“Not Much of a Guard Dog,” contemporary urban scene acrylic painting with shed and vehicle

© Carolee Clark, “Not Much of a Guard Dog,” acrylic, 18″ x 24″

“Not Much of a Guard Dog”
by Carolee Clark
18″ x 24″ x 1.5″
acrylic on wrapped canvas

Contemporary painting of a tractor “Rugged Good Looks”

© Carolee Clark, “Rugged Good Looks,” acrylic, 10″ x 10″

“Rugged Good Looks”    sold
by Carolee Clark
10″ x 10″ x 3/4″
acrylic on wrapped canvas

I was asked to paint a tractor recently and I couldn’t get that idea out of my mind so I jumped right in while I was excited.  This is a tractor that I encountered on one of my forays to paint outside last year.  The kind folks at Borgo Pass Winery let us tromp through their property to find inspiration and paint.  I had sketched this tractor while on site and this is the second time I have painted it.

“Urban Ocean View,” contemporary urban scene

© Carolee Clark, “Urban Ocean View,” acrylic, 10″ x 10″

“Urban Ocean View”    sold
by Carolee Clark
10″ x 10″
acrylic on wrapped canvas

“Junkyard Dog,” contemporary urban scene painting with a dog

© Carolee Clark, “Junkyard Dog,” acrylic, 10″ x 10″

“Junkyard Dog”    sold
by Carolee Clark
10″ x 10″
acrylic on wrapped canvas

This painting is a submission for the Virtual Paint Out blog. Their area of concentration this month is Valparaiso, Chile.

Daily Painting, “Day’s End,” contemporary landscape painting with an old truck

© Carolee Clark, “Day’s End,” 10″ x 10″, acrylic

“Day’s End”    sold
by Carolee Clark
10″ x 10″
acrylic on wrapped canvas

This painting was started on location at a flower farm off of Brick Road in Jefferson, Oregon.  I finished it in the studio.

Daily Painting, “Transport Truck,” contemporary truck painting with flowers

© Carolee Clark, “Transport Truck,” 10″ x 10″, acrylic

“Transport Truck”    sold
by Carolee Clark
10″ x 10″
acrylic on wrapped canvas

This painting was the other painting I started on location at the Corvallis, Oregon farmers’ market this week.  The owner of the flower business transports her wares in the truck and then opens the back for extra display space.

Daily Painting, “Vintage Ride,” contemporary car painting

© Carolee Clark, “Vintage Ride,” 10″ x 10″, acrylic

“Vintage Ride”    sold
by Carolee Clark
10″ x 10″
acrylic on wrapped canvas

This painting was done in response to “The Old Truck” DPW challenge  posted by Carol Marine.

Daily Painting, “Beauty in the Alley,” contemporary urban scene

© Carolee Clark, “Beauty in the Alley,” 10″ x 10″, acrylic

“Beauty in the Alley”    sold
by Carolee Clark
10″ x 10″
acrylic on wrapped canvas

Daily Painting, “Daringly Dashing,” contemporary painting of a woman on a motorbike

© Carolee Clark, “Daringly Dashing,” 10″ x 10″, acrylic

“Daringly Dashing”    sold
by Carolee Clark
10″ x 10″
acrylic on wrapped canvas

 This painting is a submission for the Virtual Paint Out blog. Their area of concentration this month is Thailand.

Daily Painting, “Winter on Walton,” contemporary urban scene

© Carolee Clark, "Winter on Walton," 10" x 10", acrylic

“Winter on Walton”   sold
by Carolee Clark
10″ x 10″
acrylic on wrapped canvas

Deb Ammerman kindly sent me this photo that she took in Niles, Michigan with permission to paint from it.  It was a nice high resolution so that I could really zoom in and choose a great composition.  I think that I could create several paintings from this wonderful photo.  Thanks so much Deb!  Click here to see Deb’s Art and Design blog.  She does joyful, abstract work using her creative markings.

© Deb Ammerman

Daily Painting, “Up on Blocks,” contemporary urban scene

© Carolee Clark, "Up on Blocks," 10" x 10", acrylic

“Up on Blocks”    sold
by Carolee Clark
10″ x 10″
acrylic on wrapped canvas

Painting – “Volkswagen Enthusiast” – contemporary urban scene with vehicle

© Carolee Clark, “Volkswagen Enthusiast,” 20″ x 20″, acrylic

“Volkswagen Enthusiast”    sold
by Carolee Clark
20″ x 20″
acrylic on wrapped canvas

I have worked on a couple of larger pieces lately, this is one of them.  The other is “Catherine’s Cottage.”  I love doing both the small pieces and the larger ones.  I have used some of my daily paintings as the jumping point for these larger ones.

