Mission Bougainvillas

This is the demo painting I did for the Watercolor I class yesterday afternoon. I chose the photo since it demonstrates how to do mass foliage effects without painting each leaf as well as stucco/masonry effects. The students also used masking fluid for the flowers.

Lace and flower prototype

This is an idea I have had fermenting in my mind for awhile to try someday. I found an inexpensive doily last week and decided to give it a try. I used the doily as a stencil, airbrushing watercolor over it, then painted the iris over the white left by the doily stencil. I have doilies for larger paintings, too, when I develop this further. In the future, I think I would tone the paper first, before airbrushing the stencil of the doily on. I also would pay more attention to the iris anatomy...I somehow added an additional petal in there. I think, also, that this begs for intense color on the flower, but I decided to quit on this one since it is just a sample to see if the idea works. I will try it again, using these thoughts above and see what I think. I am pleased with the concept so far and think it merits further work. I need to get busy with two commissions so will, reluctantly, put this aside for awhile. Kinda cool, huh?

Antiquity Pot

Enough of the art studio photos, on to the original intent of this blog....my artwork. This is another pot I used for a demo in my Watercolor I class to show modeling of shapes, using shadow shapes to show form in the draped cloth and using sandpaper to "age" an object.

This afternoon, I will see the students' finished pots, that is always exciting to see how they interpreted each lesson.

SWAP Gallery

I belong to an international online group that, quarterly, exchanges small paintings with other group members, never knowing from whom our paintings will be sent. I only have six to show so far, but have left room to show more in the future as I receive them, going up to the ceiling and over the French doors.

This has been a fun group to belong to and I have enjoyed the paintings I have received from everyone. So far, I have received a painting from the Philipines, Canada, Spain and different states here in the USA.

Art Studio, finally finished!

Here is the art studio portion of the build project, organized as I think will work best. Once I start actually working in here some of these arrangements may change, but I am quite far away from doing much of that. We have completely disorganized our family room, which will need to be put back together after painting, etc., and then move the computers and office furniture into the studio area that will become the office (the corner and wall from which I shot this photo). Then we need to convert the old office into a guest room. So, no rest for the weary for awhile here, but we are at least making some promising progress! The camera angle makes the right side shelves appear to be unlevel, trust me that is not the case....we leveled them all when installing!

I have an ArtChix sale this weekend, followed by a Sun City Grand Art Faire sale on March 3 so I need to get my act together to get ready for these while trying to put the rest of the house back together. Like I said, we have plenty to keep us both out of trouble for quite awhile.

For my SWAP buddies, the wall over the bookcases on the left (and eventually over the French doors) will become my SWAP gallery when I get all of my paintings framed. Cool, huh? Once we get the office part of the studio put together, I will be able to hang more paintings there...the art studio portion has to be more functional, with wall space taken up with storage and shelves.

I am excited to be this far along with this arduous project, it has been a long time since we felt the least bit organized in our house and we are only part way there. But, this is enough excitement for now and I am proud to have it.

Studio Build - Almost Done!

I wanted to wait until everything was completely done before posting these photos, but I am so happy with the flooring that I decided to go ahead and post now, then will post again when everything is moved in and settled (whenever that will be!). The baseboard will be finished being installed later this week and then we will paint it, then starts the arduous task of moving everything back in.

The photos were shot from two opposite corners, showing the L-shaped room. Any walls that look like they are sloping, please chalk that up to my difficult camera angles to try to get as much into one photo as possible. Trust me, they are all straight! More photos to follow as this gets completed. But, we are getting close!

Studio exterior completed

Here is the exterior view of the completed studio build. I will post photos of the interior once the flooring and baseboard trim has been installed. We have finished the painting on the interior as well as all blinds and fans have been installed. Hooray!