Art Blog - A Painting Journey

The Magic

Ann Tucker — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 01:08:00 GMT

"The Magic"

8x10" oil pastel on paper

(Heads are about 1" tall.)

The reference photo for this painting was from a visit my niece & I took to Disney World last summer.

Since this was OUR Grand Adventure, I ignored the other 12, 000 people in the reference photo when I did the painting!

It's still winter here with snow on the ground. It was nice to work on something that reminded me of sunshine and warm weather.

Farewell Gift for Chelsie

Ann Tucker — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 20:52:00 GMT

4x6" oil pastel on paper

A friend was leaving the dance studio.
She only gave us one day's notice so I quickly painted this ballroom dance shoe for her.
It's kind of Cinderella-ish, the shoe left behind idea.
Like Cinderella, she has left an impression behind and will be missed.
And like Cinderella, I hope all her dreams for the future come true.

Chelsie, good luck with school!

Hoffman Estates Art League Show Jan 2010

Ann Tucker — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 02:11:00 GMT

Link to Gallery

Today was a show opening a the Positive Strokes art gallery.
The show consists of painting from 9 artists from the Hoffman Estates Art League. (art league link)
I have 8 paintings in the show.

I had such a great Time today. So many friends stopped by to see my paintings and chat.
The time just flew.
.

More photos from Firehouse Plein Air

Ann Tucker — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 23:07:00 GMT

I was having so much fun painting and watching everything going on that I didn't notice how strong the sun was. Later I notice a nasty patch of sunburn on my left shoulder. Do you think maybe next time I'll remember the sunscreen? Maybe....

Photos courtesy of a nice man named John who was taking photos at the event.

Engine 51 Plein Air painting

Ann Tucker — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 20:07:00 GMT

I went to the local park this morning to do some painting.
And what a lucky surprise....
The firehouse next door to the park was having an Open House.

Engine 51 here was parked right where I could set up on the grassy island in the parking lot and get an clear view of it.
I had a fun time. Got to see all the demos they put on. And a number of people stopped to chat or kids stopped to look at what I was doing.

Engine 51 at the Open House, 8x10" Acrylic on canvas board

The painting didn't turn out too bad. I had to stop after 2 hours of standing in the direct sunlight, my paints were just so hard to work with. They were getting too tacky & sticky to move around. Also, I didn't bring any small detailing brushes. I'll finish this in the studio where I can put the decals on the truck.

First Plein Air of the season

Ann Tucker — Sun, 24 May 2009 15:18:00 GMT

This was painted at a beautiful old church. I was pulled into this view rather than doing the whole church with steeple.
There was something about this that called to me: the curved door, the light by the door, the cross in the railing and the bit of nature with the tree.

A wedding present

Ann Tucker — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 04:15:00 GMT

A Starting Point
Cray Pas Specialist oil pastels, 11x14, on paper

A friend recently got married overlooking the Pacific Ocean. She sent me photos. I made this painting using those photos.
She was very surprised and happy when she recieved the panting. Hearing how much she liked it made it even more fun for me.

There is something about weddings that pulls me to paint them. Maybe it is the emotion of the day.

Last year another friend got married on the beach. I only saw photos of the wedding for about 10 minutes. I made them a small painting as a present. Not as detailed as the one above. Because I was going from memory on that one, it was more of an impression.
But in both cases, it must be the romantic in me that I love doing wedding portraits as surprise presents.

Oil Pastel in mixed media

Ann Tucker — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 17:37:00 GMT

I've been doing a lot of photo manipulation in Photoshop lately.
I got the idea to try using the digital manipulation (digi-art) and oil pastels as a mixed media.
I started out with this photo of puppies I took at The Buddy Foundation
http://www.thebuddyfoundation.org/

I cropped the photo in close, removed distractions and started playing with filters to get this:

At this point, I felt that I had a nice image to use as a logo for an online store I just create.
http://www.cafepress.com/Buddyforlife
I've recently begun volunteer work for The Buddy Foundation and wanted to create a way to help them out with my artwork. Hopefully, over time, I will be able to do that.

