Stacy Weitz Minch

6x6", water mixable oil on gessobord, 3/29/15 Click to bid or buy Daffodils have been popping up all over our neighborhood! I bought these ones at the grocery store in a bundle of closed buds. It took about a day for them to open up, and they are so bright and cheerful.   I've been focusing on flowers lately, and I think I'm getting better at being able to recognize the simple shapes and colors (I've had a tendency to get caught up in the details and overwork them, so my emphasis has been to stay loose). It takes a lot of discipline and self control to just simplify . I think that's true in other aspects of life as well :)

7x5", water mixable oil on panel, 3/29/15 Click to bid or buy I love the name of these flowers--Stargazers. I grew up in Montana and one of my favorite things was to lay out in the grass or on the trampoline on summer nights and gaze up at the stars at night--it's harder to do that where I live now with all the light pollution. But just the thought that word "stargaze" makes me happy. And the way the light was reflecting through that vase--that made me happy too :)

6x6, water mixable oil on gessobord, 3/28/2015 NFS My daughter loves watermelon! So when we saw them at the market the other day, we had to have one--this is one of the very last pieces, so I had to act quick before it was gobbled all up :) After I finished this painting, she walked over to my studio, and said, "I'm going to buy that one! I love it." She's only four, so it was so cute I just can't sell it. Maybe it will show up in her Easter basket :)

6x6", water mixable oil on gessobord, 3/27/15 Sold I don't know why, but I'm always drawn to strawberries. It almost seems like they are little beings with personalities of their own... but then again, I might just be a little overtired right now :)

7x5", water mixable oil on panel, 3/27/15 Sold Couldn't pass up these pink tulips at the store today!

6x6", water mixable oil on gessobord, 3/24-26/2015 NFS This is a painting of our newest nephew Sam. My husband came in while I was painting this, and said, "Hey, that looks pretty good. Are babies easier to paint than adults?" Answer: absolutely not--not for me anyway. It's hard to make sense of those sweet, but blobby little faces. I wiped this face out at least three times (maybe more... I lose track) in the course of this painting :)  Can't wait to meet this little guy!

12x12", water mixable oil on gessoed MDF, 3/23/2015 Click to bid or buy I decided to work a larger painting surface tonight--it was fun to pull out the bigger brushes and try to fly across that canvas. It still ended up taking longer than the usual daily painting, but I'm really happy with the results. Poppies are so bold and have so much personality!

5x7, water mixable oil on gessoed hardboard, 3/22/15 Sold Tic tac toe... three green apples in a row :)

6x6", water mixable oil on gessobord, 3/21/2015 Sold I painted this sunflower for the weekly dailypaintworks.com challenge. I love the bright yellow against the dark blue sky. reference photo from morguefile.com

5x7", water mixable oil on gessoed hardboard, 3/20/15 Click to Bid or Buy My four-year-old daughter picked this yellow tulip for me yesterday from our backyard. She only left about 2 inches of stem, so we just stuck it in a little plastic dish and there it sits. Those little gestures are so pure and priceless :)

6x6", water mixable oil on gessobord, 3/18/2015 Sold More glass! This one was extra challenging with the stacked cups and little kumquats resting inside.

6x8", water mixable oil on canvas board, 3/17/2015 Sold I figured I should do something green today, in honor of St. Patty's day! Artichokes have always been a special treat to me. I've seen people dip them in all sorts of things, but I think they're perfect with just a little bit of salt :)

6x6", water mixable oil on gessobord, 3/15/15 Click to bid or buy I happened upon this simple purple vase while strolling through Ikea the other day--and I've had this thing for painting glass lately. More on the way :)

6x6", water mixable oil on canvas board, 3/14/2015 Sold The dailypaintworks.com challenge this week is to paint with your left hand!  I wasn't sure I wanted to participate... I was afraid that I would just frustrate myself trying to paint left-handed! But it was a very interesting exercise--makes me realize just how much painting relies on cognitive problem solving--and not just hand-eye coordination (I admit I did steady my left hand on the easel a bit as I worked the brush). The most difficult parts were placing those highlights and making straight lines for the shadows. Very interesting challenge!

