold and rainy plein air day!  I must enjoy these days while they last!  Painting number 626 in as many days and Day 16 of the current 30 Day Painting Challenge.

Rose Garden Fountain

Rose Garden Fountain
Acrylic, molding paste on panel, 16x12
Loose Park Rose Garden - Purchase Information

Some paintings require a little time to find their conclusion.  Wanting to sculpt this garden, I added texture with molding paste and palette knife to the pastel sketched composition.  It took longer to sculpt a whole garden scene than it does for a floral study.  I added a second layer to the first, to really add dimension to the foreground roses.  Laying in the layers of open acrylics, I added a gel medium in between.  I brought it to the place where I thought it was finished, but something felt undone.  So, I put in on an easel where I would see it every day, in different light, coming and going.  Days later, I went back in with a couple more layers of paint, warming and cooling the temperatures of the masses.  So glad I took this extra time with the painting, as now I am happy with the mood and feel of this beautiful place.  When I paint on location, it is important to me that the painting reflects my feelings and experience while in that place.  Now, this painting does that.  Painting number 595 in 595 days, and I will be entering this one in the auction to support our Fountain Foundation in Kansas City.........unless I decide to keep it :)

Sculpted Prairie Wildflowers

Sculpted Prairie Wildflowers
Acrylic, molding paste on panel
Konza Prairie Wildflowers

Summer at the Konza Prairie finds so many different flowers in bloom!  There are more than 60 prairie grasses and a whole page list with four columns - full of flowers and plants which grow on this prairie!  With this painting, I first sketch out my composition with pastel sticks.  Next, I capture the petals and foliage with my palette knife and light molding paste.  It is important to first have a sketch here, so I can be sure and put the paste where I want it!  No willy nilly application when it comes to molding paste!  After this dries, which is fairly quickly, I go in with my first layer of paint.  Using Golden Open acrylics, I thin down with water and regular gel medium - building up the color and value.  Stepping back periodically, to make sure I get a good feel for where the painting is headed, I make adjustments to the diffused background flowers.  I have tried a stiff, semi gloss medium between layers, but will top this off with the regular gloss for the top coat.  Applying a clear medium between layers adds another dimension to the paint.  I hope to enter this painting for a fundraising auction to benefit the Flint Hills.  It is important to do all we can to preserve the beauty of this Kansas prairie for generations to come.  This painting makes 586 in 586 days.

Hollyhocks of Ephraim

Hollyhocks of Ephraim
Acrylic over molding paste on panel, 14x11
Purchase Information

As you drive along the main thoroughfare through the harbor town of Ephraim, you can't help but see these amazing hollyhocks!  Just north of the Chef Hat cafe, these bountiful blooms were just begging to be painted!  I had already painted a watercolor and an oil for the day, so I decided to mix it up with the molding paste and acrylics.  Sketching first with pastels, I next sculpted the petals and leaves with a palette knife and molding paste.  Drying quickly in the strong winds off Lake Michigan, I started the underpainting almost immediately.  I lay down the background colors first, leaving the thickest sculpting to dry completely before layering on the acrylics.  Before I knew it, my fellow artists were done painting and ready for dinner, so I had to pack it up without finishing.  I would rather not eat and finish my work, but the majority wins - so I took this one back to the Red Shed and finished it at sunrise before everyone was ready to head out again.  I keep very long hours on these painting trips - and I wouldn't have it any other way!  Painting number 583 in 583 days.

Sculpted Hydrangea & Rudbeckia

Sculpted Hydrangea & Rudbeckia
Acrylic over molding paste on wood panel, 11x14
Fish Creek, Wisconsin
Purchase Information

My third painting of the day from the Allen yard in Fish Creek, Wisconsin, is an acrylic over molding paste on panel.  I first sketched the composition out on the panel, while set up at my easel in front of these flowers.  I have a small container of molding paste which I carry on board my french easel, and this I laid down with my palette knife.  It was rather humid right by the harbor, so this took a little longer to dry than normal.  Avoiding the still wet paste, I blocked in the background with my Golden open acrylics, careful to add enough water and regular gel medium so the acrylics would actually dry.  If I add nothing to these open acrylics, they stay tacky almost forever!  Since I need them to dry for easy storage on the trip home - I must add water and gel medium. This one was dry by morning.  Truly, these are the acrylics to use in the field, because I never have to worry about the fast drying time.  After using regular acrylics for years en plein air - these are SO much easier.  When the background was in, the paste was dry enough to start layering in the color.  My final layer is the regular gel gloss, sealing the layers and adding the perfect finish.  Another wonderful painting day - and this one makes number 577 in 577 days.

Hummingbird in the Trumpet Vine

Hummingbird in the Trumpet Vine
Acrylic & molding paste on panel, 10x8

After two week of watercolor painting, today, I am mixing it up a little with acrylics and molding paste! I have only done a handful of these textural paintings, and three of those have sold!  With this one, I am trying to learn the different palette knives and how they can maneuver the light molding paste.  Each stroke is a lesson - some succeed and some fail, and those I resculpt into the shape I want with the knife.  It is challenging, especially when the petals have very distinct shapes!  Each time I switch mediums, it takes me extra time to get my head back into the right place to work whatever medium I have at hand.  When I do the same thing each day, I simply jump right in without thought.  But today, I had to gather the right paints, palette and brushes - checking to make sure I did indeed have all the matching stuff!  These trumpet vines have burst open in the last few days - right outside the bay window in the kitchen - and how the hummingbirds love them!  This painting makes 541 in 541 days.  I will be plein air painting in the morning in Raymore - I wonder which medium I will choose tomorrow?

