60/60 Challenge - Painting #10

The weather has been glorious but the sun is fierce.  While looking for a shady spot, I found some cows that were fenced into the narrow area between road and paddock.  This decided today's motif because I knew the cows couldn't walk away once I started the painting.  And yes - the grass really is this green in New Zealand!

The Grass Is Greener

60/60 Challenge #10

6" x 8" oil on board

Day #9 of the 60/60 Challenge!

I'm finally caught up and back on track.  This is the ninth painting for the ninth day of my 60/60 Challenge!  I painted this little piece at a little boatyard at Whangateau.  The water was so blue and warm and the day so perfect, I felt like I had died and gone to heaven.

Day 9, 60/60 Challenge

Boatyard at Whangateau

6" x 6" oil on gessoed board

Playing Catch-up, Days 6, 7 and 8.

The last couple of days have been hectic with no time to post, so today I'm posting the last three paintings for my 60/60 Challenge.....60 paintings in 60 days, painted plein air (from life).  I'm in my homeland of New Zealand for three months, so the outdoor studies will all be done while here.  I'm fighting the weather (lots of rain) and the way the paint is handling in the increased humidity.  But today I found a stash of liquid in my NZ painting supplies, so perhaps this will help!

"That which doesn't kill me, makes me stronger" - meaning, if I don't slash my wrists, I will be a better painter at the end of the 60/60 Challenge!

60/60 Challenge #6

Painted from the Leigh Cemetery, overlooking the wharf and harbor.

60/60 Painting Challenge #7

"South End of Joe Looking North"

8" x 6" oil on gessoed panel

60/60 Painting Challenge #8

"Waiting for Skylarks"

6" x 8" oil on gessoed gatorboard

Day #5 of the 60/60 Challenge

Why am I doing this?  Because I know from experience that it will get easier and I will get better at painting 100% from life by the time the 60/60 Challenge ends on May 6th.  Yep, that's 60 paintings, on location, in 60 days.  Fortunately, I'm in New Zealand for all of that time.  Unfortunately, this is the wettest/coolest summer in many years so finding a dry place to paint is a real challenge.  If I were in my own house, I could paint interiors on a rainy day, but I'm in a carpeted rental house and I'm guessing the owners would not like pthalo green on the carpeting.

I found a herd of young cows and bulls begging to be painted.  I screeched to a halt - set up my Sol-tek easel and wouldn't you know it, the cows/bulls made a beeline for the fence to see what I was up to.  So now I had big cow faces two feet away instead of the pastoral motif I had envisioned.

So this is today's contribution to my challenge.  It's an 8" x 8" oil on board....slightly unfinished as it started to rain.  I'm a glutton for punishment.

Day #4 of the 60/60 Painting Challenge

I spent an hour or two this morning painting at the Leigh Wharf.  Leigh is also home to the best fish and chip shop north in Rodney District but I was strong and resisted having them for lunch.  It's hard not to leave New Zealand 5 lbs heavier - and as I'll be here for three months on this trip, I've got to be strong!

Leigh Dinghies

6" x 8" oil on board

Day #3 of the 60/60 Painting Challenge

Three paintings done - 57 to go!  I painted this 8" x 8" oil yesterday afternoon on the road to the Big Omaha Wharf at Whangateau.  The original wharf was built in the 1850's and was recently restored as a historic building.  As New Zealand's was settled from the 1840's on, the wharf is an old building for this country.   The title, Pohutakawa at Whangateau, refers to the pohutakawa tree which blooms red in December and is also called New Zealand's Christmas Tree.  Whangateau is the wide-spot-in-the-road where I painted.

Pohotukawa at Whangateau

8" x 8" oil on gessoed board

As it rained most of the day, we painted from inside the wharf.

60/60 Painting Challenge, Day #2

We're fighting rain in paradise!  It rained (poured!) a good part of yesterday and this morning it has been overcast and raining on and off.  So today's painting for the 60/60 Painting Challenge is a small watercolor from my sketch book that I painted last week while on Kawau Island.

I'm sitting in the car at Ti Point wharf, picking up a signal on my Vodafone broadband stick.  I was hoping to find a covered area here where I could paint, but no luck, so will sign off and look for another spot.

Day #2, 60/60 Challenge

The View from Mansion House, Kawau Island, New Zealand

Watercolor Sketch

A New Daily Painting Project Starts Today!

Today I'm starting a new daily painting project called 'The 60/60 Challenge'.  A month or two ago I challenged some artists friends on Facebook to join me in the challenge - painting one piece a day from life....NO photographic reference!  As I'm in New Zealand for three months, my 60 paintings will all be done in my Homeland - another exciting aspect (for me) of the project!  If you are interested in seeing the work of all 27 artists in the 6060 Challenge,  you can 'friend' me on Facebook - or you can just follow along here, though you'll only be seeing my contributions.

Santa Ysabel Gallery in San Diego County will be showing many of the 60/60 Challenge paintings done by me, my sister Joanne Hanson and artist friend Joe Garcia, in a three-person show in December 2012.
However some of these paintings are available for purchase prior to the show - email me if you're interested!

Sea Through Manuka

7" x 7" oil on gessoed board

60/60 #1

Kawau Island

Yesterday we took our painting group to Kawau Island, just a 30 minute trip by launch from the mainland. Some of the group painted the landscape while others explored the hiking trails looking for wallabies and weka.  Mansion House on Kawau was the home of New Zealand's first Governor, Sir George Grey.  He also introduced some Australian species to the island, including the wallaby and kookaburra.  Kookaburras have self-introduced to the mainland near Kawau but fortunately the wallabies can't swim.  It's also common to see the Weka on Kawau - a native New Zealand flight bird that is also a pretty good swimmer. They're about the size of a chicken.

This summer has been unusually cold and wet but we've been lucky to have had warm, dry weather so far this week.  Today is a 50/50 chance of rain.  We're spending the morning painting at the retreat then will do a bush walk in the afternoon.  Later in the day we'll be visiting the home and studio of artists Robyn and Valerie Pendred - in the house where my sister  and I grew up!   Must be something in the water....

Kawau Island 

Back in the Motherland!

I'm back in the part of New Zealand where I grew up, on the Kowhai Coast about an hour north of NZ's largest city, Auckland.  It's probably about 70 F, a little blustery at times as if it might rain, but then the sun comes out again.  Starting tomorrow, it is supposed to be clear and sunny - just in time for our Painting Holiday which starts in the morning after we pick up our seventeen American guests at the Auckland Airport. If you'd like to follow along, we'll be blogging about this week's painting holiday at www.PaintNewZealand.blogspot.com.

View from our retreat, looking out over the mangroves of the Eden River, a tributary of the Mahurangi.