Stacy Weitz Minch

6x6, water mixable oil on gessoed board, 5/27/15 We stopped by my hometown zoo when we were visiting my family a couple of weeks ago... and let me just say--best zoo experience ever! No crowds, overpriced hot dog stands, etc. I love Montana :) Anyway, this gorgeous tiger was putting on a nice show for us--relaxing in the water, strolling past the observatory window--a perfect subject for this week's "critter" challenge on dailypaintworks.com!

6x6, water mixable oil on canvas board, 5/25/2015 I found this lovely photo on the morguefile.com, and felt it was a perfect subject for today's painting. "Forever in peace may you wave."

6x6", water mixable oil on canvas board, 5/22/15 These are some mums I picked up at the grocery store last night. The main color of the flowers is definitely yellow--but it seems the petals of mums are rarely just one color, and these have quite a bit of red mixed in. I like the contrast of the dense, dark green foliage against the bright colorful blooms.

6x6", water mixable oil on gessobord, 5/20/15 The irises are in bloom right now along the west side of our home. It almost felt a sin to cut this beautiful flower off of the stem.  I've been a little hesitant to start painting again after not doing it consistently for much of this month. But I'm going to keep at it, and just keep working to quiet that part of my  mind that seems to constantly chant, "you will never be good enough. don't even try."  That's nonsense and I know it.

My drawings from last night's figure drawing lab, ordered from last to first attempt. I think I may have gone slightly overboard with my shading on the last one, but oh well. I get to try again next week :)

The past couple of weeks have been a little crazy with traveling, visitors, and more visitors--and unfortunately it hasn't left time for much painting. I did try painting a little something from a photograph this afternoon, but that one ended up in the garbage can :) However, I have been making a point to draw more lately--it seems that more often than not, the problems in my paintings stem from incorrect drawing. So I'm working on getting more accurate with that. This was a quick sketch of a fellow artist at the drawing lab the other week. I got bored with looking at the model (they always have her hold the same pose for the full two hours, and I like to draw a little more quickly). This guy had very interesting features ;) These are from the other night when my husband and daughter were playing Super Mario Brothers together.   And this is another of my husband. I missed the drawing lab one week, and he kindly obliged to sitting for me for a few minutes whi

6x6, water mixable oil on gessobord, 5/15/2015 We just got back from a week-long vacation to my home state of Montana. We had fun visiting with family and old friends, but it's always nice to get back home, too. This painting is an entry for the weekly challenge at dailypaintworks.com--the theme being "green" :)

The latest from life drawing this week.

6x8, water mixable oil on canvas board, 5/4/15 This is an entry for the "sight-size" challenge this week on dailypaintworks.com. The idea being you paint the subject the same size as you view it. I hear that John Singer Sargent (my painting idol) always painted his portraits sight-size, placing his canvas as close to the subject as possible and frequently stepping back to check the likeness. I don't have the space to do much stepping back in my little painting corner, but painting sight-size is definitely a good way to hone in on the drawing accuracy of the painting. I love the colors of watermelon--we think of them as red, but there are so many different shades of orange, red, pink, purple, yellow, green, and even blue. Always a fun challenge :)

6x6, water mixable oil on gessobord, 5/1/15 Ahhh, it's so nice to get back to working from life after doing a painting from a photo. It's so much easier to see all the different color and value shifts when looking at the real thing!