Landscape

Travels Near & Far – Dianna Shyne – Week #7 (mini Painting challenge)

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This is Week #7 (called “Boathouses”) of “Travels Near & Far” — a mini painting challenge at Acrylic University, and the artist is Dianna Shyne who also took the reference photo used. As with the week #1 work, the photo is of Prince Edward Island, Canada.

This was painted on a 6×6 canvas panel, and the swirly brushstrokes in green — meant to represent grass! — remind me of some of Van Gogh’s swirly painting (but not in good way, ha-ha!) To the right is supposed to be a boat, but since I painted it in the same colors as the water, it now appears “lost” or, rather, more like a bridge.

The thing is, I’m so focused on painting other things, I don’t care enough to paint it in, say, black and white so that it appears as a boat.


Winter Sunset

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This painting was done on a 6×6 canvas panel, and is based on a photo I found on Pixabay. I’ve had this reference photo (significantly cropped from the original) for quite some time. I enjoyed painting it. However, my own photo of my painting is not that great, despite my fiddling with the properties. Around the white sun, I actually have more yellow blended into the orange of the sky. Ditto for the reflection at the bottom right.

Oh, and for the first time, I used my fan brush in painting the vegetation.

Based on an image by Larisa Koshkina from Pixabay

Aspen Forest in the Snow.. After Jed Dorsey

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Earlier in January I watched a paint-along by Jed Dorsey of Acrylic University for their Bloom Membership level. He painted this scene from one of his own photos, and his painting was striking in its use of color, reflecting a golden sky from the sun setting behind the trees in the distance.

I was all set to try that myself. But when I downloaded the reference photo and a photo of his painting, on a whim, I set the saturation to zero — and found I absolutely LOVED the black and white version. So I decided to try painting it to play with the values.

This was done strictly as a study, on an 8×8 wood panel that I had gessoed a while back. The sky, in fact, is simply the white gesso. (It’s more yellow here in the photo than it is in real life.) I deliberately painted the snow thick just for the heck of it.

52 Mini Paintings Challenge: Week #12 – REDO in 2026

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This is a redo of the week 12 painting for Jed Dorsey’s Mini Painting Challenge at Acrylic University, based on my observations of mistakes I made in the original painting. The idea was to get the proportions more accurate, the perspective/distance more accurate, and to convey a better sense of form (namely, that the trees were at the top of and behind a hill).

I painted it on a 5×5 canvas panel. For the sky I used Liquitex Soft Body Light Blue Permanent (PB15, PG7, PW6) and mixed the lower latitudes with more white. The pine trees were painted with Atelier’s Forest Green (PY74, PB15.3, PR101) mixed with Phthalo Green (Blue Shade) and Ultramarine Blue. The darker grass was a mix of Atelier’s Forest Green with Cad-free Yellow Medium by Liquitex, and the lighter grass was a mix of Winsor’s Sap Green (PY74, PG7, PBk7, PW6) and Cad-free Yellow Medium.

Here is a comparison between the original I two years ago, and the one I did today. The newer painting is far from perfect — the trees are still wonky, the paint is gloppy on the trees and I think the grass should be lighter in value — but at least you can tell the trees are on a hill, and the rocks no longer “float”.

Here are some in-process photos of the redo:

Here’s a value comparison between the reference photo [credit: Mark Hadland] and my painting.

Travels Near & Far – Dianna Shyne – Week #3 (mini Painting challenge)

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This is Week #3 (called “Red Cliffs”) of “Travels Near & Far” — a mini painting challenge at Acrylic University, and the artist is Dianna Shyne who also took the reference photo used. As with the week #1 work, the photo is of Prince Edward Island, Canada.

This was painted on a 6×6 wooden panel, which I had toned with naphthol crimson some time ago. I am liking painting on wood. But I dislike the painting itself; the shadow looks fake, and the rock in the background looks more like a slice of chocolate pie! (LOL).

Trouble is, I don’t care enough about cliffs to repaint it. And I need to stop trying to copy Dianna’s style, and focus on the fundamentals.

(Well, I DID modify it a bit after all. The most current view is on the left. A somewhat better painting of cliffs is here.)


Travels Near & Far – Dianna Shyne – Week #1 (mini Painting challenge)

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To boost my confidence after not painting for over a year I signed up for another 52-week mini painting challenge at Acrylic University. This one is called “Travels Near & Far” and Dianna Shyne is the artist. I like her paintings almost as much as I like Jed Dorsey’s, so why not?

Week #1 (called “Last Rays”) comes from a reference photo she took on previous visits to Prince Edward Island. I’ve been to PEI myself — couldn’t resist checking out the tourist attractions related to that famous fictional character Anne Shirley (aka Anne of Green Gables) — so I understand the appeal.

This was painted on a 6×6 Claybord panel, toned in pink.


52 Mini Paintings Challenge: Week #38

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I went the entire 2025 calendar year without painting AT ALL — I was in ICU at the first of the year, and later, dealing with my dad’s metastatic cancer and eventual death. Just wasn’t inclined to pick up a brush.

Back in 2024 I started Jed Dorsey’s mini painting challenge series, but about halfway through the year I got bored of copying someone else’s artwork, so started skipping around with the mini challenge weeks. I only did about half of the 52 so now will do a few more of the remaining — those that most appeal to me.

This is the week 38 painting for Jed Dorsey’s Mini Painting Challenge at Acrylic University. It’s called “Mountain Atmosphere” and is based on a reference photo by Ravi Pinisetti. 6×6 canvas panel, toned in a medium-dark gray.