MY SUPER DUPER PETITE STUDIO

PETITE STUDIO OF CAROL HOPPER

DAILY PAINTER

Artists and friends are interested

 in the tools we use

 our methods and techniques

 and seeing our studios. 

 I invite you in to my studio today AND I invite you to join with me in my latest addiction, Pinterest.  

Very neat and tidy  ALWAYS
Lighting from window, color corrected bulbs overhead and Ott Light

Storage galore, under the counter

Drawer always open during painting

Palette open
 drawer with brushes open
still life set up and lit with color corrected Ott lamp

Yes, also a laundry room
sink to wash brushes
and shelf for paintings in drying stage
more storage for art supplies

Palette sitting on rolling taboret which is really for wine bottles

Mat is memory foam

CARDINAL ON CEDAR

CARDINAL ON CEDAR
5x5 oil on canvas covered board
Click here to purchase

Beautiful snowy day
Door County
Wisconsin

I have not painted any bird for a long time
I love them
and make sure I keep the bird bath full
and thawed
even in the winter months

Yes
we have cardinals in
New Mexico too

WINTER SUNSET, pastel painting

Winter Sunset
pastel, 16x24
Click here to purchase

"Winter Sunset", 16x24, pastel, framed under glass with triple mats.    As a child, I fantasized a Currier and Ives Christmas.  I studied Christmas cards, love the churches lit for services, sleighs, horses, snow and especially the book/poem "Stopping by Woods on a Snow Evening" by Robert Frost.  This painting represents me as a child.

carolhopper.com

CHRISTMAS 2013

First Step in Decorating

My grandson Eli and I
are going on the
ADVENTURE
of our lifetimes.

Going, doing, eating, experiencing
CHRISTMAS
as we have never before experienced it.


NORWAY


So
I planned no decorating at home
until
I just had to
even though I won't even be here

Here are my first steps
Need more red and
tons of fresh greenery



Below is a link to the most uplifting
beautiful
videos I have seen.

Enjoy

http://www.wimp.com/upliftingaffirmations/

CHRISTMAS GOOSE

CHRISTMAS GOOSE

5x5 oil on canvas covered panel

Click here to purchase

Finished Painting

Drawing and 1st transparent color

Panel completely covered with transparent paints

Correcting drawing with handy wipe-out tool

Laying in opaque colors with palette knife

Developing greens, shadow and bill size


I am participating in a Christmas painting event called 


PAINT A MASTERPIECE BLOG http://www.paintamasterpiece.blogspot.com

Voting takes place daily but you didn't know that, did you?
Please go the website above and vote for my Christmas Small Paintings.  Go back and vote for all December Date entries.

PLEASE

HEART LOCKET

HEART LOCKET
5X5 oil on panel
click here to purchase

   I set goals for December to daily

 paint only from life

write that for which I was thankful

and to do something kind for another or myself 

I am doing well on the first two but not well on the last.  

I need to get out of the studio or the house and find too many excuses

it's cold

it's snowing

my head hurts

The HEART LOCKET painting is for all of you

to remember

someone you love

to hang on the Christmas tree

or frame

or display on a tabletop easel

HERE'S TO LOVING DECEMBER

REMEMBER

REMEMBER 

5X5 oil on museum quality board

Click here to purchase

Remember

a painting 

for the holidays

either framed or displayed on a tabletop easel

soft, gentle, quiet, yet a celebration

Painting process including drawing and blocking in

Developing painting after entire canvas has transparent paint

WITH LOVE

WITH LOVE, 10x10, oil on museum quality panel.

Click here to purchase.

I am a big celebrator of the holidays.  I used to insist my husband celebrate my half birthday as well as the actual birthdate.  Then I got older so one of those is enough.  

So December is a big month for me…Christmas and my birthday (21st).  And of course December goals.  There are three things I want to accomplish this month.  

     a.  Daily writing of all for which I am grateful

     b.  Paint daily from life (no photos this month; more presents to come)

  c.  Celebrate every day by doing something special (part of my daily writing too)

Gift in Blue

GIFT IN BLUE

10x10, oil on museum panel, unframed.  Click here to purchase.

It is that time of year…gifts for Christmas, and then comes Valentine's Day.  I love to wrap and usually choose a color scheme for the gifts, decorations, and the tree.  

My Set Up brightly lit

Partial block in completed when canvas is covered

Painting being developed and first of opaque colors added

Developing bow more….realizing package color is wrong

LINKS NOW WORKING! Helping You Celebrate the Holidays.

  HOLIDAY SPECIALS

   It is that truly wonderful time of year and I am in the mood.  How could I not be with wonderful friends, family and an upcoming trip to Norway for Christmas.  Yes, really.

    Until December 15, I have four very special framed paintings on sale at 25% off, shipping within the USA included.  Click on the links below the painting photos to purchase on my website.

http://www.carolhopper.com/store/p3/%22Blustery_Day%22.html

http://www.carolhopper.com/store/p9/%22El_Fuerte_River%22.html

http://www.carolhopper.com/store/p14/%22El_Molina_Grand_de_Sapello%22.html

Add capthttp://www.carolhopper.com/store/p27/Taos_Vista.htmlion

SOUTHERN HOME

SOUTHERN HOME, unframed, 9x12, oil on museum quality panel.  $175


This is my third and last southern garden painting for the series.    I struggled with this painting because my photo had a entire bank of azalea bushes that blocked toward the home.  That required my "replanting" of the flowers.  I hope the painting works now!

Click here to purchase.

