7 in 7 Day 1

I’m challenging myself to paint 7 paintings in 7 days to donate to Art 4 Shelter fundraiser this year. It’ll be a stretch for me to complete a painting a day 7 days in a row,  but it’ll be good for me to push myself that way! Here’s the first one...

Sideways Glance - 5x7 in. on paper

Scarlet Ibis

I'd had this one sketched out for AGES but was never sure how to handle the abstractish background. So I finally just went for it. It was a good lesson in mixing greens. More birds yet to come, stay tuned!

Scarlet Ibis- acrylic on 6x6 in. masonite panel

Kingfisher 2

A bit of a change of pace, I feel a few bird paintings coming on. Here’s a kingfisher for your Saturday.

Kingfisher 2 - acrylic on 6x6 in. gessobord 

Small and Mighty

Another painting from my great aunt’s slide collection, this one features my mom. I’d been feeling like my paintings were starting to get a little tight, so in an effort to loosen up on this one I switched to a pink under painting and made myself use a bigger brush.

Small and Mighty - 8x10 in. on gessobord panel

Reference photo, collection of Marge Koppi

Visiting Sister Martans’ Classroom

...And another from my great aunt Marge’s 1950s slides. Thanks to her careful labeling, I know this is Marge (left) with her friend Celanne (right), visiting their friend Sister Martans’ classroom at catholic school. I was looking through the slides with my grandma (Marge’s sister) and commented on the interesting habit the nun was wearing, and she said the nuns were from the Dominican order, based out of Holy Rosary church in South Minneapolis.

Visiting Sister Martans’ Classroom - acrylic on 12x12 in. gessobord

Here’s the original reference photo:

Eli

I love it when I can paint two similarly colored animals back-to back, and use one extended palette. This one worked out that way.

Eli- acrylic on 12x12 inch cradled gessobord 

Buster

Here is a recent commission, it’s Buster! I’m getting more and more confident about painting pure black animals.

Buster - acrylic on 8x8 inch gessobord