painting

Nanowrimo and PiBoIdMo

| Doreen E. Lepore

The month of November is always hectic and to add to the usual hecticness is Nanowrimo [National Novel Writing Month]and now PiBoIdMo [Picture Book Idea Month], both of which I wanted to participate in.  This year was more difficult because I had to take precious time out because of a hand injury, which is healing now, thank goodness.

As usual, I didn’t finish Nanowrimo but am okay with that because I did finish PiBoIdMo.

Picture Book Idea Month
Picture Book Idea Month

piboidmo12winnerlarge

It’s been difficult to get the badge inserted somewhere so I’m posting it here now.

The creator of PiBoIdMo is Tara Lazar and she hosted daily guest posts on her blog which were very insightful and inspiring:  http://taralazar.com/

The idea is to come up with an idea a day for the month of November.  Since it wasn’t necessary to actually write the whole book every day, it was do-able and I exceeded the goal.  Some of the ideas might actually pan out.  I sure hope so.  In the mean time I’m still working on a tree frog book, now with several more ideas to follow.

Thanks to Tara and all her guest authors and illustrators.

Caruso
Caruso

P.S.  Last night’s fortune cookie:  “Right now there’s an energy pushing you in a new direction.”

Torrit Bird

| Doreen E. Lepore
Torrit Bird
Torrit Bird – oil on panel – 5×7 – for the annual Gamblin Torrit Grey contest
Torrit Bird Too - 6x8 oil on panel
Torrit Bird Too – 6×8 oil on panel – not entered in the annual Gamblin Torrit Grey contest

Each year the Gamblin paint company cleans their filter and makes paint out of the pigment they collect.  They put it in a tube and when you buy their paint, you receive a free tube of this random grey paint.  The color can be different every year.  They call it Torrit Grey. (I believe Torrit is the filtering system.)  Also every year Gamblin paint company holds a contest and you can see the rules for yourself at their website:  www.gamblincolors.com.  There is a link there to see past shows and winners.

Basically you must paint with the current year torrit grey paint and you can use any white and a black.

My Torrit Bird paintings were painted with just the torrit grey and white – Gamblin’s Flake White Replacement.

Even though they allow you to enter 3 works, I only entered the top bird – he was my favorite.

 

Worldwide Paintout

| Doreen E. Lepore
Jupiter Inlet
Jupiter Inlet, DuBois Park, 14×11 Oil on Panel

Done last weekend for the 10th annual world wide paint out.  Went down to DuBois Park and set up toward the inlet.

DuBois Park facing inlet
DuBois Park facing inlet – notice the partiers to my right – they never even offered me a hot dog – not that I eat hot dogs.

It was a nice day but there was a storm coming in from the ocean.  That gave me a great cloud to work on though. It sprinkled a little while I was there but as soon as it started to thunder I packed up and left.

 

The Sungod and the Parakeet

| Doreen E. Lepore
The Sun God and the Parakeet
The Sun God and the Parakeet – Pastel – 18×24

This still life is a collection of thrift store finds, ebay purchases and a contribution from my friend Nancy.

The parakeet is an absinthe pitcher and was the one that I settled for, not that I don’t love it.  The first one that caught my eye, on ebay, was a bit different, probably older with an open beak and his wings were starting to open.  He was magnificent and my $45 bid came nowhere near close to what he sold for.  That started my obsession with figural pieces, like these tiki mugs.  The mugs weren’t expensive, but fun.  The little sun god (that would be the brown one, that is more like a statue than a mug, is double sided – the same on both sides.

It’s definitely one of the most colorful still lifes I’ve ever done.

The painting is on Kitty Wallis sanded Museum grade paper and I toned the paper with two colors of pigment dispersion.

Live Oak Concerto

| Doreen E. Lepore
Live Oak Concerto
Live Oak Concerto – Oil on Panel – 12×16

Haven’t had a chance to post anything lately.

These live oaks are located at Adams Ranch in Ft. Pierce.  They have such a happy,  lyrical,  uplifting look to them that I had to paint them with happy squiggles.

The painting panels I use are “Pintura” and they are canvas on wood.

Herb and Dorothy

| Doreen E. Lepore

I just finished watching this great documentary on hulu about Herb and Dorothy Vogel and had to share it

“HERB & DOROTHY tells the extraordinary story of a postal clerk and a librarian who managed to build one of the most important contemporary art collections in history with very modest means. ”

The film is about 1 and 1/2 hours, so wait until you have the time to sit and watch:

Turtle Lake

| Doreen E. Lepore
Turtle Lake
Turtle Lake – Pastels on sanded paper – 9×12

This lake is located within the community that we live in.  It actually doesn’t have a name, as far as I know.  Out in the middle there is a small raft that turtles and the occasional alligator sun themselves. Turtle Lake seems like a good name.

The pastel painting was started with a water color underpainting.  Just using the maroon color in the land masses and a rosy pink in the sky and lake enables me to then quickly put in the middle values.  You might notice that I didn’t use any green.  Honestly, I just felt like not using green so this is probably considered a tonalist painting.