Pretty Parrot #14

                                                   Pretty Parrot
                                         Watercolor 9 X 7

I loved painting this bird. I started with new gamboge on the breast feathers but it wasn't quite gold enough so I glazed it with quinacridone gold. The dark for the beak and under the chin were mixed with pthalo blue, alizarin crimson, with a touch of yellow. The blue is cobalt with a little turquoise. There are a few touches of quinacridone orange. The background is just a loose wash of sap green with some burnt sienna. A light spritz with  water creates the texture.

Young Burrowing Owls, # 13

                                        Young Burrowing Owls
                                      Watercolor, 5 X 5

I'm getting caught up with the 30 day challenge by posting two paintings today. This little painting is of the little owls that make their home here in Southwest Florida. They are an endangered species due to development where they like to nest. They dig their nests underground during the dry season, which is now. When the young hatch and are big enough, they like to come out of their hole in the ground and stand watchfully. They get used to humans coming around and snapping their picture. We even have a Burrowing Owl Festival which will take place in February. Birders from all over the world come to take the bus tour around the city to see the owl nests. The owls cooperate by coming out or their nests and look at the tourists. I wonder if they have a list to check off for each nationality of human they see. 

Island House, #12

                                                    Island House
                                         Watercolor, 5 X 7

Yesterday I sat outside beside a boat ramp and painted the little house across the canal. The island has canals that lead to the bay and out to the Gulf of Mexico so there are lots of fishermen who like to launch their boats or better yet, own a home with a sea wall and a dock. This little house didn't have a boat at the dock so maybe he's gone fishing. This is number 12, my submission for yesterday in the 30 day challenge, now I have to find a subject for today.

Rooster, #11

                                                               Rooster
                      Watercolor on patterned acrylic background, 8 X 10

I'm enjoying painting on the patterned backgrounds. The gesso allows for the watercolor to absorb a little but still be removable. The background is gesso tinted with some acrylic paint, the patterns are made with stamps that I have made with craft foam sheets and mat board. I think my rooster needs another leg to stand on, or maybe he has it tucked up under himself.

Beautiful Florida Sunset, #10

                                                    Beautiful Florida Sunset
                                         Watercolor on paper 7 X 10

Sometimes the sunsets are just spectacular, it must be the moisture in the air  from the Gulf of Mexico lingering in the sky so that the sun can do it's magic. I take pictures often and this time I painted one. Usually the palms appear dark, almost black in photos but in life they are really not that dark. So, dig out some of those photos you've taken of sunsets, get out your paints and have a little fun mingling the yellows, pinks and blues into a beautiful sunset. The variety is never ending.

Sara, #9

                                                             Sara
                      Watercolor on paper textured with acrylic, 7.5 X 5.5

This challenge has really gotten me out of my comfort zone and into trying some things that I don't ordinarily paint. I haven't painted many animals except for birds. I thought I try this little dachshund named Sara who belongs to my son's family. She has an unusual coat for a dachshund since it's white with tan markings. This turned out to be more of a cartoon or caricature, but still has a freshness that I like.

Whatchamacallit #8

                                                       Whatchamacallit,
                                     Acrylic, collage on paper, 9X12

We all have them, they're whatchamacallits, just crazy  ideas, paintings, do-dads. We're not sure what they are or what to do with them but there they are and sometime they just make us smile. This little painting has lots of layers that have been  rubbed, scribbled, stamped painted over and around. Even a little collage was added  for good measure. Sometimes it's just fun

to do something that's a little bit out of my comfort zone and put it out there for the world to see. How crazy is that?

Hammock on the Beach, #7

                                      Hammock on the Beach, 
                                    Acrylic on textured paper, 15 X 11

I feel like I've really accomplished something! 7 paintings in 7 days. It's so much fun to be painting regularly, it makes me wonder why I haven't kept up with it before. I guess life just gets in the way sometimes, and once I get away from painting every day it's harder to get back to it. 
This painting was from a photo I took at a resort in the Florida Keys. I think I've seen this scene pop up more than once. I've eliminated some palms that were in the original picture but left in the little island of mangroves off shore. It was certainly an inviting and idyllic spot, probably photographed hundreds of times. But each artist has their own interpretation and style of painting it. No two are alike. 

