Rose Study

Rose Study

5x7 oil on canvas
Carol Horzempa

My roses from Valentines Day have almost expired so I decided to try another shot at painting a rose. I used the same palette colors as I did in my first rose painting for DPW Challenge. I decided I really need more practice and can't wait until my roses start blooming in my garden this spring.

Zippo

Zippo

6x6 oil on canvas
Carol Horzempa

This is my submission for this weeks DPW Challenge. A really great artist by the name of Michael Naples posted a reference photo of a Zippo lighter for this weeks challenge. He invited fellow artists to paint the Zippo using only burnt sienna, ultramarine blue and titanium white. This was a great lesson in values and quite challenging!

Red Rose Waiting

Red Rose Waiting
6x8 oil on canvas
Carol Horzempa

I never thought I would enjoy painting a rose until I tried this challenge posted by Qiang Huang who is a master in painting roses. He challenged fellow artists too paint a red rose on the weekly DPW Challenge. This is my second one, the first one I loved too and can't wait to try more. I have now fallen in love with red roses and painting them!

My palette colors were Cadmium Yellow Medium, Cadmium Red Light, Chromium Oxide Red, Ultramarine Blue and Titanium White.

10 Minute Apple Studies

Ten Minute Apple Studies
6x12 oil on canvas
Carol Horzempa

This is my contribution to a challenge posted by Carol Marine on Daily Paintworks. Our goal was to paint an object of our choice eight times allowing only 10 minutes using a timer. This is a great challenge for improving skills and painting fearlessly. Check the DPW Challenge website here to see over 160 artist's 10 minute paintings.

Finally Framing My Work

"Walkin' the Dog"
6x8 oil on canvas panel
Carol Horzempa

This January my well-intentioned plan was to frame everything that needs frames before starting another painting. All month I have been touching up and rescuing paintings, some of which I thought weren't worthy of a frame. It is a lot more time consuming than I thought.

I have learned one thing though, no more odd size paintings! I am fortunate enough to have a spouse who has a special gift in woodworking and can make beautiful frames out of recycled wood any size I want.

This painting, which was an odd size, was done for a Karen Jurick challenge. I was able to enlarge it to a 6x8 by adding more background.

The frame is made from recycled wood that my husband rescued from an old house that was being torn down several years ago. I think this pine wood taken from an old paneled wall looks beautiful in its second life or should I say third as a frame. I even like the little dings and patina that gives it a rustic look!

Garden Shed III

"Garden Shed III"
Carol Horzempa
oil on canvas
NFS

This is a plein air painting of my garden shed I did several years ago. This was my third try in painting this shed at the time. Unfortunately I wasn't happy with it so it ended up in my reject pile. I was hoping I could someday figure out how to correct some of the problems since I was really happy with the flower box and sunlight on the shed. I was pleasantly surprised it only needed a bit of tweaking with lost and found edges and correcting some of the architecture.

I'm happy I took a photo before framing so I could post the results on my blog. Sorry...I forgot to take a before photo of the painting.

I actually had a hard time parting with this painting but had planed to give it to my son in Louisiana as a house-warming gift. My son said he used to play in this shed when he was a boy so I think he was happy to have a painting with good memories of his childhood back home.

Now I'm thinking I should go back to my reject pile and see what else I can rescue...

Christmas Carol

Christmas Carol
13x15 Conte Crayon 
Carol Horzempa
NFS

I've been away from my studio and busy with the holiday madness so I decided to post this drawing I did several years ago. For inspiration I used an old photo taken of me on Christmas morning when I was a small child. This drawing was done with Conte Crayon on Canson drawing paper.

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays to everyone!

Snowbirds

"Snowbirds"
6x8 oil on canvas
Carol Horzempa

This is my submission for the Alice Thompson's Calypso Moon Artist Movement monthly challenge. The title of this challenge is "Painting History." Alice asked us to capture a moment in time we witnessed that involves people, tell why we chose the subject and how it relates to us"

This painting was inspired by a photo I took on Florida's Emerald Coast while walking along the beach on a foggy overcast day. I spotted two "Snowbirds" sitting in plastic lawn chairs and couldn't help but snap a picture. The woman in red seemed to be waiting for her partner to wake up after being lulled to sleep by the rhythm of the waves or could it be boredom? The three figures in the far distance are my husband and son with the family dog.

This is our favorite beach that we often visit while vacationing in the south where our son lives. We just had our first snowfall today so in a few weeks we will be heading south again just like "Snowbirds" for a little fun on the beach and time with our son during the Holidays.

Fall Farm Field

Fall Farm Field

6x8 oil on gessoed panel
Carol Horzempa

I painted this farm field from a photo taken near the Illinois border. Several times a month my husband and I take a day trip down to Illinois to visit his 96-year-old mother. On the last trip down there I had my camera and caught several scenes that I have painted in my mind in the past. It's amazing what digital cameras can do these days even in a moving car!

This scene represents so much of what I often see beyond my car window but never have the time to stop and paint. I used the same palette colors as my last painting, "November Grays."

November Grays

"November Grays"
6x8 oil on wood panel
Carol Horzempa

Today was a great day to do a quick study of subtle grays on an overcast day. This was done at the nearby Kettle Moraine State Forest. I used a limited palette of Cadmium Yellow Light, Alizarin Crimson, Ultramarine Blue and Titanium White. I tried to focus on color and just painting the masses.

