Tag Archives: #100DaysOfMingus

100 Days Of Mingus In Review

 

Couldn’t have done it without you! Thank you for your encouragement and support! I am grateful for your suggestions and critiques. Your friendship is a blessing!

I went through the paintings, and found my favorites for each month. A full third of the total made the list. I condensed that list even more, for my top favorites.

I am also sharing the paintings that had the most views. Not a complete list, and I am not sure it is a true representation of viewer favorites. The majority of my Mingus posts, included more than one painting. That makes a true count difficult. I would love to hear your favorites, if there are any that stand out to you. Sea Dean has posted her six favorites on her 100 Days Of Mingus Pinterest board.

I have procrastinated, putting off writing this post. I keep starting projects that have waited while I was painting Mingus. I am not sure what to write, or, if I have anything interesting to say about the project.

Dave asked if I have noticed any changes in my practice as a result of painting daily. My reply was that I am less precious about each piece. I told him that I would talk about it more in this post. But I really don’t have much more to say. This project was a success in that I finished. I kept up. Didn’t give up. But my habit of setting high standards for myself, has me… feeling like I missed the mark. I was looking forward to more experimentation. Creating pieces with more depth and complexity.

I feel like I should have more to say. Maybe it is my “style”. Maybe there is “a style”. But I feel like I just did the same thing over and over (laughing). I wasn’t able to work in different mediums or try as many new techniques as I would have liked. And this is just me, grading myself. My progress. I know it was due to circumstances out of my control. So I am cutting myself some slack. And I did enjoy the process. I am still painting daily.

When I looked at the paintings again, there were a few that jumped out at me as incomplete. Less than half of the 100. And I know I mentioned that a few times as I went along. I am planning on adding to some of them. But that will have to wait until next month.

Some of you have also asked if they are for sale. If you are interested, you can let me know in a comment or through a private message on Facebook. The large, 5.5 x 11.5, are $120. Smaller pieces start at $17 for ATC’s and range from $38 for 3.5 x 5.5 to $70 for 5 x 7.  For U.S. buyers, shipping is free until the end of July.

 

My Favorites

 

Most Views

 

 

April

 

 

May

 

 

June

 

 

July

 

 

 

100 Mingus paintings, SMD 2018

100 Mingus paintings, SMD 2018

100 Mingus paintings stacked, SMD 2018

100 Mingus paintings stacked, SMD 2018

 

There was only one painting that I walked away from. Only one lying around. If I mentioned in a post about trashing a ruined painting, you can catch me in a fib. This is from the first week. I honestly can’t remember what I was thinking. Go for it, have a good laugh! Ha ha ha! The sky is watercolor, and I like how it turned out. The hills are acrylic, and there is pen as well. I used a rubber comb while the red paint was wet. I was going to layer more on this. Add texture.

 

Mingus goof. 11.5 x 5.5 in. Mixed media on Arches 140 lb. cold pressed paper. © 2018 Sheila Delgado.

Mingus goof. 11.5 x 5.5 in. Mixed media on Arches 140 lb. cold pressed paper. © 2018 Sheila Delgado.

 

The sky is Windsor Newton, not Inktense. So I would have to seal it to continue. Inktense is permanent once dry. (I don’t have a good sky blue in Inktense.) The sky is what stopped me in my tracks. I won’t take this any further, like I said, the original idea is gone.

I still need to flatten the paintings. I will share that process with you soon.

 

“No man is a failure who has friends.” 
 It’s a Wonderful Life

 

“I walk every day, and I look at the mountains
and the fields and the small city, and I say:
‘Oh my God, what a blessing.’
Then you realise it’s important to put it in a context
beyond this woman, this man,
this city, this country, this universe.”
Paulo Coelho

 

#100DaysOfMingus  Gallery

Mountains Gallery

A Year In The Life Of Mingus

Inspired By Mountains

 

 

 

 

 

 

#WorldWatercolorMonth – #11, #12 And #The100DayProject – #100

 

Mingus #100. 11,5 x 5.5 in. watercolor on Arches 140 lb. cold pressed paper. © 2018 Sheila Delgado.

