I Love Dragonflies

Flight of the Dragonfly

Collage, 6.5 X 11.5

Dragonflies are wonderful creatures! They eat mosquitoes for one thing and that makes them very useful; they are fun to watch and they have such varied bodies, from large to small and every color of the rainbow, often iridescent. One time, up north after a rainy day, the sun came out and there were literally thousands of dragonflies. It was magical! How and why they appeared after the rain I don't know. 

This collage was done in the traditional manner by gluing (with matte medium) paper onto a backing which was mat board. The papers were hand painted craft tissue, the dragonfly was an acrylic transfer which I applied using the heat method. The "flight path" is an acrylic string. Acrylic string is made by squirting a fine stream of acrylic paint onto a nonstick surface like oven parchment. It is allowed to dry and is fastened to the desired surface with matte or gloss medium. Please put in a comment if you have any questions about the process. 

Dreaming of Paris

Old Paris

Mixed Media 15 X 15

Using old postcard pictures of Paris as an inspiration I started layering pictures and paint, along with old clock faces and script. Finally I finished it with a stylized Eiffel Tower. At least I think I'm finished. We will see, it's not in a frame yet. If you click on it to make it bigger you can see all the texture and details. 

Painting With a Celebrity

Leoma's Seahorse

Acrylic, 12 X 16

Yes, this is quite a departure for me but it made for a fun afternoon. We have a local celebrity artist whose name is Leoma Lovegrove (yes, that's her real name).  She has quite a following and is known all over the world for her colorful, tropical paintings. She was commissioned to have her paintings on clothing, accessories, household items like pillows, dishes, and you name it, for a Florida department store, Bealls. She graciously has been helping our art league to raise money to pay for our new, very expensive roof by attending an afternoon painting party. We choose one of her designs, invite the public, offer wine and snacks for a fee of course, and have an afternoon paint-along party. Afterwards, she signs the back of every painting. She is so generous! Here's the link to our art league, click on events to see the pictures from our fund raiser. capecoralartleague.org Also you can find Leoma on Facebook and   at leomalovegrove.com.

Circular Connections

Circular Connections

Collage 8 X 8

This collage is from the second day of the workshop that was led by Kathleen Conover. Some of the papers I made in the workshop, some were papers I had made before. I like using circles in  my work, they have a feeling of completeness and familiarity. I put circles on some papers that I make, some I add in the process of building the collage, some appear randomly while the paper is being made. When that happens I try to incorporate it into the collage. It's all connected!

Zing

Zing!

Collage on mat board 8 X 8

I've finally returned to my blog after a wonderful collage workshop and following that, a bout of shingles. (Yes, I had the old shot, it's only 30% effective). The workshop was taught by Kathleen Conover, an artist who splits her time between Michigan and Florida. She also teaches watercolor workshops so I would like to take more classes from her. Workshops give an artist a period of 3 days to a week to concentrate on their art and to stretch their creative spirit to learn some new techniques and to practice and share the old ones. 

Kathleen uses all papers that she has painted herself and does not use magazine images. She will use her own photograph which she will often distress and alter somewhat with paint. Our first day was spent making paper, then we cut our papers in half and shared with the others in class. That way we got a good variety of paper. The craft tissue we used was coated with a mixture of acrylic paint and matte medium. We planned our collages and fixed the tissue to mat board with thinned matte medium. Zing! is the first collage I finished on the second day made with the papers we made the first day. 

A Meditation

Be Still and Listen

Acrylic on paper mounted on gallery canvas

16 X 20

This painting puts me in a meditative mood. It's very peaceful to look at, the colors are calm and soothing. It's coated with an iridescent medium which adds a sheen and makes it very difficult to photograph well. You know how your blood pressure seems to drop and your cares fall away when you are at a place where you can look at a body of water? That is the feeling I tried to capture in this painting. All you need to do is be still and listen; listen to that inner voice that is drowned out by the hustle of life. 

