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Daily Painting, Acrylic Painting, Time Out

by cooper on 2/26/2009 3:28:39 PMComment on this

Greetings,

Welcome to daily painting at the Cooper studio, where today I'd like to share an acrylic painting, "Time Out". Online representation was a struggle. Let me explain. I so prefer to take photos of paintings ala naturale as in: the great outdoors. Natural setting means natural lighting. The natural setting du jour is ice. The kind of ice where you have to beat on your back door a little bit to get it unstuck so it will open, yup, THAT kind of ice. But we managed, and here's the proof:

Time Out is an acrylic painting on a nice little canvas measuring 12 x 12 inches. It rebels against the currently ice clad environs of which I reside, you'll note. Surely you caught the flipflops and shorts, didn't you? Ahhh, if only the painting of summer could hurry it up a bit :) This painting is available at $135, in my portfolio. Feel free to bop over there :) Enjoy.

Later, Cooper

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Newsweek Article Link For: "Brother Can You Spare A Painting"

by cooper on 2/25/2009 1:22:36 PMComment on this

Greetings,
Welcome to the Cooper studio where the daily painting is on hold for a minute or two :)
I bopped into the office to check my email, and found this very interesting article lurking at the top of the Yahoo news briefs. In the marketing world, the end of the cycle is near when everybody, and I mean everybody is moaning gloom and doom. But you read the article and decide for yourself.

Brother, Can You Spare A Painting?
By Peter Plagens / NEWSWEEK
Published Feb 21, 2009
From the magazine issue dated Mar 2, 2009

Here's the link: http://www.newsweek.com/id/185786

Make sure you read the last paragraph. It's the "light at the end of the tunnel" finish :) Ok, it's back to the studio time.

Later, Cooper

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Daily Painting, Spring Break

by cooper on 2/17/2009 3:29:39 PMComment on this

Greetings,
Welcome to daily painting at the Cooper studio. The most recent easel occupant is signed! I love when that happens. It's also grown a title. I'd been thinking of it as 'student break' but as I put that red signature down in the corner, I realized that it's all about spring and therefore needs to be called Spring Break.

It's been a while, but I can still remember spring mornings where you leave for class wearing jeans and a sweatshirt, and by 2:00 the sweatshirt is in your backpack, and the sun is feeling good on your shoulders while you eat your ice cream bar! Ok, I must edit that. I went to University of Nebraska/Lincoln, and lived on East Campus, which just also happens to be where the campus dairy store was, so of course, I ate ice cream CONES rather than bars. But you get the picture. Oh, and the image too:

Spring Break, an acrylic painting on canvas, measuring a perfect 20 x 20 inches, and available in my portfolio. Enjoy.

Later, Cooper

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Daily Painting, No Overnightgremlins

by cooper on 2/17/2009 9:18:14 AMComment on this

Greetings,
Welcome to daily painting at the Cooper studio. In a previous post, I alluded to the hope that overnightgremlins would sneak into the studio and fix those errant value issues that were at the crux on the current painting. Nope. Did not happen. However: they seem to be mended, so I believe I will answer to the name of successfulartist today. :)

Unfortunately, before I can work any more on this painting, I have a backporch to paint, literally. The worst part is, it's one of those goofy ones where the ceiling over the landing at the bottom of the stairs ends up being about 17 feet up in the air. Ugh. But I will do it with a smile on my face, and hopefully with dexterity that results in speed so I can get back to the studio yet this afternoon!

Later, Cooper

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Daily Painting, Student

by cooper on 2/13/2009 5:35:20 PMComment on this

Greetings,
Welcome to daily painting at the Cooper studio. I painted intently with this student today, but I did not finish. Sometimes these things happen. I do like the day's results so far, but there are a few value problem lurking about that will need fixed.. The bench the student is sitting on somehow got dark, even though it's really blaring sunlight. And that angled wall to her right is in complete and utter deep shade. How did it get so light? Maybe some little overnightgremlin will come fix those issues. Or maybe I'll get it done tomorrow. Update at eleven.

