50 Batter Bowl and Figs

50 "Batter Bowl and Figs" 8x8 oil on panel, copyright Laura Gable

My dear artist-neighbor-friend dropped in today, bearing a gift of a bowl of these beautiful figs ... in various shapes and nuances of color, some sliced open. What fun I had adding them to a still life I was setting up. Isn't artist, DS Watkins a real sweetie. And quite talented as well.

My most recent treasure is this beautiful dark aqua batter bowl that I found in the local Roxy Theatre antique shop down the street. It was from an orchardist's estate sale in Yakima, and in pristine condition. The sides have concentric half moon shapes, which I didn't identify here.... but look for them in more paintings to come. I thought the painting came together nicely, and even had an audience as my artist-neighbor-friend decided to watch the painting process for awhile. It's funny when painting in front of someone, I'm compelled to talk ... though I don't think I really draw conclusions or end stories, just bits of flax and errant thoughts that come tumbling out while the brush and hand move the paint about. But it's a good idea to get into the practice of doing this, as we can all learn so much from watching demos!

And I'm quite excited to complete my first 50 paintings. A bit astonishing, I must say. I'm proud of myself. Time to order some more paint!! Now, my challenge is directing me to do the same thing over the next 50 days. No time to rest on laurels, eh? Can I hang in there?? Only time will tell ... so stay tuned.

49 Still Life with Butter Crock

49  "Still Life with Butter Crock" 12x12 watercolor and acrylic on aquaboard, copyright Laura Gable

This painting began on a late night Sunday a few weeks ago. I ran into some trouble with the perspective on the ellipse of the butter crock. It gave me fits for awhile, so I redrew and scrubbed it out a few times. I wonder if painting these ellipses are a bit of a learning disability ... like the way I always misspell "lable" - or is it "label"? hah.

Today I was bound and determined to finish this painting or toss it in the scrap pile. I discovered in my aggressive scrubbing, that I'd removed a lot of the texture in the foreground and other areas. You see these Ampersand aquaboards come with a lovely pebbly texture to their surface. That's what allows the watercolor to lay down in successive layers so nicely. I've always liked the correctable quality of these boards ... you can so easily lift the color, even staining colors, and bring it nearly back to white. Successive scrubbing can cause problems though. I pulled out the old acrylics to finish it up. I'm not a huge fan of acrylic, especially after switching to oils. They don't have the blendability, and dry so quickly. I muddled through it though, and had an enjoyable experience after all. I wanted the painting to have a bit of a vintage sketchy quality. So I'm glad to call this one "completed".

48 Room One

48  "Room One" 6x6 oil on panel, copyright Laura Gable

Here's another small part of my vintage motel series (see day 38/100 for the first entry). My dad gave me some of these key tags from our old motel. I have one from each of the 6 rooms, though some are in this forest green, and some in a bright orange. Funny, my memory recalls these as being more of a deep maroon color. Some were broken at the top where the ring went in, and some had the plastic label tape stuck on to correct the mailing address. He used a white paint to correct some of the room numbers. The keys were all missing, so I picked these up at an antique store. My sister has the old "Naugahyde" green horse head chair, with a large head of a horse stitched on the back in gold thread. We used to sit with our crayons and draw these horses over and over. There are a lot of funny stories from these experiences of owning, and growing up in a motel in the 60's and 70's. I'll share more later.

47 Rose on Cream

47 "Rose on Cream" 8x8 oil on panel, copyright Laura Gable

"It's not your best one" he says genuinely and kindly when I ask what he thinks of this painting of a floppy old silk flower which has gone beyond it's useful days. I thought about redoing it ... the words of loved ones have a powerful impact. But then I hesitated. Ah but if I didn't paint at all today, then not even a "lesser quality" effort would have been created. So at least progress towards perfecting ones craft is being achieved. Not everything can be a masterpiece, right? So here it is in all it's overly wrought, perhaps overly painted, glory. A floppy silk rose on a lovely cream background, casting the most delightful periwinkle blue shadow.

46 -- third panel of the triptych series, and reveal of the "whole"

46 right panel of the triptych series, 8x8 oil on panel, copyright Laura Gable

 The final panel of the triptych series is revealed. And so you start to gather that it may be more than what we perceive as a landscape.



44-46 "The Face of Eternity" 8x8 oil on panel, copyright Laura Gable

The three part series shown together here. A stylized landscape and it's horizon line shows the separation we perceive between heaven and earth. The face partially obscured, is perhaps a glimpse of our loved one or God or his angels. Feathers from the wing created by these "landscapes" float around the face and so the furrows in the soil make up this feathered mass. An intuitive painting done without a great deal of thought, instead letting the brush guide the movements and concept. Perhaps you see something a bit differently.

"Each life a traveler, not yet really arrived."

-David Whyte

45 -- middle panel of triptych



45 middle panel of triptych, 8x8 oil on board, copyright Laura Gable

More of the stylized landscape is appearing. This intuitive painting's meaning and message will be revealed tomorrow. This is the second part of the three part series -- a triptych. For more info, go forward one day to the 16th for a deeper explanation.

