July 30, 2007 by Carrie L. Lewis.

Landscape Study #215 2007
Winter White III

Vacation is officially over!

I began the week with three completed original paintings and they were all landscapes and they were all more carefully composed than last week’s work. Also, no horses today, though I did think about it1

Over the weekend, I sold an aceo reproduction of an old painting called “Winter in White”. It has been a consistent seller and has sold better than most of my horse prints. This sale started me thinking about painting original scenes with the same theme and palette.

So that is what I worked on today.

The first one is quite loosely painted and some of the bare card is showing through about the edges. The second two are more traditional for my style and technique.

But they all feature snowy landscapes with snow covered trees and they are all based loosely on memories of Michigan winters.

It was only after I’d finished for the day that I thought about adding falling snow. Maybe tomorrow!

3-1/2″ x 2-1/2″
Original oil on triple gessoed mat board

Visit ACEO Landscape Painting A Day to see more original ACEO Landscape paintings.

All of July’s paintings can be seen here.

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July 28, 2007 by Carrie L. Lewis.

Landscape Study #210 2007
Gallop I

I concluded the week with three more aceo paintings, for a total of 12 new original aceo paintings for the week. In other words, I painted two weeks’ worth of aceos this week. Thoughts of painting enough to average one every painting day began to dance before my eyes!

Today’s paintings are a little more diverse in that I started with an earth tone theme, then turned to blues and whites.

I also returned to the landscape, sneaking in one scene of snow covered hills under moonlight between two horse paintings!

All three share a limited palette of no more than two colors and white.

3-1/2″ x 2-1/2″
Original oil on triple gessoed mat board

Visit ACEO Landscape Painting A Day to see more original ACEO Landscape paintings.

All of July’s paintings can be seen here.

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July 26, 2007 by Carrie L. Lewis.

Landscape Study #208 2007
Standardbred Top Line

I was very pleased with the results of today’s work … four new aceos featuring the horse. This time, the color theme was darker earth tones.

My favorite for the day is “Standardbred Top Line”. This image is based on a photograph of a harness racing mare I photographed in Midland, Michigan over five years ago. I was there to gather reference for her portrait, but I also ended up with over three rolls worth of other images.

The photograph that this study came from is one that I have long considered painting, but had never done anything with. The photograph was on the table because I am working up some drawings, so it was a natural choice. The aceo turned out so well, I’m all the more eager to work on the full composition!

3-1/2″ x 2-1/2″
Original oil on triple gessoed mat board

Visit ACEO Landscape Painting A Day to see more original ACEO Landscape paintings.

All of July’s paintings can be seen here.

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July 25, 2007 by Carrie L. Lewis.

Landscape Study #204 2007
Just Passing Through

Today, I painted three more horse aceo paintings. The theme for the day was color as well as horses and on all three, I used lighter, golden earth tones as the dominant color.

In all three, there is a limited palette, with one of the paintings using only two closely related colors.

Today, I painted three more horse aceo paintings. The theme for the day was color as well as horses and on all three, I used lighter, golden earth tones as the dominant color.

While all of this fun and frolicking is going on in the studio, I am also working on a “more serious” aceo landscape painting that includes horses, but is being created more in the fashion in which I create larger paintings. The process is more slow, but it is also coming along nicely and I may just include it in my fall exhibit!

3-1/2″ x 2-1/2″
Original oil on triple gessoed mat board

Visit ACEO Landscape Painting A Day to see more original ACEO Landscape paintings.

All of July’s paintings can be seen here.

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July 23, 2007 by Carrie L. Lewis.

Landscape Study #203 2007
Up and Over

My series of landscape paintings took a dramatic turn this month. One that was not expected.

I did expect to take time off from painting aceo landscapes to paint larger landscapes and finish a portrait. I am one of two featured artists for the Fall 2007 Exhibit at the Carriage Factory Gallery and need to paint an almost entirely new body of work for that show

So the plan was to work my way up to Landscape Study #200 2007 by the first of July, then work on larger pieces.

The first part of that equation was accomplished with the completion of Landscape Study 200 2007 on July 2.

And I did start a couple of larger landscapes, but at the end of July, they were still unfinished. Instead, a variety of other things consumed my time until July 23.

When I did get back to painting aceos today, I did not pick up the landscape work where I left it.

Instead, I began to experiment with horses drawn freehand with brush and paint and no planning. I did three today, including this multiple horse composition.
Technically, they are not landscapes, but I will be including them in this collection as part of the challenge. Drawing freehand with brush and paint and no planning is not at all the way I usually paint and it is presenting a special kind of challenge all its own!

3-1/2″ x 2-1/2″
Original oil on triple gessoed mat board

Visit ACEO Landscape Painting A Day to see more original ACEO Landscape paintings.

All of July’s paintings can be seen here.

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July 19, 2007 by Carrie L. Lewis.

It hardly seems possible, but it has been ten days since my last post to this blog and an unbelievable 2-1/2 weeks since I last worked on an aceo of any kind, let alone an aceo landscape.

I did paint during that time. Early in the month, I worked on two miniature paintings that are just a bit smaller than an aceo (see July 5, 2007) and posted them. I commented at the time that I thought they might be finished, but wasn’t sure.