So back to the mixed media idea.

I cut down a piece of Bristol Vellum paper to fit in my inkjet printer and printed out this digi-art. I used it as an underpainting to my oil pastel.
I like the way it worked, although not too happy with my color choices for the puppy on the left.

This idea of oil pastel and digi-art as a mixed media is one I will explore more.

Jurist for Cray Pas Wonderful Colorful World contest

Ann Tucker — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 17:15:00 GMT

Recently I had the privilege of being a juror at the 2009 Cray Pas Wonderful Colorful World contest sponsored by Sakura of America (makers of Cray Pas oil pastels).

http://sakuraofamerica.com/

This contest is a national art contest for children grades K-8.

Sakura of America began this art contest over twenty years ago.

This year 4000 entries were reduced down to 150 finalists. These were put into 3 age groups: K-2, 3-5 & 6-8. These three groups of 50 were then hung on the walls of The Museum of Children’s Art (MOCHA) in downtown Oakland California.

http://mocha.org/

MOCHA is an art gallery and hands-on teaching workshop for children and teachers alike.

Once all the finalists paintings were hung on the walls at MOCHA, then the 6 jurists had to decide which were the top three award winners in each group.

This was so hard!

We each went through and graded each painting. Then we got together as a group to discuss our top picks and decide on the top three in each age group.

Here are some of the finalists on the wall in the Grade 3-5 group.

This piece won 1st place in the K-2 group for his creativity. Every judge walked away from this painting with a huge smile on his or her face.

Here are the finalists in the grade 6-8 group.

And these are the 2nd, 3rd & 1st (L to R) in the grade 6-8 group.

All 150 of the finalists received a t-shirt with their own artwork on it from Sakura of America.

The 9 award winners, their teachers and their schools all receive a generous supply of art materials.

To view all the finalist paintings, go to
http://sakuraofamerica.com/?q=Craypas-winners-2009-k-2

So if your child’s school could use some art supplies, and you’d like seeing your child’s artwork recognized in a nationally, ask your child’s art teacher to think about entering the Cray Pas Wonderful Colorful World contest next Fall.

Go ahead, make it even harder for me to pick a winner next year! I’d love it!

Bloomingdale Juried Art Show

Ann Tucker — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 17:51:00 GMT

My acrylic painting “Cherished” got into the juried show at the Bloomingdale park district museum.

Friday night was the reception for the show. It was the first time I saw the show all hung up. Where my painting was placed, it was the first thing you noticed walking in the door!

My friend Carl Zack’s oil pastel was hanging on the other side of the window (top one) so it’s good to know there was no bias against oil pastels.

Four friends from the Hoffman Estates Art League also got into the show. So it was nice for all of us.

Cherished -Acrylic paints

Ann Tucker — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 01:02:00 GMT

Cherished
Acrylic paint on canvas
30x40"

This painting is done in Acrylic paint rather than oil pastel. I've been branching out into Acrylics since I took that class about a month ago in Golden Paint's Working Artist program on Acrylics.

This painting is almost 3 feet wide by 4 feet tall. The heads are about 1-1/2 to 2 times life size.
This painting is based on a photo that I've had for a while. I knew I wanted to turn it into a painting but it wasn't until I saw some portraits that an artist did after manipulating the photo in Photoshop that I thought I may have found how to paint that photo. Once I tried this manipulation technique on the photo, I knew that this was the painting that the photo was waiting for!

I'm very happy with the way this painting turned out. It pretty much came out the way I envisioned it could. And my husband likes it too.

Prairie Center Art Show

Ann Tucker — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 00:21:00 GMT

This group show is on display now at the Praire Art Center in Schaumburg.
I have 5 paintings in the show. They are all Oil Pastels although they are different techniques.

At the entry to the show are 2 large paintings. One is my Bozo's Buckets.

