Geranium Study

"Geranium Study"

6x6 oil on canvas
Carol Horzempa

This has been a draining week trying to plein air paint flowers in my back yard. With the rain for two days, inhaling mosquitos, getting stung by bees and finally the leg on my good easel falling apart, I headed back to my studio (again). Today, round 7 pm I decided to try again, on my deck this time. I set my old reliable French easel next to a Geranium plant that was looking a bit wilted. I thought the touch of orange on a few dry leaves would add color.

This time I really enjoyed the experience of painting fast and even had time to put in a few details and get it done in one hour flat! The sun was setting and I was losing my light so the values are a little off. Now I would like to try painting this plant in sunlight. By the way I love decks, no mosquitos!

Be sure to check all the floral paintings on The Nature's Arrangement Challenge in Daily Paintworks here.

Wildflower Study

"Wildflower Study"

5x6 oil on canvas

Carol Horzempa

I decided to practice painting flowers from a photo in my studio today before another attempt at plein air painting in my garden. After struggling way too long I was tempted to wipe the paint off and start over. In one last attempt I found adding a little red and warm browns seemed to work and will try to use this color scheme in this weeks DWP Challenge. I used the same limited palette of cad. red light, cad. yellow med, and ultra blue plus white.

Begonia Study

Begonia Study

5x6 oil on canvas

Carol Horzempa

This was intended for James Coulter's Nature Arrangement Challenge on Daily Paintworks. He challenged artists to stand between one to six feet away from flowers on the ground and paint them in one hour, (no cheating). A limited palette of Cad. Yellow Med. or light, Cad. Red Light, Ultra Blue and White was also part of this challenge.

To start off I noticed my timer kept stopping and I lost track of my time. I also realized I broke one of the rules of not using white except with blues and purples. My flowers were peach so just red and yellow wasn't working.

After not sticking to the rules I decided to take a picture and finish the painting in my air conditioned studio. Next time I will try Cad. Yellow Light, buy a new timer and not sneak back to my studio with a photo before the painting is done.

This is really a fun challenge but I'm finding flowers are really hard to paint!

Neglected Tools

"Neglected Tools"

oil on canvas 6x6

Carol Horzempa

I've always wanted to paint my painting tools and finally found time to join Carol Marine's "Paint What You Paint With Challenge," on Daily Paintworks. This was a fun challenge but I really struggled with the tube of paint and especially the cap. Finally I scraped the cap off and tried again. If I don't look too close I'm actually pleased with the whole painting.

I feel rather guilty about the care of my tools as you can see but manage to paint with them the way they are.

Old Mill House Challenge

Old Mill House

6x6 oil on canvas

Carol Horzempa

This is my submission to the Daily Paintworks Challenge. Jean Nelson submitted a photo of an old mill for this challenge.

I see so many scenes like this in Northern Wisconsin and I have always wanted to paint one. I found this one especially challenging since I have been suffering from a serious case of "Artist's Block" for quite a while. I actually had fun painting though and hope this will get me back to the studio or even some Plein Air painting this summer.