Merry Christmas

I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas.

I have been thinking lately how Jesus gave His life for us, not just on the cross but from the very beginning. He taught us by His words and His example how to live. Everything He has done has been for us. I hope that we can all remember the birth of the little baby in Bethlehem who was born to overcome death. To bring us hope, to atone for our sins and show us the way back to our Heavenly Father. I don't think we can fully comprehend what Jesus Christ has done for us.

I hope that all of us will spend a bit of time thinking about Jesus, this always brings a sweet feeling of joy and happiness to me. Merry Christmas!

Kiwi

This is another "Kitchen Painting". Kiwi are a challenge to paint but fun. The juicy texture on the inside and then the fuzzy brown outside that has a green undertone to it. Each required a different method of painting. Most fun was that I got to use my Canada Balsam medium! It smells wonderful! I used it on the green interior of the fruit to help get that shiny, just sliced look.

Watermelon and Grapes

My favorite fruits! These are two more of my 5 inch by 5 inch paintings.

I tried to have a looser feel to the Seedless Watermelon It was fun to do but I think I miss the seeds.

The Grapes I thought would be hard because of the detail and because of the colors. The detail of the grapes was not as hard as it looks, but it was the color that was challenging. The challenge was to keep the reds and greens from making a muddy brown color while maintaining that transparent jewel-like quality of the grapes.

Three Red Pears

I am really pleased with how "Three Red Pears" turned out. It is larger than the little 5 x 5 inch paintings I am used to doing. I have been trying to try different methods, techniques and sizes. One thing that surprised me was that the pears seemed to have a personality of their own when I was finished. I am thinking of renaming this painting Gossiping Pears or Three's a Crowd since the two pears on the right seem to be "talking" about the third pear. I am going to work at putting more personality into my fruit paintings. Maybe I will do a series called "Pears are People Too" I know it sounds silly but I think it will be a fun direction to go with these still life paintings and it may help the fruit feel more real and alive.

Three Red Pears, 12 inches x 12 inches on gallery wrapped canvas. It is available on my website.

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope everyone is having a day filled with gratitude. This quote came in an email today.

"Ours is the responsibility to show our gratitude by the actions of our lives."
--Thomas S. Monson

I need to think about my life and make sure my actions reflect the gratitude I feel. If they don't, am I really grateful?

I do have so much to be grateful for and I do give thanks in my prayers everyday for the blessings that God has granted me. This has become my favorite time of day, because it fills me with peace and happiness. No one can ever have too much of those!

Art Boot Camp - The Technical Course

I got home Monday night and have been trying to process all of the information that Rob tried to stuff into my head. I may have to go back for a refresher course someday.




Here is a pic of just some of the things we learned about the first morning. We learned about supports, and how to prepare them. How to stretch, size, and prime canvas. How to use the many various mediums that are available and why to use them. We learned to properly glaze a painting. We learned how to apply varnish to achieve a beautiful finish and how to build a crate to pack it up and ship it to our buyers! (Can't wait to have to do that!)

I have to admit that by the end of the first day I was overwhelmed by everything and certain that I will never be able to learn all of this. But Rob Howard is an excellent teacher and by the end of the course I was so excited to get home and start working with all of this new knowledge. Rob is an inspiration! I am so glad I was able to go to Boot Camp.

"2 Red Pears"

This one has recently been completed. I liked it so much that I did do a larger one similar to this. I will post it when I get a good photo. I think I really like this one because my favorite colors are red and green. I will have to also get it on my website Susan Mortensen

It Has Been A While

I have really neglected this blog. But I have been busy, I have done a lot of reading. I signed up for another Boot Camp, I leave on the 1st!!!!! This one is the Technical Course. I am really excited to go to this one because I don't know anything about stretching and preparing my own canvases.

I have also been doing color charts. They take me a long time to do, but I am learning so much about how each of the colors work, feel, mix with white, etc. I will post some of those later. I have also done a few more little paintings for my kitchen series. The slowest part of posting for me is getting a good picture. I think I take 100 to get a good one.