Shawna was being a good guard dog chasing away a red fox while I painted. We also had a chance to do a bit of nature hiking. Shawna is a bird dog and while hiking she flushed this young bird out of the brush. I think it might be a baby pheasant. I hope it can survive the winter, it seems so young.

Halloween Eyes

Halloween Eyes
5x5 oil on canvas
Carol Horzempa
NFS

This is my submission for Alice Thompson's Spooktacular Challenge, centered on a Halloween theme. One of her suggestions was "black cats," and how could I not do a painting of my black cat, Kiki! I decided to change her eyes to orange to make her look especially spooky for Halloween; she really has yellow/green eyes.

These colors are very unlike what I'm used to but after all it is Halloween! My palette colors for the background were Cadmium Yellow Medium, Cadmium Red Light, and for Kiki I used Alizarin Crimson, Phthalo Blue, and a touch of Chromatic Black plus Titanium White.

This is my first time using Chromatic Black by Gamblin. It is transparent and is made from Phthalo green and Quinacridone Red, no black in it. I'm looking forward to experimenting more with this color. Happy Halloween!

Onion Study

"Onion Study"

5x5 oil on canvas
Carol Horzempa

Now that the weather has turned windy, wet and cold I decided to do a study of what ever I could find interesting in my kitchen. I tried to keep my brushstrokes loose and still capture the feel of an onion. I found onions are not easy to paint but I will be looking forward to trying another. I used a limited palette of Cadmium Yellow Light, Alizarin Crimson, and Ultramarine Blue with a touch a Viridian plus Titanium White.

Sharon's Shed

"Sharon's Shed"

oil on canvas

This cute little Shed belongs to my neighbor down the street. She is an antique collector and always has interesting items decorating her shed. I was meaning to paint this shed when she had it surrounded with flowers this summer but now that it is Autumn I thought the fall leaves added interest to the scene.

I used the same limited palette as the last two paintings which are Kevin Macpherson's palette colors.

Kettle Moraine Firs

"Kettle Moraine Firs"

6x8 oil on canvas panel
Carol Horzempa
Sold

I took advantage of another beautiful day at Kettle Moraine State Forest painting these two little fir trees today. Midday was not the best time to paint though, but the subtle changes in the grassy meadow, and these little firs with dried weeds really intrigued me.

This painting was done on a RayMar Plein Aire Panel. I really love the texture of the medium weight canvas. I used the same limited palette as the last one.

Kettle Moraine

"Kettle Moraine"
oil on gessoed panel
Carol Horzempa

Yesterday was a perfect day for plein air painting in Kettle Moraine State Forest. Not only was it sunny and warm but I was also entertained by the abundant wildlife including a beautiful red fox!

I used a limited palette of Cadmium Yellow Light, Alizarin Crimson, Ultramarine Blue and Titanium White.

Plein Air Workshop

This is what I have been doing the last three Saturdays. Unfortunately it rained the first two classes and was bitter cold and windy yesterday, with the sun disappearing midway only to reappear when the class ended.

I still don't have anything I care to post yet. The reject pile is building up in the corner of my studio from all my other plain air excursions for the past several weeks. The good thing is, I am learning a lot working away from the comforts of my studio and what Darron Lillian, plain air artist of Southeast Wisconsin has been teaching in his workshop. Now I'm just hoping what I have been learning will show up in my paintings someday. Hopefully next Saturday will bring sunny and warm weather with more fall colors to paint.

Below daughter Carrie and class braving the elements.

Early Morning at Bay Furnace

"Early Morning at Bay Furnace"
6x8 oil on canvas
Carol Horzempa

This is the second painting I've done of Bay Furnace on Lake Superior in the Upper Peninsula. My family camps up there every year and I again brought my paints hoping to paint along the shore. Instead I spent most my time either in the water, which was unusually warm this year or walking along the shore with my camera. This is a scene painted from a photo I took during my early morning walk.

Color Study of Tree

Color Study of Tree
oil on gessoed paper 3x5.5

I found this little tree while walking the dog near a man-made pond. The area is not much to look at but I wanted to see if I could make something interesting out of this scene while working on my greens.

I have scraps of watercolor paper from years past that I gessoed for these little studies. I used the same palette as the last one.

Last Farm Field

Last Farm Field

oil on gessoed watercolor paper
4x6 

This farm field is surrounded by subdivisions just outside my village. The farmer still has sheep so I hope to get some more photos when the sheep are in the field.

This started out to be just a small color study on warm and cool greens but I had fun painting the fence and field and spent more time than planned. My palette colors were Cad. Yellow Light, Cad. Orange, Cad. Red Light, Alizarin Crimson, Cerulean Blue, Ultramarine Blue, Ivory black and Titanium White.

Painting Trees

Study
oil on gessoed watercolor paper
6x7.25

I thought I would share with you what I have been doing in my studio lately. I decided I needed a refresher course on painting trees. I would love to go out to the main source and paint directly from nature but the mosquitoes are more ravenous than ever in Wisconsin this year. Even repellent doesn't help much so I'm confined to my studio for now.

With this painting I followed a painting demo in Elizabeth Tolley's "Oil Painter's Solution Book Landscape." This is a great book on landscape painting with step-by-step demos and tons of valuable information.