Write It On Your Heart.

I saw a challenge on the artists in blogland that I couldn't resist. It was to paint something to go with the quote, "Write it on your heart that everyday is the best day of the year." Ralph Waldo Emerson. I really liked that quote and started playing around with some ideas. The final painting I put on a gallery wrap canvas.

Write It On Your Heart, acrylic, 8 X 8

I began by painting my idea in my journal pages. The page on the right was watercolor over a gesso page with permanent marker lettering. The page on the left is what I did with my left over paint after finishing the acrylic painting on the top. I like the looseness and spontaneity of that one a lot. 

I love the quote because it's so true. We only have today, yesterday is gone and tomorrow is not yet ours. All we have is TODAY. How much of my time is spent in thinking what I will do tomorrow instead of living in my today. 

If you want to see the rest of the artwork related to that quote go to http://artistsinblogland.blogspot.com  and click the Monthly Challenge button on the right side.

                                              On the Prairie
                              Acrylic on paper with collage , 15 X 15 

This painting reminds me of the time I spent at my grandmother's house on the prairie of South Dakota. It has a desolate feeling to it. There are the vast stretches of prairie land with a lone house in the distance with a red sunset sky. I can almost feel and hear the wind blowing. Maybe I should add a windmill. What do you think?

Recent Awards

I won 3 awards in recent local art shows so I thought I'd share them on my blog.

 

 

 "Gone Ashore"

 

This was in the Small World category where a painting must be no more than 24 inches square; so they are very small paintings, indeed. This painting was sold.

 

Happy Walk

 

I posted this one earlier on my blog. I'm very pleased with the 3rd place ribbon in the mixed media category. Both paintings were entered at the Pine Island Art Association.

 

 

Ghost Ships

 

I posted this one earlier, too. It won a 2nd place award in a show at Cape Coral Art League last week.

 

I was able to sell four paintings in all at the Pine Island show. It was a very good show for me this year. It was a good show for the Association, too. Many paintings were sold in the 2 day event.

Straight and Narrow

                        

                                                      Straight and Narrow 

                                          Acrylic on paper, 15 X 22

I've been working on several projects at once, this one is the first one that is finished. It is a multi-layered abstract on watercolor paper. I had several objectives when I started this painting. 

1. I wanted it to be a cruciform. 

2. I wanted a color other than blue to be dominant. 

3. I didn't want any recognizable form to show up in the painting, for example a flower, fish or face. 

The hardest part was not using blue, a lot of my paintings lately have been blue dominant and I tried to steer away from even using a  blue . I did sneak some in one of the under layers but reminded myself to get it covered up so it's just barely visible. 

Abstracts are fun but take a lot of thought. I do a lot of painting on and wiping off until I get the look I want. Fortunately, once the acrylic is on the paper you can get fairly rough with it without ruining the paper. Even after drying some rubbing alcohol will take a layer or more of paint off if you want to change something. I usually start with a couple layers of gesso on an old watercolor painting so I have a good base to start on. The Quinacridone gold was next followed by reds and purples. Each layer is stamped, scraped, or textured in some way. A little gold and thick drops of acrylic were my finishing touches.

Still life with lemons

It's been very busy lately since this is "season" here in South Florida. We have our sales and shows while the snow birds and tourists are here. It's a window of opportunity. I had three shows to get ready for since February first. One was a show and sale where I sold 4 paintings and also received 2 awards. That felt really good! Yesterday's show garnered another award! That has left little time for painting since I was also a worker bee at these shows. In addition, our local art league is having a yard sale this week end and I started to clean out some boxes of things in the garage. One of the things I found was this little art glass vase in the shape of an elephant. I couldn't part with it so I decided to paint it in a little still life at our regular Thursday morning class. I love yellow with blue so the citrus was a easy choice to go with it.

                     Elephant Vase With Citrus  Watercolor 6 1/2 x 5 1/2

Numbers 29 and 30

Feathers

Watercolor, 5 X 5

I finally got time to post my last 2 paintings for the 30 in 30. The blog finished on January 31st but I wasn't finished with the 30. I'm a little nuts about picking up found objects and these feathers were found. Maybe one day I'll do a collage and put them in it. In the meantime they were fun to paint. I tried to get the fuzzy, downy part at the base of the feather to look that way by making the background really wet. I think the one on the left is probably from a morning dove and the other a mockingbird. 