Mingus #100. 11,5 x 5.5 in. watercolor on Arches 140 lb. cold pressed paper. © 2018 Sheila Delgado.

 

Number one hundred was a struggle. It just was not working. I started on an 8 x 12 inch piece of paper. More room for big sky. I got the first layers down. And then the electricity went out. Lightning hit a power box. Or transformer box. What are they called?

For about an hour I was focused on getting the power back on. Thinking I needed to just flip the breakers and it would come back. Then a neighborhood conversation started. Phone calls and suppositions.

This was worrisome for me, as I am connected to an O2 concentrator 24/7. Earlier in the day I had run errands. Got home, started chores and I hadn’t yet plugged in the portable to charge the battery. There was 3.25 hours of charge left. Now, I also have regular O2 tanks. Some are empty, but I have a total of 8 to 16 hours there.  And if all else failed, if the outage lasted longer, I could always jump in the car and charge the battery that way.

But I think that first, “Uh-Oh”, messed with my mo-jo. Two hours later power was back, but I was stuck. I picked up a brush, and fiddled a bit. But the way forward was, cloudy. So I called it a night.

The next day, I realized, I had sketched on the back of the paper. Arches can be used on either side. The back is smooth. That could explain why I was having a hard time. I am not familiar with that texture. So I flipped the paper over. Transferred the image again, and started to paint. And the same thing happened. I got stuck.  I painted in the sky, thinking that would get me on the right track. I have fun painting the skies, and they often come together quickly for me. Not this time. It was muck.

The image I was working from, has a bit of curved road and some trees in the bottom right corner. I thought I would attempt a more “complicated” piece, a “grand slam” for the finale. “Ha ha ha,” said the universe. There are also distant homes under the smaller ridge, to the left. It is a view from town. South of my usual Mingus view.

I hit a wall and called it a night. Again. But I did manage to get my #Worldwatercolormonth pieces done. I started #100 one more time. Got about half way, before my eyes refused to stay open. I went back to the 5.5 x 11.5 size sheet.

This morning I looked at the painting, and went to work. #100DaysOfMingus, #The100DaysProject, done. Whew!

 

#WorldWatercolorMonth

 

#11 WWM. 5.5 x 8 in. watercolor on Strathmore 140 lb. cold pressed paper. © 2018 Sheila Delgado.

#11 WWM. 5.5 x 8 in. watercolor on Strathmore 140 lb. cold pressed paper. © 2018 Sheila Delgado.

 

#12 WWM. 5.5 x 8 in. watercolor on Strathmore 140 lb. cold pressed paper. © 2018 Sheila Delgado.

#12 WWM. 5.5 x 8 in. watercolor on Strathmore 140 lb. cold pressed paper. © 2018 Sheila Delgado.

 

Not sure why, but #12 was difficult to edit. The colors are off. Below is a photo to give you a better idea. This is sort of abstracted ice plant.

When I was in 4th grade, my brother and I were latch-key kids. Mom owned two hair salons, one of which was just down the hill behind where we lived. If needed, she could walk home in five minutes. We used to climb the hill behind out house, and make forts in the bushes at the top. Climbing that hill from the parking lot (red), was our “Olympic marathon event”. It was steep, and we had to use the irrigation pipe as our “rope”. Had to do that on the sly, so we wouldn’t get busted.

Hills

The hill directly behind our house was not so steep. One day we got the idea to use the plastic rug protectors as sleds to slide down the ice plant on the hill. Well, the cleats on the bottom (yeah, had to look that up) caught on the ice plant, so that was a no go.

Brilliant idea, and I think the credit goes to me, “Let’s flip ’em over!” So we excitedly slid down the hill, thorns poking our backsides. It was a quick ride. We forgot to think of an exit plan. At the bottom, was a cement drainage ditch. So we had to, sort of, lean to the side to jump off before we hit cement. And THAT is when the thorns scraped our bare legs. Yup, ouch. But I guess the ride was worth it, because I remember we did it once or twice more.