Experimenting with mediums

The Strand

Acrylic on 140# paper 16 X 20

Before Christmas I started to play with acrylics on top of old watercolor paper. First I covered the watercolor with gesso and used various tools to make texture in the underpainting. Then I started layering acrylic paint with the dark blue strand from left to right. I used brushes and paper towels to achieve the blended colors I was looking for. On top of the dark blue I spread some glass gel medium (for some reason I love this stuff and bought two containers of it). I continued adding paint letting it dry between layers until I decided it was the way I wanted it. I think if you click on it you will be able to see the effect of the glass gel medium. There will be more to come. 

In case I don't get back here, Happy New Year!

A Gift for a Granddaughter

Jenny's Gift

Acrylic on Canvas 16 X 20

Our oldest grandchild, Jenny, just got married the end of October. She said she would like an abstract painting, something mostly blue 14 to 16 inches. After looking in some decorator magazines and remembering some paintings I saw in model homes the trend seems to be a soft blending of color. So I got out my acrylics and had fun blending paint on the canvas. I used cobalt and Pthalo blue with a lot of white, added a little bit of light green and metallic copper for the compliment. If you look closely you'll see that there are two areas of texture which is glass bead gel. I covered the whole thing with an iridescent medium to give it a lovely sheen. Unfortunately that does not show up on the picture. Hope she likes it!

A Little Whimsy

Puff

Watercolor 16 X 20

Sometimes I like to make textured backgrounds for  watercolor paintings. I  use different papers, gauze, mark makers, or whatever. Often I have something in mind, most of the time I'm just loosening up, playing with the paint and my "toys". As I looked at this, after it had dried, I liked it the way it was, the gauze had made a creature shape that looked like a dragon to me. So, I named it Puff. I'm enjoying him for now, maybe someday he'll be turned into something else. After all, he is magic!

Travel Time Art

Banana Blossom

Sketch book painting

I was able to do one painting while I was in Hawaii. We were with family for a wedding so there was lots of activity and very little time for getting out the watercolors or sketchbook. This was painted from a picture I took at the Garden of Eden on Maui. Bananas form from the top or stem of the blossom and continue as the stem grows. So this blossom will get smaller as more bananas form on the top. Really an unusual plant. After a stalk produces fruit it dies and new shoots come up from the base of the plant. Hawaii's climate seems to be perfect for bananas as well as pineapple and many other tropical fruits. There is a 6 hour time difference between Florida and Hawaii, I'm just getting adjusted after a week being back. It's good to be home! 

First Show of the Season

My Magnolia

Watercolor 15 X 15

October is the beginning of the art show season here. The first show at the art league was to be specific to our area of southwest Florida. I have a magnolia tree that blooms every spring and I love to take pictures of the flowers and paint them. This is one of the pictures that I entered into the show. It got many compliments but no mention by the judge. And that's they way it goes at art shows! There were many fine paintings entered, we are a group of very talented artists and the competition is steep but most of us are very supportive of one another. Artists make pretty good friends, I think. We have a nice opening reception with food and wine. It's good to be back in the swing of things.

What I Learned

Moonlight Serenade

Collage 10 X 10

I did another collage with my lady in the Klempt style dress. I must admit that while I have a general idea of what I will put together with the colors and theme, after I get going it evolves into a life of it's own. I find I need something for this space, or I need to tone down that and add a little more of this. It is so unlike planning and painting a watercolor. 

My lady was an acrylic transfer and was rather ghost-like when it was applied. She disappeared into the dark background. So, I had to paint over most of her with acrylic so she could be seen. The take away from this was, acrylic transfers must be placed on a lighter background. My "aha moment". Some things are taught better by experience! 

Lesson #2

Tropical Fish with Coral

Watercolor

In my beginner art class we practiced sunset skies again. Into these skies I had them practice blowing tree branches with the straw method. Blowing reduces the fear factor of making it look perfect. This method was shown to me in workshop with Lian Quan Zhen a few years ago and we painted tropical fish with coral which will be  Lesson number 2. It looks complicated but the fish are drawn on and then masked off with masking fluid. When that is dry blobs of paint are blown into coral shapes with a straw. It's a fun way to put in an otherwise complicated background that can tend to get too picky. 
I'm teaching at a wonderful facility which is called Lifeline Family Center. It's a residence where young mothers get prenatal care, education, parenting classes, and counseling. In about two years they are ready to support themselves and their children. Some of them go on to higher education. Art is a way to have fun and enrich their lives. Two of my students have just had their babies and are on maternity leave from classes so they concentrate on caring for and bonding with their babies. As a result, I am down to one student for the time being. 

