A New Beginning-Artichokes

Purple Artichokes 15X22

I've been wanting to paint these fabulous purple artichokes since I took the picture of them at an Oregon farmers market last fall. This may be one of those paintings that I will work on over the summer, building the composition and the colors as I go along. Right now it's very low key, values not more than a five in a one to ten scale. I guess I'm playing it safe, as I usually do, sort of timid to let the values get out of control. On the other hand, I love to build the colors up and watch the painting emerge out of the pale washes.

Undersea Turtles

I'll bet you thought I'd never finish and post this painting. I think it's done, at least as much as I'm going to do. Until it's actually framed you never know. I've even been known to take things out of the frame and "adjust" something. What it really needed was to be darkened under the turtles so I went for it. I find it hard to get really dark in watercolor, it's easier to be wishy-washy and not bold. So, I'd really value what some of you followers think, if you have time to make a comment. Thanks.






Undersea Turtles 15X22

Lighthouse

This is the lighthouse at Diamond Head in Hawaii. That was the challenge for the Virtual Paint Out this month. I've been painting water scenes for the paint out so I needed to find another subject and came across the lighthouse. It was a nice change from the other kind of painting I've been doing today. The "roll the paint on the walls" kind of painting. It was for a friend that needed help so there we were, an all day paint out, just not the fun kind. After that it was refreshing to think about sunny Hawaii, especially since this was the 8th straight rainy day in Minnesota. Now I have a little 5X7 piece of Hawaiian paradise for those rainy days ahead.

Up and Running in Minnesota

I'm finally settled enough in our summer digs to paint and read and write blogs. Yay! I worked from a photo that I took of a tiny bouquet that was on an outdoor table. I loved the shape of the cast shadow of all the little leaves and flowers that were in with a single iris in a tiny pitcher. I was hoping that I could get it done in 20 minutes so that I could put it on Twenty Minute Challenge blog, but it took me 50 minutes to get all the shadows and ruffles done to my satisfaction. It surely is good to be painting again, I feel like I've been without a brush for too long. I did manage to paint one landscape while at a friend's house on our trip up north but that was it. Now if I can just keep it going, does it help to set a goal? I'll try at least four paintings/blogs a week.

Blue Iris

I have one more attempt at an iris. I find them to be difficult flowers to paint, but I'm getting the hang of it. This one I painted without drawing it first but I think it is better to do the drawing before painting. Sometimes I want to get out the paints and just do it and it's not always the best idea. On the other hand it does have the advantage of spontaneity. I love the way Janet Rogers just paints a flower with no drawing. I have a lovely rose painting she did as a demo at a workshop. I look at it an sigh. I wonder how many she had to do to get that good.

We will be in transition from south to north for the next week. I hope to be blogging again soon.

Ruffles

There was a ruffled iris among the blue iris in my daughter's garden. It wasn't quite pink or bronze, it had undertones of purple but also yellow. I guess if you mix a purple and yellow you get a brown color but this was a prettier color and very difficult to duplicate. The fuzzy things, whatever they're called were bright orange. I added watercolor to my pencil sketch, unfortunately I didn't have my watercolor Moleskine but a little sketchbook and the paper was pretty thin and crinkled from the water. It makes for a nice memory of my time at our daughter's house.

Spring

Ink Iris

I finally got a taste of a non-tropical spring while visiting our daughter in Portland, Oregon. She had beautiful iris in her garden that were begging to be sketched. I did this one with an Elegant Writer, a calligraphy pen that is not permanent. When you touch water to it you can get lovely shading and even some variation in color.

While we were there we went to the Portland Rose Garden and even though most of the roses were not quite ready to bloom, there were a few early ones that were stunning. With all the photos I took I'll have a lot of references to work with.

More Blue Herons

Back Water Heron

Blue Heron on the Beach

Acrylic on 5 x 7 Canvas Boards

I'm still in the heron painting mode. It seems these little canvas boards lend themselves to this type of painting. Sometimes people just want to take home a little momento of something from their trip to Florida. This is what I'm hoping, anyway. Now to find some simple frames to set them off and I'm good to go to the gallery with them.

Blackbird Has Spoken

Gallery Wrapped Canvas Acrylic 6"X 12"

I can't believe how long it's been since my last post. I must be busier than I think. Sometimes I have several works going at the same time and nothing is finished. This little acrylic had a layer of bead gel on it at first which I didn't care for so I covered it over with molding paste and made some designs on it. I didn't have a plan, I was just playing with it and trying to make it interesting. When the molding paste dried I started painting it and finally came up with a sunrise, moon set motif and the song "Morning Has Broken" came to mind. With that on my brain I had to have a blackbird. I found a blackbird picture and made a gel transfer. If you've ever made a gel transfer you know this takes lots of layers of gel medium on the picture and this can take several days for the layers to dry and get thick enough. Finally I rubbed the paper off and was able to cut my blackbird out and fasten him to the painting. I did have to darken him with black paint though, I didn't think the transfer turned out dark enough.

The Gallery with Happy Colors

The gallery owner, Peggy McTeague, wanted a picture of her gallery painted and printed on card stock. I painted the front of the WildChild Gallery from a picture that I took since to sit in the street and paint would be a very dangerous thing to do. I painted it on paper with acrylic paint. I wanted to try to paint with acrylics in a watercolor style. It was an interesting experiment and I think it worked out quite well. You may wonder at the bright exterior color. This is a common thing to do in this area; it's a Caribbean influence, I think. The brightness of the sun seems to beg for bright colors. Dark earth tones just wouldn't do. People show up in their blacks and tans from the North and before you know it, they are sporting colorful outfits, too.

