New paintings, Putting the plan in action,

Here is my newest painting WIP
Florida Cattle Ranch
20x24 inches
oil on birch panel

I started this one today. Obviously, there isn't much done. I have simplified the composition, bringing the land mass down low in the composition because I just love the blue sky this time of year in Florida. It makes a nice negative space in the composition, a foil for the busy textural palms and grasses. I'll show it as I go along.The panel was toned in Cad Red Light.




Wood Field
12x16 inches
acrylic on birch panel

I really had a swell time doing this painting and I am quite fond of it. It took me a long time to do it. I used the "Color Fields" approach to the brushwork, combining that with some glazing as well. It was fairly complicated for me to do.



Wood Farm Lake View ( The lake was there but hidden by the vegetation)
12x16 inches
oil on birch panel
About half done on location, finished in studio.

I took Studio Dog with me on this adventure. We watched the cattle in the distance, enjoyed the fall weather and generally had a wonderful afternoon. Henry was my guard, protecting me from squirrels while I painted.





Evening at Horseshoe Key
Near Cedar Key Florida
12x16 inches
acrylic on birch panel

This painting was inspired by my trip to Cedar key and Boat Tour with Captain Doug. Horseshoe Key is my favorite of them all; very beautiful and wild. I plan to do many more paintings of the Island. I used a lot of glazing in this painting, sorry for the glare.

I was very excited to get m new memory chip for the camera today. I finally got photos all the new paintings. I'm so spoiled by digital cameras. I haven't even taken the little throw away camera down to the store to get the boat tour photos developed. Talk about lazy. What did I ever do before I had a scanner,CD burner and digital camera?

I spent part of the day today working on my web site, implementing some of the 2009 plan there. I added a few plein air studies to the paintings page with great prices on them, added some of my little "color field" paintings, with free shipping on them, made all the web site paintings unframed and priced them without the frame cost. I updated my projects for 2009 on the About me page, put my photo with Henry from the parade on the site and now I must update the new paintings, and update the collector's blog. I'll be contacting my web master the first of January to discuss the next phase of tweaking the web site. I also updated my Google Maps listing for their business center. It's a dandy little free feature you can do for your studio. I figure, why not? It's free. It will take a couple of days to show up.

In the studio, I started the new WIP, gessoed a bunch of small panels for my "Color Fields" paintings, and did about 5 of the little 3 1/2x2 1/2 paintings on index paper to mat. Those I sell with envelopes as Mail Art. I also use those little studies to send as thank yous to clients. They really enjoy that little surprise.
A fairly productive day.

A friend wrote today trying to figure out a way to make an inexpensive catalogue or pricing list for clients ho don't have Internet. I suggested that she make image pages on copy paper with a reference number and include a price list with that to send out to inquiries. She could also use photo paper instead of copy paper, but that is fairly expensive. Index paper would be cheaper. She could include a brochure and biz card in the packet and do that fairly cheaply. Does anyone else have an idea for her? Remember, her patrons are not Internet saavy and many don't have computers so CD's and other electronic materials would not work in this situation.

Today's Recipe

Southern Rolls

2 cups self rising flour
4 T mayo
1 tsp sugar
1 cup buttermilk
Mix and drop into greased muffin tins. Bake 20-25 minutes at 400.