As the new year approaches, I take time to reassess my goals (to be done later ;)), and go through a few drawers.  I went through about 10 years of figure drawings today and pitched about half of them (most of the earlier years have already been tossed).  It is really interesting to look back before we look forward isn’t it?  How has our art transformed into what it is now?  It is really fascinating to see one of the first drawings that pushed us into a certain path, a method, a different way of seeing ….

Daily Painting – “Plaid is Back” – contemporary urban scene with vehicle

© Carolee Clark, "Plaid is Back," 10" x 10", acrylic

“Plaid is Back”   sold
by Carolee Clark
10″ x 10″
acrylic on wrapped canvas

Daily Painting – “Beetle Appeal” – contemporary urban scene

© Carolee Clark, "Beetle Appeal," 10" x 10", acrylic

“Beetle Appeal”   sold
by Carolee Clark
10″ x 10″
acrylic on wrapped canvas

Daily Painting – “Wild Thing” – contemporary urban scene with vehicle

© Carolee Clark, "Wild Thing," 10" x 10", acrylic

“Wild Thing”   sold
by Carolee Clark
10″ x 10″
acrylic on wrapped canvas

Daily Painting – “Mae Mobley” – contemporary urban scene

© Carolee Clark, "Mae Mobley," 10" x 10", acrylic

“Mae Mobley”    sold
by Carolee Clark
10″ x 10″
acrylic on wrapped canvas

This is a submission for the Virtual Paint Out blog. Their area of concentration this month is Rio de Janeiro.

Daily Painting – “Prospect Street” – contemporary urban scene

© Carolee Clark, “Prospect Street,” 10″ x 10″, acrylic

“Prospect Street”    sold
by Carolee Clark
10″ x 10″
acrylic on wrapped canvas

Daily Painting – “Park in the Back” – contemporary urban scene

© Carolee Clark, "Park in the Back," 10" x 10", acrylic

“Park in the Back”    sold
by Carolee Clark
10″ x 10″
acrylic on wrapped canvas

Daily Painting – “Ben’s Truck” – contemporary urban scene

© Carolee Clark, "Ben's Truck," 10" x 10", acrylic

“Ben’s Truck” 
by Carolee Clark
10″ x 10″
acrylic on wrapped canvas

I started this painting on location last Wednesday.  I had sketched the scene and was starting to put paint on the canvas when I young man came up behind me.  He was wondering what I was painting.  When I showed him my sketch he said it was a nice drawing of his truck.  The truck is what had initially drawn me to the scene although in the painting I decided to take it off the page for a more interesting composition.  I think that he wanted his entire truck in the scene just as the sketch had been.  In my sketch I had an uneasy feeling about the truck pointing to the left as I wanted  to see where the truck was going to go.  I was thinking that I would start another painting flipping the truck around to face the building (where the viewer would know that it is parked and settled), but another bigger, newer truck came along and parked in front of it.  Ces’t la vie.

I don’t think that Ben will ever see this painting as I don’t know him.  I did ask him his name though, and  thus I got the title of this painting.

Daily Painting – “Follow That Car!” – contemporary abstracted urban scene

© Carolee Clark, "Follow That Car!", 10" x 10", acrylic

“Follow That Car!”   sold
by Carolee Clark
10″ x 10″
acrylic on wrapped canvas

I had an email yesterday, asking me how I developed my skills so I thought that I might talk a little about that in today’s post, trying not to become too verbose.  Perhaps I’ll spread some ideas over several posts.

There are as many ways to become “The Artist” that you want to be, as there are artists!  So don’t despair if you didn’t go to art school, didn’t start at the age of three, or missed the nationally known artist who taught a workshop in your area.

Although I was introduced to art at a very early age and thoroughly enjoyed my crayons, I did not get a fine arts degree.  My interest was always there however, so in my twenties, I signed up for a drawing course through the continuing education section of the local community college.   I was on my way!

Take a class from an artist whose work you admire.  The key here however is practice between classes!  If you go from week to week without picking up a pencil or a brush and expect to see great improvement it likely won’t happen.