Green Street Hydrangea

This is the second painting started on Green Street during the Lee's Summit Garden Walk.  I had already completed two others on Saturday, and this one was sketched in, petals, foliage and stems applied with a knife and Liquitex light molding paste.  I keep a small jar in my french easel, so I can use this technique whenever the mood strikes me.  The Garden Walk was a collection of gardens scattered along three streets, all close enough to casually walk from one to the other.  This particular painting is of the left edge of a giant hydrangea that must have spread 10 feet across!  This is a close up of the same hydrangea that I painted two days ago - so if you look back, you can see what little part this was of the beautiful landscape.  My intention was to finish both on sight, but I was invited out to dinner before I was finished - and the chance for a relaxing meal that I didn't have to cook won!  This is still a bit loose, and I may well look at it tomorrow and decide to add just a few tight petal strokes in among the wild......maybe.  I am hoping my Pebeo drawing gum arrives tomorrow  - I am SO wanting to play some more with the watercolors!  This one makes painting number 532 in 532 days.

Poppy Parade

Poppy Parade
Acrylic over molding paste, 14x11
sold

This is just another bit of molding paste craziness from the arboretum!  I'm still not sure how I feel about this one, but here it is anyway.  After sketching the amazing poppies of Monet's Garden, I laid down those petals with the side of a long, slim palette knife.  It is fun to finally use some of my knife collection - it seems that I only use two of them, and all the others just sit idly by.  It is like training your hand to do something new - holding the knife differently and pulling the strokes down, or sideways, or turning the whole panel upside down!  The colors are a bit bolder than I normally use, and this is causing me to want to do some more glazing.  Yes, I am enjoying the quick drying time and the easy glazing of color than can be applied immediately of acrylics.  I am using Golden Opens, and I don't think I have added as much of the regular gel medium as last time, so this may be a little tacky for a while.  Oh well, live and learn.......and what better way than by experimenting?  This is painting number 519 in as many days.  Now, off to Michael's baseball game!

Allium and Zinnias

Allium and Zinnias
Acrylic over molding paste on panel, 14x11
Overland Park Arboretum
Stems Plein Air Event - sold

After a morning of awards at school, I headed out Friday to get a couple of paintings in.  I wanted to paint over molding paste again, this time with more careful knife strokes - and adding detail to the background areas which I left flat on the earlier piece.  I am currently using Liquitex light molding paste, where I used Golden last time.  I find the Liquitex has a surface that more readily accepts the overpainting.  I found the Golden brand had a bit of resistance, causing my paint to be lighter when painting over the molded parts.  I had added acrylic paint to the Golden paste to add in the same color as my surface, hoping to improve how the paint adhered afterwards - but it did not.  So, for this technique, Liquitex wins - hard to believe, as I love all of the Golden acrylic products that I have tried, and I use Liquitex very little.  It was so warm, the paste was dry when I was ready to start with the acrylics.  By the time I had finished, I had backed up 30 feet to keep myself out of the sun which kept creeping my way!  I really like painting these florals in this way - I have already done 2 others, and may even try a whole landscape later in the week.  I know, just a little "crazy" in my normal, everyday routine......just to spice things up!  Painting number 518 in as many days - where does the time go?

Impressions of Allium

Impressions of Allium
Pastel, Molding paste, and Acrylic on panel, 14x11
Overland Park Arboretum, KS
Stems Plein Air - sold

I have been looking at this painting for a few days, unsure of whether to top it off with oils or leave it be.  Working experimentally, I sketched in pastel, molded the areas I wanted a sculpted feel to, and then painted in acrylic.  When I use acrylic, I start with a pale yellow underpainting.  Acrylics do not cover like oils, and the darker washes seem to work against me.  And, especially when trying something new, I don't want to fight my panel int he process!  It was so strange to use acrylics again after so long!  My youngest daughter insists that it is done - and forbids me to "mom it up".......but I am having trouble resisting the urge.  What shall I do?  Painting number 514 in as many days.........

Sculpted Roses

Sculpted Roses
Molding paste, heavy gel w/acrylics, oils
9x12

Feeling experimental today, I first sketched out these roses from the Loose Park rose garden.  Then, I took out the molding paste, and applied to the roses, foliage and other assorted areas.  After drying, I mixed acrylics with heavy gel medium and applied the first coat of paint, also adding texture.  When just dry enough to work over this, I started laying in the oils.  Then, it was off to baseball photos and then another game, and I have only now returned home.  And, guess what?  It is almost midnight, so there is no time for further painting with oils to explore the depths of shading.  So, wild and crazy and it is, this is my painting for the day.  Painting number 159 in 159 days.  I think I'll return to something a little more sane tomorrow :)