Brackish Pool

"Brackish Pool" 8" x 8" Acrylic on canvas panel

Brackish pools saturated the perimeter of the inn where I stayed on the Intracoastal Waterway. I was so drawn to the ecosystems at my feet, I almost missed the colors across the way.  


This is another knife painting—my summer delight.  I love how acrylic paint gets crusty on the canvas as I paint, and makes a texture I can't create any other way.  


Come visit again, you're always welcome.
Carol

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Without Leaves

"Without Leaves" 16" x 20"  Acrylic on gessoed panel

I maundered through a forest so captivating and magical I didn't realize until I got home that there were no leaves.  


The first time I used a palette knife I made a mess. I thought "peanut butter and jelly" instead of marks.  This was an exercise in linear marks on a sponged background.  I used fluid paints, so the actual tactile texture is smooth.  It's the same palette of colors as yesterday's piece, too.

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Thank you for looking!
Carol

City Brights

"City Brights" 11" x 14" Acrylic on canvas panel

As the plane glided along the lakefront in a final approach to home, I took comfort in the colorful and textural contrasts of the place I am blessed to reside.  


As promised a few weeks ago, I've committed to painting abstracts and experimental pieces in January.  "City Brights" is a warm up.   And while I had this paint out, I did one for tomorrow, too!  Happy New Year!

Thank you so much for visiting my blog.  I appreciate that you take the time to look at what I've painted and read my words.
Carol

Dailypaintworks
My Dailypaintworks Gallery
Brushstrokes@comcast.net

Light in the Woods

"Light in the Woods" 8" x 8" Acrylic on panel

When the light peeked between the tree trunks at this bend in the stream, it was time to wrap it up for the day. The hike back to the road would use up the rest of my daylight.  


Actually, I didn't stand anywhere near this lovely place to paint it. It is, in fact another attempt at using a palette knife, while looking at a photo.  There's a composition similar to this by Linda Wilder, so I can't take credit for the place, but I did paint this with my own colors and my own take on it.

This one is not for sale.  It was just for practice, but I thought you'd enjoy seeing it.

Carol

Beck's Pond

"Beck's Pond" 8" x 10" Oil on wrapped canvas

It was August, the light was white hot. It washed the color out of the treetops, and dried the grasses around the edge of Beck's Pond.  I was there for a plein air picnic.  I found the shade, but it moved as fast as I slathered.


I seldom, okay, never paint in oil with a knife.  I like the way acrylic dries and gets crusty with texture between layers as I work around the panel.  I also seldom paint on a springy wrapped canvas with a knife.  There's way too much bend as I wield my blade.  So this is a rarity.  A seldom-done anomaly, but it does exist.

Dailypaintworks has a gallery of my paintings.  You can buy them there.

Carol

Garden Flowers

"Garden Flowers" 9" x 12" Acrylic on canvas panel

It had been sunny when I found this cluster of flowers. I sculpted merrily, oblivious to what was coming in from the west. The air became still, and a canopy of dark hastened my final scrapings.

Knife painting has taught me a lot about happenstance.  I'm thinking of it as an "indication" medium. No details, just indications. 

This painting can be seen on, and for purchase through a Dailypaintworks
Auction.

English Walled Garden

"English Walled Garden" 9" x 12" Acrylic on canvas panel

Inside the English Walled Garden there's beauty in every direction. The light on the concrete surfaces seemed right for my intended use.

I had painted this view before, but was so wrapped up in the minutia of each pillar and blossom, that I may have lost the essence of the walled garden room. I'm happy with this rendition. 

English Walled Garden can be seen along with the rest of my blog entries by clicking here. My daily posts (of which today is number 100) funnel into Dailypaintworks.com where they can be seen and purchased.  You may also email me at Brushstrokes@comcast.net for information, or just to visit. 
Carol

Veteran's Park Pond

"Veteran's Park Pond" 9" x 12" Acrylic on canvas panel

There's a pond up north of where I live that has a fenced-in, square dock; like a porch, for fishermen to stand on so they won't sink into the muck and mire. Someone was fishing across from where I was standing, and if his whoops and hollars were interpreted correctly, the fish were biting that day.

By the various colors of green, you might be able to tell that this piece was painted in mid-summer. It's as green as green can be. With a speck of red across the way.

You can find this and the rest of my posts on my gallery page on Dailypaintworks.  Most things are for sale through this site, too.  But if you see somthing without a price or not currently on an auction, please write to me at Brushstrokes@comcast.net. 

Carol

Brookside Garden

"Brookside Garden" 9" x 12" Acrylic on canvas panel

It was hot, bright and and I was wilting, but the flowers beside the brook in this garden were getting what they needed. 

This series was all done en plein air with a palette knife and acrylic paint. For me the combination of sunlight, plastic paint, and the crustiness that builds on a rigid surface like canvas board, was exactly how I wanted my outdoor paintings to look.

This painting is listed with, and for sale through a Dailypaintworks Auction. 

Thanks for stopping by.

Carol

Stoic Oak

"Stoic Oak" 8" x 8" Acrylic on canvas panel

Because I pushed my "publish" button on Friday before leaving for a couple days, my post for today doubled up and snuck in ahead of time.  Well, this one will have to do for the REAL October third.


This stoic oak is in the middle of a field in Bull Valley, Illinois.  He's an ornament in a place where crops grow for profit.  Someone made the decision to leave him there—to plow, seed, combine around him.  I've watched the seasons change around this oak—nodding his only acknowledgement of inclement or otherwise, with his leaves. 


Last week's Daily Paintworks Challenge was to paint autumn where I live. But the kicker is to tone the canvas with an unlikely color first. I painted on a blue/green and set about the business of knifing on some autumn colors to honor Mr. Oak, here, in a wheat field that has just been harvested.

This painting is part of a Challenge on DailyPaintworks.com, but will be auctioned as usual, and can be seen in my gallery on that site.

Thank you for visiting.
Carol

Tuscan Flower Fields

"Tuscan Flower Fields" 24" x 48" Acrylic on wrapped canvas

The Tuscan Flower Fields idea came when a young entrepreneur asked me to give an estimate on doing seven huge canvases for his entryway. I did several tiny ones, to scale, and this one; still smaller than any of the sizes he requested. Color was what he wanted. This is what I showed him.  


I rolled black gesso on the canvas then set about to make it a thing of beauty.  I loved knifing the colorful acrylic paint, letting it dry and adding more and more in textured layers.  I've never been to see the flower fields of Europe, but this is how I imagine they'd look.

This painting is listed with, and for sale through a Daily Paintworks Auction.

Thank you for stopping by today!  I appreciate it.
Carol

Before It Was A Golf Course

"Before It Was A Golf Course" 16" x 20" Acrylic on a panel

A photo plucked from a shoebox full of images became an exercise in creating something from—not a lot.  What I found out after it was completed was, where there were cornstalks, there now are greens.  It's a golf course in Bull Valley.


This was done entirely with a palette knife on a black gessoed panel.  Is that how you'd begin a snow scene?  I don't know what I was thinking to have begun on black, but it worked.

This painting is listed with, and for purchase through a Daily Paintworks Auction.

Thank you for visiting today.
Carol