A New Amish Painting In The Works

Yes, a new painting in the works.  It’s one that I started awhile back and is shown in it’s drawing stage several posts ago. I almost didn’t want to start this one, as I guess I was afraid I wouldn’t know how to go about painting the horse, but so far, I like the way it’s turning out!

I want the end result to be a sunset sky on a snowy day…the amish girl in a bright scarf (instead of her cap), and I want the breath of the horse to be slightly seen to show how cold the day is. I don’t really know what made me conjure up this scenario the way it turned out, the boy, girl and the horse all looking the same direction. But I do like the feeling of the whole picture. Like they all hear something or see something in the distance, and you wonder what it could be.  I still don’t know what I will name this yet, but for now, I just want to complete it. I hope I will be able to show you something in a few days.  Fingers crossed!

In The Works

It’s getting there…slow but sure.

Amish Garden, A New Landscape Painting

Hello!  I just wanted to show you a new painting I decided to try.   I usually paint pastel portraits, but recently I have been watching random artists on You Tube painting pastel landscapes at amazing speed, by just throwing color on paper…not even blending! It’s like they just keep placing color over color and it ends up turning out amazing.  There is no real detail, but it’s more like a muted, colorful meadow…or  colorful, grouping of trees, etc. And the freedom!  The freedom of just looking at a small picture and painting what you see, not really caring about detail! I want that!

Well, I decided I would give it a try…somewhat.  I found a small picture from my last trip to Pennsylvania, sat down at my easel…and without even a ruler to measure the house in the picture…I just started going at it!  I just took a hard pastel and laid in all my shapes of where the trees were..the house…the birdhouse…and then started throwing color up on the paper. At one point, like with every painting…I was ready to give up. But I stuck with it. I also took the sunset sky from another picture just to give it more color.

Needless to say,  when I was done, my husband thought I was a genius!  He was like, “You are already done? That’s beautiful! I want to live there!”

I do love the colors, but I still need resist adding more and more detail!  I just have a hard time with that! I will try more paintings and see how they turn out. But, I will be putting this up on my Etsy store soon…I may even sell the original.

Anyway, hope you like the attempt!

Next!!!!

Amish Garden Pastel Painting

The photograph I painted from

“Pink” completed, and an Amish Painting Redo

Hello everyone. This took some time, but “Pink” is finally completed. Oh, I wish I had nothing to do but paint all day, but there is still chores to do and orders to fulfill, etc. etc. But lately it has been quiet and I have had time to complete some paintings, and even start new ones.

I really enjoyed painting Pink with all that white hair (which I would just love to have myself). She is so beautiful!

The other painting, the Amish Girl,  you may be familiar with. This was a painting I had done awhile ago.  I had started her in watercolor and couldn’t quite figure out what the background would be. Then when I painted a complete background for her, I never was really happy with it.

When I had found the picture I had started with, a picture I had taken with just her face painted in, I liked it so much, I just added a simple quote to it.  I think I rather like the simple look to this better.

Hope you enjoy these two paintings, and I will show you what I have started in the next post. Until then…blessings!

Pink Completed

There is Beauty in Simplicity

Two Amish Projects -Next Phase

Well, here are the two art projects I am working on (from the previous post) which are now in the second phase.  I say second phase, because I know I am almost done, but there is just a few more steps I have to complete before they are both completed (the final phase).

You can see in the amish picture with Kelsey holding the pumpkin, it is  slowly getting closer to completion. I’ve got the mums down, placed in the background, the cornstalks are a little more defined, the sky is there now, all blue, with the feeling of autumn in the air.  The pumpkin patch was a little bit of a challenge, but I think it finally worked (I was ready to give up!). I just kept adding colors, lights and darks, trying to look at pumpkin patches all over the internet and just kept going. Now I just have to add the background behind the corn…I am thinking part of a house to the right with all fall foliage to the left to bring out all the colors.

Then I have to think what will be in the foreground next to Kelsey’s back. Will it be some tall, pale grasses? I’m not sure yet.  Then it’s down to all the final tiny details…the extra pieces of hair blowing around her face, shadows and the like.  I just can’t wait to finish this painting!

The other folk art project has a little more added here, too.  I am still trying to think of where I am going to place everything I want to place in this painting. I know the amish quilts will be in the foreground next to the cow and there will also be a white fence along the bottom.  The sign is painted in here, and I want it to read “No Sunday Sales”. The sunset is more intense now. The covered bridge is more detailed.  I want a white barn with a silo on the top of the hill, and yet still, I have to find where the buggy will be in all this! Oh yes, and some cows painted in the background somewhere. Oh my gosh…that sounds like a lot!

But anyway, I thought I would share this and hopefully next week, they will both be completed. Enjoy!

Kelsey’s Amish Painting, next phase

Folk Art Painting-Next Phase

Two More Amish Projects, Moving Right Along!

So I have two works of amish art that I am currently working on.  One is something I have never tried before, so I really can’t wait to see how this will turn out.  It is a sort of folk art piece done with pastels. It resembles a collage of sorts, and the items I am painting are things I see the most of when visiting Pennsylvania. It almost looks like, or I hope it will look like a poster you would see advertising Pennsylvania.  I am actually  a little farther ahead of the photo you see here, but I will post the finished piece when I am done.

