South of North Studio

Early Girl

"Early Girl"

4x5.5 oil on gessoed panel

Carol Horzempa

Another tomato painting, this time all by herself. I'm really starting to enjoy painting tomatoes and hope the frost doesn't get them before I can paint a few more.

I painted my makeup (which I rarely use) for the Limited Stroke Challenge in Daily Paintworks. We were challenged to plan our painting by counting the number of strokes we would need to paint each color shape. I tried to stick to 32 strokes but lost count after I reached 40. I had fun with this challenge though and will try again.

Turning Red

"Turning Red"

6x6 oil on canvas

The larger tomato was literally turning red while I was painting. That is how slow I was with this painting. I kept changing the colors which was not a smart thing to do. Hopefully I will speed up on my next tomato painting.

Tomato Studies

"Tomato Studies"

6x6 oil on canvas

Instead of 10 minute studies, I took my time and focused on trying to make these tomatoes look round and heavy like they are. The stems started drying under the light but I liked how they curled up. This year I have a lot of tomatoes growing in my garden and hope to paint more before the frost.

Garden Study

"Garden Study"

6x8 oil on canvas
Carol Horzempa

In late summer there is only a short span of time where I have sun in my garden. My Impatiens don't seem to mind though. I did manage to finish most of my painting before returning to the studio.

My garden is growing a bit wild, almost covering the watering can but I find it more interesting than a manicured garden.

Bay Furnace III

"Bay Furnace"

oil on canvas 6x8
Carol Horzempa

This is my 3rd painting of this bay on Lake Superior in the Hiawatha National Forest, Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Every year on our annual family camping trip I bring my paints and plan to do some plein air painting at Bay Furnace Campground. Instead of painting I always ended up taking pictures and painting from photos in my studio. This year I finally pushed myself to make an attempt at painting on the beach under a shade tree and found it was actually fun!

Sanctuary

"Sanctuary"

6x8 oil on canvas
Carol Horzempa
NFS

Yesterday I decided to go out to my backyard to see what I could paint. I love how the evening sun creates dramatic light and shadows across my yard. My hosta plant always stands out with it's bright yellow-green leaves at this time of day. I almost didn't paint the bench swing since I wasn't sure how to paint it. I found it was easier to paint as long as I didn't focus on details. I started losing my sun so I finished this painting from memory in my studio.

I used a limited palette of cad. yellow medium, cad. red light, ultramarine blue plus white.

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

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.

Okruszek

"Okruszek"

oil on canvas 6x6
Carol Horzempa
NFS

This is a little homeless dog that was found tied to the inside of a trash can in Poland. A wonderful woman named Ori has a rescue home for homeless cats and dogs that have been abandoned, abused or found in the forests of Poland. Not only does she find homes for them but she takes beautiful pictures of them and has given me permission to paint from her photos.

Okruszek, which means crumb in Polish, is a fitting name for him since he was thrown in the trash like nothing other than a piece of crumb. He is an old dog with health problems but will be taken care of by kind caregivers to enjoy his last days with good food, medicine and a warm bed.

My granddaughter fell in love with this painting so I plan to surprise her with it for her birthday next week.

This painting has been submitted to the DPW Challenge on Color sponsored by Carol Marine.

Update: On April 28th Ori (the woman in Poland that rescued Okruszek) wrote this on her blog about Okruszek (Crumb):

Crumb died yesterday evening.

We had him for three weeks and three days.
I guess I have never met anyone who would be at the bottom of this misery, so incredibly battered by fate, so lonely and helpless.
We tried for three weeks to give him as much love as he should get through his long life. We believed, or rather, I naively believed that in this way manage to outwit the disease, banish it from the Heavens and bargain a few months.
Crumb rewarded us well-being and attempt to return to health, but the forces he was able to very briefly.
He died as someone very dear, important, deplorable as Someone's dog, nestling, farewell, and was buried with great respect.

(This has been translated from Polish to English by Google Translate)

Blue Day II

Blue Day
oil on canvas 6x6
Carol Horzempa
Sold

I decided to paint from the same photo that I used for a painting I did two years ago called "Blue Day." I wanted to experiment with the "one color per stroke" method in this painting. I have found myself painting this way ever since I entered Carol Marine's "One Color per Stroke Challenge" on the Daily Paintworks website.

