I have some advice for my fellow painters. When you finish painting for the day, place your painting where your dog can not reach it.
When I finished painting the other day, I set my painting near the window in my living room, in the same place I have put it every time I have worked on it. I came home today and discovered that one of my dogs, probably Hooch, has pierced the canvas with his claws. He must have seen something outside and jumped up on the windowsill, at exactly the place where my painting was resting next to the wall. You can see the damage in the pictures.
I guess I will be starting over…
This is Hooch (the big brown one laying on top of my husband) on a day that he WASN’T trying to chase something out the window.
Lately, I have joined several Facebook groups for artists, and always enjoy it when they show their process for working on a painting. Some artists, especially pastel artist, start at one side of the paper and paint the picture from one side to the other. Others put paint on all parts of the paper, and work on parts all over the picture at once. This is more my method. I like to work on the background at the same time as the rest of the picture so that the colors all work together to make a cohesive painting. I also enjoy seeing pictures of other artists’ studios, and I thought that today I would show you my favorite place to paint. I have a designated room in my house for painting and sewing, but I usually end up painting in the living room. My favorite place to paint though, is on my deck. I love it out there when the weather is nice. Bugs are bad sometimes, so I always light a citronella candle to try to keep them away. Usually it works. The only thing this studio is missing is that it isn’t on the water, like a lake or river. Maybe someday…
The painting I am working on in the picture is one in which I am trying something new. Most of my portraits lately have been either watercolor or pastel. This one is an acrylic one, and I have been using a glazing technique that I haven’t used before with acrylic. Glazing means painting a lot of thin transparent layers to create the finished product. It’s been fun! I am also working on a watercolor commission portrait and it is going well, but I can’t show that one yet!