Thanks for stopping by. Time to go make food. She's eating an ice cream bar. Sounds good to me :)

Later, Cooper

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Daily Painting, Someone's Lunch

by cooper on 2/12/2009 3:29:08 PMComment on this

Greetings,
Welcome to daily painting at the Cooper studio. Today's daily paint landed on another of the little 12 inch canvases. This one has an ulterior motive, which I will be ever so happy to share with you.
On an earlier post, I wrote about an upcoming exhibit, which is apparently going to involve tasty things. I just stretched a nice big canvas this morning, big enough to hold a whole cafe's worth of people, and that's the plan. Obviously one of the most important people in any cafe is the person bringing the food, and I decided I needed to get to know this person a little better. Will she look the same when I paint her with the recipients of her tray-full? Didn't somebody say there are no two snowflakes alike? :)
With no further ado, today's daily painting: Someone's Lunch

Someones's Lunch, acrylic painting on canvas, measuring a delightful 12 x 12 inches, and yes, to be found in my portfolio as well. Enjoy!

Later, Cooper

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Daily Painting, Meet Me For Lunch?

by cooper on 2/9/2009 4:56:08 PMComment on this

Greetings,

Welcome to daily painting at the Cooper studio. Today, another of the 12 inch canvases made it's way to the easel, and then the brush did it's thing. Ha! Here it is:

Meet Me For Lunch? is an acrylic painting, of course, and measures a lovely 12 x 12 inches. (It's available, $135, if you look in my portfolio, thanks)

This pair seems to be enjoying their lunch to such an extent, that they make me wish I'd put them on a larger canvas. I would love to say that I could just paint them a second time on that larger canvas, but as a general rule, that sense of knowing how they feel and writing it in paint usually happens only once. Then it's time to find somebody new to paint :)

Later, Cooper

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Daily Painting, Painting Attitude

by cooper on 2/6/2009 4:42:21 PMComment on this

Greetings,
Welcome to my daily painting place. Attitude. I wanted to paint some today, and instead, I'm pretty sure I painted with. Sometimes these things just have a way of sneaking up on you.

I have been posting progress images for you of the recent cafe painting. I believe on the last post regarding that painting, I promised to fix something and get it finished up. What happened??

The end of the week came
I had been working hard on that same painting all week
It still wasn't saying what I wanted it to say
It was calling me a loser
My attitude crashed

Does that whole scenario have an underlying purpose? Do we as artists cause things like this to happen? Oh, I know, there are those wonderdogs who paint every painting flawlessly and effortlessly, but the rest of us, do we focus so intently, get so involved with the painting, that we are overwhelmed when we back off for a minute and find it not to be as we thought?

Today we had a stand off, that aforementioned cafe scene painting, and I. I watched it as it leaned over there on the studio wall, and it watched me back. As the day progressed, I found a few more success places on it than I had seen the day before. Maybe it lied when it called me a loser? I let it lean on the wall and watch while I put one of my little canvases up on the easel and paint. I had a photo cropped down to just one of the original figures because I love the attitude of this person. I wanted to paint that attitude.

So pile it all together, it's Friday, I needed a break from the intense focus of a larger painting, that larger painting is not quite done but it's a lot closer to done than I thought a day ago :), I kept painting, and as the day progressed, I realized the attitude that had crashed was being patched back together. I kept painting. Ha! Isn't that what all the artists that know everything always tell us to do? Keep painting.

And here's some color for this post:

Maybe I Would Like Some Of That, acrylic painting on canvas, measuring a lovely 12 x 12 inches. It's available, $135, in my portfolio. Feel free to stop over there for a larger view of the painting. Enjoy!

