Stacy Weitz Minch

6x6", water mixable oil on canvas board, 2/28/15 SOLD I've been seeing these potted primroses in the stores lately, and I just can't believe it's almost time to be planting flowers again! We've had the mildest winter, and I feel so lucky to have gotten through it with so little discomfort. Still.. I'm definitely looking forward to spring! This little primrose was a little tricky to paint. I've always found plants difficult to draw or paint--they're just so detailed and intricate... and it's really not clear what they're "supposed" to look like. When I draw a human head, I can clearly see whether it looks right or not--proportions are so obvious in that scenario--but the plant world is a little less uniform, a little less standardized. In ways that's a good thing when you're painting--but for me, it seems I tend to get lost in all the detail and lose my reference point because it's all just more of the same. A...

7x5", water mixable oil on canvas board, 2/27/15 SOLD I recently read something another daily painter had said--that she often paints the same subject several days in a row, getting better every time. I'm not sure I got any better this time, but I did get faster (it didn't hurt to be filling a much smaller canvas). Anyway, I've always really admired painters who can make glass look believable in a painting. There are so many different reflected colors and values, it can really turn into a mess if you aren't careful! I'm working on it... In this one I stayed away from the pthalo blue (a beautiful turquoise color, but very powerful and a little scary to paint with). I like both versions, though this one does lack the turquoise quality that's present in the actual glass.

8x10", water mixable oil on panel, 2/26/15 I took a trip to the thrift store this afternoon to find some painting inspiration (and another bread machine... They always have about a zillion of them at DI, and ours recently gave out) oh man, I need to stay away. There were so many cool glass items (I came home with quite a few), and I've been wanting to try out some glass still lifes. So here's my first one. A little bigger painting this time--because I felt like switching it up a bit.

6x6", water mixable oil on ampersand gessobord, 2/24/15 I got some new painting panels yesterday, and just had to try them out before I went to bed last night. I really like how these grapes turned out. Sometimes I feel really intimidated by what I'm about to paint, but if I just try to forget what I'm painting and see it only for the value and color I see in each space, it usually works out alright. I'm pretty happy with how these grapes turned out.  Daily painting has been so great for me so far (best New Year's resolution ever!). I'm allowing myself to try painting anything and everything I want to, without feeling like it's a huge investment of time and money if it doesn't work out (goodness, what a bummer when you toil for weeks over a large canvas only to realize that it should really be in the garbage can). Much of the intimidation I've felt about painting is dissolving. With small, daily paintings, I can try something new every ...

6x6", water mixable oil on canvas board, 2/24/15

I've been trying to sketch more lately--it's just about impossible to draw these little ones unless they are sleeping (and then still... they don't stay in one place for long!). This has some proportion issues... the lips are definitely too big. But hey, someone bit the eraser off my pencil, ha.

6x6", water mixable oil on canvas board, 2/23/15 Wow, so many different value shifts in a couple of little shakers! These guys were a fun challenge to paint.