Stacy Weitz Minch

Our instructor is back in town. He turned off all the overhead lights and had me paint in the dark with a little natural window light to simplify the light source. I tried to correct the drawing with the new arrangement of the pear, but decided to not worry about it too much and just worked on the colors since I didn't have much time. Sorry for the horrible photos. It really was super dark in there.

We don't have a model coming in this week, so we're supposed to paint pears. I've painted a few pears before, and they're tricky little things. All those colors butt right up against each other and you somehow have to make sense of where they meet. I'm trying to keep the paint thin and flat so I can put more on top (since I'm sure I will have plenty of corrections to make). It makes me nervous to paint here because I know how high the standards are with regards to drawing, and painting is that much more complex. At this point, I'm pretty much 100% self taught when it comes to painting. I know there's a lot I need to learn, so I'll just keep throwing myself out there. I'm becoming convinced that the only way to learn is to keep making a fool of myself. Speaking of that... I squeezed all my paint onto my palette upside down today, genius that I am ;) I had never used the palette before (I use a glass tabletop palette at home), and it was j...

5x7", water mixable oil on linen panel I haven't had much time to paint or draw lately. But these beautiful pieces of fruit just had to be painted. This was about an hour and a half study, I think. Someday, I'll be able to do them more justice, but believe me, they're better than they would have been a year or two ago (if you don't believe me, just click on the label for "pears" at the bottom of this post--it's a little scary ;). I think I'm painting a little too thin lately. My first experiences painting were with watercolor, and I still try to make use of that background as part of my value scheme (letting some of the white show through the paint on top). Oil doesn't work quite the same way, and I need to build up a little more paint. I think I'm slowly getting a little bit better at matching colors, though, and that's a good thing. Shadows are still a little confusing for me, especially the dark color right under the frui...

12x12", water mixable oil on board, 12/17/15 December is so crazy busy. It feels impossible to get anything done--between dance recitals, holiday gatherings, gift shopping and wrapping--all that on top of the usual piles of laundry and daily life with the little ones. Whew! I really had to force a little painting into my day today because there are just so many other things I could be doing... but I'm glad I did. It always makes me feel better to use up some creative energy and refocus, even if it's just for a short little hour here and there :)

6x6", water mixable oil on gessobord, 10/8/15 I don't know why I keep painting pears--every time I do, I realize just how frustrating all those tricky color transitions are. There's red and green and blue and brown, and everything in between :/  So... I don't know. I'm not terribly happy with this (since my goal at this point IS to be able to reproduce the way things actually look and this one doesn't quite get there ;), but on the positive side, it probably is the closest I've come to getting all the colors on the pears. Maybe I'll try another one tomorrow and see if I can do any better!

6x8, water mixable oil on canvas board, 9/22/2015

6x6, water mixable oil on canvas board, 9/20/15 They had these adorable pears on sale for 33 cents a pound this week. You just might see them again :)

6x6", water mixable oil on board, 8/12/15 I find the color of a pear to be really difficult to catch--and their shapes are so interesting, always all lumpy and lopsided. I took some artistic license and went with a bit of a complementary yellow/violet color scheme with this one. Sometimes I try to make things look just like I see them--not this time. I had some fun with the color :)

"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 :)