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.

Stavanger, Norway 2

This is another little painting that I did for the Virtual paint out blog. The assignment was Stavanger Norway and I found this house on the water with what must be a wonderful view. It's hard to see on my painting but there was even a bridge between the far hills. I love the simplicity of the house nestled down off the road and close to the water. I wonder if there is a boat of some kind moored back there out of view. This has been a lot of fun to go to a virtual place and paint. I have really enjoyed the trip, especially since I know it is winter there and probably not nearly so green. I've enjoyed seeing the scenes that others have painted, too.

http://virtualpaintout.blogspot.com

Pears in a Bag

These pears were so pretty when I brought them home that I tore open the bag and had to paint them. I left them nestled in the bag and decided to paint them for the 20 minute challenge. I set the timer and did a quick sketch. I was amazed at how much I could paint in twenty minutes. I had to blast them with the hairdryer when things got too wet and out of control but when the timer beeped, I was OK with being done.

20-30 More Minutes

I couldn't leave it at 20 minutes, it was too wishy-washy for me. I had to go back in today and punch up the colors. But the leaf on the lower left has too many veins in it, I got a little carried away with the scraper. When I do another 20 minute painting I'm going to remember to really lay the pigment in so that it doesn't turn out so washed out. I guess that's what the exercise is all about, learning each time to you do something.

Sea Grape Leaves- 20 minutes

I've been wanting to do the 20 minute challenge for quite some time and finally determined that today was the day. I love painting sea grape leaves, they are as big as saucers and range in color from green to red to orange and finally brown depending on the season. The new leaves are reddish orange and almost translucent. The older leaves start getting a red tinge on the edges. The veins on the top of the leaf are yellowish, on the underside are red. I had to trim the bushes anyway, so I brought in a branch, set the timer and painted for twenty minutes. I wanted to tweak my painting a little more but, in the spirit of the 20 minute challenge, I did not. This is it, no editing or retouching. There's really no excuse for not painting at least 20 minutes everyday if perfection is not the goal, just painting. See it posted along with other 20 minute paintings at http://twentyminutechallenge.blogspot.com/

Stavanger Norway

After a hectic week of being in charge of one of our local art league's show it was good to have a class so that I could have some time to paint. It's so nuts to do everything about painting and not actually have time to paint! Last night I spent some time finding a scene to paint by searching Google Maps. The assignment for the Virtual Paint Out blog was to paint a scene from Stavanger, Norway. I was in Norway in 1994 and loved it; it is such a beautiful and rugged country. Besides that, my mother's ancestry is Norwegian. I wanted to find a cottage by a fjord to paint. That was not so easy but I found a few lovely scenes and will be posting what I have painted here and at www.virtualpaintout.blogspot.com. Even though the little cabin or boat house in the picture was brown, I had to paint it red. I just love the red houses in Norway. I was told that they painted them red so that the sailors could identify their house and port in bad weather.

Light and Shadow- San Miguel

I found this neat picture of San Miguel in my files when I was looking for landscape photos. Unfortunately, it's not one that I took; it's probably from a travel magazine. I was captivated by the shadowy figure just on the edge of the light and I just had to paint it, for my own enjoyment. I loved the old walls with the cracked plaster and the bougainvillea hanging over the wall. Whoever photographed this really had an eye for the charm of the place. After the workshop with Don Andrews and his emphasis on the light and putting people in your paintings it was a perfect exercise.

A virtual on sight painting

This is my first attempt to be part of the Virtual Paint Out folks. The assignment this month was San Francisco so I went to Google Maps and tried to find an interesting place to paint. I found that was the hardest part of the assignment; I couldn't find anything but boring streets and buildings. I tried to get to China Town or the Wharf but my little yellow man in Google maps wasn't too cooperative. I finally settled on this charming Cafe on The Embarcadero. I'm not sure what the hoop things are for but they made interesting shapes and shadows. When I sent the picture off, I got messages from my server that they couldn't deliver the message but they would keep trying. I haven't checked with www.virtualpaintout to see if it was finally delivered. I hope it's there. I also have hoped to try the 20 minute challenge and post on their blog, too, but so far I haven't tried to paint a 20 minute picture. It sounds like fun, though.

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.