More Later

"Three Eggs in a Bowl" painting

I thought painting three eggs in a bowl would be nice and simple. . . It was a bit more difficult than I thought it would be. I do like how it turned out! I think I can see an improvement in my painting since Art Boot Camp. I am so glad I went!

Just an Update

I have been busy preparing for a trip to Frankfurt, Germany and to Prague, Czech Republic! Haven't had a lot of painting time, but I am currently working on another small 5"x5" painting for my kitchen. It is going well so hopefully I will finish and get it posted before I go. This is a spur of the moment trip for me and all that is stopping me at this point is I have no passport. Last report from the US passport people (everyone of them I have talked to has been very nice and helpful)--It is almost done, you may have it tomorrow morning, but no guarantees.

During my trip sadly I won't get to use my oil paints (I love how they smell!) So during the trip I will do lots of sketching and take lots of reference pictures for future paintings. I am debating on whether or not I take my watercolors. I am horrible at watercolor (it has a mind of it's own) so either it will be a time to practise it or be terribly frustrated by it. I will post any good sketches I make in the mean time.

www.susanmortensen.com

I have a new website! It is still in the process of being refined, and it is a bit early to start one considering my level of expertise, but it makes me feel more like an artist. I also feel a bit of pressure to put more on it and that will take more painting. So the pressure is on.(I should paint a pressure cooker--I wonder if I could borrow one from someone?)

Anyway, I know I write with run on sentences and lots of parenthesis and I was trying to refine my writing and make it more refined but that takes too much time (that I need for painting!) I hope that you will read anyway and check out my website susanmortensen.com and leave a message!

Leave a message here too!

My Two Latest Paintings

These two paintings have been done after my trip to Art Boot Camp.

For the peaches I was trying to use more greys because I tend to go for higher chroma colors which then looks a bit garish. I think that I went too far into the grey area and lost the nice color of the peaches. I also have not tried to paint glass before--it looked too hard-- but this is something else I learned about at Boot Camp and it was a lot easier than I thought.

I am really pleased with the heirloom tomatoes. Painting the stripes and yet making it look like a smooth round surface was challenging. It is interesting to see how my perception of color is changing. I tried very carefully to choose my colors before beginning painting and then realizing after getting the basic colors roughed in that the color was off. It took a lot of adjustments to finally figure it out. I think it would have been easier without the stripes

Pomegranite

Pomegranite--I hope I spelled that right. I thought that this one turned out well. This is another one done earlier this year. I am beginning to see some progress in my work. I am trying to get caught up so I can post the latest one that I really am pleased with! So stay tuned--they get better.

Lemons and Orange

Thought I would add another painting to try to catch up. I did this a few months ago. I was trying to do a bit more with the composition than just one fruit in the center of the canvas.

Eggs in carton

I haven't added any pictures for a while. Here is one I did earlier in the year. It was a challenge because I had to get the values down in this almost monochromatic painting. I am pleased with how it turned out. Like the others it is 5"x5" I am liking this size because I can get them done. Not to say that I am quick at them. They do take me a bit of time, but I am getting a little faster! (Art Boot Camp gets the credit for that)

Art Boot Camp

I have been so busy lately that I have completely forgotten about this blog.

In June my daughter got married and we are very happy about that! In July I went to Art Boot Camp !!! (not even 7am and I have learned something--how to do a link, I am so computer illiterate) Boot Camp was great, I learned so much that I plan to take the Portrait and Tech classes as well. Now I just have to work harder at getting to the easel and just paint something, . . . anything. I do have a few studies that I will have to post. I have bought a Photoshop program that I need to learn how to use so I can edit photos for posting. So much to do, so little time.

Chocolate Apple

Our family got this huge Chocolate Apple for Christmas! I wouldn't let them eat it until I had painted it.

Grapefruit

Here is another painting! It was done last winter.

Learning Blogging

I have been out of town visiting my daughter. She is getting married in May and we were working on the plans for the big day! It was fun to get away but I guess I am a homebody at heart. It was so so good to finally get home! I have spent the day catching up with email and reading about art blogs. How to make them more effective, interesting, popular, and beautiful. I keep feeling like the more I learn the more I need to learn. I am determined to keep up this blog and I am going to rededicate myself to it.

