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Daily Painting, The Paint Layers Are Getting Thick!


Greetings,

Welcome to daily painting at the Cooper studio.  The entire day was spent on the current Boulder musicians painting.  As promised, and only one day late, the banjo made it's appearance.  Sort of.  I have adjusted these characters until I have lost all desire to adjust.  That means they are staying put, where they're at.  If you're wondering, early on, did I make the bad decision to not do a thumbnail sketch for this painting?  Au contraire.  I did several, and maybe there in lies the reason for multiple adjustments---I must have been trying to use them all.  At any rate, these guys are permanently parked!  Tomorrow's job is to make them all belong in the same story.  Update at eleven.





Later, Cooper
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Daily Painting, The Layers Are Getting Thick!

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Daily Painting, Acrylic painting

Greetings,

Happy Sunday afternoon to you!  I have FIVE days left before our studio tour   Northwest Iowa Artisans Road Trip.  I have a 30 x 40 canvas of the Boulder musicians that I'd really like to have ready.  Guess what I painted yesterday?  Not that.  I guess I do truely believe in the concept of weekend.  I played.  There was a 16 x 20 piece of gessoed paper laying on the counter in my studio, and I had flowers blooming in the pots on my front step, and here they are! 

   Coffee Break, 20 x 16 inches, acrylic paint on paper

Later, Cooper
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Daily Painting, Aaargh! Foreshortening

Greetings,

Today's daily paint was spread to the tune of "paint what you see, and not what you know".  Foreshortening is such a lovely invention.  For those of you unfamiliar with the word "foreshortening", it's kind of an optical illusion.  You know  the guy's leg is longer than that, but when it's projecting toward you, you don't get to see all of it, so it appears shorter.  Therefore, every painter needs to equip her/himself with the phrase "paint what you see, not what you know".  If you've never tried it, I am here to tell you:  it's way easier said than done! 

The real question is:  why can't people just stand in a straight row all the time?  Do they know how much easier they would be to paint???  But nooooo, this group of Boulder musicians are all sitting down, in slouchy positions, all sideways to my trusty HP camera.  I suppose I could take my artistic license and put them all in more congenial (to the brush) positions, but that would undoubtedly eliminate the story I am trying to tell with this thing!

  So this is an acrylic painting, on a canvas that measures 30 x 40 inches.  Maybe you can start to see the attitudes happening?  That red blob front and center will hopefully some day become a hound dog.  That kind-of-person in red, right above the hound is holding a washboard, and beating it with a spoon.  He had excellent rhythm :)  There was also a banjo involved in this music.  We'll see if it can appear over the weekend.

Later, Cooper
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Daily Painting, Ice Cream And Salad

Greetings!

Welcome to daily painting at the Cooper studio.  It's a beautiful Friday morning!  Here's a visual update of what paint was slung about in the studio yesterday, and where it landed :)  So, image #1, a still life (yeah, wow, a still life!) of things that might start a fruit salad!  It's an acrylic painting on a heavy gessoed paper.  Image #2, is the Evanston ice cream stand, and the folks waiting in the line thereof.  Yup, I think we're getting close on this one.  It's going to lean on the studio wall for a few more days before it gets it's signature, just to be sure it's ready.  It's also an acrylic painting, on a 30 x 30 inch canvas. 

  Salad Starter 1, acrylic painting on a heavy gessoed paper, 15 x 15 inches

  Ice Cream Line, acrylic painting on a gallery wrapped canvas, 30 x 30 inches.  Enjoy!

Later, Cooper
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More Ice Cream

Greetings,

Today was back-to-the-studio-day after a brief sojourn to Colorful Colorado.  I intended to get a little painting in while I was there, but nope, it didn't happen.  But that's ok.  I was twice as eager to get back to the ice cream stand, in painting form :) 

I have created a bit of a dilema and I am blaming it on my latest book adventure.  One of these days I promise to review it (the book) for you.  The author, Ted Goerschner, is big on keeping your center of attention paramount AT ALL COST.  So not wanting the figure on the right to steal the thunder from the grouping of three on the third mark at the left---I blended her right into the hot concrete!  "AT ALL COST" in this case seems to be a very unusual rendition of a human.  I do believe tomorrow in the studio I will be trying to figure out another way to keep her from stealing the thunder.  Here's two looks at the ice cream stand painting in progress:



  yeah, and I'm going to have to "unflatten" the top of the canopy some.  How on earth do you supposed that happened??!

Later, Cooper
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acrylic painting ice cream

Hi there!

Welcome to the Cooper daily painting blog.  All studio time today was spent on the Evanston ice cream stand painting.  You'll note that in image #2, the giant inflatable ice cream cones made their appearance.  I used my artistic license to edit their size, in real life they are much larger.  BUT:  I just finished off a new book on composition (maybe I should do a book review for you?) where I was reminded numerous times that two centers of attention is baaaaaaaaaaaaaaad.  So even though I toned down their size, I am very likely going to have to tone down their (ahem) "livliness".  With no further ado, I give you two new images, and then I'm outta here.





Later, Cooper
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acrylic painting ice cream stand, and the art barn

Hi there,

Yes, a little bit of paint slinging did happen in the Cooper studio this morning.  But this afternoon I became an able volunteer at the Arts On Grand "Art Barn" at the Clay County Fair.  You need to realize that this is not your normal county fair.  They advertise as the country's biggest and best county fair.  As fairs go, they are supposedly third in line after only the Iowa and Minnesota State Fairs.  The Clay County Fair runs for nine days.  Last year on tractor pull day, I saw license plates from Alaska to Alabama, pretty much people come from everywhere.

But back to painting.  Studio time this morning was spent on the canvas of the Evanston ice cream stand.  The color is a little funky---the Hp camera was misbehaving---that's my story and I'm sticking to it.  But at least we're starting to see some attitude showing--I love when that happens.  Did I tell you about the giant inflatable ice cream cones?  I am still trying to get them on the scene.  I'll keep you informed!



Later, Cooper
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Acrylic Painting,Daily Painting, Ice Cream

Hi there and welcome to my daily painting chronicle!  We are now numbering paintings as they rotate on the easel.  Yeah, I exaggerate, but not much.  The image I want to show you here today is the block-in of a 30 x 30 canvas that's going to be all about ice cream, or rather the people wanting some :)  The block-in was quick, and it's messy, but it feels right, and isn't that what counts?  With no further ado, stage one of a streetside ice cream stand painting:



Later, Cooper

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Painting Wild Street Music

Greetings readers,

The world has been a busy place, but I finally cordoned off a time to get the camera and the latest painting in the same place at the same time, and it was even daylight.  Amazing.

The painting we are speaking of is Wild Street Music, (as in the Boulder Pearl Street Mall musicians)  A bit more of it's photographically captured chronicle is here.  But now, the finished painting:



Wild Street Music, acrylic painting on a gallery wrapped canvas, measuring a lovely 30 x 40 inches.  Enjoy!

Later, Cooper
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