Candy Barr Artist Painting a Day

Male Back Torso Seated

2009-11-15T20:04:00.000-05:00

12 x 12 x 2.5 inches Oil on cradled birch

Oct 9 version...too busy before

Prickly Mt through Birch Trees

2009-11-14T05:48:00.004-05:00

6 x 6 inches Oil on masonite

A better composition

Posted earlier with 5 trees

Three Trees in Autumn study

2009-11-13T22:45:00.008-05:00

6 x 8 inches Oil on canvas

By the Water

2009-11-11T06:59:00.006-05:00

5 x 7 inches Oil on birch

$99. +S/H

I thought she'd like to see the water and maybe be in it. Turns out I was a big doll player when I was little. So maybe there's something to playing with paintings. It's a good thing.

Yoga Lotus Pose Nude

2009-11-10T22:10:00.005-05:00

4 x 6 inches Oil on wood block

Hands on Hip Rear

2009-11-09T19:12:00.004-05:00

3 x 3 x 1.5 inches Oil on wood block

This is a repost with background change from Oct 1

Canoeing

2009-11-07T01:19:00.007-05:00

9 x 13 inches Oil on masonite (MDF)

Before when rock reflection too long

It was painted in summer, but this is fall view

I'm so used to working on location, and painting scenes as I see them without editing. I know for composition you are told to move a tree or rock etc, but with my extensive photography background, I never felt cropping was legitimate when making a good photograph, so I've just assumed doing the same thing with a painting is not as good either. Isn't that something? And I thought touching up on paintings done on location was a no-no. It's about time, I get OVER that syndrome ...don't you think? So all I have to do is have a general flavor of what I have in mind, then alter whatever needs adjusting in order to capture what I'm going after. So we'll see how the future paintings unfold. ( Painters are funny aren't we?)

Since I'm getting things cleared out and cleaned for winter skiers, I'm not going to be doing much painting for the next month. Then we'll be on the road, and guests everywhere, so not too much painting either. Perhaps I'll travel with pastels ?

Girls Chatting

2009-11-06T21:45:00.008-05:00

14 x 14 x 2.5 inches Oil on cradled birch SOLD

Detail

Version on location, posted in August

I decided to darken the water on right, lower Carol's leg, dumb down the white dock on far side of lake, and added some leaves to birch tree. (A bit of discrepancy in light of final one when I photographed)

Reclining Nude

2009-11-04T20:36:00.009-05:00

8 x 10 inches Oil on canvas board

Well last weekend I was in Manhatten, and it's pretty darn exciting on a glorious day down 5th Avenue. Went by some interesting sites, that all would make fun paintings (if I could focus to work from my photographs)

Lipstick bdg, and billboards of torsos juxtaposed against concrete and shapes.
And then there was the Kandinsky show filling the Guggenheim. I have never painted someone looking at art in a gallery setting, but I have taken photos of them over the years. I can see how tempting it is to paint, with a nod to Karen Jurick and Robin Cheers (do they have an exclusive on it as painting subject?).

Roses for Phay

2009-11-03T23:48:00.006-05:00

16 x 20 inches Oil on canvas

Start over an previous portrait!

Two other women's pastel version of Phay

Cora Brooks Reading

2009-10-29T22:35:00.004-04:00

9 x 12 inches Oil on canvas board

I liked the yellow socks so much, I decided to knock out the pale yellow wall and change to blue for the final. Cora is a great poet, writer, teacher, activist, mother, and terrific friend.
Here's a cow's mask I made at Cora's house yesterday for Paij Bailey who was making the rest of her cow costume for Halloween. Too bad you can't see the black heart shaped cheeks on the side of the box. It came out really well.

Autumn Farm in Vermont

2009-10-23T22:03:00.008-04:00

20 x 20 Inches Oil on canvas

~Needs more when dry~

Have you ever painted on vinyl? Well this particulary canvas I prepared was so slick
experimenting with different gesso. I had several coats of the oil based lead gesso, and I it was shiny it was so smooth. Consequently the paint was sliding all over, and impossible to build up surface, so I'll let it dry and make some adjustments next week.

A cold morning turned into a great day painting with six other plein airers!

Eric Tobin with his finished piece and subject in the background and Peter Miller nearly done.

