Barred Buterflyfish

Barred Butterflyfish, 8X10 inches, 20X28cm Oil on stretched canvas
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Finished this one just now, I'm really zooming along. Maybe I'll paint some more of these pretty little fishes. The orange things with the holes are Volcano Octopus Sponges. No, I didn't make up that name, it's in the I.D. book. And the (haha) pile of little round donut things is supposed to look like Great Star Coral.

Photos from the Fredriksted, St. Croix, Pier

Here's a Trumpet Fish trying to hide a under some Rope Sponges.
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My dive buddy Jan, pointing at a lobster. You can see his whisker- antenna, up on the piling. Lobsters try to find hiding places during the day, but you can often spot their antennae out feeling the currents. When you come closer, they start waving their antennae back and forth.
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This is scenery under the Fredriksted Pier. The pilings are five feet in diameter, a little less than two meters. Depth is from twelve feet, four meters, to 93 feet, 60 meters, very roughly.

We found a seahorse, an octopus, and lots of other critters, a fun dive.

Perfectionism raises it's head and snarls

Detail, "Brown Encrusting Octopus Sponge"
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Well, I couldn't do it, just blob blob blob globs of paint. I'll finish this one tonight. The peek-a-boo fish is either an Ocean Surgeon fish, or a Doctor fish. Can't tell from the photo.

I'm going to dive the Fredricksted Pier in a little while. The camera's battery is charging. OK.

Two more

10X8 oil on stretched canvas
Out with perfectionism, in with quantity. I have boxes of these little 8X10 canvasses, might as well get them painted and learn how to better paint in the process.

These might get some tweaking tomorrow. There is a Stoplight Parrotfish near the middle of the deep image, on the left. That was about seventy feet deep. 25 meters.

The Lineup

All oil paintings on canvas, 8X10 inches, 20.5 X 25.5 cm

I've been chugging right along doing little 'vignettes' reef paintings. Nice that the PerFecTionisM is fading, giving way to 'hurry up and do a painting!' Quantity builds quality. As in, the next one will be better. This one is OK, learn from it.

Someday soon I'll find a business partner and start selling these things. I am worse than horrible at numbers, mail, taxes, contracts, and all that's business.

Jan's Turtle

8X10 inches, 20X26 centimeters, roughly, Oil on canvas
Went for a dive with my buddy Jan in Cane Bay and saw this little Hawksbill turtle perched on a coral head, Bommie the Australians call them. We went on by slowly so as to not make him(her?) run away.

Porcupine Pufferfish over a Barrel

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Hey! Where's the fish?
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"Porcupine Pufferfish over a Barrel Sponge, #2" Oil on canvas, 10x8 inches

I've seen landscapes painted like this, all soft and fuzzy. They were quite acceptable and nice. Maybe it helps that we've seen trees and fields and cows all our lives, and the mind fills in the details. Hum, not so with reef scenery!
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"Porcupine Pufferfish over a Barrell Sponge, #1" Oil on canvas, 10x8 inches

OK, here's the fish.

This is actually the first painting. I started the other painting above with paint left over on the pallette from this one. I'm still tweaking this image, but don't want to over paint. When to stop is always a painter's challenge. And one of these days, I'll learn how to get a plumb photo!

Thanks for stopping by, and reading about my struggling!

Computer fun

After whining to a friend that I dislike painting I got started on a little one, 10x8 inches, and got this far--- A comparison of the photo and painting on the computer screen.

Off with me to an appointment, and to finish this one later---

The power of sublety

I am impatiently awaiting the arrival of my new oil paints! There's a blank canvas staring at me around the corner of my computer screen. I just have to use the proper techniques and procedures, as best I know, for my reef paintings.

I am on an orange binge with my little abstracts. With lots of textural brushstrokes, unlike the smoothe coral paintings. I have found that if I click "Quick fix" in the Jasc photo shop, the images appear brighter and more true to life than the photo I've taken, although sometimes, or often, I prefer my original. This gizmo-technique really shows; some of the images in the gallery really need it, they reproduce dull, on the Daily Painters page, http://www.dailypainters.com/index.php.
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~"Sad Eye of the Storm" 8X10 inches oil on canvas ~~~~~~~~~~~~
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So what I did here was one of my little, 8X10 inch abstracts. I put straight on the canvas on one side, three globs of Cadmium Lemon, straight from the tube. On the other side, I put Cadmium Red, again, straight from the tube. Then I shut up the little yakking voice in my head, sometimes called Ego, and quietly observed what my paintbrush did. Swish, swirl.

OK, stop! But it didn't look finished. I set it aside, where I could watch it. I don't feel like I'm looking, I'm watching.

Two days later, it seemed to need circles, or something. Cadmium Orange, squish from the tube onto the painting, and the round pure color made itself into the roundish 'spot'. OK, stop. The name then came to mind.

In dim light, I'm seeing a couple of faces in the brushstrokes, but owell.

I was a bit surprised at how different the orange looks. Then I couldn't decide which way is up, another little painting with four hangars on back! The big surprise came later, after I'd taken the little beast on the porch to photograph it in indirect sunlight. Four images, turning the canvas each time, to see which view showed the prominent brushstrokes to my liking.

Once on my computer, just for fun, I clicked Quick Fix. WOW! see below, same orange painting, two different lightings, two interpretations by a computer program.
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I've never had this happen before. Usually a painting's image just brightens some. But this!! And two different images, depending on the reflections of light off the brushstrokes. But these aren't paintings! Only the orange one exists on canvas.

Now I'm waxing philosophical about 'subtlety'. Does being subtle create more, a great deal more, impact to our minds/brains?

Hmm, I'm going to try this with pure Cadmium Orange, do a realistic portrait using only brush strokes. But I then only one color wouldn't make these differences. Hmmm, How about the pure orange, and a blueish red, and a greenish yellow? Hmmm, how about Windsor Blue, green shade, with Windsor Blue, red shade, with Pthalo blue?

note: Please tell me if I should separate this stuff onto another blog, and keep this blog true to its' name! I think I will, but not today!

Until later, Cheers!

Melissa

stuck--unstuck

I figured out why I haven't started on my next 'real' painting. I don't have the right paints. Maybe I have too much knowledge. "Fat over Lean" is a rule in oil painting. Some oil paints are made of pigments that absorb lots of oil to make the 'buttery' consistancy, some take a lot less. If a painting is made with lean over fat, brittle over flexible, the different drying times and qualities make the paint crack. Not something I want.

So the right paints are 'in the mail'. Be here in a few days. I almost feel sorry for the person filling my order, all the colors for underpainting are, umm, I'll be kind and say drab.