Sara's Painting Blog

Citrus and Blue

2012-02-04T21:43:00.000-08:00

Recently, I was able to go to a workshop in Scottsdale with Daniel Keys. It was SO much fun. The inspiration and the vacation I got was very much needed. This is what I painted when I got home. I've worked on the lemon and left corner a little more since I took this photo.

Movin on Up

2012-02-04T21:04:00.000-08:00

Here is my second attempt at the "Morning Ritual" Painting idea. I like it a little better. It has flowers.

Morning Ritual

2011-10-15T17:53:00.000-07:00

Not the best painting, but it is a lot better than it was a week ago. I had a heart to heart with my husband a few weeks ago. I was feeling really discouraged about art and life. There's just not enough time in the day to do it all- But I did get some inspiration for my thesis and subject matter. I want to portray those simple little things in life that make being a woman, and a mom, both challenging and great. Our days have so many mundane tasks, but there are countless blessings in the process. I thought this painting would be a good start as it represents how I survive. Water (with a bit o lemon to get me going), scriptures, journal and even a hint of a planner there on the left side). The dishtowel is there primarily for color and eye flow, but it does represent my morning jobs (laundry, dishes etc.)- Oh, and that orange thing, is actually my fancy sugar bowl. I guess, even though we try to avoid it, we all need a little sweetness in our lives. Each morning as I wake up and prepare to face the day, I am filled with so much hope at what I am going to do that day and what I want to accomplish. I am always up well before the sun- sometimes at 4 am. If I miss this crucial morning prep time, I am wandering around aimlessly for the rest of the day- never quite able to focus. I wish the painting would have turned out better, but it is a good starting place after a small summer hiatus to move and get my kids on a good home school schedule.

Roses

2011-04-25T23:56:00.000-07:00

My roses bloomed overnight, I think, and I got so excited to paint them. I did all 3 of these paintings tonight after my kids went to bed. I didn't spend much time on them, but they are still my favorite paintings I've done this semester :)

California Here I Am

2011-03-05T17:06:00.000-08:00

Here is a painting of my sister Kristin. It was a fun palette knife experience. My two yr old kept saying, "Aunt Kristin needs a face".

Pears

2011-03-05T17:03:00.000-08:00

Back to painting again. Baby Troy is already four months old and fits right in with the big boys.

What I've been Doing Lately

2010-10-10T11:43:00.000-07:00

So I just thought I would give you an update of my life. I am just about to have baby #4. I'm in classes this semester, homeschooling, and still getting all settled in after our summer move. I've been doing art, but not so much painting. Here are some of the projects I've been working on for my Color Theory class. Every color you see was painted separately and cut out and carefully mounted.

Orange Path SOLD

2010-06-23T19:25:00.000-07:00

This is the last painting I did before we moved from Annapolis to Kingman. I really liked the finished piece, but I didn't get a good image of it. I sold it at my show.

More Quick Still Lifes 30-45 min SOLD

2010-05-14T10:06:00.000-07:00

"Orange Flowers" SOLD

2010-05-14T09:56:00.000-07:00

I painted this yesterday in Louis Escobedo's class at the Easton Studio and School in Easton, MD. I only have two classes left before we move. I will sure miss the weekly painting sessions. I think my weekly retreat to this beautiful and quaint Eastern Shore town has been my saving grace for the past several months- great people, great music, great subject matter, and yummy food at one of the local places, and painting, painting, painting. It has been something that this pregnant mamma of 3 who is always trying to bite off more than she can chew really needed.

Quick Study "Carolina"

2010-05-14T09:55:00.000-07:00

Quick Studies, "Waiting" "Back Creek Boat" SOLD

2010-05-14T09:53:00.000-07:00

Tulips

2010-04-13T06:45:00.000-07:00

Caroline SOLD

2010-04-13T06:40:00.000-07:00

Portrait

2010-04-13T06:39:00.000-07:00

Sedona

2010-04-13T06:38:00.001-07:00

Arizona

2010-04-13T06:35:00.000-07:00

Happy St. Patrick's Day

2010-03-16T21:25:00.001-07:00

Jake the Leprechaun

Luke

2010-03-15T22:47:00.002-07:00

Alley

2010-03-15T22:47:00.001-07:00

Beary SOLD

2010-03-15T22:45:00.000-07:00

The beloved stuffed animal.

