February 14, 2026 — Elaine O.

Finished! Had a bit of a struggle deciding on a background, but I'm satisfied. I wanted the focus to be the relationship between the baby and the book he's reading. 

14" x 10"

One more thing. I know we've been talking about the difference between what we see on screen vs. real life, but there's also a difference in devices. I took photos of this on my phone and again on a higher end digital camera. Interestingly enough, one has an orange color cast and less color saturation. There are also differences in the value and vibrancy ranges. Another reason to see art in person vs. on screens.

This Old House

 Channeling Sara with a corner of my living room. The upper right corner unfinished because the leaded glass window has me stumped. 

Strong sunlight and a rounded bay. To figure out the leaded window went to my library of watercolor books and am working on exercises but now realize the image in my reference photo too small. To be continued….

Daisy and The Horizontals.

This is a 9x12 of Daisy

These are 1 1/2 x 3 yupo strips

These are 3x12 horizontals all of which were posted here early, but Pat thought they looked so good shown all together that she asked me to post them all together and here they are,

And this is a 9x12 of some other other things I have been doing but don't have a name for yet.  9x12

 

February 7, 2026 — Elaine O.

Between the snow and the cold, I've been spending a lot of time with good books and hot beverages. I thought it might be fun to celebrate another budding reader, so here's the beginning of that portrait.

14" x 11"

Alan Winter 7 2026

 I didn’t really like the face on my full figure self portrait, and since it’s on Yupo, I was able to clean it up and add value.  9 X 12. I think it’s done  

I guess I was in the mood to do a regular portrait before I got any older. Also 9 X 12 on Yupo. 

I’m still working on my little images from the list I was given by an old teacher. 

Snow capped mailbox 

Winter path

I’ve been watching some landscape painting videos and have a hankering to do some landscapes so I’m going there while keeping up with the exercise. 

Daisy five times.

The top is 9x12 and the four are all 5x9.  On the one hand I want them to be all about the paint, on the other hand I want them to look like my cat.  The only one I really like is the portrait one.  Will be working on the others this week.
 

Maybe Ken Can Tell Me

 Where Derek Poznanski was standing when he took the reference photo for this one.  It doesn’t click for me. There were many struggles with this one and I’m ready to move away from architecture, come inside, and paint a pear. But first, maybe fix Jeanie Gang’s building so it doesn’t topple over. 

January 31, 2026—Elaine O.

Something about cold grey days draws me to cozy kitchen subjects. This is from my sketchbook. I'm still trying to up my "healthy foods" game and I find it's just as much fun to paint them as to eat them.

11" x 8"

Oh, and this one is finished, too.

12" x 9"

Alan Winter 6 - 2026

 Continuing my little exercises. 

Boots  

Frost on grasses and frozen lake

Bookshelf

Refrigerator magnet

Ajar door 

Keys

Don’t have to explain. 

January 26, 2026 — Elaine O.

I'm so closed to finished! As a color study, it was interesting to see the difference the darker background made. I haven't quite got the joy in their smiles—or even a great likeness—but at this size, the faces are so small that it's hard. I will finish this, as you always learn something, and try again, but larger.

12" x 9"

Snow day painting….

 Here’s the quick and dirty baby version, 5x7

Here’s the grownup version, 8x10, but I don’t think it works as well. Maybe it’s that couch saying stop, don’t enter here…

These two I painted freehand, drawing with a brush. I kind of like the looser style, more brushstrokes, etc. Certainly frees me up from the painting inside the lines. Ok, she looks a little Winston Churchill-y, but babies kind of do…

And who gave the tube of burnt yellow? That color has invaded my whole palette..

I hope we get a foot of snow…I love a reason to stay home…

Gehry Knew His Geometry

But I don’t know mine. As a “know it all” teenager, I avoided taking geometry and I missed it on this one. I saved the white on the building to the left using tape and now it still looks like tape even though I put some dirty water on it.  This one looks good from a distance.  Maybe I’ll fix the sky  

At last!

 This started out to be another of those bleeding from the center line paintings but I tried a little experiment which didn't work out so I tried something else and then I had to compensate for that and you guys know how that goes and now it is a slice of spinach pizza and a slice of pepperoni pizza sitting on a bbq grill.  5x7

And at long last here is Daisy.  Took me awhile to get back to doing representative with a bit of free stroking but I think I might be getting back on that track.  Closeups of each eye will probably follow.  All 5x7 hopefully leading to 9x12.

Painting to paint….

 I really like the sense of light here. Pat says the woodwork detracts from the flowers but I think it frames them nicely. About 5x7.

The unhappy campers as portraits. They both look a bit older here but not any happier! @8x10. I may do another double portrait of them.

These two campers again. I sponged the trees in and tried to get more of the setting sun coming thru the trees, but got a little heavy handed with the Indian yellow. I might give them another try although I kind of think the figures should be smaller. That’s what attracted me to this image - people dwarfed by the immense landscape. @8x10. FYI, tree painters — check out Paul Clarke tutorials. He sharpens the wood end of his paint brush in a pencil sharpener and uses that to draw wispy branches…

 

Another flower study —not enough drama…

This looked better before I put that streak of yellow in. I got the idea I wanted the top half in sunlight and the bottom in shadow, but not sure this was the way to go. It looks distorted because of how I photographed it. Not sure why I’m drawn to this image, but, whatever, it’s only paint and time, and I seem to have plenty of both, for now at least…stay warm…

Alan Winter 5 2026

 I didn’t really have a strong desire to paint any specific reference. An old teacher of mine sent out a calendar of things to paint for the month. Mostly simple things like:

A Christmas present. 

A steaming mug. 

Stairs  

Sunrise through a window  

Half a clementine.  I didn’t have “a” clementine but I did have a bowl full of clementine sections.

Kinda fun.

Rainy Day on La Salle Street

 

8x10. It would have been more fun larger. 

on the right track

 With class out I couldn't use the paper cutter to make my horizontals and I thought what if I laid a 5x7 in landscape and put a horizontal line through the center and moved out from the line on both sides towards the edges, that would work like a couple horizontals and they would react to each other and that would be pretty cool wouldn't it?

And I liked it a lot.  I wanted to do more with the same game plan.

Liked this one too, but not as much, colors too simple and not dirty enough.

This one went way off track.  And you know how when your ship begins sinking you make all these drastic moves but it gets worse with each one?  Was ready to consign this to the sacrifice stack but something caught my eye and then I put in those thin turquoise stripes and I am not sure whether to go on or just call it a masterpiece and be done with it.

This one has just begun.  Waiting for something to happen.

January 17, 2026 — Elaine O.

We're well into the new year, and I'm running out of excuses for not painting. So, here's the start of a painting of a lovely wedding (actually, this will be a color/value study).

12" x 9"

Other than that, not much going on. I'll have to replace my mailbox. I woke up one morning to find it hanging off the wall with a pried-open top. What's going on with the mail in this area?!! 

11" x 8"

On a brighter note, there were some really delicious pears on sale.

approx. 4" x 3"