Abstract Impressionism

This is what I started with:

This is my final painting: Abstract G, water media, 15x22

I took a 3 day workshop with Sue Pink, a very talented artist who does abstract impressionism paintings. She was very generous in showing us her techniques and helping the class progress, layer by layer until we all had individual paintings we could be pleased with. We worked with watercolors and acrylics on paper. Some of the paintings were done on new white paper, some were old watercolor paintings that were covered over with a mix of gesso, water and matte medium. Abstract G was done in approximately 5 layers. You begin with layers of random colors and lines making imprints as you go. After that dries Sue told us to begin by covering the areas that we like the least with a neutral color and continue doing that. I found that to be a very easy way to start, eliminating things until I got to the point that I liked what was left. You add textures and lines using whatever you have on hand. We used stencils and stamps; manufactured or hand made; watercolor sticks and pencils, there really was no limit. We just let our creativity rule the day. It was great fun and the days were gone in a flash.

                             Batik Pink Orchids 11x13, watercolor batik

This is my second painting that I did using the wax batik method. It's painted on kenwashi paper which is thin and has a lot of threads visible in it. It was painted over a year ago but I just got it framed for the last show, hoping for a sale but it's still with me.
I have another workshop to participate in this week. It's being taught by Sue Pink. Sue does interesting abstracts on paper using acrylics and watercolor and a whole list of supplies which I have yet to assemble. So this post will be short for now. Look for some new material soon!

Busy Season

                                         Paris Flowers, Watercolor and collage

OK, I know I've shown this one before but it won a second place in our local art show so I thought I'd show it again. It's a very busy time right now because it's the "season" when all the northern visitors are here to get out of the winter doldrums. So, there are art shows and art sales going on every week it seems. Also, art workshops are a constant draw on my time. I just finished a workshop with Janet King so I have been painting, I just don't have anything finished to photograph and put on the blog. I read the blogs that I follow and comment when I have time. I have another workshop this week, I hope that I can get something finished to get on the blog soon.

Outdoor Cafe

                                       Outdoor Cafe, Watercolor batik

A couple of years ago I took a workshop in watercolor batik painting. I loved the class and the look that is achieved using this process of using melted wax as a resist and then cracking it when it has cooled in order to put on your dark paint to get the batik look. The part I didn't like was using an iron over newspapers to melt the wax and absorb it out of the painting. It took a long time over a hot iron to get all that wax out. I've never been fond of ironing. I did manage to paint another batik painting and thought I would do more but I haven't. Now I wonder if I could remember the process.
Anyway, I found this painting when I was looking through my stash. I decided to frame it and put it in the art sale our local art league is having this week end. I'll be at the sale with my paintings and cards for sale. It ought to be fun.

Geranium Card

                              Geranium Card and envelope, watercolor.

While I was painting outside the other day I also did a painting of my brave little geranium plant. I call it brave because it came through the summer even though it was sorely neglected. Before I left Florida for the summer I put it in it's pot in the landscaping where it would get irrigation and rain whenever it was provided. Geraniums don't like wet feet so they don't usually make it through the summer here. But, this one did. It looked pretty awful, scrawny stems and tiny leaves. So, I watered and fertilized and even though the leaves are still small it is blooming like crazy! It adds a pop of color to my lanai and it deserves being painted onto a card.

Daisies

                                  Gerbera Daisy Card and Envelope

I decide to paint some cards for an upcoming art sale at our local art league. I do these quickly and  don't worry too much about accuracy. I just concentrate on getting the paint on the paper without drawing my subject. I'm painting on Canson watercolor greeting cards, they come with envelopes so I put a little matching design on the front to make a complete set. It was a beautiful day to sit out on the lanai and get some painting done.

Burrowing Owls

                      Two Young Burrowing Owls- Watercolor and Ink

                         Hootie In A Palm Tree- Watercolor and Ink

Where I live in Florida we have these little creatures called Burrowing Owls. They dig a burrow in our sandy soil during the dry season (winter) and raise their young. It's fun to walk by their home in a vacant lot and see the little ones lined up outside their burrow under the watchful eye of their parents. The adults mate for life and both take care of the young. They are in constant danger from hawks, raccoons, and other predators and they are loosing their habitat as more people build homes in the area. As a result they are a protected species. We have a Burrowing Owl festival every February to inform the public about these delightful little birds. Our art league is sponsoring an art show with birds as a theme and is working in conjunction with the Owl Festival. I've been trying to come up with some ideas for painting these little birds. These are little ink sketches with watercolor that I'm using as a springboard for something a little less conventional. I'll be posting whatever I come up with. If anyone has an creative idea I'd love to hear it.