25 min studies (SOLD)

2010-03-13T18:13:00.000-08:00

More Quick Studies 30-60 min

2010-03-13T18:08:00.001-08:00

"Stepping up to Pink" SOLD and "Roses" SOLD

2010-03-13T07:08:00.000-08:00

More fun paintings from Louis Escobedo's class in Easton, MD. I'm getting better. I felt like the process of the rose painting was more successful than the final piece, but I think I am improving.

QUICK Studies 25 min SOLD

2010-03-13T07:04:00.001-08:00

I'm in a great class this semester called Quick Studies. You have to set the timer and paint like the wind. I've been doing 5-10 paintings each week. These were all done in 25 min.

2010-02-06T07:10:00.000-08:00

Checksna

2010-02-06T06:27:00.001-08:00

Portrait from Louis Escobedo's class

Count Down to Classes

2010-01-23T14:20:00.001-08:00

I'm getting the panels ready to paint on. Do you like my new drying rack? This might last me until mid term in my Quick Studies class. I'll be painting 8-10 paintings/week.

Does this look like $500 worth of supplies to you?

"Pomegranate" and "Watermelon"

2010-01-23T14:16:00.001-08:00

I need to pace myself a little. I did two paintings this week in Easton, but I think it would have been better to do one, and take more time.

Alex

2010-01-23T14:14:00.001-08:00

Here is Alex. He had a very thick Eastern European accent. This was my first portrait from life in a long while.

Pink Flower

2010-01-23T14:12:00.000-08:00

My first painting in Easton was this still life with fresh flowers. I was painting on an 18x24 canvas which was a little ambitious for a one day piece, but here it is. We'll see if I improve this year.

Easton Studio

2010-01-23T14:10:00.001-08:00

For the past three weeks I have been painting with artist Louis Escobedo at a studio in Easton, Maryland. As soon as I walked into that place, I knew I was supposed to be there.

Final

2009-12-09T00:00:00.001-08:00

So my final for my Cityscape class was due at 3 am. I worked on a big Annapolis painting all day Saturday, and yesterday decided it would be easier to start a new one than finish that one. I hadn't gotten too far, and had a the Relief Society Christmas party tonight. When I got home, I was SO tired I couldn't stay awake to paint, so I decided to take a catnap on the couch in my studio and wake up in an hour or so to paint. I was really cold, so I moved the ceramic heater closer to warm my cold legs. My studio couch is tiny so I must have moved my leg off the couch a little- I woke up to a painful burning sensation and saw that my whole leg was burned. I had blisters on the only part where actual skin was exposed just above my sock line. Ouch! Thank goodness, though, or I would have slept and not turned in my final :)

Eastport Elementary School

2009-12-08T04:33:00.001-08:00

2009-12-02T06:19:00.000-08:00

Redd in Annapolis

2009-11-16T23:34:00.000-08:00

Vivo SOLD

2009-09-19T17:43:00.000-07:00

The big winner! This weekend was Paint Annapolis, a juried plein air painting event. I wasn't in the main show, but I participated in the timed "Dueling Brushes" competition.

Honestly, I didn't think my painting stood a chance. There were tons of fabulous paintings.

But when they were announcing the winners, they called my name. I sold it too. A great day for painting!

Eastport Zinnias

2009-09-19T17:41:00.000-07:00

I was hoping for something a little less messy :) This was painted on location. I walk by these flowers all the time and I love them.

The Fire Hydrant

2009-09-19T17:40:00.000-07:00

Another Plein Air.

Church Circle

2009-09-19T17:39:00.001-07:00

My first plein air painting of the season. Not great but yippee!

Napa Valley

2009-05-04T10:47:00.000-07:00

I don't think I've actually ever seen a vineyard like this, so I don't know if this is what it would really look like. I was experimenting with a yellow analogous split-complimentary color scheme.

