Both Sides Now, 36x36 Oil Painting by Kelley MacDonald

*free shipping on this 36x36, ready to hang, gallery wrapped piece

I can't believe it's been, like TEN Months!

Work In Progress

24x48 inches Oil

This is how far I've gotten in my commission of the Ptown Harbor panting.  Man - there are so MANY layers on this  - I am getting some great depth, though.  Pretty much now I've got all 'goodies' to do now.    Nice thick layers of paint with just hairs of the brush streaking gorgeous colors, highlights, tiny details - you know, eye candy, as Ken Auster would say.

The couple who commissioned this wanted the pier, the commercial fishing boats, the breakwater.  It is a  completely horizontal view, but their space required a tall, narrow canvas.  I'll try to remember to post when it's finished!

Works In Progress

8x8 inches, Oil

These are 2 versions of a still life of a pizza, italian pastries and a local (to New Haven) soda.  I included the menu, too.  Although in the bottom one, someone I showed it to thought it was a view through to the kitchen door!  So somehow I have got to put actual words on the menu.  This is the composition I like better.  Plus, the glass in this one is full of bubbly soda, and I like the way it came out!

Next...

I know, kind of different for me!  it's a 24x24 inch square gallery wrapped canvas.  It's acrylic.  I am working it up from a photograph I took at Rockefeller Center 2 years ago.  I am going to try to keep it kind of silhouette-y.  I'm also going to coat the  background with layers of white tinged with different blues, then finish it off with an iridescent white, that I'll make skating marks in, to show through to the blue-ish white underneath.  It is for the 100 Women Artists show in Vancouver, Canada.

Abstract 6x6

IRL this is SLIGHTLY more olive colored in the left bottom section and SLIGHTLY more yellowish in the left top section.  I, who never much thought of myself as an abstract painter in any way, am truly enjoying the freedom I'm finding here.  I realized that these sorts of paintings (I have a few going in the studio, are actually a ZOOM view of my 'bubbles', along the edges of the bubble line.  Interesting.

The Meetup, 12x9 Oil

Lots of layers on this. In it's other life it was a perfectly nice painting of a seascape.  That's what I'm doing now with all my 'perfectly nice' paintings.  Turning them into interesting paintings.  *sigh*  Although I AM enjoying the journey!

Angels Among Us, 10x10 Oil

Here, I've added a nice layer of atmospheric blue with some texture, and deepened the rose color under their little chins... 3/2/10

This is a WIP.  Sorry the posting seems to be a little Lax... I've been so busy since the 1st of the year, with my first Workshop, my painting trip to Texas, and my talk at the Duxbury Art Complex, I've been mostly doing Daily Paintings.  But this is a whimsical piece I've had in mind, and I'll put more layers of 'atmosphere' in, with little color shots on the angels.

Abstract Series - Foam/Bubbles

You know how in Close Encounters of the Third Kind everyone keeps drawing, sculpting, and thinking about the mesa? I think that's what you call it. Well I can't stop thinking of foam... the sea-foam that forms when waves reach the shore. These are all paint-overs of paintings that didn't work out. They're in oil, usually 6x6,, 6x8, 5x7 or 8x8, but I have one more I'll photograph tomorrow that's 10x10 done in acrylic. Crazy, I know. Sometimes I let some of the painting beneath show though, and sometimes not. I'm not an abstract painter, but these are pretty unusual for me!

Of A Feather

Raw day today. For the first time in NINE months I don't have an 'agenda', or something specific to paint for. I don't know what I'll do with this, it's 12x12, I just love sparrows. I have a photograph of lots of sparrows on a bare tree, and I like to pick certain ones to paint. This painting was a lot about layers of color applied, then scraped away, as well as a note of forlorn, like a November day, although it's not quite that month!

Lozenge

As part of the "From Where I Sit" series, a hazy Summer sunset, one where the sun turns into a hot pink lozenge. This is just as the sun starts to lower itself to where it changes color, into the haze. A million different paintings, I swear, could be done from my front porch. Probably from everyone's front steps.

WIP

One more magnificent sky painting I'm working on for the 'From Where I Sit' series. Sold one and now have to replace it. I'm determined to get the 8 I need for the series, as well as paintings for my Tishman Speyer show in 2 weeks. Will be a painting machine till then! :)

Tranquility, 30x40

I've been using Blogger for ... what, almost 3 years now? And I still forget that the order in which you upload your photos is the OPPOSITE of the way they show up! OK, the Big Picture is at the bottom, with the details coming first - sorry about that!

