"It's What I Eat For Breakfast" by Lesley Spanos. Acrylic painting on Ampersand Aquabord, 5" x 7". Copyright ©2012 Lesley Spanos, all rights reserved.

The idea for painting breakfast comes from Carol Marine’s Paint Your Breakfast Challenge on Daily Paintworks. For me, breakfast is the same every morning: 4% fat cottage cheese mixed with freshly ground flax seed and a variety of oils  – flax, hemp, fish, and coconut. I like the stuff, but my husband can barely choke it down, so for his sake we top it with berries.

A few in-progress images archived along the way:

"Portrait of a Parisian Waitress" by Lesley Spanos. Acrylic painting on Ampersand Gessobord, 14" x 18". Copyright ©2011 Lesley Spanos, all rights reserved.

I couldn’t resist painting  a portrait of this lovely waitress from a photo taken by artist/photographer/traveler/blogger Lee Brown. Lee generously lends some of his travel photos to artists in the context of his ADNW painting challenges. Participants get one month to submit their interpretations of his image.  There’s some cool stuff already posted. Go see it here.

I don’t know what I liked more – the quality of the light, or the shape of her hair and all those wispy tendrils. Both were tons of fun to paint.

"Every Stroke Counts" by Lesley Spanos. Acrylic painting on Multimedia Artboard, 5" x 5". Copyright ©2011 Lesley Spanos, all rights reserved.

A little exercise never hurts. This painting exercise called the Limited Stroke Challenge was posted by artist Nancy Colella on Daily Paintworks. It’s purpose is twofold:  She wanted us to use every stroke efficiently, and to remind us not to be stingy with the paint. Nancy says, “The result will be a rather abstract, simple painting with wonderful surface quality and a “effortless” feel!”

(The part about being stingy with the paint made me think about how varied the goals of artists can be. Artists who paint primarily to sell originals can pile on the paint, creating beautiful textures that beg to be touched. Artists like me, who paint with reproduction in mind, have to think about how the piece will scan, and how it will look in print. Thick, juicy strokes can look cheesy in a flat print.)

We were told to plan in advance how many strokes we thought we’d need to create the painting, then paint it in that many strokes. Hash marks keep a running tally. By definition, a stroke ends when the brush is lifted. Some people did some amazing work in under 30 or 40 strokes, but having done a few 100 stroke paintings with great difficulty, I knew my limitations! I felt it was a sufficient challenge to assign myself a maximum of 75 strokes.  I went over a tiny bit, using 78, because there were some things at the end that I HAD to fix. If I’d had another 25 strokes, I could have fixed the drawing enough to be happy with it.

78 strokes from start to finish. Each stroke is recorded by a hash mark on the paper. You can see how I was falling apart at the end by how my hash marks trail off the paper. Oh, and that's tea in the cup, not coffee, because I was in the tea-drinking portion of my day. The coffee part of my day ends around noon, then I switch to fully caffeinated tea. Later, it's decaf tea. After that, wine. Maybe if I'd waited for the wine part of the day, the painting would have been looser.

UPDATE:

It was bothering me. There were things I had to fix before I could move on to the next painting. So I did. The drawing is still a little wonky, but it’s better than it was:

"Every Stroke Counts" (final) by Lesley Spanos. Acrylic painting on Multimedia Artboard, 5" x 5". Copyright ©2011 Lesley Spanos, all rights reserved.

"Sunflower Medley" by Lesley Spanos. Acrylic painting on Ampersand Aquabord, 5" x 5". Copyright ©2011 Lesley Spanos, all rights reserved.

The hubby bought me sunflowers again, so I painted them. The red ones came from an Amish woman at the farmer’s market, and the yellow ones were from Fresh Market.

In other news, Liquitex added more of my acrylic paintings to their Inspire site: Bumble Bee Bop, Rivalry, Portrait of the Chicken as a Young Cockerel, and Little Big Dog. Liquitex Inspire is a beautifully designed site featuring the work of a variety of artists who use Liquitex acrylics.

"Stanley Steamer" sketch by Lesley Spanos. Gouache and pen on kraft paper, 8" x 9". Copyright ©2011 Lesley Spanos, all rights reserved.

I’d never seen a steam-powered car fired up until I saw this one. It was in the daily parade at the Indiana State Fair, it’s shiny red paint gleaming in the sun. When I looked up Stanley Steamer Motor Carriage Company on Wikipedia, I found a photo of this car in the article. Not just this model, but this actual car with the same US flag decal on the windshield, and the same owner/driver, photographed at the Indiana State Fair. Small world, eh?

I’m posting this one in Liz Wilzen’s Value Challenge on Daily Paintworks. Liz’s challenge requires us to use only four values, so I used black marker, white gouache, and a brown gouache. The light brown paper works as the fourth value. I used to like doing sketches like this in life drawing class in school, but that was a LONG time ago!

"Flare" by Lesley Spanos. Gouache painting on Multimedia Artboard, 6" x 4". Copyright ©2011 Lesley Spanos, all rights reserved.

This is a harness racing horse I saw at the State Fair a couple of years ago. It’s painted in M. Graham gouache. I love gouache!  The matte surface is so velvety. I’d use it more often, if it didn’t require framing under glass.

"Holiday Road" by Lesley Spanos. Oil painting on Ampersand Gessobord, 5" x 7". Copyright ©2011 Lesley Spanos, all rights reserved.

Funny how some paintings grow on you. When I finished this one a few weeks ago, I didn’t think it was up to my standards. I was going to wipe it off and start over. But it had so freaking much paint on it. Wiping it would have created a toxic mess. So I put it aside, thinking it would be easier to deal with when dry.

Over the weeks, my revulsion mellowed. I started thinking maybe it wasn’t so bad. Maybe even I liked it a little bit. The warmth of the colors made me feel good, and the texture was pleasing. The day it was dry enough to test in a gold frame, I fell in love. Not the first time that’s happened to me…

"Redear Sunfish" by Lesley Spanos. Acrylic painting on Ampersand Aquabord, 7" x 5". Copyright ©2011 Lesley Spanos, all rights reserved.

This painting proves that just about any subject can be found at the State Fair if you look around enough. The Indiana Department of Natural Resources has a beautiful display of fish at the Indiana State Fair. Outdoor ponds and indoor aquariums showcase native and introduced species.  There’s even a catch and release fishing pond where kids can learn to fish under supervision.

What attracted me to this redear sunfish was the translucence of his fins. The light shining through them reminded me of fiber optics.

A few images taken along the way:

"Chocolate Eclair" by Lesley Spanos. Oil painting on acrylic-toned canvas panel, 5" x 5". Copyright ©2009 Lesley Spanos, all rights reserved.

How many starving children can be fed with one chocolate eclair? I’m listing this little painting on The Daily Paintworks Help the Children of Africa Challenge. Proceeds from the sale will be donated to World Vision to help feed drought-stricken children in Africa.

Here’s how it works:
The painting is up for auction on the Daily Paintworks site. When the seven day auction is over, the winning bidder pays me via the DPW auction website. Then I send 100% of the donation to World Vision, and a receipt as proof of donation to the buyer. Buyer gets the painting, and I get the tax deduction. I’m throwing in free shipping anywhere in the United States.

I want to make sure this painting sells because any amount is helpful, so I’m starting the auction at a low, low price of only $30!