Some of the things I learned today:
Blog everyday.
I have a lot to learn.
I need a purpose for blogging. (I need to work on this, to better define what I am doing.)
I have a lot more to learn.
I need to put more pictures in my blog.
I need a better photo editor, Photoshop program thingy. (I am sure that this is the correct technical term for this)
That maybe I need a class to learn more about how all of this works
I need to link to other's blogs
I don't know how to link to others blogs.
That when I do figure out how to link to other's blogs--I don't know what to say.
Blogging will keep my intentions in the forefront of my mind.
I need to be interesting. to capture people's attention.
I need to learn to write.
I need to paint and draw and create more than ever. (How do I do that and work on the wedding?)

There is more and I am sure that as I learn each one of these things it will lead to many more things to learn. I do like learning new things so I will have lots to keep me busy!

Apple

This is the second food painting. I think that it turned out well. The photo could be better. I haven't figured out how to get rid of the white area that is left when I crop the picture. I probably need to get some better software.

Two Pears

I finally got some pictures taken and I have been learning to crop them. So here is the first of my series of food paintings. All of them are 5x5. I chose this size because I can get them done relatively quickly and they are good practice.

I've been busy

Unfortunately it has not been with art. I have been diligently following my diet (Weight Watchers) and have lost 6 pounds and I am doing well will increasing my activity. I have been walking around the malls. Besides getting some exercise I have found a great shoe store (The Walking Company) and got 2 pairs of wonderful walking shoes!! The shoes are totally responsible for an increase in my endurance. I am really exicited about the increase in endurance because my daughter is getting married and I have lots to do! Hopefully I will get back to some sort of art soon.

These are 2 paintings I did of my great grandmother. I did the watercolor one first. It was fun because I had never done a portrait in watercolor before. I then did the oil because I love oils. I guess it was my first series of paintings, unless you count all of those horse paintings I did when I was a teenager.

Counters

I have been trying to get a hit counter on my blog. The more I try out stuff the more I have to learn. Oh well no one knows about this site yet anyway so there is nothing to count. When I get the hang of this better I will start publicizing it.
I did have a good day! We went shopping and had a fun time. I usually don't last long when shopping but I felt great!! I think I lost some weight (I really hope so) but even if it isn't much I am feeling better on this diet than before and I seem to have more energy. I am all for more energy.

No artwork got done today but I did start a little painting the other day. I hope to get it done on Monday. I have been working on little (5x5) canvases, doing still life studies of food. They have been good practise and since they are small they are easily finished. I will try to post them later.

I Have a Lot to Learn

I have been thinking about why I want to do this blog and what I want to use it for. I think that part of it's purpose will be to chronicle my efforts at making art. That will mean I have to learn to use my digital camera better! In the mean time I will put up another painting that I have done.

This painting is also done from a photo I took . It was taken from the car, while we were driving through Wyoming. It is a simple painting and doesn't look exactly like the photo, but I liked how it came out. I was trying a new (to me) technique of blocking in the dark, medium and light tones before working on details. That is why I chose such a simple scene.

I will have to learn how to edit the pictures before I post them. They would definitely look better without the background.

I Can't Believe I Did This!

I really can't believe I am doing this. It is exciting and terrifying. I am normally a quiet and private person so starting a blog is very much not part of my personality.

The reason I started is because this is the year that all of my New Year's resolutions come true!! (I think I say that every year) I have already started working on some of them and I am feeling pretty good about them.

My resolutions?

1. The perennial I WILL lose weight this year. (I did start Weight Watchers this morning!)


2. I will not play solitaire, free cell, or spider, or sudoku or any other mindless computer game. I have been game free for 3 weeks now!


3. I will paint, and draw, and create art (and hopefully sell some!) Which is mainly the reason for this blog. (I can't potentially sell anything if no one ever sees it can I?)

So I have started this blog to post my artwork and to document my progress. For many years I have always dreamt of being an artist when I grew up. (I won't tell how many years I have been dreaming. ) I have played around with the paint and have collected a huge array of art supplies and now I need to use them up so I can go buy more!!

I have posted a favorite painting of mine. I did this several years ago, it is from a photo I took of my Dad.