Orchids For Sale

I've been working on this painting on and off for several months. I needed to punch up the color and white edges on the center orchid so I decided to make the painting mixed media and use a little acrylic white. I also stamped "Orchids for sale" on some Unryu paper and collaged them on the square in the upper right so that it would look like a sign in the window that you see in reverse from the inside. It's quite subtle even though I punched it up with a little gold acrylic. I didn't want them to stand out too much. The whole thing is meant to be quite illusionary; are the orchids on a mat or in a window? Let the viewer decide. The background was painted first with a lot of texturizing techniques then the subject was painted. It was done in many layers of glazes on a half sheet of CP watercolor paper and framed to 22 X 28.

Sunbathers 2

From the second day of the Don Andrew's workshop: this is the second attempt at the beach scene capturing the light without making everything else so dark. I'm happier with the beach being more consistently light with the lightest where the sunbather's are. The placement of the palms is OK but I liked the placement in the first picture better. I also like that a little bit of sky is showing at the top. When I am consentrating on one aspect of the painting, I tend to forget to do the other things that I know to do. It must be a workshop thing. I know not to let the building end behind the tree but I did it anyway. This picture may be a good one to do again, who knows, maybe I'll get it the way I really want it. The third day we worked on figures and putting figures in paintings. I have a start on a painting with figures which will be posted later, if and when it get finished. This is the season in FL for shows, a very busy time.