A great exercise.

If I am struggling with surface quality and need to stop myself from "petting the canvas to death" I will limit the amount of strokes that I allow myself.  That means covering the canvas from corner to corner, letting "the chips fall where they may" with a limited number of strokes.  I have to load the brush just so and calculate where the best place is to start in order to cover the chosen area in what I've allowed myself.  It's a lot of fun, a challenge and often it can give the painting an effortless looking feeling.  

"20 Strokes"

"20 Strokes"

"25 Strokes"

NBA Season over! (for one minute!)

My husband, Ray, is an NBA freak!  He should have had a career in some form with the B-ball maniacs.  He likes me to keep him company though, the channel changer isn't enough!  So to meet my needs and his, I set up my watercolors at the kitchen table and have some fun.  I will have two or three watercolors going at once. I use a small box in the center of our kitchen table as a stand to place still life objects on.  I like the way our overhead light falls on the setting.  I have gotten so much mileage done this way and everybody seems happy.  

Today's effort.

I am writing an instructional book on painting.  It will be fashioned after the way I teach my workshops.  That is "Painting Recipes."  All the information will break down into easy to follow instructions with one goal "out in front."  I approach the information on my DVDs this way as many of you know who have them.  I am really excited about this project and have already created many more lessons.  I am thinking of titling it "Peggi Kroll Roberts' Recipes for painting success" or  "Recipes for Success with your Art." And I am actually going to design the layout so it's sort of like your Betty Crocker Cookbook!     

Today's effort was creating content for the chapter on color.  One of the best ways to begin to familiarize yourself with the potential of your palette is to mix color charts.  These are just two for starters.  This top one is about mixing white with each color on my palette to create tints.  I made these charts on 8" x 10" canvas board and used blue painters tape for the grid.

The one below is starting with my Cadmium Yellow Medium and mixing gradations with all the other colors on my palette.  The palette I worked with here is Titanium White, Cad Yellow Medium, Cad Orange, Cad Red Light, Thalo Rose, Viridian, Cerulean Blue, Ultramarine Blue and Dioxinine Purple.  Look at the earth tones you get with purple and yellow.  You can eliminate some tube colors from your palette and still have all you need. 

Had a few minutes.

I had a minute so I went out to my garden, drew some simple silhouettes of plant shapes and added a background.  I think I may try to turn these into larger abstract paintings.  I want to really experiment with 2 color harmony.

9" x 12"

Gouache

I have done so many "dancing figures" and now I am moving on to "just figures" of all types and sizes!  I have taken some fun photos of random people in random places and just plan to sit, draw and paint.  This figure is of one of the basketball players that was playing on the courts in Laguna Beach, Ca.  

He's for sale!  

"Basketball Guy"

8" x 6"

Gouache

$25

SOLD

Peggi must be ADD.

You must be thinking that "Peggi must be ADD".  Well, I am and I embrace it.  Why try to fight it?  I post a lot of different work.  I post my more representational work of figures and still life.  And then I post my little figure drawings executed in gouache.  And then of course I do some work in ceramics.  I love to hand build.  I make "Pencil holders"!  Posted here,  I've been working on a series of more graphic paintings that seem abstract at first glance but one might imagine them as collages of fragments of objects. And I haven't posted any of my watercolors yet!  My husband claims, "I want it all"!   

"Iron" 

Oil on Canvas

16" x 12"

"Column"

Oil on Canvas

16" x 12"

"Wooden Vase on Table"

Oil on Canvas

16" x 12"

"Vase with Flowers"

Oil on Canvas

16" x 12

"Crest"

Oil on Canvas

20" x 16"

More drawings available.

I have had such a wonderful response to these drawings and I love doing them.  It's staying creative but with something different.  Gives me time from my oils and the solvents.  So working in gouache and drawing simple moving figures sort of takes me back to my fashion roots.  Does anyone remember those fabulous seasonal catalogs (60's and 70's)  produced by Lord & Taylor?  Everything, and I mean everything, was illustrated in those.  Boy, could I kick myself for getting rid of them through various moves.  One of my favorite fashion illustrators was Fred Greenhill along with Mia Carpenter, Jim Howard, Eula, Rene Gruau and Antonio Lopez along with many others.    

"About to Dance"

Gouache

8" x 5 1/2"

$23

SOLD

"Green Breeze"

Gouache

8" x 5 1/2"

$23

SOLD

"Double your Fun"

Gouache

8" x 5 1/2"

$23

"On the Edge"

Gouache

8" x 5 1/2"

$23

"Swing then Dip"

Gouache

8" x 5 1/2"

$23

SOLD

"This Way"

Gouache

8" x 5 1/2"

$23

SOLD

"They are Young"

Gouache

8" x 5 1/2"

$23

SOLD

"Runs Wild"

Gouache

8" x 5 1/2"

$23

SOLD

"Hipster"

Gouache

8" x 5 1/2" 

$23

SOLD

"Youth Infusing"

Gouache

8" x 5 1/2"

$23

SOLD

"Strappy Sandals"

Gouache

8" x 5 1/2"

$23

SOLD

Small gouache works.

So I started playing with the gouache on my fantastic Fabriano WC paper.  Did this of one of the dairy cows along Hwy 4 from Farmington up to Angels Camp.  Would maybe do more cows but I have to get comfortable with their conformation and proportions.  Gonna take a lot of drawing from life!

"Dairy Girl"

Gouache

6" x 8"

$65

SOLD

You saw the start of this in my post right before this post!  So I finished it trying to achieve naturalistic color.  I can tell when my color memory is starting to fade!  I do plan I trying different versions maybe raising the intensity key or the value key.  

"Beach Umbrella"

6" x 8"

Gouache

$65

SOLD