The drainage ditch was usually dry. So. Cal., not a lot of rain. That is what made it easy for Mom to climb the hill. It also was a quick route to the 7-11 that was there at the time. You could still get 5 cent candy then. Ice cream, soda, gum. What more could a kid want but easy access to junk food. There were spindly trees there, and we would sneak behind them so Mom could not see us if she happened to look out the window. We had to be very stealth.

Not sure why I am sharing this, only that these were the things I was remembering while I worked on this piece.

 

Yellow-Salon, Blue-path to 7-11, Red-steep hill, star-home.

 

 

#12 WWM True color. 5.5 x 8 in. watercolor on Strathmore 140 lb. cold pressed paper. © 2018 Sheila Delgado.

#12 WWM True color. 5.5 x 8 in. watercolor on Strathmore 140 lb. cold pressed paper. © 2018 Sheila Delgado.

 

All 100 are in the gallery now. My next post will be a review of #The100DayProject. I will show you my favorites, and share which posts were the most popular. It might take a day or two to go through them all. Ha ha.

Enjoy your weekend!!

 

 

#100DaysOfMingus  Gallery

A Year In The Life Of Mingus

#WorldWatercolorMonth

 

 

 

 

 

 

#WorldWatercolorMonth – #10And #The100DayProject – #99

 

Mingus #99. 11.5 x 5.5 in. watercolor on Arches 140 lb. cold pressed paper. © 2018 Sheila Delgado.

Mingus #99. 11.5 x 5.5 in. watercolor on Arches 140 lb. cold pressed paper. © 2018 Sheila Delgado.

 

Ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall, ninety-nine bottles of beer. That has been in my head all week. I don’t even like beer. Today is the day. Day #100. This afternoon will find me working on Mingus number one hundred.

Today’s sky was a wreck. I managed to save it. There was a cloud on the right. A stripe really. I had gone in and removed paint with a clean brush. It didn’t work.

I let the paint dry. Not completely, but almost. I re-wet the ugly area, and put paint back in, and worked it back and forth until there was a more even wash there. If you look just right of center, you can see a hint of white left. Along the right edge, some of the paint stained, but luckily, it gives the effect of distant clouds forming.

I didn’t mean to leave white along the bottom edge. I wet the paper before I added paint to that hill. I don’t think that works on a landscape this size. It is more dramatic on a portrait orientation. I AM happy though, with how the paint edge uneven. I know I brushed water on in a straight line, and that would not have worked at all.

There is some nice granulation going on. Along the dark edges of the drips, and in the dark along the bottom. I did not use the granulating medium, so that was a nice surprise. It is subtle, but the texture adds interest.

 

#10 WWM. 5.5 x 8 in. watercolor on Strathmore 140 lb. cold pressed paper. © 2018 Sheila Delgado.

#10 WWM. 5.5 x 8 in. watercolor on Strathmore 140 lb. cold pressed paper. © 2018 Sheila Delgado.

 

I watched a short video today, where the artist haphazardly added paint to his sky, leaving white areas for clouds. I often do that, but I plan the direction a little more. He made a lot of vertical stokes, and I use more horizontals. Well, on #10 I tried it his way. Not completely happy with it. I lost most of the hard edges, trying to make sense out of the negative, white, shapes.

I have also had a hard time getting the yellow to scan correctly. In the coneflowers, and in #9, it looks much lighter than it does in person. I warmed these (above) up by adding some Quin gold. Then some yellow ochre. I did not want to add orange, so I added a bit of magenta. Well, too many colors going on, they turned out a bit muddy. So  lesson learned. Again. Ha ha ha ha.

Overall, happy with both. Happy with the practice. Happy with the chance to learn.

 

#100DaysOfMingus  Gallery

A Year In The Life Of Mingus

#WorldWatercolorMonth