Sun Bathers

Today was the first day of a Don Andrews workshop I'm taking at the Cape Coral Art League. Today's demo and lecture was all about capturing the light. Watercolorists know that the light has to be saved, protected and preserved. Don talked about how much to save and where to save it. Don explained that photos often have light scattered everywhere, the artist is to select the light areas that will make an interesting painting. He painted a beautiful Guatemala street scene with light reflecting off the buildings. Everyone was to use either their own picture or one of his to plan and execute a painting where the light areas were planned and preserved. I choose a picture that I took in the Florida Keys a few years ago. As a painting I think it's mediocre but I did manage to plan and preserve the light area. I think I'll be doing this scene again, all it takes is practice, practice, practice!

Dragon Dance

I did this painting on Yupo with liquid inks. When I want to play around with color and see what happens, this is what I do. I try to choose a limited palette, in this case red, orange, yellow with just a touch of turquoise. I float water on top of the Yupo and then drop the inks on top and watch them mingle and run. I start sopping up some of the places that get too muddy and spray other places that are drying too fast. I noticed that the Bounty towels left really neat grid designs but the painting was so wet that eventually the designs filled in. I'm determined to find just the right wetness so that the grids will stay imprinted in the painting.
The swirls of bright colors reminds me of the Dragon Dance I saw at the Chinese Pavilion at Epcot several years ago. I've titled it but I haven't signed it yet. I'm thinking I may add some darker areas. I'm experimenting by putting a sheet of acrylic on it and painting on that before putting paint on the painting itself. If I decide to add, I'll post it again.

Zebra Fish

This is another "mini" that I submitted to the Art League for their fund raiser. The art show is coming up quickly and I'm glad that I have all my "minis" finished for the year. I try to come up with a variety of things that will appeal to many. The fish should be attractive to those who like to decorate their pools and bathrooms with sea creatures. The scenes of beaches, palm trees and such are very popular but a girl can paint only so many palm trees! I do my share, that's for sure!

A Triptych of Florida Birds

As long as I'm doing mini paintings I might as well do some for exhibit as well. I had this little frame and pre-cut mat with three 3 X3 windows in it. I like to stick to a theme when I do these things so I decided my theme would be Florida birds. I started out with the Inktense pencils but ended up enhancing them with gouache paint. The White Pelicans are common in our area in the winter and the Brown Pelicans are here year 'round. Although the Flamingo is not a native Florida bird, it has been associated with Florida for so long I thought it made a nice punch of color in the center of the group. I will be including this in my sale items at the Pine Island Art Association Annual Show and Sale. Our show is always the second week end in February. It's time for me to start deciding what should be entered.

Last of the roses

Our temperatures in SW Florida are running way below normal; our normal high is 75, today my thermometer is sticking at 56, and there's a mean north wind. It's not unusual to have a cold snap or an occasional light freeze but to have this cold (to us) weather last for a couple of weeks is unusual. I had two salmon colored roses left on my bush and I thought that with the wind and predicted frost they would not last the night.

I've always admired the way that Janet Rogers paints roses but I have not perfected her method, yet. She lays down a puddle of varied color, subtracts with a damp brush and adds a few darker areas and like magic a rose appears. So, with that in mind I painted another of my required minis. I think I need a little more practice.

More Mini's

I have to get the mini paintings done and handed in this month so it's time to get painting. Late last year I posted the 3 orchid paintings. Now I'm working on some tropical fish, but I love this crab. He is so "in your face". If there aren't a lot of people on the beach and you sit really still you can see them come out of their holes and scramble around and then dive back into the hole at any sign of a predator. Painting class is starting this week, too. I'm looking forward to getting out some pent up creativity.

New Beginnings

I bought this Amaryllis bulb 6 or 7 weeks ago. I thought it would be fun to watch it grow and bloom while I was recovering from surgery. We could sort of begin together. Well, Amaryllis had a slow start. I watered and watched, and watched, did my exercises, and still no shoot appeared. I was almost ready to take it back to the store in disgust but didn't have the energy to stand in line. A couple days ago the little leaf shoot appeared, then the stalk started to emerge. I'm glad I wasn't as slow as the Amaryllis. It looked so inviting to paint sitting there on the window sill with a little sunshine making neat reflections on the galvanized pot. So I moved my paints into the kitchen and did my little watercolor sketch. I see my pot is a little lopsided, but hey, I painted! Yea!! That means my energy is coming back and that's a beginning. Happy New Year, to all, may you all have new beginnings in 2010!