This is another tranquil (hence the name) sunset from my front porch. A west facing view. If I ever show these together (and that's kind of why I'm keeping to the 30x30 and 30x40 gallery wrapped canvases...) I mentioned that I'd call them "From Where I Sit..." because each of these big skies is one seen from my front porch. And, yes, I'm grateful. So very grateful.

The sun and its' reflections

Texture in the water

a bit of cloud

The whole enchilada.

Another WIP and A Good Lunch Location!

Almost done with this sunset - I don't know.. sometimes it takes a turn at the end.... it is 30x40.

And I met Kelly Milukas, a terrific friend as well as a terrific artist, for lunch at 121 in Providence. It's a very cool - fresh, local type food - restaurant in a ... well what kind of neighborhood sells LAVENDER shoes? THAT kind of neighborhood. Gorgeous renovations to the restaurant building, though, and food to die for.

By Jove, I Think I've Finished (most of them, anyway!)

SOLD


Thinking of titling the group "From Where I Sit" because all of these views are from my front porch. #3 and #5 are southerly views, #1 is south east, and #2 and #4 are western views. The other one in the group (and I don't know if I'll really include it, as it's from Canada) is the Parrsboro sunset, which is eluding me, but I'm not giving up.

Two Things

First, this one from Parrsboro is finally done. Man, I lifted and lowered those big dark clouds, I lightened and darkened them, I made the water more blue, more yellow, more pink, more gray, I made the cliffs taller, shorter, wider, greener, bluer, I made the orange sky brighter, duller, yellower and pinker - BUT I think I finally got it. For better or for worse.

This, more abstract, seascape is one I'd wanted to do for a long time - sometimes in the fog, the land masses are just hinted at. The water and the sky are so close in color and value - it seems the whole world just melts together. This on is 9x12, painted over an old non-working painting.

WIP Update

These three are almost done! I'm very excited - they're huge (for me), I think they're 30x36 - although I can't measure right now because I'm home. The middle one needs the most work - the pink sky has got to be a much warmer pink. I also think I'll adjust the size of the island to be shorter, and bring the second (larger) island down a little too.

Birthday Weekend

Above and below are the work of Thomas Sgouros, a Providence painter who had a show in the Bristol Art Museum opening this past weekend. I went on my birthday with Tim, just because we happened to be walking by - and I was blown away - these are huge canvases, maybe 6'x6', and the colors are to die for - the camera distorted the shape and color, and not having the image in front of me, I couldn't adjust it! I dragged my son Conor over to see it while the lasagna was baking (yes, I ended up overcooking it) and we walked into the aftermath of a talk by the artist - COOL - on his way out the door I couldn't resist telling him how much I enjoyed his work - and got a photo of the 2 of us in front of one of his pieces! I saved the lasagna with a little extra sauce, and ended up eating way too much of it (I forgot Tim had made his famous German Chocolate cake, too)!

And below, I've shown a little detail, and the whole of the mother-and-child painting done from a photo at the beach last summer. The little red haired boy was so fun to do with his big diaper laden swimsuit! Once again, they were silhouetted. I'm not finished with this, but all I'm really going to do is put in their reflections, which will help them 'stand up' in the water.

Sunset #2, 24x30

This is one of the beautiful sunsets that I see from my front porch. I am always inspired by them, and wanted to do some skies just to see how they look together.

Next Pass at the Sky

Getting close to the end of this painting. I want to layer in more colors in the water, and soften the land formation. I will probably add a little more color in the lowest strata of the sky, although it is a very dark section. I am working off a photograph, but after you get the basic values, and the general colors, you have to, in the words of Karin Jurick, whom you all may know from her art, "paint the scene, not the photograph".

More/Better Photos and a WIP

The sky is almost done - still left is the land and the water. This is 30x30.

Got more paintings up ( then had a minor collapse when a bunch came flying off the wall - the top painting slammed into two others on the way down - fortunately they were UNframed! I LOVE my studio!

Everybody UP!

I'm trying to get my studio less cluttered.  I mean, it's 1,200 square feet, and you can hardly MOVE in it!  So.  All the framed pieces that I don't HATE are going up.  The framed pieces that I do hate are coming out of frames, frames stacked in my big built-n drawers, and they're getting painted over.  That's it.  And the hundreds of paintings that I actually don't like are going to get painted over or tossed.  THEN the ones that need or may benefit more work will go in a special bin.... and those I'm reserving for history (heh heh! - in other words, pieces that have a sentimental value to me, even though they may not make the grade right now) will go in other bins, against the wall.  Here's some bad shots of what the back end of the studio looks like.  There's so much light (yes, there is a thing as TOO much light) that everything is back lit and hard to photograph!