"Spring Snow Patches" - New Mexico Oil Landscape Painting

"Spring Snow Patches"

16" x 20" oil on panel

This oil landscape painting is an area near Taos, New Mexico.  It was the beginning of May and a light snow covered everything, but as it melted some snow patches lingered for awhile.  

My Website

reynoldsrenditions@gmail.com

And The Winner Is ...

"Red Orchid  #1"

Photo by Carol Reynolds

I love red orchids (all colors, really) and this is a photo I took sometime ago of one that I purchased that has since passed away.   I do not have a green thumb where orchids are concerned; most other plants I have thrive.

The main reason for this post is to announce that Rick Nilson is the winner of the free oil seascape painting ! (Go Here To View)  Congratulations again, Rick!

My Website

reynoldsrenditions@gmail.com

Tonight's The Night (Deadline To Enter For A Free Oil Seascape Painting)

"Heads  Or Tails"

12" x 12"  Oil on panel 

The above oil still life painting with a Rainbow Lorikeet and Sunflowers is now available as prints at Fine Art America;  please go here to purchase prints of this or of my other paintings or of my photography.

The deadline to win the free oil painting is tonight, Monday, September 30, 2013.   It will end at 8 p.m. Central Time, USA. Scroll down to the previous post for more details.   I will also enter in the drawing all of you who have signed up previously to receive emails from this, my Reynolds Renditions, blog and the followers of this blog (except my family members and my friends will not be eligible).  I am looking forward to this, and will announce the winner tomorrow (October 1) or once I make contact with them and have their permission to use their name or not.

My Website

reynoldsrenditions@gmail.com

Reminder - Random Drawing For Free Painting ( Oil Seascape)

"Got The Blues"

5" x 7" oil on canvas

Last week I announced a random drawing for the free oil seascape painting shown above (go here).  To enter to win this unframed scene of the North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii,  you only need to enter your email address at my website by clicking on the email link on the home page in order that I may contact the winner. The drawing ends on Monday, September 30, 2013, and I will announce the winner on Tuesday, October 1, 2013.   Your privacy is respected and I will not announce your name as the winner if you do not want me to.   

Remember, shipping is free if you live within the USA!

Thank you for your interest.

My Website

reynoldsrenditions@gmail.com

Berthe Morisot - French Impressionist (Video)

"Consider the postage stamp, my son.  It secures success through its ability to stick to one thing 'til it gets there."  - Josh Billings

Photo of scene near Taos, New Mexico

by Carol Reynolds 

I've been having long days at the easel working on an oil painting of the scene pictured above, which is right outside Taos, New Mexico.     The quote above by Josh Billings about sticking to one thing til you get there is really applicable to me and this painting.   I usually work on several paintings at once, but for some reason I have been sticking to this one landscape, determined to finish it.   Stay tuned because it is  "almost there."

Below is a video showing many of Berthe Morisot's paintings, several of which I have never seen before.  It is Part 1  of  2 separate videos; I have not viewed the second one yet.  I think I mentioned before that as a teenager I read lots of books about the French Impressionists and fell in love with their style of painting, although my work is not impressionistic for the most part; sometimes a work of mine gets a little impressionistic.      Enjoy the video; it is almost 10 minutes long, by the way.

My Website

reynoldsrenditions@gmail.com

Free Seascape Oil Painting

"Got The Blues"

5" x 7" oil on stretched canvas

Some time ago I announced I would be having a Free Give-away; well, here it is.   It is an oil painting of the ocean on the North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii.   The give-away begins today, Thursday, September 19, 2013, and will end on Monday, September 30, 2013.   The winner will be announced here and on my website on Tuesday, October 1, 2013.    More information may be found at my website.  You just need to sign up with your email address here so I can notify you if you win the painting.  It will be a random "out of the hat" drawing and my friends and relatives are not eligible so it will be entirely an impartial process.

The painting will be packaged with care and will be shipped unframed.

Shipping is free in the USA.  Other areas will be charged whatever the current shipping rate is via United States Postal Service. 

Don't forget to sign up !   This will be fun.   

My  Website

reynoldsrenditions@gmail.com 

Best White Oil Paint, Natural Pigments, Hawaiian Moorhen, And My Studio Assistant

"The best way to finish a painting is to start a new one." - Sylvio Gagnon

"Making Ripples" (Hawaiian Moorhen)

24" x 24" Acrylic on gallery wrap canvas

Available

The above acrylic painting of the Hawaiian Moorhen was from a reference photo of mine taken at Hamakua Marsh in Kailua on Oahu, Hawaii.   It is not what I have been working on lately; I had hoped to finish a landscape this past Saturday but, alas, it was not to be.   Sundays I do not paint at all, and today life interfered beginning with needing maintenance help in my kitchen.   I spent some time improving my website and see below for my studio assistant who needed me to make a trip today to go buy her some food.

See her licking her chops !  This is Lika on my patio.  We are great buddies!  But I digress.

I recently discovered that Gamblin Artist Oil Colors has a new white called "Flake White Replacement".  It is true to the properties of the old flake white but does not contain the lead. This replacement white is also more permanent than the old lead laden flake white, which I used many many years ago.  Nowadays, for the most part, I use Weber's Permalba White which is a mixture of Titanium and Zinc whites; that combination of Zinc and Titanium is, or has been, the best white.  But I intend to purchase Gamblin's Flake White Replacement soon as well as another new white they have called Warm White which is a mixture of Benaimidazolone Orange, Hansa Yellow, Titanium White, and Zinc White.   I realize I can make my own mixture of warm white with paint already on hand, but I like to try new things and I like to save time.   

I made a post here some time back about Natural Pigments (click here) to view.   I will not repeat the old information given there, other than to say some artists (despite it being dangerous and toxic) might still want to purchase lead white paints.   Natural Pigments paints website carries more than one kind of lead white; their paints are called Rublev Colours and they come in watercolors as well as oils.   They are made of natural and historical pigments used by the old masters and there are no additives to the paint like fillers, driers, or stabilizers; simply single pigment colors and binders.  I intend to purchase some of their paints as well.  

Back to finishing my landscape tomorrow !  It is really coming along great; just need to adjust some of the greens and add the foreground cattails.  I tend to paint slow lately and, although I love impressionistic work, I work in a more realistic, time-consuming manner.  I am sure he must have been referring to the French Impressionists when Richard Boyle said, "To the impressionist, the work was finished, no matter how casual the execution, when the idea was completely realized on the canvas."   And that is okay, but it is not my way of working.  I will admit, though, to the truth of what Harley Brown has said, "The painting is always finished before the artist thinks it is."

Lika is sound asleep now beside me, and I need to be a copycat and do the same.  

My Website

reynoldsrenditions@gmail.com