Challenge painting #6

                                                Ap"pear"antly, 
                                  Acrylic on textured background. 11X11

OK, I'll stop making any more puns about pears, at least for now. You can't see it on this photo but there is a lot of iridescence on the surface of this painting. I just thought it would be fun to add a little gold on the pears and a blue sheen to the background. This is very freeing to paint everyday and not be too concerned about whether it's perfect or not. Just get out the paper and the brushes and do it. I think pears are easier to paint in watercolor than in acrylic. Acrylic looks flat to me, and it's difficult not to get hard edges. I prefer the ability to soften some edges in watercolor.

Challenge paintings # 4 and 5

                                        New Year Angel 
                   Watercolor on gesso background, 7X15

I decided that the backgrounds I made of thinned gesso over old watercolor paintings would be a good canvas for my challenge paintings. It eliminates the need for a background and makes me stretch my imagination for subjects to be compatible with them. This New Year Angel is done in watercolor over the gesso. She is holding a basket of fruit to symbolize prosperity in the New Year. 

   Suddenly Ap"pears"   
       Acrylic and collage on gesso textured paper

Number 5 is another one done on gesso-textured paper. I love painting pears and this one seemed to fit right in that spot. The moon face in the upper right is a collage piece, the other areas were scraped and stamped into the gesso when it was wet. A friend looked at it after I painted it and said, "A pear suddenly appeared in the city". I guess the grid shapes do look like buildings. 

Painting Large

                             Message In An Aquarium
                Watercolor and collage, 22X30

We were encouraged to paint larger paintings at the Florida Watercolor Society convention last September. I have balked at the idea in the past because of the lack of space in my studio and the expense of framing a full sheet painting. But, I decided I was tired of having my small paintings hung in the corner so many times. I took the plunge and painted a full sheet painting. Not my first but the  first in a long time. I started with the background with lots of textural materials, papers, gauze and stamps then added the fish shapes when it was dry. I like the path of light from top to bottom with the implied connections to each side. It was fun to do and now I must get to the framing. Then on to another full sheet painting.

Two Paintings for the Challenge

                                             Waiting Lady  acrylic on paper

                                      Two Spoonbills, acrylic on paper

These are the first two paintings I posted on the 30 day challenge. I found that I had to use Google Chrome in order to get the download feature to work.  Check my last blog for the address of the 30 day challenge if you want to know more or to participate. I have another painting "in my camera" to post later for today's painting. This really takes commitment. I hope I'm up to the challenge.

30 Day Challenge

I'm having trouble with blogspot. I'm unable to access my own picture files in order to post a picture of my painting. I've been able to post my paintings on a challenge called 30 Paintings in 30 days. I thought it would be a good way to jump start the new year and get into the swing of painting again after the holidays. I have been in a workshop for the last 3 days so that has also helped. I decided that I won't know if I can do it (do a painting a day for 30 days) unless I try. The blog for the 30 day challenge is http://lesliesaeta.blogspot.com
Check it out!

                            Bells of Siena, Italy, 7 1/2" X 5 1/2", watercolor

I wanted to save posting this until all my cards were sent out. Now I can put it up because that task is done. I found the stamp about the bells at a craft shop and remembered that I had pictures of this bell tower in Siena, Italy. I think they were part of a convent there. It's different for me because I usually paint something more traditional but this is what inspired me this year.
I wish everyone a very happy and blessed Christmas!

Magnolias on a silk scarf

                                                Left end 

Center

Right end

 

This scarf was done much the same way as the first scarf except that this is a smooth silk and the other was chiffon. The smooth silk allows the use of a fluid resist that allows the artist to keep the colors from running into each other. I used the resist around the petals of the flowers and leaves and also to make the branch shapes to break up the background. In the spots where I didn't get the resist applied you can see where the blue ran into some of the branch shapes. It's all part of the learning process.