Later, Cooper

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Daily Painting, Acrylic Painting Life Drawing

by cooper on 2/4/2009 5:09:56 PMComment on this

Greetings,
Welcome to daily painting at the Cooper studio. Some day I promise to give you my top ten list for why every artist should study life drawing. Today's not that day :) But I do have two images for you, both from last Wednesday's life drawing session at the Pearson Lakes Art Center. Yes, I am only slightly behind.
Our study group has lapsed from the strict two minute gesture drawings that normally began our evening session. --several reasons for that as well, we will make that a sublist for the aforementioned top ten list. Ironically, I've found that if the model does four poses for the evening, I will end up with two or three drawings. With the longer time span for each pose, I find myself continuing work on the pose from memory, even after the model has switched to the next pose. Interesting, huh? At any rate, here are two:

Both are on 15 x 15 inch gessoed papers. And while I had the camera going for the life drawing images, I grabbed an image of the current cafe painting as well:

I think I've got the compostion where I want it to be, but aaargh, the light is just not there yet. Maybe tomorrow.

Later, Cooper

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Daily Painting, And Why I Love The BlackAndWhite Button On My Photo Program

by cooper on 2/3/2009 4:39:02 PMComment on this

Greetings,
Welcome to my daily painting place. On the easel (still) at the Cooper studio is the canvas of the Ft Myers Beach cafe. Yesterday I whined about accuracies and inaccuracies of the structural nature, and how each affects the painting.

Today, I believe (hope) we passed that hurdle and moved on to the lights, darks and mids situation. Yes, I have my value sketch at hand, and yes, I'm trying to stick with it. This was such a dropdead gorgeous sunny morning at the cafe, lots of light, lots of warm, lots of contrast. Do you suppose Spencer, Iowa's current outdoor temp of -6 degrees is causing my memory to exxagerate? And does that matter? :)

When I look at the canvas in it's incomplete stage, my first thought is that I HAVE exxagerated the light/dark contrast too much. Do I need to adjust the other direction again? THIS is where one of my very favorite tools on the computer comes into play. Take the image into the photo program, and turn it to black and white---a wealth of information, just like that!

The bicycles and the area around them need to get hit with a blast of sunshine, that's a definite. Oh, and that's in the value sketch too, so I'm not improvising there! But as for the diners, I think we're going to let them bask in the sunshine a little longer before we make decisions about their 'exaggerated' environs. Thanks for stopping by.

Later, Cooper

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Daily Painting, Acrylic Painting, The Heavenly Biscuit

by cooper on 2/2/2009 7:21:25 PM2 Comments

Greetings,

Welcome to my daily painting place. As Spencer thermometers once again dive for below zero, I am so happy to report that I am painting sandy beaches, balmy skies, and a 70 degree feeling. Make that 74 degrees.

Today's daily paint landed on the canvas of a cafe we found in Fort Myers Beach, and you are welcome to enjoy it as well, but it's got a ways to go. I am working on a lovely 30 x 30 inch canvas, plenty of room to move around!

You'll note my struggling point right away, I suppose. I don't think the stairway is important to the painting, but if it's not believably contructed, it becomes important as a screw up. I'm pretty sure that's bad :) So it's rebuilt, now we just have to put it back on the shady side of town where it came from in the first place. Tomorrow will be a good time for that!

About believably constructed: as an artist intrigued with painting the figure, "believably contructed" takes on pretty serious connotations. I know the above stairway is not 'architecturally sound" but it's close enough---nobody will complain that the top step is a bit crooked, it might even get called quaint. If I painted a person sitting on the top step, and that person had crooked shoulders, well then, we all know how that would go. People KNOW what people are supposed to look like. Of a day's worth of visual stimuli, is it the other humans in that mix that we zero in on the most? Is it the daily 'practice' of seeing other people that makes us so quick to decide if a drawing of one of them is incorrect?

Ha! Did you notice I just used the 'p' word? Practice? I am on a crusade to spend more time in my sketch book, and now is that time. See ya.

Later, Cooper

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