"Martha's BB Cup"

6"x6" oil on canvas panel

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Not sure I'm getting the dramatic effect I'm looking for in these last few paintings. So! I'm gonna keep trying!

How many cups is this Myra? I'll count them and come back with a number tomorrow!

-jM

"Mushroom's Cup"

8"x6" acrylic on paper mounted to canvas

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What color cup would a yellow mushroom have? Randy said red, so red it is here!

This little painting I did for the "Shoot and Paint Art Challenge" for October. It's such a cute crazy looking mushroom, it was hard to resist! Of course, I added a cup!

A still life of a cup Martha lent to me, tomorrow.... what is "BB" again? It's on the bottom of the cup.

I think I'll stop and get a fresh flower to go with the cup before I get to the studio in the morning too!

Good night!

-jM

"Small World" -Sold

8"x6" oil on canvas panel

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Do I laugh or do I cry? Well, I laughed, a little. Today working on this painting for Myra, I was trying to put the paint down thicker than the last few oils I've done lately. I've been reading the book "Alla Prima" that Richard  Schmid wrote, and he says that you should try to put the paint on the canvas without making any noise with the brush. That was easy, but he also talks about not letting the texture of the canvas show through. So I have this painting with really thick oil paint on it and I'm getting ready to photograph it. I dropped it face down into my hands... oops and yuck, you should have seen my hands!

I photographed it anyway, I can see where it hit my hands, maybe it helped.

Martha was on her way out and I caught her in time to share my story. She didn't mind the smudges too much and was drawn to the cup right away, "Oh, it's my cup!" Thanks Martha, I have several of your cups and I need to get them back to you.... maybe one at a time will be okay. Heck, she even lent me another cup earlier today!

One thing that did bother Martha was the dark shadow behind the baby sunflower.... she also made a point that if it bothered me too much (the shadow and the smudges) I can always go back into it!

The blue marble on the bottom right, ....that is the small world.

Myra, sorry I dropped your painting, I guess I'll have to just paint another!

Have a wonderful weekend everyone....   : )

-jM

Flower spent...

Poor little flower!

Sorry no painting today, but I did get the arrangement figured out for tomorrows painting. Sometimes I think it takes longer to put the "set" together than it does to paint the painting!

I briefly thought about doing the same set up again today, but like I told you yesterday, I didn't think the little flower would make it another day. As you can see in the above photo, she's not looking too good. The painting may have been a little too weird with a dying flower... hmmmm... dying love... hmmm... no, let's keep this upbeat!

I'll report back tomorrow with Myra's painting request!

-jM

"Save a Spot" -Sold

8" x 6" oil on canvas panel

It is a cup, it's actually an expresso cup. This painting I think may be too high key at this point so I think I will try this little white cup (well, off white) and plate again. The flower will not make it another day, my lighting was a little too much for it. I was lucky I captured the flower first and the cup and small vase last.
Hmm... who is the star of this painting? The cup?

Thanks Angela for asking for a painting today!

: )

-jM

"Group Hug" -Sold

8"x6" Aquamedia on paper mounted on canvas

Group Hug! Everyone gather 'round, what would we do if we didn't have each other?

This piece is another made with the "peels" of acrylic and will be in the SAS show for October.

Check us out at http://www.stutzartists.com/skin.html

-jM

"Sent From Heaven" -Sold

8"x6" Aquamedia on paper mounted on canvas

Absolutely all my friends are sent from heaven...

This is aquamedia on paper mounted on canvas. I call this mixed media aquamedia because there are pieces of acrylic paint that was dried on my palette, that I peeled it off and used in this painting! Robert Burridge calls the pieces of dry acrylic  "skins"....

-jM

"Come Along Little Sister"

6"x6" mixed media on canvas panel

A lot can be read into this little painting, so I'll let you the viewer do the reading.

This painting is acrylic and oil paint stick and more acrylic. An abstract with a bit of attitude!

See you tomorrow!

-jM

"Cathedral Mug"

8"x6" mixed media on paper mounted on canvas

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My artist buddy Martha observed that most of the coffee cups I've painted so far have been coffee mugs!
Guess that is because I tend to drink my coffee out of a mug? Watch out you coffee mugs, some cups will be coming on the scene!