 

 

Painting on Silk

Right end

Center

Left end

                                 Hand painted Silk Scarf, 8"x 54" 

I took a workshop on silk painting last week end. I found it to be quite similar to watercolor painting. Our teacher, Linda Lucas, was an accomplished watercolor artist as well. This Lily scarf is the first one that I painted. We used a special pen to sketch our design onto the scarf which had been ironed onto a piece of freezer paper. The ink from the pen disappears when it gets wet. Next we applied our colors. I wanted the colors in the lilies to blend so I didn't wait for each color to dry. After they dried I applied the colors for the leaves, then when they were dry I did the background. When the scarf is dry the colors are heat set with a steam iron, then the scarf is washed, dried and ironed again. I really enjoyed the class and the technique and plan to do more.

Painting at the Gallery

 

 

 

Two weeks ago I had another time of painting demonstrations at the WildChild Gallery in Matlacha Florida. As part of being a gallery artist we spend two week ends a year painting and meeting folks who come into the gallery. I try to demonstrate some aspect of my work either in watercolor or acrylic. This time I took my acrylic paints and some small, 6x6 gallery wrap canvases to paint on. They are just fun little pieces that I paint from my imagination with textures and colors. It keeps me open to possibilities, ideas and materials.

 

 Got Stuff, Acrylic and Found Objects, 6"X6"

 

Sunset, Acrylic, 6"x6"

 

 

                                        Light Chop, Acrylic, 6"x6"

One delightful thing that happened the last hour of the last day was that a visitor from France came by and started admiring some of the work that I had displayed around my table. He saw a painting that he absolutely loved and immediately bought. I was astonished! I've never seen anyone buy a painting so quickly and with so much enthusiasm. Something like that is so gratifying. It really made my day!

Painting on Masa Paper

                   Baby Elephant Walk Watercolor on Masa paper 10X14

I'm not sure what Masa paper is but it's fun to work with. I first tried this technique when painting in a workshop many years ago with Chen Kee Chee, a wonderful watercolor painter and teacher. While working in a class last week I was reminded of this paper again. First you crumple all of part of it into a ball. Then you soak it in clean water until it relaxes a little. You remove it from the water and carefully open it up and spread it out on a clean surface. You then prepare a sheet of watercolor paper the same size by spreading a thin layer of YES glue over it. The Masa paper is then laid on the glue and smoothed with your hands and finally rolled with a brayer. I did a little light under painting at this point and left it to dry. The crackly, wrinkly paper just made me want to paint an elephant in the foliage. I used hand made leaf stamps for the foliage. It was one of those paintings that came together easily and quickly. What a treat!

Eve's Garden

                                     Eve's Garden Watercolor 15X 22

I've been working on this painting for several weeks; it's one of those painting that is hard to stop, you want to keep on adding and subtracting. I was still putting in finishing touches on it today as I was framing it. Once I get it in the frame I have to say it's done. I started this as an experiment on the back of another painting on 300# paper. I laid tissues, rice paper, coffee filters and other papers on the top, wet it a little and then poured watercolor on the papers so that it would soak through to the watercolor paper. It got really wet so I soaked up the excess water by rolling a roll of paper towels over it. Then I let it dry. I took the papers off and then decided by the shapes that were on the painting what to paint next. I started with the flowers on the left, put the figure in next to that and surrounded her with fruit and vegetables. Notice, she's not working in her garden but basking in the bounty and not a weed in sight.

More Sketchbook pages

                                                                          Grid

                                                                   Morning Brew

                                                                 Combined Pages



I've done some more experimenting and playing with some stamps, stencils, and crayons. It's good to know what kinds of marks you can make, how effective a stencil will be. I want to know what the watercolor crayons do when they are wet once and then wet again. What does a half a stencil look like, can I use just a portion and still have an interesting design? Is it more interesting? What does it look like upside down? These are some of the questions I ask myself as I work in my sketchbook. I can go back and find what I've used and how it will look before I commit to it on a painting. I'm very enthused about keeping an experimental sketchbook.