Dock Street Annapolis SOLD

2009-04-22T11:21:00.000-07:00

2009-04-05T18:40:00.000-07:00

2009-04-05T18:39:00.000-07:00

2009-04-05T18:38:00.000-07:00

2009-02-16T21:26:00.000-08:00

Life Update

2009-01-12T13:02:00.002-08:00

I've had several people checking out my blog lately, so I thought I'd better update a bit. So, last May my husband got orders to deploy. We moved out of our house, and then his orders got canceled. We had a fabulous summer, and I managed to finish two classes for my MFA while we were on the road. My fall semester started at the beginning of Sept. My third baby, Luke, was born on Halloween day (right at midterm). It was quite the whirlwind with getting settled, being pregnant, having a baby and then the holidays. Luke is now two months old, we've had some time to get things in order, and I'm ready to really get to work again (at least as much as possible with 3 kids :)
Here is some of the work I did last semester. The painting of the girl in a dress with flowers is a copy of a painting by Daniel Gerhartz called "Secret".

2009-01-12T13:02:00.001-08:00

2009-01-12T12:56:00.000-08:00

2009-01-12T12:53:00.000-08:00

Daisy

2008-08-05T10:31:00.001-07:00

Well, I am back in Annapolis. I've had the craziest two months of my life, but all is well and even better than when we left. My husband's orders to Afghanistan got canceled. We had already moved out of our house. We drove across the country to Utah, played with our families and made a marathon drive to come back for my husband to start work again. We had a great time house hunting, moving and figuring everything out. All the while I was trying to keep up with two summer term master's classes. I had my portable easel and a laptop all summer, so it all worked out. I didn't do as well on a couple of assignments, but in the end I'm really glad I did it.
Here is one of my last assignments for the class.

Christian- SOLD

2008-05-22T07:18:00.001-07:00

Just a touch of Optimism

2008-05-17T19:40:00.000-07:00

This is my last assignment for my classes this semester. I've had a really hard time focusing on painting. Nate got orders yesterday. He is going to be deployed to Afghanistan. He'll be away from us for 15 mo. He leaves really soon too- In about a month and a half. We're going to try and pack everything into storage by the end of this month and then we'll head to Utah. I'm going to move in with my parents.

This painting depicts my mood at the moment perfectly. I had painted a great flower before wilted and hung over like that, but i liked it better down- YOu can see where I wiped it out. I should have treated the background a little differently, but oh well.

2008-05-12T20:42:00.000-07:00

You can tell I'm tired when I post something and don't put a title on it. Sometimes thinking of a title is more challenging than thinking of a painting. Any suggestions for any of my untitled work?

2008-05-12T20:41:00.000-07:00

Self Portrait

2008-05-12T20:39:00.000-07:00

Kind of struggled on this one. Oh well. you win some, you lose some. I think I'll have another shot at a self-portrait this summer for another class.

Unusual Suspect

2008-05-03T16:41:00.001-07:00

Salt and Pepper

2008-04-28T20:44:00.000-07:00

Red Lady

2008-04-28T20:43:00.001-07:00

2008-04-20T19:18:00.001-07:00

2008-04-14T18:15:00.000-07:00

This is just the start of a pastel assignment, but I think the drawing turned out really neat, so I'm posting it here.

A Little Color

2008-04-14T18:10:00.001-07:00

This painting was for another assignment. We were just supposed to have fun with color and use pure intense colors. I had so much fun with this. Hours went by- and I was just responding intuitively to what I was seeing. I think these are the moments that artists live for- when things just flow.

Savannah

2008-04-14T18:08:00.000-07:00

Marisel

2008-04-10T08:28:00.001-07:00

2008-04-10T08:24:00.000-07:00

Projects and NEWS

2008-04-01T20:02:00.000-07:00

So, I'm sorry to those of you who check here pretty frequently that there hasn't been anything new for a couple of weeks. I have had some interesting things going on. I had spring break for my classes- I thought I'd do some artwork, but I was pretty tired. Jake's birthday fell on St. Patrick's day, and we went all-out for the party. I made 14 Jedi costumes for the kids.

