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!