Stacy Weitz Minch

"Orange and Wedges" 6x6, water mixable oil on canvas, 1/28/15 First of all I must say, oranges are absolutely delicious this time of year. One of the first things I painted when I started up this daily painting thing back in December was an orange. It seems like a simple enough object to paint, but I found that just wasn't the case for me--the value changes are so subtle and difficult to match, especially because everything is just a slight variation of the same color. I think my painting from last night shows some improvement from the first one I tried, but I suppose I will have to try again in a little while and see if I can increase my color/value accuracy. Here they are right next to each other for comparison. 

"Strawberries, Banana" 6x6", water mixable oil on canvas, 1/27/15

"Pomegranate" 6x6, water mixable oil on canvas board, 1/23/2015 SOLD Ah, it felt good to get back to a smaller canvas after working on that larger landscape piece for a week or so. There's something very satisfying about finishing a painting in about an hour. And pomegranates make me happy. They're as beautiful as they are delicious :)

"View from the Old Faithful boardwalk" 20x20, water mixable oil on stretched canvas, 1/21/2015 I know I haven't been working on this for all that long, but it feels like forever. Things finally started coming together yesterday afternoon. I'm still getting used to the mindset of using layers. The under layers don't always look very good, and honestly I almost completely gave up on the whole thing a couple of times. I'm glad I kept at it, though, because I actually like how it turned out in the end. That being said, I think I'm back to tiny canvases for a few days ;) 

"Chi Chi" 16x20, water mixable oil on stretched canvas, December 2014 In October my parent's sweet little chihuahua left this world. We got him the Christmas that I was 14. We all loved that little guy, especially my younger sister Rachel, who dressed him up and carried him around like a baby for the first few years of his life :)  I had Rachel's name for our annual Christmas drawing this year, and I painted this portrait of our little buddy sleeping on the back of the couch to give to her. We still miss you, little Chi!

"Buffalo Crossing" 6x6, water mixable oil on canvas board, 1/13/15 Another image from our Yellowstone trip in September... it's not Yellowstone if this doesn't happen at least once. And always a great photo-op, of course :) Also, I dropped this painting off my easel no less than twice while I was painting it. Urrrgh. I've got to figure out a better way to hold these tiny canvases on more securely. Fixing smudged paint=not so fun.

"Pear Pair" 6x6, water mixable oil on canvas board, 1/12/15 You wouldn't know it by looking at the painting, but these are miniature pears! And they are just the cutest. Probably about 2" tall each :)

"Lime-Lemon" 7x5", water mixable oil on canvas board, 1/11/15 On Saturday, we went to the gym to work out, then headed over to Sprouts to pick up some fresh fruits & veggies. We got there, and half the shelves were empty of all produce. It was totally bizarre. It had me worried for a minute that they might be closing (I have this weird curse of loving places that end up closing--especially restaurants). But it turned out their produce truck had just been running late. Anyway, they did happen to have some beautiful limes and lemons, so I brought a couple home to use as painting subjects. I love the bright, fresh look of citrus fruit. 

"Cran-Lemon" 6x6, water mixable oil on canvas board, 1/8/15 Today I had approximately 45 minutes until the babysitter left when I started painting, so I had to be quick with this one. I think having the deadline helped me to be more loose with my painting, and work harder to get values and colors right on the first stroke. I really like painting red things. Yellow I find a little tricky, but I'm working on it.

"Golden Delicious" 5x7, water mixable oil on canvas, 1/7/15 After my last (very unsuccessful) attempt at painting a golden delicious apple, I had to try again. I'm really not very happy with this one either. I'm realizing I have a hard time painting things that are light in value with little variation. I guess that means I need more practice :)

"Stacking Rings" 6x6 water mixable oil on canvas board 1/6/15

Sometimes a painting is just a total loss. I have to admit that it's a little discouraging when you get to the point where you're just pushing around paint, making the thing no better (but really no worse, either). It never feels good to have a failed attempt. But if nothing else, it gave my 3 year old a chance to take a brush to canvas.  It's been a long holiday season, with travel and a week full of family at home on our return. It's all left me rather exhausted (that, and a baby who doesn't seem to want to sleep more than an hour at a time lately). Over the past few years (since having a child, to be precise), I've learned that patience is the first thing to go for me when I'm tired. Turns out that impatience is just not a good mood for artistic endeavors--at least not for me. It takes a lot of patience to really study something and accurately represent it. Not only patience, but intense concentration. When I start thinking "let's just

"Clouds at Yellowstone" 6x6", water soluble oil on canvas board, 1/2/2015 In September we took a quick weekend trip to Yellowstone as a family. The first day that we were there was gorgeous, and the skies were filled with fluffy white clouds against deep blue sky. I couldn't stop snapping photos of them. They were so beautiful. The second and third days we were there, it rained. And rained and rained. But that first gorgeous day of perfect weather made up for the downpour that followed.