Birthday Bouquet

I love to paint original birthday cards for close friends. Sometimes there just isn't time to get it done and get it in the mail on time. On those times I have to settle for a print of a painting. That seems to work OK, too. People are happy to receive a "real card" in their mailbox instead of an e mail card. So this one was done earlier this summer of some flowers I had from the farmers' market. It got painted on time but also copied so that I can use the bouquet again and again. I like to tell friends and family members that I am glad they were born. Whenever your birthday, I hope it is a happy one.

Pomme and Wine with Chocolate

I'm continuing my backwards journey through the workshop and I'm now ready to post pictures of the little warm-ups that were started the first day. I was very unsatisfied with that first days work so, on the second day I painted over and put collage on them. They are only 6X6 inches. I still used the same technique of allowing the under painting to come through by using a thin glaze and dabbing it with tissue while it was still wet. Perhaps if I had played with it a bit more I would have glazed again over some of the collage but I think I will leave it alone for now and do that the next time.

I Love Paris

The second day of last week's workshop the assignment was to plan something with words in the painting. I had a paper with the Eiffel Tower on it that I thought I would like to incorporate into my painting so I decided that my word would be Paris. The first step was to choose an abstract design for the "bones" of the painting. Once the design was chosen and painted, making interesting textures and layers in the paint along the way; we could then place our collage pieces into our painting. Finally, the letters were stenciled and the painting embellished with a little gold paint. After a week of looking at the painting I've decided that it doesn't need another thing. What do you think?

Orchids in acrylic

I took an acrylic workshop with an artist friend of mine, Karen Knutson. I don't ususally do paintings in acrylic but I thought it would be fun to learn something new. I'm always up for a challenge. The most frustrating thing for me was mixing the colors to get the color I wanted. Usually I ended up with a big pile of too much paint, but that should improve with practice. It was quite a process of building up successive layers of colors and removing by using water of alcohol to reveal the color underneath. There were also layers of collage to add interest and texture. I'm posting my last painting first because it is the most completed. I hope to have time in the coming week to finish my other attempts.

Osprey Nest

This osprey nest has been on this pole for many years. It seems like the osprey nest is always active. It's situated on Matlacha in the public park near the Pine Island Art League building. Since Matlacha is an island, it is an ideal place for osprey; surrounded by water, the birds have an abundant supply of fish. Osprey are also known as "fish hawks". They are wonderful flyers, fishers and nest builders. Every year they add more sticks to their nests. I wonder if it's a bird version of "keeping up with the Jones".

The Fishingest Bridge

This bridge in Matlacha Florida is called by locals "The fishingest bridge". On many days you can see the whole bridge lined by people fishing, depending on what's in season. It's a draw bridge, as you can see by the picture, it is open allowing a sailboat to go through the pass. The bridge also services a very busy road and the traffic backs up until the bridge is closed again. This gave me an opportunity to hop out of my car and shoot a picture so that I could paint it. The building with the red roof is a motel that is built out over the water so that the guests can walk out of their doors and fish anytime they want to. Matlacha (Mat-la-SHAY) is a unique little place that mixes fishing with art galleries.

Something New

I found a new product to try while looking around my local art store. They are like watercolor pencils but when you wet them and they dry, they are permanent. They are called Inktense by Derwent. You can work over them and add to them and the color underneath will not move. I did my intitial drawing with them and when the first layer dried I went in with watercolor to get the depth of dark that I wanted in the wave and water areas. I think I'm going to enjoy doing watercolor sketches with them; so far I have a tin of 12, enough to have some fun for now.

The Pits

There was an old book title that read, "If Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries, Why Am I In the Pits?" I thought I'd finish my Cherries and Spoon series with the pits. I did, at last, succumb to their delicious juiciness and ate them. I often wonder how the old master painters could stand there and paint the obviously delectable food in their still life paintings, and not eat their subject. They didn't have the advantage of taking a digital photo as we do so that we can use the reference well beyond the "expiration date".

Another Cherries and Spoon

I'm really enjoying my cherries and spoon paintings. Cherries, especially the Rainer variety, are fun to paint with their yellow and red coloring. I enjoy the reflections of light on the spoon, too. My daughter who now lives on the West Coast in Oregon says that the cherries are available around the country because there was a bumper crop this year. Yea for bumper crops!

Rainier Cherries with a Spoon

We have been blessed with Rainier Cherries at our local supermarket. They seem to have a much shorter season than the usual red cherries. Their sweetness is legendary and I long thought that growers in Washington State kept them to themselves, along with the peaches, apricots and marion berries. Perhaps more are being harvested these days. Whatever the reason for them showing up in Minnesota, I had to attempt to paint those two tone little orbs before eating them. Next I'll be on the lookout for some other fruits from Washington State.