The reason the other painting is being painted  is because when I recently visited Pebbles and Lace in Strasburg (the shop that is selling my amish pieces), the owner, Becky was told (by my daughter, Kelsey, who visited)  that I use family members as models a lot of the time. They both realized I never used Kelsey as a model. SOOOOOoooooo….I hadn’t started an autumn painting, and found a cute picture of Kelsey when she was in pre-k with the cutest grin. I figured I would try to use her.  The way she’s sitting I could envision the whole painting.  She will be holding a pumpkin out in a field of pumpkins…muted in the background.  There will be brightly colored, fall trees and maybe a muted white barn in the background…maybe some leaves in the foreground.  And there you have it.  I had wanted her hair to be more strawberry blonde, and I added her freckles in too. I actually have seen amish with freckles and reddish hair! We will see how it goes. She’s happy now. (wink,wink) I will put up some other pictures very soon!

The folk art collage painting

Kelsey’s picture and the first stages of the painting

She’s coming along….:)

A New Amish Painting In the Works

You can just barely see it…

but…

…here is a very faint sketch of the very first beginnings of a new pastel painting in the works.  I am trying to put a calendar together to hopefully put up for sale on Etsy and at Pebbles and Lace, the shop in Strasburg, PA. soon. I have never created or put together anything like this before,  and so, I am very excited to say the least.

As I was trying to ponder what to paint next, I was realizing I haven’t done any winter paintings at all, at least in the Amish category.  And that’s when I got this image of a cute little girl, standing against a white barn…wearing a red, headscarf and dark, grey winter coat with sprinkling of snow on her shoulders and hair. She may be holding firewood and I think I may have a window cut out behind her for more interest and some pine boughs hanging slightly over head for a slight holiday feeling. Well, when you look at this sketch, you have to really imagine all this, but I am seeing this and I can’t wait.  Now you can watch it come to life too!  I will share the stages of this painting here as much as I can, and when I am almost done,  I will have to name her.

I have other ideas as well and am starting sketches of those as well, but I am really excited about this one.  And then, I must do another boy painting!  It’s so easy to come up with cute ideas for girls…it seems!  Anyway, hope you can make this out and picture it!  Until next time….

The Sketch…so faint you can barely see it!

Time To Make A Change

Hello All! I feel so badly I haven’t kept up with my blog, new drawings or putting many new items up on my Etsy shop.  I have been in a slump of sorts and don’t really know what direction to go in anymore.  Should I paint? What should I paint? Do I paint children, Amish themes,animals, fruit??? Do I update my blog and portfolio to make it fresh? Do I try and focus on portrait painting and nothing else? I have too many things I want to do and not enough time to do them and take care of everything at home as well. Oh, how I wish we all had our own life coaches that would tell us what we should do and not do. To cheer us on when we need it most and direct us every step of the way…but we don’t.

Also, just recently I feel like  I may have developed and allergy of sorts with pastels or pastel dust I should say. I certainly hope this is not the case, as I would surely die, as I truly love pastels. After a few hours, my eyes start turning red and slightly itchy and my chest tightens up a bit, so I have to walk away for awhile.  This has been bothering me, to think I would not be able to do this anymore. I will still paint with pastels, but try different papers and not sit as long, just try different things to see if it is allergies. Crossing fingers and praying profusely.

Since the New Year all I have wanted and talked about is “change”.  I want change in everything lately because I feel like I’m standing still and just not growing anymore. I need some excitement going on. So, I have decided to start small and just take baby steps.

First thing I want to do is to definitely make a schedule and stick with it. This schedule will not only be for my artwork, but also for house plans, family get-togethers,etc..I have never really done this, and I know I have to!  Then the second thing I may do is change my blog here and update to a different theme and upgrade. Then integrate my portfolio into that as well and get rid of the old portfolio site I don’t even like to look at anymore. This will be the beginning of change…we can do it….baby steps….but we can do it! Excitement can come back again and new opportunities can come forth, right?  I hope so.

So, I am just letting you know, you may come back here soon and see something completely different, but I hope it will be more interesting and fun to look at. I can’t wait! Hey, was that a little bit of excitement in my voice? I’ll take it!

 

 

 

Amish Girl at the Farmstand, A new Pastel Painting

Hello all!  I am so excited as I have been practicing my pastel and pastel portrait painting by painting my daughters portraits.  I have learned so much by doing them and watching You Tube over and over on pastel portrait painting.  I have been wanting to paint another Amish painting for so long and I have started this one, Amish Girl at the Farmstand.  The colors in her face have come out so realistic with this new method of colors I have been trying, and I love the result. Now I can’t wait to see the whole picture done!

I don’t know if you can see it, but there are faint pencil lines where I am going to be painting canning jars of fruits or vegetables in front of her and I think I may blur the background with trees and a white barn.  I can’t wait to get back to this and show you, so stay tuned and let me know what you think!  I also have another one in the works and this is an amish girl in the corn, but I’ll show you her as I get a little further along on it.  Enjoy and check back!

Also, I am now selling ACEOs (and more) on my Etsy shop, little affordable works of art (prints) you can collect like trading cards…it describes it more on my shop in my announcement if you’d like to check it out here:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/cherylmcnultyart

Thanks so much and have a good day.

Amish Girl at the Farmstand

Pastel Portrait of my Daughter, Kelsey

This is a pastel portrait of my daughter, Kelsey.  I had done one of her not long ago, but I had to do this one of her in her prom dress, her pose was so glamorous.  It makes for such a nice portrait. Besides, you can never get enough practice.  Hope you like it.

Happy Fall Y’all!

Just some fall paintings I wanted to share again!  Enjoy!