Today I attended a still life workshop. There were 3 different still life’s set up around the room. I did something with each still life. With the lemon still life I first did an abstract, which is really my first abstract painting and I loved doing it. And I love it’s simplicity. It just makes me happy. Then I stepped back into abstracted realism and painted the lemons. The abstract is 16×20″ and the lemon painting is 5×7″.
24×24″ oil on canvas
I took my canvas and paints into the foothills yesterday and started this painting. It was a little cloudy and windy. But not freezing. But not quite spring. I just really wanted to be outside.
9X12″ oil on canvas
I made some progress on these 2 paintings today. Progress. But I was practically lying on the floor moaning about the double portrait during class today. Everyone just ignores my drama. The portrait is starting to come together, but it has been a big fight.
I calmed down the red at the bottom of the big landscape. Next step will be to do something with that dark space.
Hi there. I just got these images back from being scanned so I’m ready to sell the originals and can make prints of a bunch of my little and big paintings. And I have a record for myself of what I’ve done. That’s always exciting. And the professional photos are always so much better than mine. I love how you can see every brushstroke. The giclee prints turn out so beautiful.
Click here to jump over to Etsy to check out my site there.
Also, if you are ever interested in buying an original or a print of an original that you see here on my website, just let me know.
I have been toying around with my big Boise Foothills landscape. I’ve decided to work on it a little bit each day over a month or so and just see where it goes. There is a red section at the bottom that I’m not in love with so in this photo I cropped it out and when the red is dry I’ll do something with it. But today I filled the sky with clouds and worked on pushing the distant hill way back there.
I’m always worried about losing something that I loved. So this will be an exercise in moving forward and letting go along the way. And feeling okay with change. Usually the loss of one thing leads to some other wonderful thing.
I have been chasing this kids face all over the place. Today I just focused on his eyes to try to get them in the right place and to have the right shape. Not sure why this one has been so tricky, but it has been. Gratefully he no longer looks like Michael Jackson, that was rough. Tomorrow I’ll figure out his nose and mouth and then move on to his brother. And then come back to the skin, again.
Today I went out into the foothills and painted these 4 little 4×4″ plein air paintings. It’s starting to warm up a little and the grass is starting to turn green. I pretended that it’s already really green in the hills and painted the grass green.
I’m sketching while listening to my kids piano lessons.
I didn’t post anything yesterday because I had just started this portrait and it took a while for it to look even a little bit ok. This is a cropped in version, and I kinda like it this way. But the real thing has both boys faces.
This is a portrait of 2 brothers. The gal that is commissioning it sent me a bunch of pictures of her kids but none with them both in the same shot. And she wants them together in the painting.
So I’ve squeezed their faces together. There is still a ways to go with this painting, I hope it works!
Jill Millward Artwork 