44--right panel of triptych

44/ right panel of triptych, 8x8 oil on board, copyright Laura Gable

Something a little different today. Painting didn't happen one day this week due to a sick day, so the next day I made up for it by painting 3 panels as one ... a triptych. This is the right panel of the series. It is one of my more intuitive paintings. These come about when there is a lot on my heart or something that needs to be expressed and "in paint" seems to be the best form of expression. So it's a modified and stylized landscape with swirling "Van Gogh" skies and the furrowed fields. The "whole" will be shown on 16th so stay tuned.

43 Three Plums in Cool Light

43  "Three Plums in Cool Light" 8x8 oil on board, copyright Laura Gable

My little plums are starting to show some wear. They are wrinkling in the wrong places. Perhaps it's like any good model, after awhile they tend to melt under hot lights.

 

I set up the studio still life with a cooler daylight bulb in the lamp and immediately noticed that the white fabric became very cool. So an effort was made to really seek out the warmer spots, and there were a few as well as areas with reflected light ... a totally cool painting wasn't too appealing. Warmer shadows were added to the shadow side of the plums too. And the celadon tea cup was warmed up in spots ... especially the telling area of the inside right where it received most of the light.

42 "Five Plums on Blue" (SOLD)

42 "Five Plums on Blue" 8x8 oil on board, copyright Laura Gable

The plums are still giving me some wonderful opportunities for arrangements and background colors. This is aqua is actually the color of a squarish bowl I have. They pair beautifully with this color, as it brings out all the dusky nuances of color along their rinds. They are disappearing though, as they are so tasty. Plus after a few days in the studio they start to get more prune-like in appearance.

41 Five Plums (SOLD)

41 "Five Plums" 3x16 oil on board, copyright Laura Gable (SOLD)

We have very generous neighbors that bring us a farmer's markets' worth of fruit and vegetables every summer. Gary lives up around the corner and has over 2 lots worth of property (several acres) which is filled with vegetables and fruits. In fact, I don't think he has any lawn to speak of. We've picked blueberries, boysenberries, and raspberries there. And he's brought us all manner of vegetables - tomatoes, string beans, winter squash, pumpkins, peppers, plus more. Plus, the dear neighbor friends across the street bring us tomatoes, plums, apples and zucchini. And my friend, Theo, has provided us with apricots, tomatoes, and even canned goods that last through the winter. Wouldn't this world be a different place if everyone converted their lawns to growing plants that could feed the hungry. There are many such movements born of late, for a greener planet which is really what everyone did in prairie times before sprinkler systems were developed.

I am especially fond of these little almond shaped Italian plums. They have a dusty coating like a concord grape, that when washed reveals a deeper eggplant colored skin. Inside they are the most beautiful limey green and that sweet-tart flavor I just love. The finishing touch is the lime green stems. This is the first study I've done ... and so many more are planned.

40 Inquisitive in Half Light

40  "Inquisitive in Half Light" 8x8 oil on board, copyright Laura Gable

This is based on my nephew when he was little. He has the sweetest toothy grin. The eyes are not quite right to achieve a likeness, but I think it still captures his mischievious ways.

39 Mini Floral

39  "Mini Floral" 2.5 x 2.5 inches, copyright Laura Gable

I zoomed in a lot on this one so you can see the brush strokes. With bits of juicy color this little effort came to life. Seems like not much accomplish for one day ... but actually it is just part of the story. There is another larger painting that didn't quite get finished and will be posted tomorrow. I started way to late and just ran out of time today. Sundays are like that, sometimes a chore to motivate myself.

38 Signs of Americana

38 "Signs of Americana" 8x8 oil on board, copyright Laura Gable

My parents owned a small motel on the outskirts of Sidney, Nebraska where I grew up. The cleaning of the 6 rooms was part of our daily chores in the summer (and unfortunately fell on the shoulders of my Mother during the school year). We had this lovely old Americana sign that was so representative of 1950's style structures. This is actually it's modified look, after it was raised to accommodate the new elevated highway interchange that went in during the 70's. The rooms were outfitted with western style furniture, including genuine green vinyl horse head chairs. I've been told that they are quite collectible today. I hope to paint one of the chairs soon so you can get the rest of the story. My sister rescued one from the old place recently.

37 You're A Star

37 "You're a Star" 2x2 oil on mini board, copyright Laura Gable

I love the clayboard surface, though it does seem to absorb all the oil out of the oil paints. I discovered after completing this little bit of effort today (on a very tired day after Art Walk), that if I put a bit of gesso on these boards they don't absorb quite as much of the oil. So the future ones will have a nice coat of gold gesso applied first.
I was creating a slurry with fairly thinned paint, using the medium I've grown fond of (Gamsol, stand oil, linseed oil). It was fun to do a small experiment using paint and this medium.