I've Got Wet Brushes

                                Sketchbook Journal pages, continued..,

Now that classes and regular painting time are back in the routine I'm painting a lot more than in the summer. The larger pieces that I'm working on are still in process and not available for the blog, yet. In the meantime I'm continuing to explore some of my materials and stamps in my sketchbook journal. On the left page I collaged some butterflies and flowers, some from napkins, some from printed pages and some from stamping on thin rice paper. On the right side I tried to stamp the palm tree from a stamp I made out of a piece of foam tray that the local grocery store packs with veggies. The dots are made from a piece of non-slip drawer liner that I have painted on and then used a brayer to deposit the paint on the paper. The circles are from whatever round things are within reach and the red is collage of stamped tissue paper as are the diamond shapes and clock. It's good for me to know how these items work on the page. Do they wrinkle, smear, or disintegrate? If so, I don't want them in my "toy box".

Click on the image if you want a larger view.

Rembrandt

                                     My Art Journal Sept 24, 25

When I was visiting friends in Minneapolis this summer we went to the Minneapolis Institute of Art for their special show, Rembrandt in America. Paintings, sketches and lithographs done by Rembrandt had been gathered from around the US and displayed there. I happened upon the entry ticket and decided to do a couple of Rembrandt pages in my journal. The ticket is on the lower left page and I found some iconic Rembrandt images on line to add to my painting, stamping and stenciling. It's been great getting to experiment with some of my "toys" without fear of messing something up.

Journal Pages

Since I'm in between painting projects and I want to do more painting everyday, I've decided to start a daily painting journal. I can experiment with different paints and techniques. I can try out some stamps that I have in my collection and some that I have made. I've decided there will be no rules except to paint often and to have more fun. The fish stamps I made from a piece of foam egg carton. I will be making more of those, they are so easy to imprint with a pattern using a ball point pen and can be cut out with a scissors. I hope these pages will be a motivator to do larger paintings.
Last week end I was at the Florida Watercolor Society convention. I went to lots of demonstrations and especially enjoyed the one given by the show juror, Nicholas Simmons. He said we need to think and paint larger. It's the large paintings that grab the attention and we need to think of museum size not local  exhibition size. I may have to clean off some space on my painting table, it does tend to get cluttered. In the meantime, I'm off to do more journal pages.

Wet Brushes?

I haven't posted anything for such a long time. Guess whose brushes have not been wet? It's been a ridiculously busy summer but now fall is about to show up, classes will start, things will get back on schedule. In the meantime, next week I'll be attending the Florida Watercolor Society convention in Orlando. I didn't enter this year so I'm not in it but I love to see those paintings that did get juried in, meet up with fellow artists and browse at the trade show. I hope to get back in the groove with the blogging this month. I have tried to keep up with everyone else who have been posting. The best tip I picked up this month is www.handprint.com it has great information for watercolorists. Thanks!

Lots of Layers

                               Happy Walk, 15X22, Mixed media

This has so many layers of stuff on it I've lost track. It was an old painting that I covered with torn pieces of hand painted tissue. I thought the surface was too blotchy so I put a thin layer of gesso on it. I tried a rather geometric abstract on it in watercolor and wasn't happy with that either. By now I have nothing to loose so I just began to play with colors and stamps and collage. Finally I stopped when it was a painting I liked.  Along the way I had collaged the words happy and walk. This made me think of Psalms 1, so at the end I collaged that below it towards the bottom right. I'm still looking at it to decide if I'm really finished, but I think I am.

3 Postcards

                            Garden Wall

                                  Old City Wall

                                             Old Window

It's been a month since I last posted! I have a good excuse, we've been on a cruise. My DH decided that to celebrate one of those milestone, decade birthdays we needed to do something I've wanted to do for a long time, a European cruise. We started in Southampton, England, stopped at all the Scandinavian ports and went as far north as St Petersburg, Russia. We were gone for two weeks and I think I could have stayed on that ship, Queen Victoria, for two weeks more. It was a trip of a lifetime. Ever since reading about Peter the Great and later, Catherine, I've wanted to see the fabulous palaces of St Petersburg and the Hermitage Museum. They more than lived up to their reputation; unbelievable opulence. 