Last night, I took one of them down and tried to paint tiny horses on it. I would have been better off leaving it alone! The tiny horses appeared, then disappeared again as I wiped them off and touched up the background.

I then touched up the clouds in the second miniature and called both of them complete.

I have also been working on the portrait of Tell Me A Story and it is nearly complete. I am hoping to have it finished and in the drying room by this time next week.

I also let myself run out of mat board. Having only two cards left to paint on is rather stifling.

Then there was the lead up and follow up to the Carriage Factory Gallery’s Third Annual Celebration of Sound & Color, which took an incredible amount of time and energy and left little of either for anything else.

Well, I am pleased to say that I now have a full sheet of archival, Crescent mat board, gallery stuff  is caught up to the point that nothing is coming home with me and the portrait is no longer quite so urgent.

So tonight, I worked on three new aceo landscapes. One of them even has a couple of horses in it. I also worked for the second time on an aceo landscape I am painting on Artfix Belgian Linen canvas. What a dream that is!

Nothing to call finished or even close, but I am happy with the results.

And back on track again! Praise the LORD!<><

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July 9, 2007 by Carrie L. Lewis.

3rd Annual Celebration of Sound & Color Band Concert

Whew!

What a weekend!

The Carriage Factory Gallery hosts a major summertime celebration the first Saturday of July. This past Saturday was “it” for 2007.

Neal and I spent most of the evening Thursday and Friday getting the outdoor park in order. That involved a lot of trimming of trees and shrubs and a lot of late hours.

Saturday, July 7 began at 8 a.m. with the installation of a display of historic flags. The gallery officially opened at 9 a.m. and the day concluded with an outdoor performance by the Senseney Music Wichita Community Band in the gallery’s J. J. Krehbiel Park.

Senseney Music Wichita Community Band

In between, we had carriage rides, a colored pencil demonstration, the artists reception for the Summer 2007 Exhibit, “The Wild, Wild, West”, pork bar-be-cue and ice cream.

And I am very pleased to know that among all the sales of the day was one of my older aceo landscapes!

Initial estimates are that 300 visitors toured the various parts of the exhibit and the collection of events on Saturday. I have still to draw the winners of three grand prizes, compile reports, follow up on leads and all of the usual number crunching that follow such an event.

Needless to say, I did not get much art work done over the weekend and none so far today.

But the weekend, mingling with some top notch artists in the visual and performance fields and all the energy of such an event have provided some very good ideas for future works.

So stay tuned!

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July 5, 2007 by Carrie L. Lewis.

Flint Hills Miniature #1, July 5, 2007

As has become habit of late, I followed up a day of no painting with a couple of days of a lot of painting.

Tuesday was the day during which I did not do any painting. Instead, I worked out some details for an aceo that will be full of running horses. I got most of the drawing worked out, but still have some details to figure out.

Over the Fourth of the July, I put in a lot of concentrated work on a portrait, then spent two sessions working on a miniature on canvas. This particular miniature is not an aceo. It is, in fact, much smaller, measuring 1-1/2 inches by 2 inches. It is on Raphael Belgian Linen and features three Morgan mares.

Both of those are coming along very well and I worked on the portrait again, today, but it had now been two days since my last aceo painting, so that was what I decided to do.

Alas, but plans do often get waylaid!

When I sat down to paint, I found the two scraps of canvas leftover from the two sixteen-inch canvas strips. Neither one was large enough for an aceo, but they both already had decent landscapes started, so I worked on those.

Flint Hills Miniature #2, July 5, 2007

Each one measures 3 inches by 2-1/2 inches. At 1/12th scale, that is equivalent to a 30×36. Perfect for a doll-house sized mural!

I painted skies and landscapes on both and I think they might be finished, but I want to let them dry over night before making up my mind. It might be fun and beneficial to add some trees and other landscaping.

On the other hand, they might show themselves complete when I look at them again with a fresh eye.

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July 2, 2007 by Carrie L. Lewis.

Landscape Study #199 2007

Two more aceo landscape paintings this morning. The final set of two on cards prepared the week before last.

The significance of these two aceo landscapes is not that they were completed today or that they are the final set in a series of sets completed over the course of the last two weeks.

Landscape Study #200 2007

The significance of these cards is that they represent the achievement of my current aceo landscape painting goal: completing 200 original aceo paintings in the first half of the painting year.

According to my Cambridge day planner, the mid point of 2007 was either Sunday, July 1 or Monday, July 2. Since I do not paint on Sundays, today marked the middle of my painting year.

When I put the finishing touches on Landscape Study #200 2007 earlier today, I reached that goal.

The question now is: What next?

My original challenge was to continue this challenge through to December 31, 2007 and that is still a definite possibility.

But I may take some time off to paint larger landscapes for an October through December exhibit I will be participating in at the Carriage Factory Gallery here in Newton.

I may also change the focus of the aceo landscapes and take more time with each one to create more complex designs. Neal is urging me to add some horses to the compositions and/or to use them as studies for larger paintings, so there is the possibility of heading in either of those directions.

Or in some other direction altogether. The next few days will tell the tale as I consider the options and how each will play into the fulfillment of other, long-term goals.

Visit ACEO Landscape Painting A Day to see more original ACEO Landscape paintings.

All of July’s paintings can be seen here.

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