czarsmom

Finished Pink Yellow Iris Pastel

czarsmom — Sun, 19 May 2013 21:13:24 +0000

I moved my art studio back into my home in April due to financial reasons. This is the first painting I’ve done since I’ve been back to painting at home. It is a luminescent

Completed pastel painting, 9″ x 12″ on pastel art paper.

palette. Therefore, there are no strong darks. I really like how the soft blue background harmonizes with the pinks, peaches, and violets of the iris. The whole piece has a very soft feeling to it, yet it is very colorful. This bloom was backlight, and you can see the light gleaming through the center of the flower from behind.

Iris Pastel, Work in Progress

czarsmom — Fri, 17 May 2013 23:35:27 +0000

This pink iris is backlit, which creates some interesting shadows and warmth.

Road Kill Cat

czarsmom — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 23:09:08 +0000

My cat Czar, who is a purebred Siberian, loved to lay on his back, with his feet in the air. My husband says he looks like road kill. He is a

Czar is road kill

mellow, and a sweet cat, with a loving disposition. I just love him.

Delicate

czarsmom — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 21:49:27 +0000

Delicate.

Czar, My Cat

czarsmom — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 21:40:55 +0000

Painting “Iris Panorama” is Almost Complete

czarsmom — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 21:34:26 +0000

This is my painting called “Iris Panorama”. It is about 98% complete!!

Pushing the Limits is Complete

czarsmom — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 17:42:16 +0000

Pushing the Limits, oil on stretched canvas, 24″ x 24″

I see that I had not posted my completed painting “Pushing the Limits”. This will be our (mine and Jon, my husband’s and Jonathan’s father’s) graduation gift to Jonathan. We are extremely proud of him – he has worked very hard to get all A’s, and a 4.0 grade point average at a challenging private Lutheran school. We are still waiting to hear back from the colleges. Jonathan loves to push the limits, and he loves boats and sailing.

Panorama of Irisis, Very Colorful and Complex

czarsmom — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 17:27:56 +0000

I’ve done two complex and involved paintings in the past 2 months, so haven’t been as prolific as usual, which is fine. This time, I’m working on one of the iris garden at the Missouri Botanical Garden. This is a small area, but is amazing in it’s sheer concentration and variety of shapes, sizes, and colors of irises. God is so creative in that there are so many different types of irises. This is taking

Iris Panorama, oil on MDF art panel, 18″ x 24″

some time to paint, since I have the background trees, the 2 men, the background, iris bed, the middle ground irises is various colors, and two foreground iris buds and white iris. I had a lot of fun with the shadows of the foreground iris. They got warmer with the reflected reds as they got closer to the warm red center. I’m almost finished with this, and hope to get it done in the next few days. for the color palette, I used Permalba white, cadmium yellow, cadmium red light, dioxazine violet, ultramarine blue, and sap green

Finished Drawing “Pushing the Limits” Oil Painting

czarsmom — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 21:52:30 +0000

I’m now working on a graduation gift for my senior, Jonathan. He attends Lutheran High School South. His desire is to be a naval architect/marine engineer. Our gift to him is going to be an oil painting of a wooden sailing ship with 6 people in board, heeling at a sharp angle. I looked through a bunch of my husband’s old Wooden Boat magazines, and found this photo on the cover of an issue from 2009. It is being done on a heavy duty, high quality stretched canvas that is 24″ by 24″. This is the first time I’ve done a painting in a square format.

There was LOTS of drawing to do first. It took me about 6 hours just to get all of the drawing done. I know my son, he is extremely precise and technical, so I wanted to get everything in the proper proportion, and get at least the major aspects of the boat technically correct. I made an amazing discovery – in high winds, the boom will actually curve! I never knew that. I’m glad that I was diligent in getting the drawing right, because if I had a perfectly straight boom, it would have looked stiff and artificial.

Pushing the LImits, drawing is complete, painted the sky.
24″ x 24″

There are many lines and hardware, and I’ve only got the major parts of the boat for now. After I paint the hull, the sails, and the people, then I will paint all the blocks and lines on top of that. It would be extremely difficult to paint the sky and water around all the different lines, and it is so easy just to paint lines over the water and sky once these are painted in. I did get the sky painted in this afternoon. It is a challenge, because I have to leave at 2:30 in order to pick up my younger son, Andrew, at 3:00. Being a parent and and artist is a juggling act. Andrew is going to be in the after school program one day a week, so that I’ll have at least one day where I don’t have to leave my studio so early.

I’m calling this painting pushing the limits. Part of this is because of how high the winds are, causing this boat to heel so sharply. The other reason I’m giving it this title, is that my son Jonathan likes to push his own limits. He is very ambitious and hard working, and likes to push himself to his limits and do his very best in everything he does. I am extremely proud of him, and I hope this painting shows that.

“Jesus Smiling” Painting is Finished!

czarsmom — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 02:03:12 +0000

I got to finish this painting in oil today. I put some finishing touches on the Face. The first thing I did was put highlights on the eyes. I also darkened the mouth, and the corners of the mouth and sides of the teeth.

Oil on canvas panel,
18″ x 24″, completed

This is the first time I’ve ever used transparent white, for glazing. I mixed a tiny bit of yellow ochre into the trans white so it wouldn’t be icy cold, and softly applied it to the indirect highlights on His forehead, cheeks, and nose. I also glazed over the face, neck, and hands in a thin red glaze. I may go back and glaze again in a very thin blue glaze, as the face is pretty warm.

Then, I painted in the background more loosely. This was fun and relaxing. I mixed the green using phthalo blue/green and yellow ochre. This makes a very nice green – colorful and vibrant, yet natural. For the dark green, I used red and blue to cool and gray it down. For the light green, I added yellow and white to lighten it and warm it up. I used a rich violet gray for the darker shadows in the leaves. After I put in the sky, I added blue reflections on the figure and in the background. I also added some of the earthy oranges to the leaves, as green foliage often has oranges in it, and this unified and harmonized the painting. The tree on the right is done in grayer more neutral greens, and the darks are not as dark. This is to create aerial perspective, which gives it the illusion of depth.

Here are youtube videos from my pastor that explain who Jesus is, and why He came.