Stacy Weitz Minch

"Radishes", 6x6 inches, water mixable oil on canvas board, 12/20/2014 I know they're not the most popular thing to hang on your wall, but every time I see a bunch of radishes, the colors are so vibrant and rich it just makes me want to paint them. I painted these the night before we left for our holiday trip to Montana. I haven't painted since then! The holidays are a tricky time to stick to any sort of schedule, and the next couple days won't be much better.

6x6, water mixable oil on canvas board A little painting of pomegranates from last night. I think pomegranates are the prettiest things :)

The first time I ever painted with oils was at a community education class offered through the local university. For our first still life, the instructor pulled out a shiny, hammered brass vase as part of the still life setup, and that thing drove me crazy! I couldn't get my brain to shut off so I could just just see the object as shapes, colors and values. In the end, I wasn't very happy with the way that vase turned out. The values and colors were all wrong, and it certainly looked nothing like a brass vase (and that strange piece of fruit behind the vase--what is that and why did I include it as part of my composition? Is it an orange? a peach? an awkwardly shaped handle? ;) Anyway, I do like to push myself with challenging material, so I decided to pull out a couple of Christmas ornaments last night--shiny, highly reflective ones. These just about drove me crazy, too. I even started on paper, anticipating scrapping the whole thing if it just didn't work out. And...

It's been so long since I've painted consistently. I feel like I'm starting over. Which I guess is new and exciting and all, but it's not so fun to feel like you have lost previous progress. I guess the painting muscle is like any other muscle, and just needs to be worked regularly to keep it in shape (not that mine has ever been in terribly good shape to begin with, ha). Fruit seems to be the subject matter of choice these days, because I always have it lying around, and it's always pretty to look at. Looking through my paintings, I've noticed that composition has been a definite weak point of my creations. I think it's because I know with the little paintings I've been doing, that they are really just for practice and to develop my own technique and style. I'm not creating masterpieces here. So I haven't worried terribly much about following the rules of good composition or making anything to be "ooh and ahhh-ed" over. Which is...

After a long stretch of not painting nearly as much as I would like to, I've decided to get back to this painting blog. My goal is to paint 2-3 times a week, and to keep it small and simple. Life can be overwhelming, and I don't want painting to become something that overwhelms me. But I do want to keep improving. I like the sense of accomplishment that comes from learning something new each time I pick up a brush. It gives me something to get excited about, to look forward to. And I can always use more of that in my life. Here's to starting again :)