Watercolor Lessons

 Sunset Palm 2

Watercolor 9.5 X 7.75

Sunset Palm 1

Watercolor 9.5 X 7.35

I've been asked to teach an art class to some young women and it has been a struggle for me. I'm starting from scratch and the lessons have to be simple enough to accomplish in a 2 hour session. Thanks to a video by Jean Lursen, a fellow blogger, I have a simple sunset to try. The top one was done with Mission paints plus payne's gray for the dark area. The bottom one with quin. gold and orange. I'm going to go with the brighter colors for today's class.

I hope I have some student work to post in the future.

Bird In The Hand

Bird In The Hand 

Collage, 6 X 6

I left some of the strings from the string paper on the collage. When the collage is mounted on a panel they will add some interest to the piece. The string paper is made by layering string in between two pieces of tissue paper and then coating with diluted acrylic and gloss medium. 

Bird In The Hand

(detail)

Collage 6 X 6

This shows the collage a little larger for detail. It's made of a combination of hand made papers, magazine pages that have been altered and commercial papers. Everything has been coated with

acrylic gloss medium and heat fused to 140# paper. I plan to mount it on a wood panel but it could be matted and framed as well. I think I'm going to have some fun with this bored looking lady holding different objects,quite a few things come to mind. Do you have a suggestion? Make a comment below. Thanks for taking time to read my blog.

Afternoon Wine in the Garden

Watercolor, 8 X 8

I painted this from one of the many photos I took at Butchart Gardens when we visited a few years ago. It's another watercolor that I intend to mount on a gallery wrapped canvas and apply wax. I really like the looks of the presentation and I hope that buyers do too. The Primroses I posted a few weeks ago were also from that collection of pictures and have been waxed and look great. 

Bright Sunflower

Bright Sunflower

8 X 8 watercolor mounted on wood panel

This is one of three watercolors I have finished  and mounted so that they are ready to wax with Dorland's Wax Medium. This will protect them and give them a soft finish without the glare of glass in a frame. Because there is no costly framing, I can offer them for sale for less expense to me and to the buyer. They are not permitted in the bigger watercolor shows, though. Those still have to be shown under glass or acrylic. 

Small watercolor paintings

Primrose

Watercolor 6 X 6 

Mounted on wrapped canvas and waxed

I'm working on some small watercolors that I can mount on either wrapped canvas or wood panels and protect with archival wax instead of putting them under glass. It's the best of both worlds, watercolor art but displayed with no glass reflections to get in the way of enjoyment. I spay them with UV protective acrylic first and then coat them with several layers of Dorland's wax. I like the results very much and I hope customers do too. 

Painting and Posting

Koi Pond 

Acrylic on wrapped canvas 10 X 10

I've been painting quite a lot lately. I have 3 classes a week during the summer just to keep me busy. So busy that I haven't had time to post in my blog or to read the blogs of the artists I follow. 

This acrylic pour I posted before without the fish. I just thought it needed something more. I printed out some pictures that I took at a koi pond, cut out the fish and positioned them on the painting. When I found the right size and shape I just painted them in.  I like the result. 

Flamingo Collage

Flamingo 

Acrylic and Collage

I don't know how time can disappear like it does. I have a hard time keeping up with the blog these days. That said, on with the painting. This is a do-over. It was an all acrylic painting of a flamingo on a full sheet of watercolor paper. After languishing in a frame for more than a year I decided to take it out and collage on it. My inspiration is Elizabeth St Hilaire, who does this type of collage. I love her work! I decided to crop the Flamingo into a smaller format, picked out some papers that were mostly manufactured plus a couple of hand painted papers and cut and tore pieces to cover the whole bird. It was quite a challenge but fun. Everything is adhered with acrylic mat medium. I left the original background because I like how it was done in a loose, drippy, transparent manner.