                                                           Green Parrot
                                     Watercolor 6 X 8 1/2

As I look over my 30 paintings I see that I have painted more birds than anything else. Birds are interesting subjects, they come in all colors, sizes and settings. I guess that's why I like painting them. I've enjoyed painting consistently over the month of January. It will be harder in February because I have so many shows and sales the attend to. I hope I'll be able to continue to work regularly, though, and post on Leslie Saeta's blog again. She is encouraging artists to post one or two paintings a week each week end. After doing 30 in 30 it should be easy!

Sail Away and Sunset Stroll, 27 & 28

Sail Away

Watercolor, 11 X 7 1/2

Painting number 27. This idea I found in a magazine illustration that I thought was charming and whimsical. It was fun to try to render it in watercolor. This is the last painting posted in the 30 in 30 blog. Thanks to Leslie Saeta for encouraging so many artists to get into their studios and paint. 

http://lesliesaeta.blogspot.com 

Sunset Stroll

Watercolor 10 1/2 X 7

We do have these wonderful sunsets on the Gulf of Mexico this time of year. Don't we all dream of walking on the beach at sunset with our favorite fellow or gal? 

Even though the official 30 in 30 blog is finished, I still want to finish 30 paintings and I have two more to go. 

Sunflower, #26

                                                  Sunflower
                        Watercolor over Textured Acrylic on paper, 10 X 12

I'm caught up! This is my painting number 26 but it's posted on day 29 of the "30 paintings in 30 days blog". The blog has one official day left but I will have 3 more paintings to do to complete 30. This has been challenging but fun. I had to push myself on some days. Some of the paintings were quick and sketchy but the important thing was that I painted every day and that's a good thing. I don't think I've ever painted 26 days in a row before. I'd like to develop some of the ideas into larger, better paintings. 

This painting done on one of my gesso backgrounds was fun to do. I'm getting to like the textured gesso for a background more and more. It's a very forgiving surface to paint on and I think it makes for an interesting painting.

Ambience, #25

                                                   Ambience
                                  Acrylic and Collage on Canvas, 8 X 8

This is Number 25 for day 28 of the 30 paintings in 30 days blog. Since I started 3 days late I will not be able to post my last 3 paintings on that web site, but I plan to finish the 30 paintings anyway. This one is another one that I did in an image transfer class. The canvas has been painted and had different texture elements on it. Then the image transfers and other collage pieces are added to make what I hope is a cohesive painting. The black lines are a combination of collage and black pen. I like the image transfers because they allow the background of the painting to show through.

Image Transfers in a Painting, #24

 

                                            Time Watcher,
                              Acrylic on gallery wrapped canvas, 8 X 8

I've been taking a class on image transfer the last three weeks and although this  is not strictly a painting, it has image transfers and collage elements, I'm still counting it as my painting #24 in the 30 Paintings in 30 Days. The background was acrylic over tissue paper for texture. The woman and the clock were image transfers on gel skins, the script and lace are collage. 

Sunset Wash, #23

                                            Sunset Wash 
                                       Watercolor, 15 X 11

I'm learning things as I go along in this daily painting. Sometimes I like to paint on the back of another painting. The back of this painting had a piece of another kind of paper glued to it. I found that this affected the ability of the paper to hold the water and for the paint to blend as I was accustomed. Also, the push back that the water usually does to the paint along the water line didn't work as well, either. I really had to force the issue in order for it to work. I decided to post it anyway, it's not what I wanted or expected but it's what happened.

After Chiuly II, Number 22

                                After Chiuly II, Watercolor 11 X 7 1/2

I love the abstract quality of the insides of the blown glass bowls by Chiuly. This one was magenta with blue. He puts a layer of white between some of the glass layers; that makes the bowls have so much depth. It's hard to capture that in watercolor but the abstract design is fun to try to duplicate. 

My Cup

                                  My Cup  
                                      Watercolor on acrylic 11 X 8

This painting is number 21 in the series of 30 paintings in 30 days. The background was started months ago waiting for just the right idea to come for a subject.The background is gesso over an old watercolor painting. Putting the curly ques on it reminded me of steam from a cup of hot coffee or tea. Cups always remind me of the Psalm verse that I put on the painting. I used gold background to emphasize the value of God's word. Sometimes that's how a painting is conceived, one thing leads to another. I call it intuitive painting. 