Sea Shore Heron 2

This is the second in my series of a blue heron on the shore of the Gulf of Mexico. These are mini paintings, 3X5, that are donated to our art league every year for fund raising. These will go on sale next February during our annual sale.

It's painted in acrylic on a canvas board.

Sea Shore Heron

I'm determined to get my mini paintings done for next year so that I don't have to scramble to get them handed in on time. I have some good photos that I took of a heron walking on the beach so he's my subject this year. People were asking for more bird pictures this year so I hope that's what they want in 2011. This is the first of four that I finished. It's done in acrylic on a 4X5 canvas board. It's pretty small by my standards but that's the size we are required to do. I find it easier to paint that small with acrylic as opposed to watercolor. I guess it's easier to correct mistakes by painting over them.

Undersea Step 3, 4

When I looked at step three I thought the turtles didn't look like they were underwater and that the bottom of the sea wasn't integrated with the rest of the picture. The solution, I thought, would be to give it all a wash of Thalo blue, green shade. When I did that, I lost all my vibrant colors that I loved so much about the painting. Since then, I've been trying to regain some of the vibrance without making it look like everything is pasted on a background. I've never had so much difficulty with this kind of painting. Now that I'm showing it to the world, I'm having problems. It just serves to remind me not to take myself too seriously. It's only paper and pigment, get over it! The outcome will be posted soon.

The Auditorium

I painted this for http://virtualpaintout.blogspot.com. The assignment was to paint a scene from the Canary Islands, off the coast of Spain. I found this scene on google maps.

This is an amazing building; an auditorium in Tenerife. From the angle that I painted it looks like a huge ocean liner. You can tell it's size by comparing the size of the car. I'm not very good at cars so I only painted one. Also, there are two tiny figures towards the back on the right side. The people look dwarfed by this building. It looks like it's all white so what I'm painting is the shadows on the sides, quite fun. The view from the side of the building (maybe someone else will paint that) the building reminds me of a giant conquistador's helmet.

Organizing magazine articles

It must be a spring thing, I've finished a project to preserve the art magazine articles that I really like. I came to the conclusion that in order to avoid renting a warehouse for my art things I have to pare down some things. The first thing I decided to tackle is my collection of years of art magazines. Each month each exhibitor is required to staff the gallery at our art league for one afternoon. In between talking to guests I began going through my magazines and cutting out the articles and artwork that I really liked. These were put in sheet protectors and put in a ring binder. I ended up with two ring binders, but it's much better and more organized than a stack of magazines. I can easily find subjects or artists by going to the appropriate section. It took quite a few afternoons over several months but I'm finally finished up to 2009.

P.S. I'm still working on the Undersea painting, too.

Undersea, step 2

In step 2 I'm beginning to define the undersea elements; the shells, rocks and coral shapes. I've also found some jelly fish shapes that I will try to use to make some more interesting shapes besides the turtles that are beginning to show up. I think the colors are very pleasing and I am going at it slowly. I love this part of the painting, doing the negative shapes and making the subjects come alive. At least that is what I hope to do. I'm finding little fish peeking out behind coral and others in the light area. I'm really enjoying this process.

Wave Boarders

Wave-boarders 5x7

While at Daytona Beach with the grandchildren this week end I got my little paint box out and painted some wave scenes. The kids were having such fun with their wave boards riding the waves into the shore. I painted this little scene for them to take home as a souvenir. They are the two on the left. There were a lot of kids out there in that cold water; at least to me 65 degrees is too cold to swim in but they didn't seem to mind. The day was partly sunny, but perfect for beaching.

Undersea, step one.

This is step one for an undersea painting I started a few weeks ago. I wet the paper on both sides and while it was really wet I started adding the colors. Then I added various items to make textures; torn wax paper, coffee filters, rice papers, and gauze for the stringy stuff. This is my favorite way to make an under painting or background. I planned ahead that it would have turtles, fish, coral, shells and rocks. I have used salt for texture, too but I'm getting away from that because I've been told that it will attract moisture, especially in our FL humidity.

I have another picture of it as it has progressed and will post that tomorrow.

Those Piles of Old Paintings

I have what my son calls "lots of inventory". Sometimes I look through it for ideas and to evaluate what went wrong, what worked. I did a half sheet watercolor of pink poppies years ago and it was nice but not too exciting. As I looked at it I thought the three poppies near the top would look nice framed by themselves. I cut them right out of the picture and darkened the sky around them. I think they will make an attractive note card and a nice 8X10 piece. Perhaps I can try a Myrna Wacknov experiment with the rest of the painting, a little gesso, a little collage and who knows? It may turn out good or it may just be a fun exercise.

Orange on Found Paper

I started my painting session yesterday at the Art League by finding some donated paper. I wasn't sure what it was so I decided to do a 20 minute challenge with it. One of the artists brought juice oranges to share and I decided that would make a good subject. As I began my painting I noticed that the water in my paint was being sucked up by the blotter-like paper. Indeed, if my brush was really wet, it soaked right through the paper. Since the pigment doesn't lay on the surface more than a nano-second, it's very difficult to blend colors on the paper. I worked in layers, instead. I think the paper is for print making. I may try a mono print on it and see how it works out.
My scan of the painting is more vivid than that of the actual painting, I noticed the same thing with the pears. I tried to adjust it with my picture program but wasn't happy with any of the results. Does anyone have any ideas that aren't too technical? Thanks.