Going down the hallway to the main exhibit area, another of my paintings is hanging.

Then in the main exhibit area, the last 3 paintings can be found.

This show is all artists from the Hoffman Estates Art League. The 5 members who hung the show did a wonderful job of figuring out what paintings looked good next to each other. It took them over 4 hours to hang the show.

The show is on exhibit until the end of the month. These 2 photos show some of the crowd that came for the opening night viewing.

Gallery- Some of my paintings

Ann Tucker — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 04:32:00 GMT

The Next Generation

Ann Tucker — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 17:28:00 GMT

The third generation painter in our family?
My aunt passed the passion for art on to me. And now it's my turn to pass it on to my niece.

I've been very lucky to have Nicolette painting with me lately.
She enjoys painting and has produced several beautiful abstract paintings.

Sharing a Joke

Ann Tucker — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 17:05:00 GMT

Oil Pastel on 12x16” canvas panel

This is from a photo I took at an outdoor bar.
What drew me to the image is a group of friends sharing a good joke.
I think I’m about 90% done but it still needs a few tweaks. Like showing a smiling mouth on the woman on the right to get across the idea that they are all laughing.
I'll get back to this one soon and finish it.

Snowy Morning

Ann Tucker — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 01:53:00 GMT

This 8x10" oil painting was done one very cold Saturday morning.
My friend Sharron and I had planned to go out and paint but as the weekend approached, it got very cold with a nasty windchill.
So we went over to a local forest preserve that had a visitor's center. We set up our easels inside and painted through the window.

We set up our easels within 3 feet of each other and were looking out the same window.
It is amazing how different the paintings are not only in the subject but the colors used.

Below is the view we was out the window.

Lindy Routine

Ann Tucker — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 04:02:00 GMT

Besides painting, another creative passion is dancing.
Here John & I are performing our Lindy routine (a form of Swing Dancing.)

Dreaming of Tinkerbell

Ann Tucker — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 21:24:00 GMT

Dressed in "Tinkerbell green" shoes, shorts and hair ribbon.
She takes a few moments to rock on the swing.

11x14" oil pastel on canvas

My First Show

Ann Tucker — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 03:28:00 GMT

Tonight was the Opening Night Reception for the Art League of Hoffman Estates art show.
This was the first time I have hung my work in a public place.
The reception was a wonderful time!

The main hallway that Roosevelt University allowed us to use for our show was wonderful. A wide hall with lots of natural light from large skylights.

Here are some views of the main hallway.

Above, four of my paintings are in the dark frames to the right of the 2 large blue paintings.
My other 3 paintings were around the corner.

Two more views of the main hall during speaches.

Above, in light blue, the VP of the Schaumburg Campus who allowed us to use her facility and who hosted this event.

Sharron & Danuta, 2 of the leagues driving forces.

Most of my paintings hanging in the show were oil pastels.
Here is one of two that were oil paints. This is my niece when she was a toddler. Painting titled "Playtime".

Here is the other oil painting. "Fountain Dancers", 12"x24"

Back to the 4 oil pastels hanging in the main hallway.
It was so much fun to watch people stroll down the wall looking at paintings and occasionally they'd linger over one of mine.

One man even stopped me as I was walking through the room.

"You're Ann?"
(We wore nametags.)
"I love your red painting. It looks like a field of poppies.
I just wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed it."

Okay, I have to admit, that was a major ego boost!

Some more photos of Opening Night:

Before the reception, I had what someone called First Show Jitters, not knowing what to expect or what people would say. My husband came with me holding my hand and providing what he calls "moral support and sound effects". In other words, being my rock and saying "I told you they'd like it"

My parents came and so did a number of friends.
Even the mayor of Hoffman Estates and several town trustee's stopped by.

I had an absolutely wonderful evening!

Fellow art league member, Bob Nielsen. And my parents behind him looking at the show.

Show Announcement

Ann Tucker — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 01:03:00 GMT