Paintings Number 19 and 20

                                                             Sara, Sitting 
                                         Watercolor, 11 1/2 X 7

I just had to do another painting of our cute little grand-dog, Sara. This time she is sitting and waiting for whatever a dog waits for. Food, attention, a toy. She would probably like to snuggle into a lap the best. She has different features for a dachshund, a little more hound like around the head and chest. And her eyes are large with very dark lid linings that look like she's wearing eye liner.

Three Amigos

Watercolor on Acrylic, 10 X !0

Yes, there really are three pelicans in this painting. If you look closely you can see the neck of the third pelican in between the outer birds. Most of the brown feathers in the center are the third pelican; it's head is completely covered by the bird in front. 

The acrylic on the paper has been textured after it was painted on a watercolor background. This gives the painting depth and interest. The subject is then painted on top in watercolor.  Ten more paintings to go in the 30 Paintings in 30 Days, although the challenge will be finished before I am since I started a few days late. I'm going to try to finish 30, though.

After Chiuly #18

                                                          After Chiuly
                                                     Watercolor 7 1/2 x 11

Chiuly's Blue Bowl, Interior

Over the Christmas Holidays we were able to visit the Chiuly Glass Garden in Seattle Washington with our daughter and son-in-law. The arrangements of blown glass objects, the colors, the lighting were all a feast for the eyes. There aren't enough adjectives to adequately describe it. I took many pictures with the idea of interpreting some of the works, especially the colors in watercolor. I'm pretty happy with my first attempt, I like the way the colors ran but I need to find a darker blue that will react to the water in the same way that the pthalo blue does. This painting is  #18 in the 30 Day Challenge.

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Heron, #17

                                                          Blue Heron
                                       Watercolor 5 1/2 x 3 3/4

One of my favorite subjects to paint is the blue heron. They are common here and in many parts of the country in ponds, lakes, and seashore. They can be found anywhere there is water that they can wade in and find creatures to eat. I love their elegant necks and graceful movement . They are a delight to watch and to paint.

Painting #15, My Set Up

 

                                                     My Set Up
                                              watercolor 6 1/2 x 9

This is just a small potion of the set up on my painting table. The essentials are the water, brushes, spray bottle, tissues and of course the paints are off to the side. I couldn't quite get them in. I have a little paper with instructions for figure painting on my wall in the back. Until I started painting my set up, I didn't even notice it and I don't think I've used it since I put it up there. Maybe that should be my project for day 16, put some figures in my paintings. 

Bouquet, Number 16

                                                     Bouquet
                                     Watercolor, 7 X 9 1/2

It's getting harder to get these little paintings done, life keeps getting in the way. One thing it's done for me is that I don't dilly dally, I get in there and get it done without a lot of pondering about color and whether it should be this or that. I just get the brushes and paints out and try to let the right brain take over. For the most part I think it's working for me.

Pretty Parrot #14

                                                   Pretty Parrot
                                         Watercolor 9 X 7

I loved painting this bird. I started with new gamboge on the breast feathers but it wasn't quite gold enough so I glazed it with quinacridone gold. The dark for the beak and under the chin were mixed with pthalo blue, alizarin crimson, with a touch of yellow. The blue is cobalt with a little turquoise. There are a few touches of quinacridone orange. The background is just a loose wash of sap green with some burnt sienna. A light spritz with  water creates the texture.

Young Burrowing Owls, # 13

                                        Young Burrowing Owls
                                      Watercolor, 5 X 5

I'm getting caught up with the 30 day challenge by posting two paintings today. This little painting is of the little owls that make their home here in Southwest Florida. They are an endangered species due to development where they like to nest. They dig their nests underground during the dry season, which is now. When the young hatch and are big enough, they like to come out of their hole in the ground and stand watchfully. They get used to humans coming around and snapping their picture. We even have a Burrowing Owl Festival which will take place in February. Birders from all over the world come to take the bus tour around the city to see the owl nests. The owls cooperate by coming out or their nests and look at the tourists. I wonder if they have a list to check off for each nationality of human they see. 

Island House, #12

                                                    Island House
                                         Watercolor, 5 X 7

Yesterday I sat outside beside a boat ramp and painted the little house across the canal. The island has canals that lead to the bay and out to the Gulf of Mexico so there are lots of fishermen who like to launch their boats or better yet, own a home with a sea wall and a dock. This little house didn't have a boat at the dock so maybe he's gone fishing. This is number 12, my submission for yesterday in the 30 day challenge, now I have to find a subject for today.

