"purse straps" - SOLD

© 2010 Heather Hingst Bennett
Red, Pink, Black & White Series - Purse Straps
6" x 6" x 7/8", Oil on stretched canvas

I'm trying to come up with a good place to take pictures in my house. I hope to have better photos soon!

Thanks for visiting!

"hanging around" - SOLD

 

© 2010 Heather Hingst Bennett
Red, Pink, Black & White Series - Hanging Around
6" x 6" x 7/8", Oil on stretched canvas

"red purse" - SOLD

© 2010 Heather Hingst Bennett
Red, Pink, Black & White Series - Red Purse
6" x 6" x 7/8", Oil on stretched canvas

From now until Valentine's Day I am going to challenge myself to paint a red, pink, black or white object.

color

I'm getting set up for still life painting tomorrow. It's been a while since I've painted one, so I'm a little nervous.

I have been working on a series that I call "Long Neck Beauties". These are painting from my imagination and hope I will finish one soon, so I can show you.

Today, along with working on the long neck beauties, I have been enjoying studying about color. To actually achieve correct secondary colors you need two different sets of primary colors. THE OIL PAINTING COURSE YOU'VE ALWAYS WANTED suggests using a warm primaries of cadmium yellow medium, cadmium red hue and thalo blue and cool primaries of lemon yellow hue, permanent rose and French ultramarine blue. This is the proper way to mix your secondary colors. I'll show you my results in the near future!

I've also been enjoying Vicki McMurry's book, Mastering Color: The Essentials of Color Illustrated with Oils.

There's so much to learn about color!

it has been a while

I can't seem to get into a groove since the kids have been on winter break! It hasn't helped that since going back they have had 3 snow days and now have 2 days off! So, they will be back in school again on Wednesday. HOPEFULLY...I think we could be expecting more snow in the next few days! It has been a very wintery, winter.

I signed up for an on-line painting class that begins Wednesday. So, I will be painting soon!

a little something sale...

Here's a little something for that empty space in the office, bathroom, guest room, bedroom, entry, kitchen, hallway, etc.

I'm cleaning out my art and getting ready for a whole new inventory for 2010.

The pieces I am offering at HALF OFF were made between 2007 - 2009 and are an example of all the different kinds of art I have been dabbling in over the past 2 years.

All are is 50% off with FREE shipping!! This offer will be good until January 2, 2010.

You can see what's available here!

Palette Patchwork

I had a lot of extra paint on my palettes from doing color exercises for my online class, so I thought of designing some "Palette Patchwork" pieces. These are simply painted patchwork pieces from the paint left on my palette.

© 2009 Heather Hingst Bennett

PALETTE PATCHWORK #03

Oil on paper

© 2009 Heather Hingst Bennett

PALETTE PATCHWORK #02

Oil on paper

© 2009 Heather Hingst Bennett

PALETTE PATCHWORK #01

Oil on paper

Have a Wonderful Holiday Week!

I'm taking the week off to clean my house and spend time with the family! See you all next week!

Teacup Study

I purchased this pattern packet a few years ago and finally decided to work on it. I don't know why I was so intimidated by it. It's not perfect, but I really learned A LOT by completing it.

What was really emphasized in this DVD is how light travels in a straight line. You can see this in my study. The light is coming from the right, slightly in front of the object.

Theory

Do you know what I've been missing in my life? THEORY! Yes, there are some guidelines to painting and drawing and you should get to know them.

Today I was working through one of my lessons in THE OIL PAINTING COURSE YOU'VE ALWAYS WANTED and found that taking the time to do some exercises in the "illusion of three dimensions" very helpful.

For example I learned that when drawing a sphere there is a cast shadow, general light, highlight, reflected light, halftone, core shadow and lost edges. WOW! All these elements are identified and when placed in the correct areas give the "illusion of three dimensions".

Now I have a general idea of what to look for to give my work more dimension.

Tomorrow I'm going to be working with mixing paint. AND I'm gearing up to paint some pumpkins.

2 Nice Things My Husband Said Recently

My husband is the type of person that doesn't give many complements, but the other day he noticed my "Three Is A Crowd" painting and asked, "Did you paint that?" and I said, "Yes." And he said, "That's pretty good."

AND then the other day he told me that he actually like me NOT working a full-time outside the home job.

WOW!

Since I don't have any art to show for this week, I thought I would show you a picture of the Iowa State Capitol we visited the last week of October. Isn't it lovely?!

Back at IT...

I found this great book last week.

AND just as the title says it IS the painting course I’ve always wanted. How did the author know? So, I’ll be sharing the exercises over the next few weeks.

I’m also taking a class on line with Kingslan & Gibilisco Decorative Arts Studio. The class is a design course that covers:

• How to be a Creative Thinker
• Color Theory and Schemes
• Perspective
• Design Principles
• Design Elements
• How to Work with Reference Material
• How to Work from a Set-up
• History of Composition

I have really enjoyed it so far and LOVE the section about color!

I had a great few days off. Our family took a quick trip to Des Moins, Iowa. We toured their lovely state capitol. I'll have to post pictures later.