Smart Women

I'm up and running in Florida! We had more problems than usual this year upon our return but things are settled into "normal" whatever that is! I finally added the finishing touches to the acrylic and collage painting that I started about a month ago in Minnesota. It's so good to be back in my own little studio/room off the kitchen, surrounded by my usual stuff. We artists do like "our stuff", don't we?

As I look at this painting I think I may have gone overboard with the "stuff", perhaps it is too busy, but I'm happy with it. I've been reading The Creative Edge by Mary Todd Beam and her advice is to paint what pleases you. She says, "You have really reached a milestone when you don't care what anyone else thinks." How true this is in life as well as in art. I hope that I can continue to paint with that freedom.

Happy week end!

A Short Absence

I will be disconnected for a few days until we reach our home in Florida. If the weather cooperates I'll be able to paint a little bit in the places we visit on the way down. I'm looking forward to seeing my painting buddies in Florida again!

Hotel Les Roches

I'm supposed to be packing and getting ready for our migration back to Florida and I found a little painting I did in France in 2006. We stayed at a wonderful B&B called Hotel Les Roches in Mont St Jean, France. One lovely afternoon I sat and painted the front entry. The face in the arch was the face of the wife of the builder and original owner of the chateau.

If you ever want to get a taste of the French countryside in the Burgundy area I would highly recommend this chateau. The rooms were clean and spacious, and the food and wine was an A plus. The area was full of vineyards and ancient caves full of dusty old bottles of fine wine.

Mini equipment

Today's post is a picture of the second painting I did at the lake. It's of one of the clumps of birch trees that are around the property with the lake in the background. To my dismay, I've painted so many Florida scenes that I have almost forgotten how to paint birch trees, one of my first watercolor lessons. I think I captured the look eventually, though. Along with the painting is the the tiny brush, Pocket Box and and Moleskine. Until I started painting the miniature paintings with gouache last summer, I never used a small brush except for an occasional detail. Just look at me now!

A Break at the Lake

We were invited to spend a few days with our friends at their lake cabin in northern Minnesota this week. I was looking forward to some fall color and I wasn't disappointed. The maple's reds, oranges and yellows were a lovely contrast to some of the trees that were still stubbornly green. It seems like the maples always go first. I sat on the pontoon boat and did a quick painting of the shoreline in the distance. I finally got to use my watercolor Moleskine that has pages that are 5 1/2" by 3 1/2". It's pretty small but the only brush I had was the one in Sketchers' Pocket Box with 12 half pans of paint in a little palette. I'm trying to see how "minimalist" I can get with my equipment. I'm not sure of the size of the brush but it's certainly no bigger than a #2. It's fun to see what can be done with a small book and palette.

A Rose Collage

I painted this Rose Collage in a workshop a couple of years ago. I remember that I really liked the technique but I haven't done much of it until the most recent workshop I did. The last workshop was with acrylics on canvas, but this was done with watercolors on paper. The other similarity was that it was in a square format. It's fun going over pictures of previous paintings and finding that you are building knowledge and techniques all along the way. Each workshop and class is really integrating with what you already know even if you aren't consciously thinking of it. Workshops have a way of making me go beyond what I would do on my own, there is an almost electric, creative atmosphere when you are with a group of other artists.

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!