Rooster, #11

                                                               Rooster
                      Watercolor on patterned acrylic background, 8 X 10

I'm enjoying painting on the patterned backgrounds. The gesso allows for the watercolor to absorb a little but still be removable. The background is gesso tinted with some acrylic paint, the patterns are made with stamps that I have made with craft foam sheets and mat board. I think my rooster needs another leg to stand on, or maybe he has it tucked up under himself.

Beautiful Florida Sunset, #10

                                                    Beautiful Florida Sunset
                                         Watercolor on paper 7 X 10

Sometimes the sunsets are just spectacular, it must be the moisture in the air  from the Gulf of Mexico lingering in the sky so that the sun can do it's magic. I take pictures often and this time I painted one. Usually the palms appear dark, almost black in photos but in life they are really not that dark. So, dig out some of those photos you've taken of sunsets, get out your paints and have a little fun mingling the yellows, pinks and blues into a beautiful sunset. The variety is never ending.

Sara, #9

                                                             Sara
                      Watercolor on paper textured with acrylic, 7.5 X 5.5

This challenge has really gotten me out of my comfort zone and into trying some things that I don't ordinarily paint. I haven't painted many animals except for birds. I thought I try this little dachshund named Sara who belongs to my son's family. She has an unusual coat for a dachshund since it's white with tan markings. This turned out to be more of a cartoon or caricature, but still has a freshness that I like.

Whatchamacallit #8

                                                       Whatchamacallit,
                                     Acrylic, collage on paper, 9X12

We all have them, they're whatchamacallits, just crazy  ideas, paintings, do-dads. We're not sure what they are or what to do with them but there they are and sometime they just make us smile. This little painting has lots of layers that have been  rubbed, scribbled, stamped painted over and around. Even a little collage was added  for good measure. Sometimes it's just fun

to do something that's a little bit out of my comfort zone and put it out there for the world to see. How crazy is that?

Hammock on the Beach, #7

                                      Hammock on the Beach, 
                                    Acrylic on textured paper, 15 X 11

I feel like I've really accomplished something! 7 paintings in 7 days. It's so much fun to be painting regularly, it makes me wonder why I haven't kept up with it before. I guess life just gets in the way sometimes, and once I get away from painting every day it's harder to get back to it. 
This painting was from a photo I took at a resort in the Florida Keys. I think I've seen this scene pop up more than once. I've eliminated some palms that were in the original picture but left in the little island of mangroves off shore. It was certainly an inviting and idyllic spot, probably photographed hundreds of times. But each artist has their own interpretation and style of painting it. No two are alike. 

Challenge painting #6

                                                Ap"pear"antly, 
                                  Acrylic on textured background. 11X11

OK, I'll stop making any more puns about pears, at least for now. You can't see it on this photo but there is a lot of iridescence on the surface of this painting. I just thought it would be fun to add a little gold on the pears and a blue sheen to the background. This is very freeing to paint everyday and not be too concerned about whether it's perfect or not. Just get out the paper and the brushes and do it. I think pears are easier to paint in watercolor than in acrylic. Acrylic looks flat to me, and it's difficult not to get hard edges. I prefer the ability to soften some edges in watercolor.

Challenge paintings # 4 and 5

                                        New Year Angel 
                   Watercolor on gesso background, 7X15

I decided that the backgrounds I made of thinned gesso over old watercolor paintings would be a good canvas for my challenge paintings. It eliminates the need for a background and makes me stretch my imagination for subjects to be compatible with them. This New Year Angel is done in watercolor over the gesso. She is holding a basket of fruit to symbolize prosperity in the New Year. 

   Suddenly Ap"pears"   
       Acrylic and collage on gesso textured paper

Number 5 is another one done on gesso-textured paper. I love painting pears and this one seemed to fit right in that spot. The moon face in the upper right is a collage piece, the other areas were scraped and stamped into the gesso when it was wet. A friend looked at it after I painted it and said, "A pear suddenly appeared in the city". I guess the grid shapes do look like buildings. 

Painting Large

                             Message In An Aquarium
                Watercolor and collage, 22X30

We were encouraged to paint larger paintings at the Florida Watercolor Society convention last September. I have balked at the idea in the past because of the lack of space in my studio and the expense of framing a full sheet painting. But, I decided I was tired of having my small paintings hung in the corner so many times. I took the plunge and painted a full sheet painting. Not my first but the  first in a long time. I started with the background with lots of textural materials, papers, gauze and stamps then added the fish shapes when it was dry. I like the path of light from top to bottom with the implied connections to each side. It was fun to do and now I must get to the framing. Then on to another full sheet painting.

