New Painting - Portrait

Yellow Poplar- Portrait. oil, acrylic and crayon on canvas.

This is the first work in a new series that is inspired by the trees along a walking path that I frequent a lot that runs along Prickett's Creek in Marion County, WV. There are nine trees (that are labeled) along the trail and I will be doing a "portrait" of each one. The first is of the last tree on the trail (just to mix it up!), the yellow poplar. This is also the largest painting I have done since university, and it feels great!

For a larger image of the painting, please check out my new website blog! Don't forget to begin following me there :)

New Painting!

Creek Flowers - August 27th. oil, crayon and acrylic on canvas. 17 x 20" $450

New Painting!

August 27th - Upshur County. oil and acrylic on canvas.

I want to give everyone a heads up. Soon, I will be switching completely over to my new blog that is housed on my brand new website. I hope you will join me over at the new url. If you are a follower, please update your reader or bookmark with my new address: http://www.laurenadamsart.com/blog.html.

I hope to see you there!

New Painting

Oak - July 29th. oil and acrylic on canvas. 34 x 28"

New Painting!

Oak- July 22nd. oil and acrylic on canvas. 24 x 20" $650

Lately I have been embracing a process that I've admired in some of my favorite historical artists, as a means to furthur abstract my work. I have been painting on the ground more and more for my acrylic underpaintings. With this piece, I am still working on the ground, but instead of applying with a brush, I'm pouring thinned paint onto the canvas, letting it soak in. The sort of rectangular blocks of color are where the oil paint is coming into play, describing the "trunk" of the tree. The piece is based off of a plein air foliage study of our neighbor's old oak. This direction is something I plan on pursuing more and more, I'm very excited about the possibilites...

New Painting!

Prickett's Creek. 20 x 17" oil and acrylic on canvas.

New Paintings!

May 20th. oil and acrylic on canvas. 10 x 8 1/2" $100

May 19th. oil and acrylic on canvas. 10 x 8 1/2" $100

May 18th. oil and acrylic on canvas. 10 x 8 1/2" $100

New Painting - Black and White Series

Painting 4 - The Shadow Cloud. acrylic and gesso on canvas. 10 x 8 1/2"

Photos

Last Sunday, Derek and I went out to enjoy the nice weather (almost 70 degrees!) and I began a few paintings. While I was setting up to work, we were almost attacked by geese and I wished that we had brought snacks to appease them. Those were some very demanding geese! I managed to get a few pictures of them, as they swam away after squawking around at us. Here are some other shots from around a trail that we like to walk, near the creek (which was unusually low). A few of the spring flowers were out, along with little fresh patches of bright grass.

one of the culprits...swimming away...

All in all, a good day.

Good luck to Derek tonight - He is teaching a drawing class at WV Wesleyan College and will be posting about it!

New Painting!

March 3rd. oil and acrylic on canvas. 17 x 20"

Black and White Series

Painting 2. oil, acrylic and gesso on canvas. 17 x 20"

Lately, I've been playing around with a slightly new idea - to create abstract landscape paintings in black and white. I've always loved black and white work, even my husband has fantastic figurative black and white pieces. See here: http://www.derekoverfield.com . But I have decided to explore this idea. Two have been created already and I am working on a third today. The first one was not very good, but I really enjoyed making it. The second was better - much better and I really liked making it even more, it is featured above.

Already they have become more abstract in nature. The process is much longer than I am used to, no part of the painting is done plein air. First I begin with acrylic paint. Then I incorporate thick spills of gesso onto the stretched canvas, and let that dry overnight. The next day I can begin again with acrylic and then finish it with oil, or put down more gesso and start again. It's all very improvisational and intuitive, more so than my regular work. That's when I can make the most progress with these, it seems.

It's been a long time since I made something just to mess around - no real goals for the work in mind. No certainty that I will show it. I'm allowing myself to do this (in part) with the hope that I will learn something to apply to my main body of work. I'm not sure what it will be, but I have a gut feeling it may work out...

New Painting!

February 24th. oil and acrylic on canvas. 20 x 24"

New Painting!

February 18th. oil and acrylic on canvas. 8 1/2 x 10"

New Painting!

February 3rd. oil and acrylic on canvas. 17 x 20"

http://www.etsy.com/listing/67765895/february-3rd-winter-original-oil-and

New Painting!

January 22nd. oil and acrylic on canvas. 17 x 20"

New Painting for Friday

December 28th. 8 1/2 x 10" oil and acrylic on canvas.

Another version from December 28th! Actually I have three. I also completed my first 17 x 20" that day too. I like the 17 x 20" size okay so far, hope it will be a good substitute for my old "medium" canvas size. So finicky about sizes!

I hope everyone had a great holiday season - I'm bummed it's over (sort-of), but looking forward to progress in this new year. Also, to add to the bummed feeling is the fact that I am still working full-time. One more week to go, and I will be switching to half time employment, which when added to my old painting regimen, will feel like full-time painting. At least here's hoping it does!

New Year, New Painting!

December 28th II. oil and acrylic on canvas. 8 1/2 x 20"

Happy New Year everyone - Best wishes for 2011!

New Painting!

December 4th. oil and acrylic on canvas.

December 4th was completed after our 2nd snow of the year, I've been late to post it. It's been so unbelievably cold lately. I honestly don't know how people live in colder climates than mine! All I've wanted is to stay home and drink coffee all day long. So I've just been settling for espresso (and chocolate) in the evening. My husband makes the best:

I'm still developing small 8 1/2 x 10" paintings as I look ahead to the April exhibit at Slingluff Gallery. Seems to be slow but steady production, as I am still working full-time, and Christmas being around the corner and all. Which I am still not ready for - although yesterday was spent baking way too many Christmas cookies! I'm really looking forward to the new year, because January 1st will be my official start date for the new, 1/2 time day job! I daydream about it constantly, all the possibilities that two whole additional days will provide for painting - only a few weeks away...

New paintings, new sizes

Valley Falls - October 9th. oil and acrylic on canvas. 8 x 10"

October 16th. oil and acrylic on canvas. 8 1/2 x 10"

These are my newest works, on my new 8 1/2 x 10" canvas. I am doing away with the 7 x 5" size, it's just too small. These will replace that as my smallest. So far, I like it a lot better and it gives me a bit more freedom. I've been progressing along, so new sizes have become a necessity. I need the paintings to grow in scale. In the near future, I will need a new easel or a way to adjust my current easel to accomodate larger canvases. I'm no carpenter, so this will prove a challenge, but it will have to be resolved. Derek has been working on ideas! But for now, everything will be okay.

New Painting!

Above is one of my last additions to the upcoming 2 person exhibit at SAMA in Ligonier Valley (which I couldn't be more excited about!). It's titled "Marion County - June 3rd", and the work is on my larger size, the 24 x 20" canvas. It's also oil and acrylic on canvas. The picture could be better, but it will do for now. Right now I'm working on getting all of the work framed and wired for the exhibit. It's half way there! I will be so glad when I have it all safely delivered at the end of the month. I've been fairly stressed out lately with wedding planning/new homeowner issues/large, 45 piece exhibit stuff swimming around in my head. I would like to put one of those large things away and have a big check on my to-do list!