Correcting Watercolor

                                           Pears and Apple  9x9 watercolor

This little painting was stuck in my portfolio for weeks because I didn't know what to do for a background. Then one day I was leafing through an older copy of one of my watercolor magazines when I found an article by Ann Abgott. She's the one who inspired me to paint the fruit in the first place. She had a still life of fruit with a really dark background. It made the fruit just pop on the page. So, I decided to try it. First I tried Payne's gray on a wet background. Not only did it look dull, the paint started to seep into my nice pristine fruit, and they were dry! I sat a babysat it, dabbing away at the seeping paint until it dried enough to stop. When it was completely dry I went around all the edges of the fruit with a masking fluid. Then I mixed my own dark with Windsor green and alizarin crimson. I was much happier with this color, it just seemed livelier than the Payne's gray. The next mistake I made was painting the background down to far on my painting which caused the apple to look like it was floating. I had nothing to loose so I decided where the line should be and started scrubbing all the dark below that line, 3 or 4 inches. All those staining colors were very stubborn, I attacked with a Mr Clean Magic Eraser sponge. I got off as much as I could, burnished the poor bruised paper and coated it with Aquacover Liquid Watercolor Paper. You have to be really close to see the correction but I cropped the painting quite close and into a square shape to minimize the visible amount of correction. Who says you can't correct a mistake in watercolor?

It's Snowing Somewhere

                                           Christmas Tree 5x7 acrylic on paper

Nice, gentle snowflakes falling softly on Christmas eve. That's the ideal picture in so many minds. That may happen in some part of the country this year. A fresh snowfall is hard to beat when it comes to a beautiful sight in December. To wake up in the morning as a child and to look out the window to that sight of all that white stuff covering everything is an amazing thing. Children don't think of shoveling or scrapping car windows. It's just the wonder of the change in your world overnight; from dull gray and brown one day to pristine white the next. I do miss it just a little living here in Florida, especially this time of year. However, I don't miss the cold or wearing heavy coats, gloves, boots, hats and scarves. Wherever you are, cold climate or warm, enjoy the blessings of this season of Christmas and the wonder of it all.

Oh the Weather Outside...

                                       Coconut Palm acrylic on yupo 12x15

...is frightful, so that song goes. Maybe in some parts of the world it is but here in Florida beautiful, warm weather greets us each morning. Not that we don't get an occasional "cold snap", perhaps even some freezing, but that's not the norm. I painted this palm while sitting outside the gallery a few weeks ago. The parking lot did not make a very good background so why not a beach instead? I used my liquid acrylics like watercolor to get the loose, watery effect along with a quick spray of water. On a cold and dreary winter day come and sit under my palm in the sun.

Christmas Card

                                    Christmas 2011 5.5 X 7 Mixed Media


Every year I try to come up with an image that conveys my beliefs about the true meaning of Christmas. This year's image came out of a rather randomly done collage. As I was looking at it, the possibility of a figure emerged in the blue collage piece near the center. I painted in the face  and added a halo of shiny gold colored paper, painted the manger and added the gold paper "beams". I was thinking of the 3rd verse from the Christmas carol "Silent Night".

Silent night, holy night,
Son of God, love's pure light
Radiant beams from thy holy face,
With the dawn of redeeming grace,
Jesus, Lord, at thy birth.

Then I thought of the angels that sang after announcing to shepherds the birth of a Savior. Their song was "Glory to God in the highest..." My card illustration was complete.

I wish all of you a very happy and blessed Christmas!

Tyvek Wallets

I haven't posted for awhile so I thought I show what I've been up to for the last week or two. I was very fascinated by these Tyvek envelope wallets that were demonstrated on Myrna Wacknov's blog. She had posted a 4 part video on her blog several weeks ago about how to make them and I got totally hooked. The envelopes can be purchased at an office store. You paint one side of the envelope and then by folding, cutting and taping with double stick tape you end up with a wallet for credit cards and folding money. Since our grandchildren are of an age where we send them a gift card or check on gift giving occasions I thought this would be a clever way of packaging the gift. Myrna decorated her wallets with stencils so that's how I have done mine. It's been a learning experience, especially when it comes to folding them so you have the openings where they should be. I think I watched video 4 at least 6 times and stopped it and started it and repeated it. Finally I made my own instruction sheet and marked on a white envelope the folds and cuts. It's all fun from the painting to the cutting and folding. Myrna's blog is http://myrnawacknov.blogspot.com/

Poinsettia on Yupo

                                     Poinsettia on Yupo 5x5 acrylic


This is another quick painting done on Yupo with liquid acrylics. I felt that the white background was too white and plain so I decided to use a rubber stamp that has calligraphy on it to fill in some of the blanks. I brushed gold metallic acrylic onto the stamp in random places and stamped it onto the painting. I like the look of calligraphy in a painting and this is an easy way to add it. I think the words are in another language so they don't make any sense to an English reader, they are just random shapes in the background. It's very subtle and just breaks up the white. I also added some of the gold to the center of the flowers.

