Dee Day - a new website, a new beginning!

Announcing my new art website!
Fast forward a few years to view the poetic essence of my art that has been forged over the past thirty years.  I’ve used the good from my experience in art blogging by focusing completely on the core passion of my artistic voice.
I hope you will visit my new full website at deedayart.com where I’ve organized my best and most current artwork (with original artworks and prints also available for purchase).
Thank you for visiting with me!
Blessings,
dee

"Autumn Red" (final)

($400.00....12" x 18"....Water Soluble Oils on a Flat Gessobord...Presented in a Custom Frame from Balcones Frame)

The end of a painting is always a bag of mixed feelings...especially when there is an inspiration photo to compare side by side with the painting. Because of the abstract and painterly effect of palette knife painting, it is best to withhold judgement and simply place it on a easel in the studio and leave it there for a few days.

The emotional appeal of these types of paintings has nothing to do with exact representation, but has more to do with the amount of paint and the "gestural" quality of the strokes. At the end, I did leave my image on the full screen of the computer and made a side by side comparison. There is no question that the painting was inspired by the reference photo, but there are also some obvious differences.

So I guess my advice is to make sure the color notes and shapes are reasonably correct and then enjoy the movement and direction of the palette knife strokes. The absolute beauty of this type of painting is the way the light hits the painting which is due to the extreme texture and movement of the strokes.

Because I am using so much paint, I use coupons "ad nauseam" and every time I am near a Hobby Lobby or a Michaels...I buy paint. Winsor Newton Water Soluble Oils are still my favorite because they are a thicker viscosity than other brands of regular oils. It is also quite nice not to deal with Gamsol or any other type of mineral spirits.

So I now feel as though I am getting my "sea legs"....so to speak and encourage anyone to at least give it a try. It's very addicting and you might just find a new way to communicate visually. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.

Please contact me personally to inquire about this piece.

"Running Through" (draft 1)

(12" x 18"......Water Soluble Oils on a 2" depth Cradled Gessobord....first draft)

This is the first draft of a 12" x 18" oil painting of a scene at Bull Creek here in Austin. It's good to see it at this stage for those of you who are on a "palette knife journey" because it is easy to give up at this stage and assume that all is lost. The good news is that you simply need to keep laying in the colors until you're finished. It's a "faith" lesson.

My thought process in all of these abstract landscapes is to think backwards. In other words, I laid down a very dark brown/gray color over the entire piece first. That enables me to scrape back to that dark color when forming boulders and rocks.

The next step is to decide what shapes and colors should go down next. For me that means to study the photo (or real time image outside) and think about it in layers. In other words, the trees cannot be laid in before the ground and everything behind the trees. So by thinking backwards, it's fairly easy to know the next step.

And of course, there is a lot of color mixing going on and the larger the painting, the more space is needed to mix those colors. I now have an 18" x 24" palette which works beautifully.

If all goes well, I will post the inspiration photo with the final piece. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.