"Colorful Character" By Eva Marie Tanner-Klaas

Today's open studio model was a wonderful, colorful character and musician, J. P. Baily. After he finished modeling, he played and sang a song he wrote. It was great. We all  danced and laughed.
My goal was to keep it simple and use color with confident brush strokes.  I didn't want to describe much.  I am happy with this piece.

"Color Character" By Eva Marie Tanner-Klaas, 20"x20" Oil on Gallery Wrap

Pushed Out Of My Comfort Zone

I was pushed  out my comfort zone with color today. I had to walk away to wrap my brain around what had just happened. I painted a successful bottle and then the instructor pushed a few changes.  I had no idea what to think.  My masterly ellipse  at the top of the bottle was changed to simple color. My highlight was dabbed. The color was pushed to a magenta on one side and into the background. I had to walk away.
I looked at other students' painting and then I returned. I slowly began to understand what the instructor was doing.  Then I added my own expressionist marks.
I am very happy with the progress. Homework suggestion was to setup a still life and paint it over and over again until the brush strokes are automatic.

Oil On Linen Sheet Study By Eva Marie Tanner-Klaas

Persimmons By Verna Pooler

My persimmons are not quite ready to eat. At Tuesday Painters, I set up this still life. Yesterday I added the background. It was painted on 300# watercolor paper. Don't know what to do with all of these painting, but, I enjoy the challenge of trying to do better.

Christmas Watercolor By Verna Pooler

This week while I was thinking about the upcoming holidays, I decided why not do a Christmas watercolor.  My daughter, Jennifer always does a watercolor painting for her holiday cards.  I got out the candle holder my Dad made for me many years ago and set up this still life.  It was painted on a quarter sheet.  Hope you enjoy it and that it makes you smile.

A Brush With Expression By Eva Marie Tanner-Klaas

I attended a wonderful workshop by Elio Camacho at Wright's Custom Framing in Brookings, Oregon. This time I learned more about expressionist style using color and brush work.  It was recommended after I painted my first still life to paint it again. This would reinforce what I learned. I got a lot out of this one day event.

I taped two 9x12 linen sheets on a board to paint the bottom painting first and  then recreated it in the top panel.

First study where the instructor pushed the color on the  red pot, green vase and tabletop.

Second attempt with more confident strokes and without the green vase.