Here's the news: I'm Pregnant. Due Halloween. So exciting, but I've been pooped. I seem to be doing better than I was the past few weeks.

Nate was out of town all last week and I decided to take on some major projects. I completely reorganized the family room downstairs, moved furniture, got new shelves and a desk from freecyle, totally re-did my whole dining room set, and a bunch more stuff. I sanded primed and painted 9 pieces of furniture. All in all, it was totally insane. I had some great help from friends and when Nate got home it wasn't all a mess.

It's a little out of focus, but you can get an idea of how brave I was from the picture.

More Fruit Texture Style

2008-04-01T20:00:00.001-07:00

My third assignment of the same subject, this time "high key" I decided to use a palette knife and had a lot of fun with it.

hands

2008-04-01T19:58:00.001-07:00

I haven't posted anything forever. I was really stressed about this hand assignment. I thought I was going to get a C, but it was the first time in the class I got a solid A on somthing.

2008-03-17T17:53:00.000-07:00

Here's a similar painting to the last one, but it is supposed to be "low key"

2008-03-08T19:35:00.000-08:00

"A Little Fruity"

2008-03-08T19:34:00.000-08:00

Green Without

2008-03-01T10:02:00.000-08:00

Lemons

2008-02-29T07:15:00.000-08:00

More Heads

2008-02-27T04:06:00.001-08:00

Apples in a Bowl

2008-02-23T15:46:00.000-08:00

This is an assignment I had to do of something that was a reflective surface.

fabric study SOLD

2008-02-22T04:53:00.000-08:00

more assignments

2008-02-22T04:52:00.001-08:00

The Art Student

2008-02-15T19:33:00.000-08:00

So, most of my postings for a while won't be too original or anything, and pretty academic in nature. It may be fun for any of you who happen to check to see what I'm up to. Definitely not slacking though.

Head Drawing Studies

2008-02-15T19:31:00.001-08:00

Value Studies

2008-02-15T19:29:00.001-08:00

Ava idea II

2008-02-08T13:21:00.000-08:00

After working on that pastel some more, and going further and further downhill, I decided I might have to start over. Here's a sketch from another picture of the same model that has a little better shadow shapes.

AVA (work in progress)

2008-02-08T10:05:00.000-08:00

I keep thinking I'm almost done with this one and then I see more things I need to fix. I'll post it when it is done. I think it will be a really nice painting.

Head Drawing

2008-02-08T09:46:00.001-08:00

I haven't posted much lately because I decided to forge ahead with my MFA and I am in a couple of intense graduate art classes. One is Advanced still life painting and the other is head drawing. above is a work in progress and below is a still life value study. fun fun fun

"Beverly Beach" SOLD

2008-01-21T12:05:00.000-08:00

Here's what I've been working on the past couple of weeks. It is finished at last. I've also been working on my house, my routines, and trying to get everything ready to start back up with my MFA classes. I'll be starting on Monday, so I guess I've been sleeping in a little, knowing that it is going to be back to the drawing board pretty intensely. I have three portrait commissions which I will be working on this week as well. I'll do my best to get as much done as I can before Monday, but we'll see how it goes.

Pirates and Princesses

2008-01-06T14:32:00.000-08:00

Here's my little fam all dressed up on my 30th birthday. That's the dress I made. It's even reversible. Too bad they wouldn't let us into Disney in our costumes, so I had to wear a Mickey shirt with my gold skirt all day. Oh well. It was fun while it lasted.

"Memories on the Bay" SOLD

2008-01-06T14:26:00.000-08:00

Well, thanks to Nate, I got at least one image up here more quickly than I thought.

Happy New Year

2008-01-06T10:31:00.000-08:00

After a week in Florida, Christmas, and a great week of having my family in town, I'm finally ready to get back into the swing of things. I scraped off my palette, cleaned out my studio, and I got some good painting in yesterday. I'm still having technological difficulties. We got a new computer from Nate's brother. The computer that I saved all my pics on doesn't have internet yet. I'm going to keep up the painting, but it still might take me a couple more days to get all the bugs worked out with the computers and stuff.
Happy New Year! Thanks for checking out my blog. Don't give up on me. It will be a little more action packed soon.

