Linda Hunt

I fell in love with the features on this pretty face...this is a friend of Jo MacKenzie and she got the ok for me to paint this woman.  This is a gouache painting on mixed media paper.  The size of this painting is 5"x7".  Gouache is a very versatile medium...it can be washy or thick and opaque.  I have developed a real love for it.

This is my submission for day 29 on the 30 in 30 challenge. 

Once again I am playing with Gouache.  This is a 5"x7" painting on multi-media paper  (100#).  This us my second attempt. The first one was badly drawn and you just can't do anything with a poorly drawn image.

This is my submission for the 30 in 30 challenge a beach scape. This is my dog Stella enjoying the sunshine and sand at the beach.

Ok.....now I am getting somewhere.....this went much better!  I actually like this one a lot.  It is gouache and I think I would enjoy oils, but this was ok....it dried almost as soon as it was down so there was no modeling to be done ....just shape.  Fun though!!!!!

This  was really hard....I tried this once before and failed....this one is much better and closer than I have gotten....thank JM.

I am loving these gouache paints...I feel like I have a great deal of control.  This was a very fun painting to do.  I love to draw women and I had no idea I would enjoy painting a person as much as I did.  This painting is approximately 5"x7" on acid free paper.

This is my entry to the 30 in 30 challenge.  I had fun with this painting.  My gouache arrived today and boy was it fun to work with!  The challenge for one of the DPW challenges was to use wild color to create a painting.  I chose the landscape that I did yesterday and completely altered the color and focused on value knowing that I could use any color and as long as the values were right it would read correctly.  What fun!!!

This is what the South Carolina Low Country looks like....beautiful!

I am offering a set of 5 of my recent floral paintings in a boxed set for sale in my Etsy shop.  They can be found here . They are approximately 4 3/8 by 5 3/4 inches with a matching silver envelope.  They come boxed in a silver box with a plastic lid and silver box. http://www.paintsavannah.com

Do you want to learn a little more about painting loosely?  This is part of what I will cover in this one day workshop held in Savannah on April 5th from 9-4.  For more information go HERE.

Today I started the day off with a drawing of an image I found.  It is great fun to draw and when I sit down and actually get at it I wonder why I don't draw more often.  The painting was from a photograph that I have had for years.  I was practicing finding the Notan on a larger canvas panel and then I painted.  I am going to really study this and see if I can't make more headway in my painting.  I feel that this little painting is very well composed and I like the colors.  I would say SUCCESS!

I chose this image to paint because of the dark background and the darker value throughout the entire painting.  This was a kind of experiment in color and value.  This is my entry for Day 16 of the 30 in 30 challenge.

  This is a street scene from the Farmer's Market this past summer.   This little guy was selling fresh eggs and homemade jelly.  This little painting is 5"x 7" on a rigid gessoed board, the medium is oil paint. 

This is my entry for the 30 in 30 challenge.  It was a lovely townhouse with a garden right out front on the sidewalk.  It just took my breath away.  So beautiful and bright.

This sweet little girl petting a friendly dog at the local Farmer's Market caught my eye.  I loved her stance and endearing gesture.  I am beginning to feel comfortable with landscape, cityscape and people in those scapes.   I took a great deal of abstract license with this painting.  I think that I am beginning to find my voice.  I will photograph tomorrow because the lighting was incandescent in my studio.  Not good.  It washed out most of the grays.  Ahhhhhhh.....photographed under natural lighting....what a change!

Darn I missed yesterday's post!  Oh well, this will be day 11.  This image was taken from the time that we visited the Spoletto art festival in Charleston South Carolina this past summer.  I am beginning to really enjoy these landscapes and cityscapes with people in them!

This image was the DPW challenge for last week.  I enjoyed this painting very much.  The color is just a little washed out because I had to photograph under incandescent lamps. This is a 7"x 5" canvas panel. 

This little painting is 3"x 4" on a canvas panel.  It was a small painting that I did some time ago that just never seemed to work.  Yesterday, I decided to spruce it up and submit for Day 8 of the 30 day challenge.

  The painting today is a scene from our local Farmer's Market (cityscape).  I love the bright colors and festive atmosphere of these weekend events.  I am going to include figures into these landscapes and cityscapes.  I find it a challenge to capture the gesture and believability of the figures and so this will be very good practice for me.  I am letting you know once again that I will be teaching a one day workshop in Savannah on April 5th.  If you are able or in the area and wish to attend please email me.

Day 5 of the 30 painting challenge.  I had fun with this landscape.  I love to paint the salt marsh....it changes so much during the year from season to season.  This is the marsh during the Fall.  I am feeling my way into landscape painting.  I initially did a quick layout establishing the darks and the general shapes.  I then chose where I wanted my emphasis to be and laid in some of the color notes.  I then went into the shapes and put down color trying to use as few strokes as possible.

OK now I am much happier with this little 5"X 7" painting.  I worked hard to simplify and to included enough to keep interest.  I am pleased that I finally got a painting that I appreciate.  I slowed way down in the beginning and then increased speed as the painting began to take form.  I am reading a great book that talks about one finding ones own path.  I think that I am beginning on that path!  Excited!!!

It is a real challenge for me to use strong color.  I thought that this painting needed it.  I felt a little more in control on this particular painting today.  There is that struggle to keep things fresh and not paint too much.  I did resort to smaller brushes in areas and that seemed to work out better.  I love using the biggest brush I can.  All I can say is.......I'll paint some more........ This was one of the many townhouses in downtown Savannah that my husband and I photographed.  I loved the curve of the steps and wrought iron railing.  The sculptural figure in the alcove was a nice addition.

My challenge in the following 28 days will focus around Landscape or Cityscape.  This is an area where I haven't spent much time.  This is a tiny little thing....only 5"x7" on a canvas panel.  My husband and I spent many hours walking the streets of downtown Savannah last Spring and Summer photographing interesting buildings and townhouses.  I tried to keep this painting from becoming too ticky tacky and it was hard.  I think that I will become better acquainted with what to include and what to leave out in the future.  Tomorrow is another day and I am up for the challenge! I recently bought several new books for Christmas and was given a beautiful book on Thomas Hart Benton. I saw a documentary on his life and work and have so much respect for him.  I will tell you a little bit about him and include photographs of some of my favorite paintings.