The Muse

I was going to title it the muse is not amused. But it's more like the artist is not amused. I have been struggling with this little 5x7 canvas for the past two weeks. It was too light, too dark, too much, too little blah, blah. It's just a little experiment with molding paste, again, and some of my acrylic paints that needed some use. The dark around the edges is a Micaceous Iron Oxide, a sample from Golden. It has a sparkly effect which I think is quite nice. I'm not sure it shows up that much in the picture. I was into the copper again, too; the powder and the paint. I love the combination with the cobalt turquoise. I think I'm finished, but you never know. I'll post her and put her away for awhile. Perhaps she's not a muse at all but really a Christmas angel in disguise.

Here's to anniversaries!

It's been one year today that I started to blog with some consistency. I would have liked to post a new painting each day, but that was a bit too much to dive into. Some weeks have been more prolific than others but it has been a great motivator for me to get the brushes wet and paint.

Today's offering is more in the "having fun" category as opposed to working for a prize winning painting. I played around with some molding paste on a previously painted 8X10 canvas. I decided to do a palm tree shape with the molding paste and then painted it with acrylics. This was begun BS (before surgery) and completed (maybe) today, which is also 3 weeks AS (after surgery). Just for fun and for my old painting buddy, Marilyn, I've even sprinkled a little copper powder in it. For me, playing around with the different products, experimenting, having no fear of failure, is the best way to learn whether I'm on my own or in a class. And then I have the audacity to show it to the world.

Thanks to all who have commented and followed my blog, it's been a fun year and I hope to keep the whole thing going.

One More Orchid

I have one more little orchid painting that was done before my surgery so after this I will have to get busy and do some more little paintings. I have a one year anniversary of my blog to celebrate on Friday so I want to do something to get a blog posted on that day. I'm able to do more sitting so it should not be too difficult to paint a little each day. It's good to have a goal.

Attitude

This is the first day I have actually felt like doing anything since my knee surgery. I've finally got some meds that are helping with the pain and the attitude. It's interesting that the two go hand in hand; if you have nagging pain all the time it's very hard to have a good attitude. I have an increased admiration for those who live in pain everyday and still manage to be up and positive.

I'm still working on those little mini paintings that are required by our art association. Maybe I can crank some more out while I'm recuperating, it's pretty hard to work large when one leg has to be elevated. One friend suggested that I cover the bed with plastic and just go for it. That just may work. In the meantime here's the second in the series of orchids. I wish the iridescent paint showed up in the photo, it really adds to it.

Mini paintings

In order to enter paintings in our art league's February show and sale each participant must paint and donate six little paintings, 4 1/2" X 3 1/2" which are called "Mini's". I find doing them in watercolor is difficult but acrylic and gouache are easier for me. So far I have done three in watercolor with and orchid theme. This is the first. I decided to paint the background today, and now I'm wishing I had left it white. Oh well, I can always paint others and leave the background plain.

I won't be posting a blog for probably a few weeks because I'll be recovering from knee replacement surgery. I'll be back as soon as I can.

A Workshop with Don Taylor

It seems that no matter how many years you have been painting you can still learn something new. Even old dogs can learn new tricks. That's why I take as many workshops as I can. There are always new things to learn, new products to try. Who knows? I may finally find that magic brush I've always wanted that will take me to those artistic heights of excellence that we all pursue. Not only that, I get to have 3 or more consecutive days to paint in a friendly, encouraging setting. That said, this painting is one I worked on and finished in Don Taylor's workshop. He uses a triad of aureolin, cobalt, and rose madder genuine for his under painting. After that dries, he combines ultra marine with hematite pigments from Daniel Smith for a granulating dark effect. The hematites are non-staining and easy to lift. I lost a lot of my under painting getting in the darks but I think the look of a gloomy, rainy day is sort of interesting. This picture was done with his reference and his help on the perspective. Thanks Don!