Two Paintings for the Challenge

                                             Waiting Lady  acrylic on paper

                                      Two Spoonbills, acrylic on paper

These are the first two paintings I posted on the 30 day challenge. I found that I had to use Google Chrome in order to get the download feature to work.  Check my last blog for the address of the 30 day challenge if you want to know more or to participate. I have another painting "in my camera" to post later for today's painting. This really takes commitment. I hope I'm up to the challenge.

30 Day Challenge

I'm having trouble with blogspot. I'm unable to access my own picture files in order to post a picture of my painting. I've been able to post my paintings on a challenge called 30 Paintings in 30 days. I thought it would be a good way to jump start the new year and get into the swing of painting again after the holidays. I have been in a workshop for the last 3 days so that has also helped. I decided that I won't know if I can do it (do a painting a day for 30 days) unless I try. The blog for the 30 day challenge is http://lesliesaeta.blogspot.com
Check it out!

                            Bells of Siena, Italy, 7 1/2" X 5 1/2", watercolor

I wanted to save posting this until all my cards were sent out. Now I can put it up because that task is done. I found the stamp about the bells at a craft shop and remembered that I had pictures of this bell tower in Siena, Italy. I think they were part of a convent there. It's different for me because I usually paint something more traditional but this is what inspired me this year.
I wish everyone a very happy and blessed Christmas!

Magnolias on a silk scarf

                                                Left end 

Center

Right end

 

This scarf was done much the same way as the first scarf except that this is a smooth silk and the other was chiffon. The smooth silk allows the use of a fluid resist that allows the artist to keep the colors from running into each other. I used the resist around the petals of the flowers and leaves and also to make the branch shapes to break up the background. In the spots where I didn't get the resist applied you can see where the blue ran into some of the branch shapes. It's all part of the learning process.

 

 

Painting on Silk

Right end

Center

Left end

                                 Hand painted Silk Scarf, 8"x 54" 

I took a workshop on silk painting last week end. I found it to be quite similar to watercolor painting. Our teacher, Linda Lucas, was an accomplished watercolor artist as well. This Lily scarf is the first one that I painted. We used a special pen to sketch our design onto the scarf which had been ironed onto a piece of freezer paper. The ink from the pen disappears when it gets wet. Next we applied our colors. I wanted the colors in the lilies to blend so I didn't wait for each color to dry. After they dried I applied the colors for the leaves, then when they were dry I did the background. When the scarf is dry the colors are heat set with a steam iron, then the scarf is washed, dried and ironed again. I really enjoyed the class and the technique and plan to do more.

Painting at the Gallery

 

 

 

Two weeks ago I had another time of painting demonstrations at the WildChild Gallery in Matlacha Florida. As part of being a gallery artist we spend two week ends a year painting and meeting folks who come into the gallery. I try to demonstrate some aspect of my work either in watercolor or acrylic. This time I took my acrylic paints and some small, 6x6 gallery wrap canvases to paint on. They are just fun little pieces that I paint from my imagination with textures and colors. It keeps me open to possibilities, ideas and materials.

 

 Got Stuff, Acrylic and Found Objects, 6"X6"

 

Sunset, Acrylic, 6"x6"

 

 

                                        Light Chop, Acrylic, 6"x6"

One delightful thing that happened the last hour of the last day was that a visitor from France came by and started admiring some of the work that I had displayed around my table. He saw a painting that he absolutely loved and immediately bought. I was astonished! I've never seen anyone buy a painting so quickly and with so much enthusiasm. Something like that is so gratifying. It really made my day!

Painting on Masa Paper

                   Baby Elephant Walk Watercolor on Masa paper 10X14

I'm not sure what Masa paper is but it's fun to work with. I first tried this technique when painting in a workshop many years ago with Chen Kee Chee, a wonderful watercolor painter and teacher. While working in a class last week I was reminded of this paper again. First you crumple all of part of it into a ball. Then you soak it in clean water until it relaxes a little. You remove it from the water and carefully open it up and spread it out on a clean surface. You then prepare a sheet of watercolor paper the same size by spreading a thin layer of YES glue over it. The Masa paper is then laid on the glue and smoothed with your hands and finally rolled with a brayer. I did a little light under painting at this point and left it to dry. The crackly, wrinkly paper just made me want to paint an elephant in the foliage. I used hand made leaf stamps for the foliage. It was one of those paintings that came together easily and quickly. What a treat!