Block in with only transparent darks

Carving out flowers…that won't work later

Developing house and trees…trying a fence

More that just isn't working

Removing foreground before painting is finished 

IN THE GARDEN

IN THE GARDEN 

 9x12 oil on museum quality board

I am currently painting a series of spring gardens in which I spent hours last March in both Georgia and South Carolina.  The air is heavy with humidity, rain abundant allowing plants to explode with color.  I love the glow of the colors in the garden backlit with sun.

Click here to buy on dailypaintworks.com or on www.carolhopper.com

CRANE FESTIVAL: ALBUQUERQUE

 CRANE FESTIVAL…..photos taken with my iPhone.

      I am very blessed to live so near the Rio Grande, within walking distance of it and the Open Space fields for the wintering geese and cranes.  Many of you followed my blog during September's thirty day challenge to paint thirty paintings in thirty days and on those blog posts I talked about the flyway, the sorghum fields and my wait for the birds.

     This weekend the Open Space center held many activities, including music, a play, and art activities for the kids.

Spring in Atlanta

Spring in Atlanta 

10x10 oil on museum quality panel, unframed.

Click here to purchase.

I just realized how often I use the word "spring" when titling my paintings.  I love flowers, gardens, grass, trees, and quiet places.  I am a product of a Victorian mother.

Today I want to thank three artists who have strongly influenced me in the past few months.  Leslie Saeta for her wonderful marketing evaluation,  Dreama Tolle Perry for her alls prima techniques that give glow to my paintings and Julie Ford Oliver for artistic and marketing support in a gazillion ways.

Tuscany Cafe

Tuscany Cafe

10x10 oil on museum quality panel

This painting was done in a Dreama Tolle Perry workshop.  I didn't have time to finish it in class  as you have seen in a previous post.  It is now finished with highlights creating the glow.

The painting is suitable for framing either in a floater or regular frame.  Please contact me for framing suggestions.

Click here to purchase.

Blustery Day

   BLUSTERY DAY

9X12 oil on canvas covered museum

panel

I painted this blustery winter day two years ago but wanted to rework a few areas.  The original painting had too strong a horizontal line that pulled the viewer off the painting on both sides.  I also played with the sky adding a new color to me, Caribbean Blue by Old Holland.  Dreama Tolle Perry introduced me to that lovely dark transparent warm blue.


Click here to purchase.

FIELD OF POPPIES

FIELD OF POPPIES, 10X10 oil on museum quality panel

   I had the wonderful opportunity to study with Dreama Tolle Perry last weekend.   My goal was to learn how to get the glow in my use of color.  I love how I was able to begin this painting using only transparent dark colors and then using both a brush and palette knife, I  layered brilliant colors on top.

    I am very happy with the outcome!

Click here to purchase on dailypaintworks.com

DREAM TOLLE PERRY WORKSHOP

   BLUSTERY DAY

9X12 oil on canvas covered museum

panel

I painted this blustery winter day two years ago but wanted to rework a few areas.  The original painting had too strong a horizontal line that pulled the viewer off the painting on both sides.  I also played with the sky adding a new color to me, Caribbean Blue by Old Holland.  Dreama Tolle Perry introduced me to that lovely dark transparent warm blue.


Click here to purchase.

Juniper in Autumn

"Juniper in Autumn", 6x8 Little Gem, oil on black gessoed board, with black edge.

If you follow my blog you know I live within walking distance of the Rio Grande.  All of the river front is native habitat and protected by the state park system.  I had no idea the trouble I was about to encounter when I decided to paint the tree.  Over and over I experienced failure.  Finally I took my canvas chair and my sketch book and sat in front of the tree until I understood it and could sketch it.  Not a tree; a BUSH!

Click here to purchase on dailypaintworks.com

Sketch with finished painting

Back up photo reference

CORRALES ADOBE WALL AND GATE IV

Corrales Adobe Wall and Gate IV

The last in the series of this gate and wall.  I have loved painting it for the past few days, daily painter that I am, so for the last painting, I am looking at this nearly straight on.  The Chamisa is in full bloom, while the background cottonwood tree is quickly turning yellow.

Click here to bid or Buy It Now on dailypaintworks.com

Corrales Adobe Wall and Gate IV
Little Gem 6x8
oil on black gessoed board

CORRALES ADOBE WALL AND GATE III

CORRALES ADOBE WALL AND GATE III

    This Little Gem (6x8 oil on black gessoed board) is the third in my series of this house, wall and gate.  I chose to paint this setting from different angles and light.  Here the light is late morning; the wall is still is shadow but not for much longer as the sun has lit the foreground quite a bit.

    Click here to bid or "Buy It Now" on dailypaintworks.com

CORRALES ADOBE WALL AND GATE II

Corrales Adobe Wall and Gate II
6x8 Little Gem
oil on canvas mounted with a black painted edge

         "Corrales Adobe Wall and Gate II"

     I guess you know I enjoy painting the walls and buildings of New Mexico.  Each wall is unique as all of them are built by hand.  Adobe bricks are made from a straw and mud mixture and then dried in the sun.  The adobe bricks are used to create freeform structures which are then covered with stucco.

    This particular house, wall and gate located in Corrales is weedy and unkempt.  I doubt that more than a couple of the plants were planned...most of the growth is from blown in seeds.

  Click here to bid or  "Buy it Now" on daily paintworks.com.

Corrales Adobe Wall and Gate 

Here is yesterday's post of my first painting of
Corrales Adobe Wall and GateII.  You can see
I painted the same scene from a different angle.
Which one do you like best?  

Tomorrow I will post a third painting of the same location.

Click here to bid or "Buy it Now" on dailypaintworks.com