On the days that we were at sea there was opportunity to paint with an instructor and some other passengers. I had my own watercolor kit along so I painted the same pictures everyone else painted but mine were postcard sized instead of 8X10s. it was a wonderful way to spend afternoons at sea.

I Think It's Finished

                                            Ampersand, 15X22, Acrylic

I've been away for part of the last month and haven't posted anything so I decided to get this abstract out and look at it one more time. I did a little tweaking but I think I'm done. It's hard for me to know for sure that an abstract painting is finished, or if it's gone beyond finished. Have I worked on it too much or too little? This one has been in the works for several months. I work on it a little and then put it away so that when I look at it again I have "fresh eyes". I think I have gotten this one to the point where I don't want to do anymore to it. It's hard to tell from a photo but there is a lot of texture underneath the paint on this painting as well as the visible texture. The ampersand is done with a metallic gold and that is also not discernible in the photo. I tend to overdo the metallic paint so this time I've decided to exercise restraint. I'm in a class this month so I hope to have more paintings to post soon.

It's a Funny Art World

                                   Ebb Tide, Mixed media on paper, 15x22


I posted this painting several weeks ago as an abstract seascape. However, it was originally posted with the blue band on the top instead of the bottom. In the meantime I took it to the frame shop for a frame. When I got it home the framer had put the wire on it to hang this way. Since I had signed it vertically they couldn't have known by the signature which way I intended it to hang. I decided that as an abstract it could hang either way and entered it in our art leagues nautical themed show. I was awarded an honorable mention and I had a great time at the reception explaining to people that it was hanging upside down. The show judge saw rather ethereal masts and sails of ships in the painting. What do you see?

Sunset Finish 11X15 watercolor

Our local Art League has a show in the spring with a nautical theme. One of the sailing clubs in the area chooses a painting from the show for their T shirt for the regatta they have in the fall. This year my painting, Sunset Finish, was chosen. I understand that I will be invited with spouse to the regatta and all the festivities. It sounds like quite an honor, indeed. 

                  Abstract Seascape 15X22 Acrylic, mixed media on paper


Is anyone else confused by this new blogger "interface"? I guess I don't like change; maybe it's my age. 

This painting is similar to the painting called "What Lies Beneath". The difference is that it's painted on paper and the other was on canvas. This one has little bits of egg shells pressed into the molding paste for added texture. I've enhanced some of these with colored paint. The disadvantage of doing a painting on paper is that it has to be matted and framed with a spacer so that the glass doesn't touch the raised areas. It does look very nice with a rounded white frame, though, and I'm already to enter it in a show. 

My photo got grey on the edges and I gather from reading another blog that it's a function of the camera to "average the whites". My camera is just a point and shoot so I don't know if I can turn off that function or not. Has anyone else had a fix for this?

Tangled

                                    Tangled acrylic on canvas, 16x20

This painting was made by using spider webbing stretched over the canvas. The webbing is a material available usually at Halloween and is stretched about to look like spider webs. It takes very little of it to pull and stretch over the canvas and I fastened it down with push pins into the back frame of the canvas. The acrylic is thinned with polymer gloss medium and water so that it can be poured and absorbed by the webbing. Spraying with water also helps to make the paint run. It makes an interesting abstract pattern. After it had dried I used a thinned gesso to veil some areas, I thought I would do more but fellow artists said it was "done". Since I didn't know what else to do with it, I took their advice and signed it.

Photobooks

Folded Photo book 6x6 watercolor and printed papers.

I learned how to make folded photo books last summer. I have been using the pretty double sided scrapbook papers that you can buy in craft stores. Then I got the bright idea to make the fronts and backs of the books with some of the watercolor paintings that I have. Many of them are paintings that were done in a workshop so they are not eligible to be put in a competition or they are not quite the quality for framing but they have some nice areas. I laid the painting outside and gave them a good coating of Krylon matte finish so the watercolors wouldn't be damaged. Then I chose areas in the painting that would make a nice cover and papers that would be compatible with the painting. The books are tied shut with a ribbon. The light was fading when I took the pictures out on my deck but I wanted to get a shot of it before taking it to the gallery tomorrow. The top picture is the closed book, the bottom is the opened book which looks a little like origami. I think they make very nice gifts.