SOLD

2007-12-12T19:10:00.000-08:00

I'm not posting any images today, so as not to accidentally spoil someone's Christmas present just in case they view my blog....
But I have been painting every day in the last week and today I sold a painting- Two paintings even.
I could post the other project I've been working on. Ha Ha.
We're leaving for Orlando tomorrow and we're going to Disney, so I spent way too much time sewing myself a princess costume to wear on my birthday. I even made it reversible in case I feel like going from being a blue princess to being a gold princess.
Anyway, just had to post the news so everyone doesn't think I've just pooped out of doing daily paintings already.
I'm going to try and paint a little on my trip, and I'll start up with gusto once we get back.

"Quicky"

2007-12-03T20:45:00.000-08:00

We're going out of town next week. That means I need to get a couple of bigger paintings that I'm working on done before we leave, so I may not do any more of these little ones until I have those bigger ones finished.

"Black Eyed Susan"

2007-11-30T23:16:00.000-08:00

In case you didn't know this about me, I get up early in the morning. In order to get painting time in, I get up before 5 am. I worked on this painting again this morning. I was hoping to have time today to do a smaller painting for the painting a day thing, but that didn't happen. It is now technically Saturday, and the middle of the night. I woke up with a fussy teething baby and since I am now awake, I decided to post what I accomplished today to keep the trend going. As in the last image of this painting, I had a hard time getting a clear image- something to do with trying to photograph it in a dingy basement studio in the middle of the night.

"Three and One"

2007-11-29T08:09:00.001-08:00

I wasn't thrilled with this painting this morning, but I like it better now. It reads better than I thought it did when I was working on it. This was a good exercise for me.

"Little Red"

2007-11-29T08:05:00.000-08:00

I decided to post a few paintings out there today. I didn't do them all today, but I have done them or touched them up since starting this blog. Each of the pears below is 4x6 and I have them framed and hanging on my wall in the same order you see them. It is a nice little grouping.

2007-11-29T07:59:00.000-08:00

"Black Eyed Susan"

2007-11-27T06:27:00.001-08:00

Although I'd rather not post works in progress, I had to post this one since niether of my paintings from yesterday made the cuts.

"Laney Bray" SOLD

2007-11-23T17:49:00.000-08:00

This is getting close to done. I really love the feel of this. I thought I'd have more time over vacation to paint... I really love using pastels for people. Especially feminine paintings because of the softness. My dad is amazing at pastel portraits.

"Laney Bray"

2007-11-21T06:44:00.000-08:00

This is a work in progress. I haven't figured out the sideways glich. On my photo program these pictures were both upright.

"Studio"

2007-11-20T18:37:00.000-08:00

Woops. A little sideways. I'm feeling a little sideways today. Its about time to clean my studio.

"Natalie"

2007-11-19T05:52:00.000-08:00

I was really in the mood to paint a person today. I ran out of time (meaning my kids woke up) because I messed around with the face too much, but I think there is a nice gesture here. The skirt is kind of fun.

"Yellow on Plaid"

2007-11-17T04:49:00.000-08:00

I got up early enough today that I decided to work on a big beach painting I'm doing. This painting was sort of an afterthought since I needed a break from the other one. I didn't have high expectations for this. As I was working on this I could almost hear my dad telling me not to mess around-- I had terrible lighting since one of my lamps tipped over and went out the other day; I was using a terrible brush, all my apples floating around the studio are getting old and mushy, and I knew my kids were going to wake up any second. Considering the circumstances, I thought this one turned out ok.

"New York Sky"

2007-11-16T04:35:00.000-08:00

This summer I went with my family to Palmyra, New York. This scene was inspired from that trip. I also went to a gallery reception where the featured artist was doing simple landscape paintings that had square skies. I started this painting a few months ago, but got bogged down with the middle ground. I like this painting much better this morning that I did before, but I may clean it up a tiny bit. I primarily used a palette knife.