"Winter Light on Willows" Daily Painting

Original, unframed oil painting, 5"x7".
Sunset light on the frozen lake and willow trees.
©2009 Diana Moses Botkin

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It was a bitter cold evening at the beach last week by the lake with the freezing wind coming off the water.

I had driven over before the model session to see if the light would be good. The green sky and reflections on the icy water seemed other-worldly contrasted with the orange sunset color on the willow trees and compelled me to paint the scene.

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"Aqua Backdrop" Oil Mini
©2009 Diana Moses Botkin
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"Distant Shine" Oil Mini
©2009 Diana Moses Botkin
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"Heart Talk" Oil Mini
©2009 Diana Moses Botkin
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"Kiss Me" Oil Mini
©2009 Diana Moses Botkin
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"Cloud Nine" Oil Mini
©2009 Diana Moses Botkin
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"Snuggling Kisses" Oil Mini
©2009 Diana Moses Botkin
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"One Kiss" Oil 3"x3"
©2009 Diana Moses Botkin
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"Crumpled Gold Paper" Daily Painting

Original oil painting, 5"x5" unframed. $99.
Crumpled gold tissue paper still life.
©2009 Diana Moses Botkin

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I think I've taken the gold paper idea far enough for now. It's been an interesting and unusual subject for a still life... and challenging too.

No Power; No Paintings; No Posts

Tuesday evening I was working away on a painting. I'd had several set-backs already that day with the challenges of the idea I was attempting to paint. And then, one moment I was painting away and the next moment I was in pitch darkness with a wet painting on my lap and a wet brush in my hand. Our power had gone out.

After locating candles and a flash light, I washed out my brushes and set the painting aside. We were not to regain our electricity until today. Let me say that it's impossible to continue a still life study, dependent on an electric light source for the illumination, without power.

And grey overcast skies during the day do not quite cut it for a natural light source from a window. My respect for the Old Masters continues to grow.

I thought of doing a painting by candlelight but somehow felt unmotivated. Maybe another time.

"Shell on Gold Paper" Daily Painting

Original unframed oil painting, 4"x6".
Still life study of shell on crumpled gold tissue paper.
©2009 Diana Moses Botkin

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This was more difficult than I thought it would be.

I've never painted a shell before and I thought I'd try portraying the paper again. Recently, I did "Glass Ball and Gold Paper" and found the paper especially interesting.

The forms in the paper can get complicated. The hills and valleys are all quite random. It's sometimes tricky to keep track of where I am when I'm studying it!

A Monthly Painting Challenge

I've invited a group of fellow painters to join me in a playful creative Challenge for 2009. We'll be taking turns each month naming an subject for the group to paint. The project was inspired by a similar idea at Jelaine Faunce's blog.

I liked the project so much that I wrote an article about it for the May '09 issue of Art Calendar Magazine. The article explains the idea and gives guidelines for starting your own group.

I'm really excited to see how each member artist responds to the Challenge. Today I sent out notice to my group of what we'll paint for our first one in February.

These talented artists will be joining me in this venture; Mike Beeman, Robin Cheers, Silvina Day, Marie Fox, Dianne Mize, Michael Naples and Vicki Ross.

The Challenge Object (chosen for its creative potential) is announced to the artists but not the public. It will be a surprise, as will our paintings. The idea is for each of us to paint this chosen subject (something we might not normally choose) have fun with it, and give our creativity freedom and exercise.

We're to keep our ideas a secret and work alone until we all reveal the paintings to each other. On the 15th of each month (beginning in February) we'll unveil all the Challenge Paintings at our blogs. I hope you'll stay tuned for the fun!

Keeping up with Daily Painting and everything else!

Here we are three days into 2009 already. I'm having a bit of a struggle wrapping my mind around the year. Two thousand and nine? How did 2008 slip by so quickly?!

I guess it sped by for me pretty fast because I was busy. They say time flies when you're having fun. It also flies when you're working hard. Looking back I see I worked pretty hard, week after week. In 2008 I painted and drew 176 new works (11 more than in 2007, and 50 more than in 2006!).

Art Calendar Magazine published ten articles I wrote for them in 2008. If you don't get Art Calendar, you can read two of my pieces (and a whole lot of other articles) at the magazine's website. Dick Blick is now posting my article which originally appeared in Art Calendar in 2008, "12 Ways Artists Can Go Greener" (with my permission) at their new Green section online.

One of my reports for the magazine was about how artists can use YouTube. Gathering info and communicating with artists who had done this motivated me to produce my own short video demonstrating charcoal drawing. I also made a second video of some of my Daily Paintings. You can see them both at my YouTube channel.

Another of my articles was about using Print-on-Demand book publishing services. Researching that piece made me realize I ought to have a book printed of my work to share with collectors and have available for purchase. I chose a small format book, perfect to showcase my little landscapes. In October I finished "Gems from the Edge of the Earth" and it became available at the publisher's. Here's a story about it at one of our local news sources.

I also took part in two Paint Outs in 2008, did several portraits for collectors, taught a few art workshops, and participated in a number of regional exhibits.

Plus I continued my hobbies of washing laundry and cooking meals.

And I enjoyed very much posting to this blog, reading your comments here, responding, and visiting other bloggers' sites. It's amazing to be connected with people all over the world through this medium. Thank you for staying in touch!

"Glass with Cherry" Daily Painting

Original, unframed oil painting 7"x5",  
Maraschino cherry in cocktail glass in detailed realism.
©2009 Diana Moses Botkin

More glass. I like working with it as a subject. It's so subtle when it's thin like in the bowl of the glass here. When it's thicker, it's more translucent than transparent, and picks up the light in unexpected ways.

This little painting brought good exercise to my painting muscles; the contrast of simplicity and detail, the limited colors, the lost edges paired with the sharp reflections, those pesky ellipses, and that red cherry almost smack dab in the middle of the composition.

"Hey, Sugar!" Daily Painting

Original unframed small oil painting, 5"x 3.5", framed. Vintage bottle with sugar, against dark marble background.
©2009 Diana Moses Botkin

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Here's a sweet little painting for you. (Sorry... I couldn't resist!)

This was fun, painting glass again. Portraying this object with straight lines, felt very different than doing yesterday's study. I also used fewer colours in today's piece.

I've had this old bottle for years and always enjoy looking at it. I think it might have originally held little pickled hot peppers in its first life. The top is bakelite, so it's pretty old. We keep sugar in it now, for the occasional need to sweeten a cup of tea.