It's in the details

Last bit of painting needed before this commissioned piece goes to its new owner. I paint the sides of all my stretched canvas paintings so there's no need to buy a frame. Once the piece is delivered to you, it's ready to hang!

Remember, I do commissioned work. If you are interested in commissioning a painting, I would love to work with you. Please email me at bethlendermanfineart@gmail.com.

The transformation into a cultural convention...

 

Cultural Convention

oil on canvas with palette knife

12 x 16

$250.00



I will explain my reference in the title line in a moment....

This is another painting that I began as purely strokes of color across a blank canvas in no apparent order. I didn't even worry about any composition of light to dark but just placed paint on the cloth with my knife.

Photo one looks like nothing. I mean NOTHING. But then I began to move the paint around some, add a little here, a little there and came up with photo two, which still kinda looks like nothing. I spun it around many times. I take pictures with my phone so that when I'm away from my art I can still look at it and visualize. Photo two kinda began to look like something in my mind.

In photo three, the object is beginning to take shape and by photo four, you can see that it is a TEAPOT which holds tea. According to Sheldon Cooper, my favorite character in the TV show Big Bang Theory, when someone is upset the cultural convention is to bring them a hot beverage, such as tea.

And there you have the title of this post and piece of art :)

Perfection

Sunset at DeGray

 

Oil on canvas applied with palette knife

24 x 30

$700

Do you ever struggle with perfectionism? I struggled with it a lot when I was younger. I am letting go of some of that as I mature. But it's definitely a trap I can get caught in if I don't watch out.

I was reading The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron recently and she had some pretty interesting things to say about perfectionism:

"Perfectionism is a refusal to let yourself move ahead. It is a loop - an obsessive, debilitating closed system that causes you to get stuck in the details....and to lose sight of the whole."

"Instead of enjoying the process, the perfectionist is constantly grading the results."

"To the perfectionist, there is always room for improvement. The perfectionist calls this humility. In reality, it is egotism." And she even goes on to say it's pride that makes us want to do things perfectly.

"Perfectionism is not a quest for the best. It is a pursuit of the worst in ourselves, the part that tells us that nothing we do will ever be good enough -- that we should try again."

These words hit me square between the eyes. I think so many times I am afraid to try something or afraid to finish something for fear it won't turn out perfectly. And I'm probably missing many great experiences in the process.

Do you ever struggle with perfectionism? If so, I hope these words can be of some help to you too.

Larger Razorback

Worked on this commissioned piece all day yesterday. Still has some work to be done but it's coming along nicely. It's very similar to an original I created. The customer who commissioned this piece liked the original but wanted it larger. This one is 20x24.

I would love to paint a commissioned piece of art for you. Please contact me at bethlendermanfineart@gmail.com for more information.

The Genesis of Wine

This is one of those paintings that I started by just applying different colors to the canvas in no particular fashion. I could kick myself for not taking photos along the way because the finished product here in no way looks like the beginning.

As I began pulling the paint across the canvas with my knife, NOTHING was showing up to me. I kept pulling, adding paint, looking for something to appear. I began mixing, got frustrated, mixed more, until all the paint was mixed together into an ugly purplish brown color. I completely scraped the canvas and found stains of color underneath. I reapplied those colors that were underneath the brown. I turned the canvas over and over and over and finally found this....

The Genesis of Wine. Oil on canvas with palette knife. 11x14.

FIREWEED -- FINISHED!

The completed painting. So pleased with how it turned out. Going to its proud owner this weekend!

Fireweed progression.....adding the FIREWEED

Bringing in the Fireweed, the beautiful brightly colored wildflower that grows in the Northern Hemisphere. The name Fireweed comes from the plants' proliferation on burnt sites after forest fires.

I initially put in a background of Alizarin Crimson with splashes of Light Magenta on top to bring out the vibrant pink of the wildflower, with pieces of Cadmium Yellow Light splashed in for the stigma.

Just about finished!

"Walk into the fields and look at the wildflowers. They don't fuss with their appearance - but have you ever seen color and design quite like it.....If God gives such attention to the wildflowers, most of them never even seen, don't you think he'll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you?"
Luke 12:27-28 The Message

Fireweed progression....adding the grass

Beginning to add the grass, paying careful attention to creating depth with light and dark. The actual Fireweed flower comes in next. Keep watching!

Fireweed progression continued....

The trees are starting to come to life! They are painted with a background of white, and then I dabbed my knife in burnt umber and pulled across the white to make the appearance of bark. I actually turned the painting on its side and pulled horizontally rather than vertically. Was easier for me to pull that way.

Watch for more progress!!

"Do not dare not to dare." The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis

Fireweed progression

Pulling in the evergreens in the background. Highlighting those that are near the top where they would receive more sunlight. Also highlighted a few here in there in the lower background to show varying depths to the forest behind the trees.