I'll Go With Strapless Next Time

Amy's Red Shoe

Copyright 2007 Sheila Cantrell

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Here's the latest daily painting. My daughter Amy, who's taking Art 1 this year, came home Tuesday complaining that they had to remove a shoe and draw it in class that day. She was actually just complaining about the fact that they had no prior notice about the assignment and so she was wearing a sylish (newly) tattered tennis shoe instead of lucking out and having a flip-flop on like one of her friends. I was just thinking "what shall I paint tomorrow" when she told me this story and so I thought - a shoe - why not? I went to her closet since she's young and hip and borrowed one of her shoes. (Most of mine are of the running variety.) About nine o'clock last night as I was finishing up, I thought next time I'd go with a strapless shoe - a nice little mary jane should do nicely...

Amy, by the way, came home on Wednesday, quite pleased to announce that her drawing had been used as an assignment illustration for subsequent art classes that day. My heart swells with pride...

More Mileage From Your Produce

Apple Half

Copyright 2007 Sheila Cantrell

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This is what you call "getting more mileage out of your produce". I took one of the apples from last Friday's painting and halved it for this painting. I ate half and painted half - in fact the half I painted is still in the studio and looking pretty good, thanks to the lemon juice I wiped on it yesterday. Don't think that I'll eat it today though - I'll probably send it to the rabbit shed this afternoon. My daughter's rabbits will think that day-old cut apple is a treat.

This one was fun to paint. I really like the subtleness of the small amount of red and green that shows up at the top of the apple and along the sides.

Apples!

Apples

Copyright 2007 Sheila Cantrell

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Here's the latest painting. It was actually done this last Friday, but we've been out-of-town, helping my folks celebrate my Dad's 81st birthday. "Helping" translates to "eating". I'm stuffed - ready to sleep it off tonight and then tackle a new painting tomorrow.

Wipe and Whew!

Red Bell Pepper

Copyright 2007 Sheila Cantrell

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Alright, so I was working on this pepper painting last night instead of spending quality TV time with my husband. I had painted the entire canvas a nice sienna brown a couple of days ago to prepare it. I've already figured out that I like painting on a prepared midtone colored canvas instead of a bright white canvas. Anyway, I was pretty happy with the pepper and for some reason decided to paint a very dark background around it. Big mistake! So I grabbed my little rubber wipe-off tool and a rag and "whew" it looked alright again. In fact, I like the little stained look that the remnants of the darker paint left. I could never have done a reverse like that with colored pencil...

Sliced Kiwi

"Sliced Kiwi" - 5" x 7" oil on canvas

Copyright 2007 Sheila Cantrell

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Here's yesterday's painting of a sliced kiwi fruit. I've just listed it on ebay. It's my plan to offer these small studies on ebay as they are completed. You can find my listings on ebay under seller name "drawntoart".

Welcome!

Welcome to the start-up of my blog. My name is Sheila Cantrell. I am a self-taught artist. I started out with graphite and then moved on to color pencil. For the last year or so, I've been kind of playing "footsie" with oils - messing around with them just a little and then going back to the comfort of the familiar pencils. It is my intention - I stress intention - to hop on the "painting a day" bandwagon and use this blog site to display my daily paintings. I'm hoping for encouragement from my readers, as well as perhaps inspiring a few others to plunge into whatever worthwhile pursuits you've been postponing.

Don't expect seven new paintings a week! I love art and it's a big part of my life, but it's one of many plates that I try to keep spinning. (Remember the circus act where the guy keeps all those plates spinning on the little skinny sticks?) Anyway... check back and hopefully I'll be displaying 3-4 new ones a week. In addition, there will also be colored pencil artwork, perhaps some work-in-progress photos, as well as musings on those other plates in my life...