What can you paint in twenty minutes?

I decided to do small oil paintings instead of drawing this past week at our drawing circle. I took some water soluble oils, my small Open M pochade box, which I can hold on my lap, along with some 5x7 and 6x8 panels.
At our circle, we take turns posing. We have 4 poses that last 20 minutes each, with a break after the first 15 to give the model a chance to say "enough". This worked out just right for me - I concentrated on the face for those 15 minutes and then used the last 5 to put in as much of the hair, bkgd etc as I could.

Here are my results. I loved the freedom of doing this quickly and moving on to the next one, eliminating my usual urge to "fix" things - which often results in ruining them.

Some folks in the drawing circle were curious about the water soluble oils and panels I was using so here is some info.  The best brand I've tried is Duo, made by Holbein.   I rarely thin them, they work pretty well straight out of the tube but, if you do want to thin them, use the water based linseed oil Duo offers. Use water only for clean-up.

The panels are called Multi Media Art Boards. They are thin, rigid and very lightweight. Suitable for all media, they even sell some with a sanded finish for pastels. I was not thrilled with the pastel ones because I prefer more tooth on my pastel paper, but the regular ones worked really well with the water soluble oils. For more info go to  www.multimediaartboard.com

Friday morning I am off to the NC coast to paint for the annual Painting North Carolina plein air event hosted by Germanton Gallery in Germanton, NC. The opening reception will be held Friday, August 11 from 5-8 pm. For details go to germantongallery.com