Driving over Smuggler's Pass at 7Am it was 34 degrees and you can see the snow! Unusual to have the Pass open after the snow flies, but it's early this year. The light hitting the top of the mountain is called a reverse sunrise because you're facing west, and the sun coming over the mountains behind me.

At the start of the morning, John Caggiano, TM Nicholas, Peter Miller & Eric Tobin

(Ken Knowles and Susan setting up)

TM Nicholas and John Caggiano plein air along the river

Ken Knowles was around the bend

Canadian Geese Flying South by Mt Mansfield

2009-10-22T01:00:00.005-04:00

16 x 20 inches Oil on hardboard

Process in the field of view of Mt Mansfield on overcast day. The geese sounded wonderful as they flew over, and I'm waiting till it dries to put them in stronger. You can just barely see them as dots in a V on completed one. The house is an old Revolutionary period Stone House that you can just barely make out.

Vermont Covered Bridge Waterville

2009-10-21T01:00:00.001-04:00

14 x 14 x 2 inches Oil on cradled birch

Process of the painting with temperature 37 degrees at 9am, and warmed up to low 50's by the afternoon. The flat light was even all day basically so no need to hurry!

TM Nicholas plein air workshop.. we had 2 other painters. I guess the cold weather sorts out the serious ones! I'll post more photos of workshop later.

Apple Orchard on Savage Island, Lake Champlain

2009-10-20T01:00:00.004-04:00

11 x 14 inches Pastel on paper

Apple Tree on Savage Island, Lake Champlain

2009-10-19T20:09:00.006-04:00

11 x 14 inches Pastel on paper

From where I spotted tree in orchard, with intermittent sunlight.

Red Circle Reclining Nude

2009-10-17T01:00:00.001-04:00

11 x 14 inches Oil on clayboard

Process

Birches Prickly Mountain

2009-10-16T18:28:00.005-04:00

8 x 8 inches Oil on hardboard

Process

It was cold this week, and we had 4 inches of snow on Monday. And there is still snow in some patches.

On September 3, 1882 Van Gogh, while in Hague, wrote to Theo, in which he described his approach to painting.

[….]

In a way I am glad that I never learned painting. In all probability I would then have learned to ignore such effects as this. Now I can say to myself, this is just what I want. If it is impossible, it is impossible, but I'm going to try it even though I don't know how it ought to be done. I don't know myself how I paint it, I just sit down with a white board in front of the spot that appeals to me, I look at what is in front of my eyes, and I say to myself: that white board has got to turn into something - I come back, dissatisfied, I lay it to one side and when I have rested a little, I go and look at it with a kind of awe. Then I am still dissatisfied, because I have that splendid scenery too much in my mind to be satisfied with what I made of it. Yet I can see in my work an echo of what appealed to me, I can see that the scenery has told me something, has spoken to me, and that I have taken it down in shorthand. My shorthand may contain words that cannot be deciphered, mistakes or gaps, and yet there is something left of what the wood or the beach or the figure has told me, and it isn't in tame or conventional language derived from a studied manner or from some system, but from nature itself. [….]

As translated by Mrs Johanna van Gogh-Bonger

Party Skirt

2009-10-10T23:33:00.002-04:00

9 x 12 inches Oil on hardboard
$325 + S/H

Male Seated Back Nude

2009-10-09T01:00:00.002-04:00

14 x 14 x 1.5 inches, Oil on cradled birch
$525 + S/H

Process

Female BackTorso

2009-10-08T15:05:00.004-04:00

2.5 x 6 inches Oil on Hardboard
Study

$99 + S/H

Vermont Barn on Country Road in Autumn

2009-10-07T21:45:00.014-04:00

9 x 12 inches Pastel on sanded paper SOLD

$325 + S/H

Process

The neutral colored sanded paper I rubbed entirely with a soft orange pastel to cover the entire page.

Backside

2009-10-05T08:39:00.004-04:00

2.5 x 6 inches Oil on Hardboard

Nude At the Beach

2009-10-04T01:00:00.002-04:00

5 x 7 inches Oil on birch*
*changed and reposted 11/11/09 added ocean.

Reclining Nude from Back

2009-10-03T01:46:00.002-04:00

5 x 7 inches Oil on wood
$225 + S/H