The Eye's have it

When I was in Tn. visiting family a few months ago.... my daughter Lisa ask me to paint her an owl.  She already had a spot on the wall where she wanted to hang it!  Lisa has a "thing" for owls and I have to admit I never really payed much attention to owls before and I found them to be very beautiful.  I really enjoyed doing this for her and I also learned a great deal from painting it.  I did no blending in some areas and lots of blending in others... I like the results.  I feel I got strong clean colors and I like the combined methods of painting.  Size is 24 x 36  (big spot on the wall!)  oil on linen.

No Blend Challenge

I have always done a fair amount of blending as I paint.... I made a new year's art resolution to complete a painting without blending.  I thought this might force me to experience a more painterly style.  OMG this was hard... I found myself just automatically reaching for my blending brush ( which I eventually put in a drawer out of reach) and pushing the paint round on my canvas... so I ended up wiping off and starting over THREE times.  I learned a lot from this challenge and feel quite pleased with myself that I got through it!!