What Lies Beneath

    What Lies Beneath, Acrylic with mixed media 20X20 wrapped canvas

It's been way too long since I posted a blog. I just don't know where the time goes. I started playing around with this technique after a workshop taught by Shirley Mancino. Modeling paste is applied in a swirly manner on a section of canvas or paper. Some of the paste, along with glass bead medium, is dragged down the painting. After it dries you can paint it however you choose and encourage the paint to run down the canvas. After the paint was dry I added tiny seashells with gel medium. It made me think of what was underneath the white caps if you could see a cross-section of a wave; the seashells tumbling and the seaweed hanging. I love the texture of the modeling paste and the glass bead medium and I plan to use it again. As a watercolorist it was also interesting to use acrylic in such an aqueous manner.

Zentangle?

Cup and Saucer Zentangle 4 1/2 X 6 Sharpie on paper

At our annual Art League spring luncheon we were all introduced to Zentangle and given the opportunity to try one ourselves. Of course we didn't get formal instruction, just a piece of paper, some pens, and some examples that were passed around. All of us in attendance make art in some form or another so it was interesting to see all the different things that were drawn in about a 10-15 minute time frame. When I got home I checked out Zentangle on the web and found that it is a bit more sophisticated than our playful doodles. They have actual instructors and formal names for the designs that fill the space. I looked to me like they are mostly done in black pencil. It was fun to do and another interesting art form to learn about. I would love to get comments from anyone who has some information about Zentangle.

Another Great Workshop

                                      Untitled, 16X20 Acrylic on tissue.

I just finished another great workshop. This week end I was with Shirley Mancino and 8 other wonderful artists exploring abstract or semi abstract art. Shirley's art can be found at http://www.shirleymancino.com/. I have this painting, which is finished, and two that are almost finished in just two days. It was more like play than work and we enjoyed Shirley's teaching style and methods a lot.
This painting was started by spreading acrylic paint which was thinned with polymer medium and water carefully on tissue paper which had been crinkled. The tissue was laying on a plastic bag surface so that it could be peeled off when it was dry. Shirley explained that some plastic bags work better than others. The tissue gets very fragile when it is wet so care must be taken.
After the tissue was dry templates of the horses were drawn onto the painted tissue and then painted negatively (the blue around the horses). I think it makes quite a striking painting and I'm enthusiastic about trying this process again.

Artist trade

                         Me, this week end at the Wild Child Gallery.

I painted outside at the gallery this week end. I did some, what I call, little wash pictures. They are small and easy enough to work on in between talking to visitors as they come through the outdoor part of the gallery. We had a lovely week end, lots of sunshine and friendly folks from all over the world.
I don't have a photo of the paintings because at the end of the day yesterday one of the other artists suggested that we trade our works with each other. Since the other two were jewelry makers that was more than OK with me! I ended up with two lovely pairs of earrings in trade for my little 1/8 sheet paintings, which I hadn't photographed. I was so excited about the trade I forgot to take pictures. So, here's a picture of me at the table with my brush in hand. Behind me, on the fence, are copper sculptures by another artist.
Hope you all had as fun a week end as I did.

Abstract with Collage

                                Impending; Acrylic/collage on paper 15x22

This is the latest of several abstracts I've been working on since the last workshop. This one has been fun to see evolve into a finished painting. It started out with the band of tan on the top but as I worked on it and turned it the painting wanted to be this way. The thick stringy collage near the center (why do I always do that?) has been "gilded" by using stamp ink and embossing powder set with a heat gun. I've always loved to put a dab of gold in my paintings. In regards to the title, perhaps I was influenced by the disasters in the center of the US last week, but the dark areas reminded me of storm clouds and the line coming down of a twister tornado. To me there is the look of an approaching storm. To the left is the hint of a rising sun, the hope of a new tomorrow.