Experimenting with Yupo

                                  Blue Fish 5X6 acrylic, mixed medium on Yupo 

I did some experimenting on Yupo which is a slick plastic product that you can paint on. It comes in different weights, in opaque and translucent. I have painted on it with acrylic inks and with watercolor. This time I decided to try liquid acrylics that were thinned with water. My thought was that this would be more permanent than the watercolor and perhaps more controllable than the acrylic inks. Of course, for control-ability it depends on how much water you use. After the painting was dry I decided it needed some texture so I dug in my "toy box" for some stringy stuff that was already the color of my painting and stuck it on with some matte medium. I think it makes an interesting piece. The red lips add a bit more whimsey.  

Ceramic Bird

                                Still Life with Ceramic Bird  Watercolor 4X6

I found a couple of ceramic birds that belonged to my mother when I was recently cleaning my china cabinet. I was about to put them in the thrift store box when I realized that these would make fun still life objects. (Maybe this is why I can't get rid of anything). They are small so they fit well with fruit and other small things for easily managed arrangements. This was a fun execise that I did on a watercolor postcard.
The postcards come in a pack and are glued on 4 sides with a little spot where you can insert a small palette knife to separate them once it's dry, just like a watercolor pad. They are really handy to take along on trips because they are small and easy to pack with your travel kit.

The Good, the Bad and the Mermatron

                                "Mermatron" 5 x 7 mixed media on paper

On one of my collaged backgrounds I decided to paint a mermaid. I drew her the way I thought I wanted her and went in with the acrylic paint. She got a little chubbier than I wanted her to be but then I thought that maybe mermaids get older too. Maybe they gain a little weight like the rest of us. Maybe they don't keep a girlish figure. A little extra around the middle must be why they call it "middle age" don't you think? In that case she would no longer be a mermaid would she? In a wedding an older, married lady is called the matron of honor instead of maid of honor so my mermaid must be a mermatron. I'll bet she can still flip her tail, though.

Paint, Collage, Paint

                                 Rocks and Sea 5 3/4 X 7 Mixed media


I tore up an old watercolor painting into small pieces and decided to put hand made collage papers over them all using Yes glue. This piece was already a rock and sea painting so I just added to it by putting dark papers over the rocks and lighter blue papers over the water. When this dried I added paint to make some details, a horizon line, light in the waves and top of the rocks and a few birds in the sky. When that was dry I coated it with matte medium. The other collages are more colorful and I'll post them in the days to come.

Collage and watercolor

Fluers de Paris  watercolor and collage on gessoed paper 11X15

I guess I still have Paris on my brain since our trip. There are the most incredible flower shops there. They display their flowers almost like they are tumbling out the door for the abundance of them. I think they must know how irresistible they are to those who pass by. The blooms are the freshest arrangements possible. My background was painted in the blues and purples then a layer of thinned gesso was applied over the top. I painted the bouquet next and when that dried I applied another layer of the gesso which I textured with bubble wrap. I started with my collage papers next, some I've made myself, some are torn from colorful napkins. The red/orange bird, also from a napkin, was added for interest and whimsy. I added watercolor here and there as I thought it was needed. If you look carefully you'll see a little Eiffel Tower to the left of the bouquet.

20 Minute Postcard

I found some watercolor postcards in my stash and decided I should paint on them and send them to friends. I made up this scene of a clump of two palms on a beach at sunset. The water is calm as it so often is on the gulf coast of Florida. There is a rosey glow from the setting sun and the palm fronds are picking up some amazing reflections from the waning light. Perhaps I used a little artistic license for that but then, I do have an Artistic License. It's signed by Kathleen Conover, AWS, NWS. I guess that's official enough for me.
(Also posted on 20 Minute Challenge http://twentyminutechallenge.blogspot.com/ )

Ripe Pear in 20 minutes

                                    Ripe Pear 31/2 x 5 1/2, watercolor

Sometimes I just have to remind myself that a little quickie to send to 20 Minute Challenge is better than not painting at all. I love to paint pears and have some artificial ones that look almost like the real thing. I can get one out and paint it over and over and there are never two that look alike. When the paintings are this small I can always use them on little note cards. People always seem to appreciate a hand painted card. I keep telling myself that there is really no excuse for not painting. Take the 20 Minute Challenge!