Daily Painting

So, in my attempts to loosen up a little, I came across a book titled : Daily Painting by Carol Marine.  Everyone has a sticking point(s).  Mine is the plural.  First of all, starting a new piece can be intimidating, not to mention expensive if it doesn't turn out for me.  Second: I'm a perfecting person:) and I can get so caught up with details that I lose my love for whatever piece I'm working on.  Then it becomes more of a chore than a joy.  The ideas behind painting daily, or as often as you can were intriguing to me.   Painting small pieces often:

-Fits into your busy schedule.  I've got six busy schedules that I have to try to work around.  Most of the time when I would get and hour to myself it would come down to: nap?,study?clean?............paint?  Painting usually lost.

-You're more inspired to experiment.  Like I mentioned, painting large pieces can be intimidating, especially if your style is naturally tight.  Working on small pieces I can experiment and then when I have more time, I can use new techniques on larger pieces.

-You're less emotionally involved.  I like this one because it's not a huge crushing blow emotionally and financially it something doesn't work out.

-You gain confidence.  I'm still trying to find what my style is and this gives me the opportunity to try a lot of different things and find what I like best. 

Here's this week's batch.

This first one was my interpretation of an art piece I saw but was not signed:/ I hope nobody's offended. I really loved experimenting with colors here.

This second one was a great study for me on brushwork  I enjoyed loosening up, and I'm titling this "Caroline in the Park"

What do you do when you have thirty minutes to yourself?  I sometimes paint portraits of my friend's kids:)  This was a first for me, I actually am not a good portrait artist.  I've painted two of my children, and felt that I was only able to do that because I knew them so well  For me "Chloe" was more of a study in mood and texture than an exact portrait.  But, hey, thirty minutes right?

This last one is from a photograph by my talented friend, David.  Again, mood, color, and texture.

All of these are small paintings 8x10 is the largest.  I hope to produce five or six each week and I'll post the final products here.