This little painting has a few acrylic "skins" on it. Playing with those skins again. Speaking of skins, if you have a minute, check out the project that some of the lady artists (me included) from the Stutz have been putting together!

Women of a Certain Age: The Artist Revealed 2012 Calendar

and Leigh's famous now she was on TV! Her interview on WISH-TV. 

Oh my goodness, what will we do next?!

-jM

"Good to the Last Drop"

6" x 8" mixed media on paper mounted on canvas

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Remember that red cup? It is like two blog posts ago, well, here it is and it is one tough cup painting.
It has been through the ink wash, more paint, pastels and I'm not really sure of all the materials. I know I've used steel wool at one point to remove some stuff I didn't like and isopropyl alcohol to remove stuff too! Yes, the red cup has even been through a name change... "Good to the Last Drop".

Whew, hope I can handle another cup painting! I hope you can too!

-jM

"Black Cup"

8"x6" acrylic on paper mounted on canvas

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Black coffee cup. I started this painting with black acrylic, thinking about a black coffee cup that we have in the cabinet at home. Then I was going to paint back into it. When I looked at it the next day, I decided that it looked done! So I have declared it finished.

My homage to Franz Kline!

Off the subject and just for fun check out this video about Bob... maybe you have seen it. Be sure to watch past the first set of credits.

-jM

"Yellow Cup"

8" x 6" mixed media on paper mounted on canvas

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A "Yellow Cup", yup, made this one up right out of my brain. Having a loosey (like Lucy) time.
This little painting has gouache, acrylic and dry pastel. I found dry pastels in my studio the other day and wow, so soft. I have them right where I can find them again!

Red Cup after ink washed off

Here is the red cup after I washed off most of the ink. This is the piece that I really laid the gouache on thick before I inked it. Next, I will go back into the painting again to finish 'er up.

Talking country today... giddy up cowboy.... nope I don't have cowboy boots or a cowboy hat...
hmmm...

-jM

All 100 Apple Paintings in One Place!

Here it is my video of all 100 Apple Paintings from one to 100!

I hope you like it. It's not too long, but it sure did take me a long time to make it!

I am working on putting together a little book of the paintings, it is just taking me a while to write the introduction and the ending. I'm on a roll though!

Tomorrow, I will post another coffee cup and what I've learned from the gouache project!

-jM

Are you ready for this?

6" x 8" Mixed media on paper mounted on canvas

Okay, I may have made a mistake... or maybe not. The above image is the final piece with a bit of work added... some dry pastels, more gouache, ummm, black india ink pen.

Ink washed off

Here is the painting with the ink washed off and no additional work. It seems to me the whole piece got a little dull on me, so I thought I would try again!

Red Cup before ink

Here is a quick study of just the cup, but I used solid red for the cup. I laid the gouache on really, really heavy this time and hopefully I let it dry enough before I poured on some india ink.

Red Cup with india ink

Okay, not a great photo again, but I do hope you get the idea. Rather than brushing the ink on, I poured it on then kind of allowed it to flow around by tipping the paper different directions. I also left some areas free of ink. Control areas I guess they would be in the experimental (scientific) world. In the first picture, the white line that indicates the horizon or table top has no paint on it. It is the white of the gessoed paper. I wanted to see if the ink would make a black line out of the un-gouached places.

Okay, tomorrow I will wash the gouache! 

Two experiments here: 1. Will laying down the gouache thicker allow the painting to come out brighter, and 2. Will the un-gouached areas become ink black?

Tomorrow....

-jM

"Nesting Cups"

5.5" x 7.5" mixed media on paper

This is the first step to one of the next cup paintings. This is a photo of the painting before I put ink all over it. Below is a photo taken with my ipod (ie; bad photo) of the painting with india ink spread over the surface!

India ink all over the surface!

Tomorrow, I will carefully remove some of the ink from the surface by running this painting under a stream of running water. Scary...... Most of the painting is acrylic, but then I went back onto the surface with gouache and some gold ink. A little experimentation here... this is the before and tomorrow....

I will show you more!!

-jM