Day 80: Wednesday, May 11

Gorgeous day in Southern California.....way too nice to stay inside and paint! So I've been checking out all of the Challenge sites. 

The Virtual Paintout is the one that gets me (makes me irritated) the most. I spend hours cruising around the map of whatever area they have chosen this month's challenge is the French Riviera) and I see car after car after car, street after street after street.  Then I look at the paintings submitted for the challenge.  Today there's one that has pots of flowers on a window ledge and the painter says she found it on the map and that it's the window of a church..........yeah? where!

A painting friend AnnMarie Thomas submitted a fun painting to this challenge. She actually found people on the docks, walking:



And I believe her when she says she found this.  I was grumping around and she sent me two "shots" she'd found on her internet search so I guess it's possible but I have yet to find anything emminently paintable!  It's a great way to waste wonderful time though, cruising around an area on a google map.

Here's one of AnnMarie's suggestions:

Link: <http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF8&source=embed&ll=43.761798,7.484538&spn=0.001294,0.00235&z=19&layer=c&cbll=43.761879,7.484594&panoid=RE58PLKTMHzj1RKrgHm4Cw&cbp=12,170.55,,2,4.84>

The challenge is for all of May so there's time for me to get myself up and painting!!

Day 77: Wednesday, May 4

I keep talking about Suzanne McDermott and her fabulous self-named blog. Carol Marine has mounted a self portrait challenge on the Daily Paintworks site...........Suzanne has a fabulous picture of herself, posing gracefully with some of the jewelry she has taken to making as she recovers from her horrible fall and horrible fractured leg, ankle, knee, shin...........I'm not sure what all she broke but it's a long, long recovery.  I saw this gorgeous photo of her

on her website and thought wouldn't it be fun if many people painted Suzanne this way and submitted their version of her to the Daily Paintworks Challenge.  She is feeling mentally and physically challenged at this moment and this could be just what she needs to perk right up. I wrote her about using this as her self portrait and her answer was so depressed that I think we should do it many tmes over.......remember Karin Jurick's self portrait that all of us painted?   I'd love it if Nancie Johnson? AnnMarie Thomas, April Foster, Michelene.....would take this photo, draw it up, paint it up and submit it to the Challenge.  Suzanne would be thrilled.  And then in your spare time you can all paint a portrait of yourself and submit that as well.  Paint, Paint, Paint................it's almost June and what do you have to show for yourself so far!!!!!!!!!!!  Get to painting.

Day 55: Tuesday, April 5 - the Nancie Johnson Challenge

Hey Nancie Johnson, fellow Sketchbook Project Participant and AnnMarie Thomas, fellow Sketchbook Project Participant:  I just got another email from the Brooklyn Art Library Librarian......My diatribe against smoking has been viewed two!! count 'em, two!! times.

Hello!
We just wanted to let you know that Carissa P. just viewed your sketchbook (#35593) at SPACE Gallery in Portland, ME!
Your book has been viewed 2 times so far.
Sincerely,
The Brooklyn Art Library Librarian



This is now a "throw down" event.  I saw AnnMarie this morning in class and she said her sketchbook had been seen once.  I think the three of us need to find paid participants to view our Sketchbooks in order to make this a true duel!

Day 51, Wednesday, March 30

Another set of "Conversations" has been going on between Gail and AnnMarie.  They have completed both of their Conversations and brought them to class yesterday.  Here is the first one. It started with someone in a patterned sweater painting a picture. There's an apple on the desk.  The final frame has the woman with the patterned sweater reappearing with a baked apple pie in her hands and a completed painting hanging on the wall. Clever!

Day 36: Wednesday, February 23

To continue all these various and sundry "conversations:

 Conversation #1
between Jill and Patty Smith:

and Patty painted a darling clown as the third panel, holding some daisies.

I had also given her a possible other middle panel:

so Peggy Reid, our teacher, took the goldfish panel and is going to start a new conversation.  More on that next week.

and then the other half of Jill and Patty's conversation:

Conversation #2

between Gail Storti and AnnMarie Thomas



and then the other half of Gail and AnnMarie's conversation:
 (and then for some reason the format changes on the blog - white background, different size type..........what gives!!!!!)

Conversation #3:

Peggy Reid and Jill

Jill painted her son with a fancy hat and lots of patterns. Peggy took the fancy patterns and slowed and gentled the patterns down.  I had given her a hard challenge with the extremely patterned hat on the right hand margin. She took the hat pattern and turned it into a cupcake wrapper. Clever that teacher!!

 



Day 34: Monday, February 21

Wow, have I been quiet or what. Re-entering the land of the living after what was supposed to be "drop by" surgery. 

There's an interesting new challenge site out there, a woman who gives full credit for her idea to Carol Marine and her Daily Paintworks Challenge. The latest site is the Rookie Painter, run by Jen Smith.  She posts a picture every 3 weeks, asks you to paint it however you want, and then upload it to her.  This challenge, due tonight at midnight: apples and their reflections.

I had a wonderful time yesterday painting away on this challenge and on The Conversation challenges from our Tuesday painting class. Felt good to paint for hours!  Above is my entry to the Rookie Painter Challenge.

Here's the photo that was posted.

    

Here's the panel I painted for the class "Conversation". AnnMarie Thomas gave me a skateboarder and some clouds. My job was to continue the right hand edge of her panel.....ergo: her clouds became the tails of my fish.

Here is the sequence of paintings. I've put 2 panels together to show the continuation from panel to panel.



Day 30: Wednesday, February 9

Jill's resting.

But her friends are painting on and on. "The Conversation continues between Gail Storti and AnnMarie Thomas. I'm going to try to post all three photos horizontally across the blog, but I don't think I know how yet......Gail painted page one of the paints and brushes. AnnMarie picked up any lines on the right hand edge and continued those lines and colors onto her page of the child's fist and toys. Gail picked up those lines and painted the head of a child with braids....such clever work from two very, very talented painters.