Visitors

James is down from college for winter break. He and his friend, Liz, came down to see what I was working on. I always encourage people who visit to make a stroke or two on whatever I am working on. Liz added a little more violet to the shadow on a dress. Then she wanted to try her hand at a painting of her own, so she made her first oil painting today. She painted my son as her drew. James is working on character designs for a comic story that he has been working on. It is always good for me to have people visit while I am working. They give me another perspective on what I am working on at the moment. Today's work for me was mostly focused on the face of a father in a family portrait. His face is nearly finished. It may be done with one more go...

Working Away from the Studio

Working away from the studio...I packed up my daily painting easel that I have been tweaking over the last year and travelled to Michigan to get in touch with two people who want commissioned works. I also got the chance to visit my sister and her family. While my sister AnnMarie worked, I painted her.

Another Easel

I have pulled out my half easel, put a couple of screws in the palette that it came with which holds all of the contained materials in the box when it is closed but is not very good as a pallet. I used it today for painting #2 and it is all set up to start painting #3 tomorrow. Today's painting I spent 5 hours on! That was a long time. I want to keep the painting down to 3 or 4 hours.

This weekend I have plans to paint my sister Maureen who has volunteered to model for me! I hope it does not rain all weekend but I guess I can paint her in the rain! We plan to do this at the Kinsale Inn in Mattapoisett. I haven't asked them yet so I don't know if this is even possible but we will try. I would love to paint some Daily Paintings of that place! It is very historic and very alive with music and good people!

Send off for Painting....Daily!

My daughter was the model for my first day of painting and posting daily. It has been a bit of work to get myself set up to the point at which I feel I can commit to a daily practice. The panels are primed and cut, the paints are stocked, the easel is functional and I have rearranged my days (and life!) to invest in this discipline every morning. I will keep you posted on this and other art works I have going on. Have a great day!

Well, I was lucky enough to get Eddie Dillon to come over and cut my panels down to 15x15cm for me. He cut a couple of months worth. He was so accurate! Very quick, too. Then of course we had tea and then of to Wasabi for lunch. It was such a nice time that he volunteered to do it again. He just happens to be an amazing song writer and musician, too with a wonderful acustic album that my whole family fell in love with. Thanks Eddie!

Getting the Boards Ready

First I had to get all of my little boards and big boards that need to be cut down together. I mixed black gesso with white gesso until a had a medium grey. Then I used a damp sponge brush and diluted the gesso with a little water and applied three or four coats making sure to sand in between. It was a learning experience. As I got better at it, the results got smoother. Tuesday, the large boards will be cut into 6"x6" panels. I plan to be ready Thursday to start creating A Paiting a Day. Getting all of my supplies ready is going to be very important.

I need a good teacher. Today I tried to gesso two boards. It was rough going. I found it very thick and streaky. I went on Youtube for help and found that some people use a damp sponge to apply. This worked better. There are two coats now. I will do two more tomorrow.

Monday is my last day for this summer season for being a personal cook and dinner party organizer. I love the job. The hours are late and the work can be very labor intensive at times so I find painting to be very spuradic. Not only that, I find that I am not very organized to do a painting every day. I have run out of the correct size board and have to gesso and cut more. So this morning, with my daughter Alex, I went to the Home Depot and bought four boards. each board can be cut into 32 6"x6" panels. I plan to paint them before I cut them down this time. a friend is coming to my house on Tuesday with a table saw to cut them down with me. So before Tuesday, I have to gesso the big boards 3 times to get them ready. Then I will have four months worth. Also, the brushes have come in and I bought more paints so I will be ready to go. I plan on making this part of my morning reutine because I have tried doing it after work at 8 or 9 and I am pretty shot by then. I am a morining person anyway. I love my peaceful mornings. Lets see if it changes my work not to be exhausted and in poor lighting when I pick up the brush...not to mention trying to beat the clock to get the posted by midnight!

Okay... This is a 6"x6" painting that I made but it does not count toward a daily painting because I painted it in 1994. It was done when my children were little..my daughter here was only two years old. I had just been gifted a huge book of Rembrandt's works and I was inspired. I was new to painting (just over a year) and thought I would go into as a profession but that idea got put on hold until 2008 when I took a summer off to study with some of the best. This work was made with dissolved oil pastels in Linquin. It was my first attempt in the medium. I won't sell it because of sentimental reasons...you understand. I just put it here to give you some thing to look at and something to read! Good night.
Just realized I put this on the wrong blog..I meant to put it on my daily paintings blog www.christinemccoy.blogspot.com. Now I have decided to leave it here too so if you find this interesting, you can check out my other little works on my daily painting page! Thanks!

Updated Pochade

My new updated version now holds my panels safely with two lower brads and one upper eyescrew that I can just rotate to secure the panel or release it! No more big bulky clamps that I have to paint around and no more packing the wet panel with cork protectors in the corners because now I can just close the lid and the painting is secure to dry in the box! Ah, so much better. Plus, now instead of holding the palette, the palette fits on top of the lower lid of the box leaving room underneath to store my brushes. I put my spirits and paint in a separate cigar box and my tripods and paper towels in my tripod bag and I am ready to go. So much easier and so much quicker. The 6"x6" painting that I produce with this box are shown next to a fork for reference. They are very small.

Tweeking My Pochade Box!

This is my old set-up for my travel easel. I took an old 9" X 12" art box, filled it with my paints and spirits and palette knife and then used big clamps to hold my panels on the frame of the opened box. This was not always secure and a fewtimes the wet panel popped off during painting landing wet side down. I would pack it all into a back pack with paper towels, brushes and a tripod. It worked but holding the palette and not having it built in left me struggling with the use of only one hand. Another problem was transporting the we canvases. I would use two panels and place cut corks in the corners and then secure this with rubber bands and touch up the corners when I got home. I asked for advice and I got it from a very great artist in Germany, Edward B. Gordon (check out his blog through my profile).

Family Composition...which one do you like?

These are three preliminary sketches for a new commission. I do not know which one we will choose.

Shipping One off to Texas