"German Master" -Sold

The little flower from yesterday, had a difficult time opening today, it is time to move on....

This little girl is a request, I think I may try another. Yesterday, before I had her hair finished, she looked Swedish to me. After finishing and looking at her today, I've decided that she is German. She has blue eyes and blondish hair, that's German isn't it?

I could work on this one forever, so I decided I should stop and yes, do another, I may do another. Let's see which way the wind guides me....

She is being closed lip about it!

Okay, another bad joke...

-jM

"It's OPEN!"

I can't believe it, she's was open today!

Maybe she'll be open again tomorrow and I can give it another try....

-jM

"Closed Again"

Closed again. This morning at 9:30 I took a look at this little flower and it had not opened. I was sad. I thought, oh she's not going to open back up, she didn't like being moved from her home.

I started distracting myself with the other parts of my day. Just before lunchtime, about 11:30, there she is, 3/4's of the way open! Yea!
Well, she's being her beautiful self all day and her I go along working on other things. About 5:30PM there she goes! She's closing up again! I panic and just start painting her before she closes shop all of the way. Oh, what a day. I'm not going to see her tomorrow or Sunday, I hope she sticks around for Monday.

Maybe I should paint a rock, it should stay put until I get 'round to it!

Have a great weekend!
I really did have fun on Friday, I hope you did too!

-jM

"Wood Wind Iris" itty bitty

Today, I got the chance to play golf. I really enjoy golf, but today I was distracted by the flowers, oops.

I plucked this one from between hole 12 and 13 at the Wood Wind Golf Course. I called it a wild iris (I really had no clue).  Carolyn said she thinks it's a Siberian Iris, I think she is correct!

I clipped another flower from the course, that is really cool looking. Maybe someone will know what it is tomorrow.  I was going to do a painting of it today, but about 5 PM it started closing up like an umbrella.
I'm hoping in the morning it will open back up. Here's hoping!

-jM

"Quick Cup of Coffee" -Sold

Have you ever had a day where it takes all day to do a painting/project, but the painting (or project) itself doesn't take that much time?!

What is that?

This is what it is...

a "Quick Cup of Coffee"

----should have had the coffee sooner!!

-jM

PS: it is an itty bitty.... and one of those days....

"Monday's 3 Olive Martini" -Sold

It's a rainy day here in Indianapolis, a perfect day, well, later this evening, to sit by the fireplace with a nice three olive martini.

This little painting is another rendition of the "Definitely Three Olives" painting. This time, I actually used gold gesso for the ground. It's hard to see in this photo, but I did leave some of the gold shining through!
It's fun.
Uh oh, fun on a Monday!!

-jM

"Moon Day" Itty Bitty -Sold

Itty bitty "Moon Day"... wait! today is Tuesday! Okay, a bad joke, sorry about that...

Today, I've been working on a couple bigger paintings, so I painted this itty bitty so I could have a finished painting to show you. Don't get me wrong, this itty bitty took quite a bit of time to do. Smaller canvas, smaller brushes, still takes some time. Another unusual for me, this painting was 3/4's of the way painted by looking at it as a vertical rather than a horizontal. A little exercise for my head... that was fun. The grassy part was on the right most of the time I was painting this.

Safflower oil... I looked in "The Artist's Handbook of Materials and Techniques" 5th edition, revised and updated 1991... even though the whites are whiter with safflower oil, ..."it is a fair replacement for linseed oil in artists' colors but its resistance to age --embrittlement-- is not expected to equal that of linseed oil."

The book did not say how long, but that must be the reason we see linseed oil being used/sold in art supply houses, rather than safflower oil. Now, what is used in the medium for aqua oils?

-jM

"Soo Many Olives!" finished -Sold

Here it is, this itty bitty of olives is finished. Just needed an itty bit more time to finish it... and a clear mind.

Carolyn, a friend of mine, asked today about the painting I did with the safflower oil. Remember that one?
Well, it took a good week to dry, I think I was able to give a final finish coat just before the open house on Friday, April 23rd. Currently, the painting, "Harry's Rockview", is still wet from last week. I had forgotten that I used my typical linseed oil, stand and turp mix for that one, so it is taking longer to dry. Maybe I should do a few more paintings with the safflower oil to get a better feel for that medium. The Artist's Handbook didn't have a lot of data for the safflower oil, it didn't say anything bad about it and well, the edition I read is kind of old, copyright 1957. I have newer edition, somewhere, when I find it, I'll check it out again.

More tomorrow!

-jM

Soo Many Olives!

Busy, busy, busy with finishing up the Open House wrap-up responsibilities. What is the word? "Whew!"
This itty bitty is not finished, but I wanted to post something today... so.... stay posted.

Speaking of Open House, Lesley Weidenbener of The Design File, wrote a great post about our Stutz Artists and the Open House. Oh, she included me! Wow, I keep saying it every day lately, wow!

-jM

"Harry's Rockview" -Sold

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Abstract and form. You can tell what this is right? I hope maybe... kind of...  a little bit?

This painting is about form. I've been reading an art book on form. You always hear art teachers talk about form...... what? I guess I knew, but didn't know that I knew!

Thanks Harry, I stole your image and used it to do this painting.
For some reason it "spoke" to me.
Hopefully, you will bill me accordingly!

-jM

"Holding Court"

What am I going to say? It's Saturday, I missed Fun Friday so how about a fun Saturday!!

Another Open House photo?

This friendly group visited the Open House on Saturday. This is Ken Owen, Jennifer Roberts, me, and Cassie Stockcamp. Yes, the wine was flowing!

Over and out!!

-jM