oil | Sandi Hester

December 25, 2013

Video of Pochade Boxes From Alla Prima

Merry Christmas! I just shot a new video that I’m excited to share with you. I wanted to do a video a while back when I purchased a new pochade box from Alla Prima a year or so ago but never did it. WELL, I loved my box so much that I just purchased another one – a smaller version and I did a short video to show you both of them.

For those of you that aren’t familiar with a pochade box it’s a box you take out and about to paint on – it’s a “desk” and easel all in one! This is a BEAUTIFUL and very functional thought-out box. I just love both of them. Ben (the wonderful and creative designer and builder of these boxes) has thought of everything. These boxes are different from anything else out on the market. The craftsmanship is outstanding! They are functional and a pleasure to work with every time I use them.

Hope you enjoy the video and make sure to check out Ben’s boxes at http://www.allaprimapochade.com/index.html

If you have problems viewing the video then try my YouTube page here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=py73wP3JXhU

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May 2, 2013

Starting Work On the Garden

We got a new tiller yesterday because our old one gave us all she’s got. So now we are ready to get our little garden ready and plant some yummy veggies! I LOVE being about to go to the grocery store in my own back yard :)! Granted we have a limited variation in our “grocery store” but I love that I can at least make a salad and salad dressing from my small garden with the veggies and herbs. Here’s a quick painting I did of some of the tomatoes in our garden last year. I did it more in a sketch book style – I like doing this from time to time.

8×8 oil

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December 4, 2012

Chestnut Group Paintout

6×6 oil

I’m part of a plein air (just a fancy name for painting outdoors) painting group called the Chestnut Group that has special paintouts where we get to paint at places not always open to the general public. We get to paint in some really neat places all over Tennessee. These two paintings are from my first paintout with this group in Warfield, TN (I think that’s where we were). My first painting was of a wonderful old red barn that was HUGE.

After lunch I was pretty wiped out but decided to venture out by myself into the little town square that had some great old buildings – I did this second one really fast.

6×6 oil

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November 3, 2012

Buttercup Paintings for Sale TODAY!

8×8 oil

These are just a few of the MANY paintings I’ll have for sale today.

Here are three buttercup paintings I did in the spring from flowers off our property. The earliest house I remember living in when I was little had buttercups down the property line and I loved them as a little girl and love them still today. We’ve been planting big batches of them around our pond each fall. They were fun to paint too! You can tell the first painting is my earliest buttercup painting because it doesn’t have very thick paint on it. The little russian doll container I use to hold my salt in my kitchen. The last painting is my favorite.

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October 31, 2012

Up To My Eyeballs In Varnish!

Grady and I have been working hard to get ready for the art sale and open house this coming weekend. My studio has been covered up with paintings in one form or another. Here are two shots of two different desks covered in paintings that have been varnished. It’s going to be a beautiful Saturday so I hope to see lots of you!

I meant to mention in the post about the art sale that the bird painting was done with oil bars (or also called oil sticks). I am in serious love with these things!!! It’s like painting with soft sticks of butter and they leave a nice texture to the canvas when you smoosh the bars down as you paint – I’m ALL about texture when it comes to painting! I’ll have more paintings done in these bars to show you as time goes on. They take a while to dry but you don’t have to varnish them because they are made with wax which is really nice. Below is a picture of my every growing oil bar collection. Another wonderful thing about them is that you don’t have to use turp or any mediums – just some paper towels and you’re good to go – they would be perfect for someone just starting out in oils. They also keep you loose with your painting because they’re huge so you can’t get all detail. They are FUN FUN FUN!!!!

October 26, 2012

African Woman and Children

8×8 oil – SOLD

Those of you who are familiar with my work will recognize this painting – it’s my oil version of this watercolor painting I did a long time ago. It’s still one of my favorite pictures to paint from Africa. Here’s the watercolor version…

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October 11, 2012

On to Oils…

6×6 oil – SOLD

I’m moving on from my acrylics (tired of those) and ready to move onto sharing my oils with you. I have a ton – since I’ve started painting in oils I’ve been painting like crazy – I just LOVE them! Grady walked into my studio the other day and said, “wow – you have a LOT of paintings in here – you need to have an art sale and clear this place out!”. I’m going to go back to the beginning and start there with sharing with you. You will notice a difference as I start progressing – I start finding my way after a little while and finding my voice and how I like to apply paint. You’ll start to see the paint application get much thicker with a lot of texture. I found I like thick and juicy paint. I think this was my very first oil painting I did of a little kitty and her bowl of milk. And speaking of art sale – I’ll be having one sometime in October I think. I’m going to announce a date soon to hold me accountable to having it and so you can put it on your calendar.

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Tag: oil