Georgia Blue Ridge

I spent a long week end with some wonderful "sisters" in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Georgia. What I painted in my little Moleskine doesn't come close to the beauty of that area but I give myself credit for trying. The trees on the hills in the distance had lost all of their leaves so it was just a mass of grayish brown. The center hills were full of evergreen trees with trees with orange leaves interspersed among them. That combination of green and orange was quite striking. Closer was another hill of trees that were barren. The skies were a striking blue the whole week end which is unusual according to the one whose cabin we were visiting. We had an interesting visit by a young bear who wanted our garbage can in the worst way. I wish I had gotten a good picture of him/her but I wasn't willing to venture outside to do so. As a result, I have a picture with a fuzzy black thing in it. At least I know it was a bear.

Starting tomorrow I'll be taking a 3 day workshop with Don Taylor, I hope to have some interesting paintings to post.

Playing with Paste

Ancient Symbols 1 & 2

Getting my cue from Mary Todd Beam in her book The Creative Edge, I tried playing with molding paste. I was given two 5 X 7 canvas boards that were going to be thrown out so somehow that gave me permission to play. Funny how free material does that. On one I used molding paste and the other light molding paste, both sample jars from Golden. (More free material.) I spread the paste on the canvases and used a texture tool, palette knife and jar lids to make designs in the paste. I let them dry overnight and then rubbed a charcoal stick over the rough edges to bring out the design. I thought the charcoal was too heavy so I took some off with a paper towel. Then I started applying thinned liquid acrylic paint allowing the colors to mingle. After drying I added some dark blue, cobalt teal and metallic paint. I think I prefer the molding paste to the light molding paste because it dries with a glossier finish, the light paste is almost grainy and a very matte finish. It was fun to work with and I think I'll try a bigger project on illustration board in the future.

Finish those paintings month

Midnight in the Garden 13.5 X 10.5

Last week I resolved to finish some old paintings that have been languishing in portfolios for who-knows-how-long. They are just beginnings, some with no real subject or direction in mind. Times of play when I just splashed on color and various tools to make texture; saran, filter paper, rice paper, wax paper, salt, alcohol, bubble wrap, etc. When these were dry I didn't continue with them because I didn't "see" a composition in them. So last week, armed with various sizes of mats I moved them this way and that until I found some compositional possibility to pursue. This is my first completed painting from my resolve. It was fraught with many difficulties. I wish I had taken a picture of the underpainting before I started working on it. One of the difficulties was that it had lain so long that mold had hidden itself until the water made it show up in spots. The spots were on leaves, though, so it didn't matter too much. In one area there had been damage to the paper, I suspect from too heave salt residue. When I tried to gently scrub in this area the paper came off in sheets and almost made a hole through the middle of the painting. Since it had become a mixed media painting anyway, I repaired it with white acrylic front and back and collaged on it. It was an interesting challenge and I'm going to start the second one, tonight, I hope. I have four to go.

Rooftops for DSDF

I played around with another piece of Tyvek for my Different Strokes from Different Folks challenge. This time I used almost all acrylic and did I ever go wild with the color. The picture was so monochromatic, and uninteresting in color to me so I went as far the other direction as I could. I tried to concentrate on shapes, and textures. For the finishing touch I used Caran D' Arche Neocolor sticks. I rubbed different shades over some of the areas to enhance the textures made by the acrylic. It was loads of fun just playing and experimenting in a free way. Always the question in my mind was, "What would happen if I..." and then I would just go for it. I hope you catch my sense of play.

Lost World Circles

Myrna Wacknov's paintings on Tyvek intrigued me and I tried one but the watercolor just beaded up on it. Then she blogged about using a Golden Acrylic product called GAC200 that increases adhesion to slick surfaces. So I coated the Tyvek with a GAC and gesso mix as recommended on the bottle, let it dry, and then I was able to get some success with the watercolors. I played around with making circles and lines, used some watercolor crayons and some acrylic paints, and finally drops of alcohol. When I thought I was happy with it I let it dry. While I was looking at it upside down I noticed that I had three circles in a vertical row right in the middle! (Top painting.) Aaaagh! The curse of putting things in the middle. I put the top picture in Photoshop and corrected the two lower circles and liked it better so then I went into the real painting and did some watercolor editing. The surface, being rather slick was pretty easy to edit. The bottom picture is the finished painting, Lost Worlds, 8.5x11 . I showed it to a friend and he asked, "Why paint on Tyvek rather than traditional paper or canvas?" I came up with three reasons; you get at different effect, it's a challenge, and the Tyvek was free (a builder gave it to me).

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.