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Alice Hauser Fine Art  Alice Hauser Fine Art

Lessons with Larry...Joanne's farm

Joanne's Farm

Lesson with Lawrence Churski
11x14
Oil on Linen

I learned so much from this lesson with Larry.  Lessons in perspective, spring color and conveying the feel of a landscape through my painting.  He is a wonderful teacher, mentor and artist.   I'm so grateful to have the opportunity to study with him.  I give him credit for being right by my side and demonstrating here and there on this canvas.  One day I hope to be able to paint as well on my own. 

Leona Jane's lace

Leona Jane's LaceOil on Canvas
9x12

Leona Jane is my Great Grandmother.  She lived on a farm in Farmington Utah.  My mother always referred to her as "Great Grandma Wilcox on the Farm."  On our rare visits from Iowa, we would find her in the very same day that we left her...with her home made spearmint tea, small loaves of brown bread and her old wood stove.  My brothers and I got to climb her big cherry trees in efforts to pick the fruit so that she could can it, but I think we ate more than we picked.  My mother loved being with her Grandmother.  It was "Great Grandma Wilcox on the Farm," that taught my mother about busy hands, soft hearts and hard work.  She taught her to quilt and to crochet beautiful lace.  The painting above is of my mother's crochet hooks and Great Grandma's lace.  I keep pictures of my Mother and Great Grandmother next to my sewing machine and I feel a connection that is beyond words when I am quilting in their shadows.  I'm not much for making lace, but hope that when they are making lace together again one day...that they'll let me set up my easel and paint them instead.
Alice Leona Jones Hauser

Leona Jane Hatch Wilcox on her wedding day with Joseph Edward Wilcox

Butterfly Wings

Butterfly Wings
12x16
Oil on Canvas

Blue Sky, Bubbles and Butterfly Wings can make a little girl who just got her tonsils out...feel so much better.  Love my little Annie-Mae.  When I was expecting my first child, I dreamt of a little auburn haired girl running through a field of flowers....and then I had a son!  That little girl, one of three beautiful little girls, and the only one with her father's auburn hair came next and now Christiane has her own little strawberry blonde little girl.
Here's a few pictures of my painting process with Annie.

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1st oil Still life in 32 years

Oil on Canvas
8x10
SOLD

The last time I painted a still life in oils was at BYU in 1983.  It was an "Oil Painting For Non Majors" class and I failed it.  It was the only class I've ever had less than a "B" in at BYU or at Kent State's nursing school...I failed it because I just stopped going.  I was pregnant with my second child. (Christiane)  Michael was applying for Medical School and my class was in the evening...when I had morning sickness (actually evening sickness).  The oil paints just aggravated my nausea and I gave up.  Ironic that after all that I have done in my life, that I am back to beginnings in oil, starting over.  But this time, I'm not planning to fail:)  I'm accepting this as what it is...a one sitting painting, a first in a long time...and one that has lots of room for improvement.  I have to start somewhere.

Back to my Richard Schmid Color charts after a sweet visit to Alabama

I spent the better part of last week with grand daughter little Annie who just had her tonsils out.  You know she's hurting when you have to beg her to take a few licks of an ice cream cone!  

Here she is a few days later...still pale and not eating much enjoying a bit of Alabama sunshine.  Yes....it's snowing today again in Cleveland.

Cadmium Lemon Chart
I really can't believe how much I am learning about color doing these charts.  I hope it will show in my work as I keep learning and growing in oils.  As hard as it is to dive into a new medium, I feel really great about the fact that I am no longer afraid of them and I'm fulfilling a life long dream of finally learning how to use them.

Cadmium Yellow Pale Chart
Three done...9 more to go:)

Taking on Richard Schmid's challenge...Making my own Color Charts

I've had a copy of  Richard Schmid's book Alla Prima for 20 years.  It is the greatest book on oil painting that I know of.  I've been in and out of my pastels for 10 years but I've read it a few times...in hopes of one day learning oils.  Recently, in frustration,  I pulled out my old copy, (He has since revised it), and have decided to take his earnest plea and make my own color charts.  With pastels, you just choose the color you want from hundreds of pastels....but there is always a moment when you can't find that perfect color and it is one you can't layer to mix....like a crazy pink for a flower.  As I've begun my quest to work in oil, I've been frustrated not knowing what I will get if I mix this color with that..."how do I get that combination of skin tones that I want?"  "What will make that grass color?"  So this week I ordered pre-made blank color charts and today I began.

  This is the first of 12 charts I will make.  I've followed it just as described in the book...taking my palette and getting five values of each color only by adding white.  As I make the other charts, I will begin mixing colors with a dominant color.  They will be more difficult!

I ordered the color charts from
Artist's blank color chart panel recommended by Richard Schmid

They are wonderful!!! A huge time saver.  They had free shipping and were here by priority mail in 2 days.

I used only a small palette knife as it is easier to keep clean.... a must with the charts to avoid contamination of colors.  Below is just a bunch of pictures showing how it went.  It was the most fun I've had in a long time with art and I was amazed at what I have learned about my palette with just this one chart.
It was great practice with my smallest palette knife too:)

Beginnings :)
The top colors are right out of the tube....The lower colors are supposed to be an off white of the corresponding color.  

Then you start finding the middle values.

This part was so much fun!  

Nothing better to do when there is "snow day #8" going on outside!

I'll post the others as I go along!  I imagine it will take weeks!

Sydney and her doll
Oil on Canvas
I'm finally painting again after struggling with a very sore elbow.  It's still sore but having some better days.   After seeing three doctors, and not painting for a few months....I'm going through Physical Therapy and doing a lot of icing.  Hopefully it will come around.  There are other options, but ones, I'd rather skip :)

This is one of  my grand daughters.  I love painting the kids because for one they are beautiful, and I know them well enough to know if I've captured their sweet little souls.  This is a quiet moment for Sydney, like her mother, she is a busy little girl and I'm sure Jessica took many takes to get her still for a moment.

I'm starting to go to life drawing sessions again....slowly, and will take up more oil lessons in April...but first I've decided to create some extensive oil color charts for my brain.  Unlike pastels, you have to mix what you want in oil and I need to find that out for myself.  I'll post them as I go.  I'm sure it will be a very meticulous messy process!

Practicing Patience

I've been getting some inquiries as to why I'm not posting any paintings lately.  Well....I have an issue with my right arm/elbow. 
I meet with a surgeon in a few weeks...
I am still doing a few shifts in the NICU every week, but I'm not suppose to be doing much else (I'm suppose to be in a splint).  In the mean time...I've been getting reacquainted with my favorite art books and doing some very light sketching...and pattern design for new Grand Baby quilts. (OK, I confess to doing a few quick oil sketches just to pacify my passion!)
I'm not very patient, but I do have to count my blessings.  If and when I have the surgery, I will be off of any painting for a month at least.  Until then, I will be only practicing...patience.