8x6", water mixable oil on canvas board, 3/14/15 SOLD Oh man, this has been what currently feels like one of the longest weeks of my life. And it isn't over yet! We seem to have managed to come down with two different illnesses at the same time--a cold and the stomach flu, and as both illnesses make their way through everyone in the house, either I'm the one who's sick, or the one who's taking care of a house full of sick people. Such is the life of a mother, I suppose. But not a fun time at all. I'm physically and emotionally depleted, and as my poor sick husband (he was up all night with the stomach flu) laid on the floor playing video games with my over-tired 4-year-old this morning, I managed to paint these flowers I got for my birthday last week. 

6x6", water mixable oil on gessobord, 3/12/2015 Oh, what a week! First my daughter came down with a high fever and persistent cough, then I had the 24 hour stomach flu, and now both kids have the stomach flu (on top of the cough). So how I managed to squeeze a little minute in to paint this morning is an absolute miracle!  Click to bid or buy photo reference from morguefile.com

6x6", water mixable oil on gessobord, 3/10/2015 Sold Try #3 with these tulips. I've always found flowers to be an ultra-challenging subject. And I'm forcing myself to do them now because I figure if I tackle the things that give me the most trouble, it should get at my weakest spots as an artist. With flowers, it's the ultra-subtle variations of value that drive me crazy. I tend to gravitate toward things that have sharp contrast and value differences. Flowers are probably a little easier to capture if you back up a few feet and paint them more as masses, rather than the individual petals. But my painting corner doesn't really allow for backing up a few feet ;) So petals it is. I hope all this practice is honing my skills in ways I'm not even aware of!

6x6", water mixable oil on gessobord, 3/9/15 SOLD This week's challenge from dailypaintworks.com is to paint a paper bag. I remember doing this exercise in a watercolor class back in college... it's great for observing form and shadow. I had to throw a juicy red apple in there to make things a little more interesting :)  And speaking of water colors, I may just need to dig those out sometime and give them a go. It's been a while!

6x6", water mixable oil on canvas board, 3/8/15 SOLD I ended up getting a little tighter with my last tulip picture than I wanted, so I tried to do this one more quickly and not focus quite so hard on the details. Maybe I'll feel like trying them again tomorrow :)

8x6", water mixable oil on canvas board, 3/7/2015 SOLD

My mom's in town, and I decided it would be fun to drag her along to a figure drawing session with me. I haven't done figure drawing in years, so it was nice to have a buddy my first time back (she also hadn't drawn figures in years!). It was a two-hour session and they had the poor model hold the same pose the whole time (with a short break every 20 minutes)! So these are all 20 minutes or less sketches of the same pose. My drawings almost seemed to get worse as I  went along... I think because I was getting tired of drawing the same pose over and over, ha. Next time I'll have to move around the room or something...

6x6", water mixable oil on canvas board, 3/4/15 Click to Bid or Buy A favorite at our house this time of year. I've always thought they were pretty cute:)

6x6", water mixable oil on ampersand gessobord, 3/3/15 Click to Bid or Buy For a while I was trying to paint without using any black (because if you're not careful it can really muddy your colors). But I was having a hard time getting the level of contrast I wanted without it. So in my last couple of paintings, I've added black to my palette again. I like how I don't have to try to make it look, well, black :) And I have a new fascination with painting glass.

6x6", water mixable oil on ampersand gessobord, 3/2/2015 Click to Bid or Buy I set this primrose plant on the windowsill in my painting corner, and it looked so pretty back-lit by the filtered light of the blinds... I just had to paint it.  I had to try a few times before I got the flowers looking somewhat believable, but I'm glad I kept at it. Plants are something I definitely need more practice with. There's a surprising a mount of foreshortening!

6x6", water mixable oil on canvas board, 3/1/15 Click to Bid or Buy I recently joined dailypaintworks.com, a site where you can post your daily paintings in an online gallery of daily paintings, and offer them up for auction or sale. Each week they have a challenge for artists--this week was to paint a bird in flight--focusing on the motion of the wings and not the little details. I really like the way this little guy turned out.