I am really hooked on this method of painting! You have to think about values and color before each stroke but it's fun and I find my paintings look fresher. Of course I did break a couple of rules by using a smaller brush in places and forgetting to squint.

When I took the photo of Shawna, she was laid up with a torn dewclaw and had to spend the day indoors with a bandage on her leg. She looked so sad and worried in the photo that I just couldn't resist painting her the first time and a second time with a little thicker paint.

This is the second painting I've entered in Carol Marine's challenge. Be sure to check the over 200 entries here.

The Help Japan Challenge

"Waiting"

on canvas 6x6
Carol Horzempa
Sold

I decided to do another painting of Shawna, this time with her head resting on my husband's boots. I took the picture yesterday and she was a great model, waiting patiently for me to snap the picture while giving me the eye.

We adopted this sweet dog 10 years ago when she was a year old. While my husband was writing out a check to the rescue people Shawna laid down next to his feet and put her head on his boot. I knew then this homeless dog was adopting my husband and they have been inseparable ever since.

I will be donating this painting to the Daily Paintworks website: "The Japan Challenge." I thought this painting would be fitting for this challenge since "home" is the theme. This painting comes with a solid cherry wood frame.

All proceeds will go directly to the Humane Society International. The HSI team will be taking in animals that have lost their owners and helping the Japanese people who have managed to survive with their pets.

Please click here to the auction page to place your bid.

Update: Here is a photo of the solid wood cherry frame that comes with this paintings.

The Help Japan Challenge

"Gatekeeper"

oil on canvas 5.5 x 6.75
with solid cherry wood frame
Sold

This is my entry for Daily Paintworks Challenge: "Help Japan Challenge" which is a fund-raiser for those who were affected by the recent disasters in Japan.

The theme for this challenge is "Home." Though I did this painting a while ago I thought it was fitting for this challenge. In the summer I have large Peony bushes growing next to my picket fence near the gate. When they are in full bloom it is such a welcoming sight for friends and family to see them as they drive up to my home.

All proceeds from this painting will go directly to the Japanese Red Cross Society

Update: Here is a photo of the solid cherry wood frame that comes with this painting. The dimensions of the frame are 7 x 8.25.

Spring Thaw on Prospect

6x6 oil on canvas

Hope of spring has finally arrived! While driving down Prospect Avenue in my village I was struck by the bright yellow reflection of a school crossing sign. Luckily I had my camera along and caught a great photo of a moment in time.

I have always wanted to paint reflections on wet city streets and dirty snow. This is supposed to be the ugly season with all the gray and brown snow left over after a long winter, but I found a lot of beauty in the variety of grays and colorful reflections.

My palate colors were: Cadmium Yellow light & medium, Cadmium orange, Yellow Ochre light, Cadmium Red light, Chromium Oxide Red, Ultramarine Blue light & deep, Viridian and Titanium White.

Sweet Bell

"Sweet Bell"
6x5 oil on canvas
Carol Horzempa

Another Carol Marine Daily Paintworks Challenge and what fun this was! Carol challenged fellow artists to paint one stroke of color at a time. We were to mix a new color for each stroke and not worry about edges.

I had to drag out my old easel since part of the challenge was to stand and step back often while painting. I've forgotten how much I love standing at my easel! Been doin' to much sitting lately.

Some of my colors mingled when I had to adjust the values with another stroke of color over the first stoke but I loved working this way and found it very liberating. I have a zillion brush strokes...got to remember to squint more often. Sometimes old habits are hard to give up. Hopefully my next one will be painted with fewer strokes and less correction of values.

We were supposed to use a 1/2-inch or larger brush. I found my number 6 & 8 bright brushes worked well for this challenge, using the side for smaller strokes. My palette colors were cadmium yellow light & medium, cadmium orange, cadmium red light, chromium oxide red, ultramarine blue and titanium white.

Be sure to check here to see all the great submissions to this challenge.

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

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!