Deck Flowers

It's been cool and windy in Minnesota lately. We could use a little warming, global or otherwise. Some friends and I tried to do our artwork out on the deck, it was sort of sheltered and just enough sun to keep us from heading indoors. I had a good sighting of a colorbowl of flowers and added a few pieces of pottery for a nice little still life. I wanted to do the cat but he was unwilling to join us. I decided a little ink caligraphy would add some pizzaz.

A Man Seated

The Different Strokes picture this time is a man seated on a folding chair. Nothing too interesting about that, or his surroundings. Sometimes I think the challenge is to make an interesting painting out of something ordinary. Maybe I think too much! Anyway, I did the exercise and decided that the painting was crying out for some red so I made the ordinary brown chair red. It works for me! You can check out how other artists painted the same picture at http://differentstrokesfromdifferentfolks.blogspot/

Last Night in France

It seems that the latest memories are the most vivid. We had a morning flight out of France so we were in position near the airport on our last night. As usual the trains were scheduled to go on strike the day we were to leave. Being near the airport is the smart thing to do even if one desires a last night in Paris. Luckily, we had a west facing window in our hotel room or I would have missed a spectacular sunset. It was one of those sunsets that lasts and lasts and the colors just get better and better. Long after the sun had gone down there was still an orange glow on the horizon. The sun peeked in and out of low clouds and at last came out from behind the conical steeple before decending behind the horizon. My painting doesn't do the scene justice but I enjoyed reliving the breathtaking sight.

Painting at Sea

Another little painting that I did when the seas weren't too rough. A melon slice and a lemon. My inspiration was from another blogger, now I can't find the painting and give credit because it was several weeks ago. Thank you, friend. Rather than copy her painting I did it from memory because I thought it looked so fun to do.

I'm getting my brushes wet again, after a long period of dryness, at least for me. A friend challenged me to just paint for a certain length of time, 1 hour or 2 hours, and then just stop for the day. Even more challenging, do a completed watercolor in that length of time. Not so easy if you paint wet on wet, the drying time is too long. So, small and quick it is!

View From the Ship's Balcony

This little painting was my view from the balcony of the QM2 on one of the brighter days at sea.

Our trip across the Atlantic reminded me of the old silly Navy song; "I joined the Navy to see the world and what did I see? I saw the sea!" We had a nice balcony stateroom but there wasn't much to look at. There was a report of a whale sighting and dolphins but not when I was looking. Truth be told, the whale sighting wasn't more that seeing the spout way off on the horizon. Most of the weather was also gray and rather stormy so it was hard to paint with the constant motion of the ship even though it had modern stabilizers. This is not to say it wasn't a pleasant way to cross the ocean, it was; they even had a watercolor class (which I didn't take advantage of). There were many lovely things about it, I just had a hard time getting into the zone for painting.

At sea

Believe it or not, I'm writing this at sea. We are crossing the Atlantic to England on the QM2. I won't be able to post my usual watercolor blogs until we return in early July. I hope to have lots to little paintings to share then.

Pam's Peonies

My gardening friend, Pam, graciously picked some of her peonies for me a few days ago. I have been working on a painting of them ever since. I have a vase that is made to look like birch bark that I love to use, it's shaped like a big piece of birch bark that has been curled around and fastened together. This was a bigger painting project than I thought it would be. Interspersed with the peonies were daisies, just to add some interest. I was challenged all around with the white daisies and peonies, it was quite a lesson. I think painting from a live subject is so much more challenging than from a photo but it is worth the doing.

Spring Flowers; Peonies

I've been trying to paint the peonies that I saw this week. They were the single petal type and remind me of poppies. The first ones I painted are tight and hard edged, which was OK but I long for a looser style. Nothing gets me painting loose like Yupo, so I threw some paint on some Yupo and think the first results are quite fun. I may play around with it some more and if I do, I'll be posting any additions that I make.

A Different Strokes Challenge

I'm just getting into painting again since the "transition". I wanted to enter the Different Strokes Challenge and today was the final day to submit an entry. I had to get my brushes going fast. Sometimes if you don't sweat it too much things work out better. That was the case today. I had a picture of a bull that I always wanted to paint but didn't know about what background would be interesting. The Challenge provided me with a perfect background for my black bull. Is he an Angus? I don't know, he was all by himself on a ranch in Wyoming, and he wasn't too happy about it. He stopped complaining long enough for me to take the picture. I think the farm picture is Pennsylvania, maybe he'll be happier there.

Transitions

This is a drizzle rooster I did awhile back. You drizzle a glossy acrylic outline and when it's dry you can wet the paper and add the color. It's a fun process, especially with chickens.


We've been in transition the last couple of weeks. We pack up and leave Florida's hot and steamy weather for something more moderate in Minnesota. People call it the theater of weather. You can get it all in just to span of a few hours. Some years a summer in Minnesota can be as hot and humid as one in Florida, but that is unusual. I hoped I could paint something during the down time of traveling but it just didn't happen. Now that we are settled in, groceries bought, bags unpacked, laundry done, I can get some organization going in my painting area and get back to blogging.