Still nothing to show

I have been tying up loose ends, preparing to pack in earnest for our Alaskan adventure, so have not been painting and probably will not do any painting until we return. This trip will be all about photography and experiencing Alaska in person.

I have added a link on the sidebar to an interesting and exciting, often hilarious website I have found. Well, my husband found the site and referred me to it, I have to give credit where credit is due! He was looking at the Motorhome Forum and clicked on the forum site that discusses camping recipes and many people were following the recipes submitted by a person whose website is called "Pioneer Woman". The link is http://thepioneerwoman.com/ and it is very entertaining to read, as well as having super recipes. Her writing style is very self-effacing and often reminiscent of Lucille Ball's adventures and I love her attitude. If you are surfing the web and want to look at something unique, this one is a hoot! It is packed with recipes, a romance story, great photography and lots to explore. I am hooked.

Nothing to show....

I have no painting photos to show after yesterday's painting session at the Art Club. This is because I was painting on Yupo and was already on the second try at painting the Buchart Gardens painting on this piece of Yupo and had wiped out the first attempt and started another. I am none too pleased with Try Two, either! For some reason I am having difficulty setting the early, background values properly and it is throwing me off for the rest of the painting. So, thinking I have nothing to lose (other than yesterday's paint used!), I will try some of the lifting techniques used by George James and see what happens to this mess. If that fails, I will wipe the whole thing down again and start over. After having done two successful landscape paintings (with ponds or streams) I am not sure why I can't do this one this time that has a pond with lily pads. Must not be my time to do this scene on Yupo. If a third time fails I will not beat myself up about it but will save the photo for watercolor paper. I am just stubborn enough to want to do this beautiful scene well so will persevere and get it done properly one of these days.

Mountain Vista

This was an exercise with the mentorees (using one of their photos) to practice some different techniques, such as spattering and mass foliage. For once, I tried to raise the color in the mountains instead of trying to paint them as seen in the photo and like how they turned out. To set them back, I used washes of white gouache after they were dry and the foreground painted. I saw this method in a book and will keep it in my mind for when I inadvertently miss on the values and need to set mountains back farther for perspective.

I also was re-trying Kilamanjaro paper again. I thought I liked it before, when I had bought a 25-sheet pack of it a few years ago. After using some Arches I decided that was more the paper for me and have not used Kilamanjaro since. Interestingly, I noticed yesterday that I didn't get the unintended blossoms that I sometimes get on Arches paper, where I don't want them. In my logical mind (assuming I have one!) I think it might have something to do with the fact that Kilamanjaro is a softer, more absorbant paper and maybe it stores a bit more moisture just below the surface and doesn't let the wetter paint push the pigment, like it stays wet longer? If this is so, I may have to switch back to Kilamanjaro since painting here on the desert is a constant struggle to get washes laid down without blossoms. Hmmmm.

Image size 11x15 on Kilamanjaro watercolor paper

Yupo Petroglyphs II

Here is the second in my Yupo Petroglyphs series. I just love working with all this texture. A friend at the Art Club yesterday gave me a strip of what is called Sequin Waste. It is what is left when the machines punch out sequins and is like a round mesh. It works for both negative lifting as well as positive stamping on the Yupo, neat stuff. Thanks, Betty!

I don't know what I would do without my generous friends since I painted this in this size (12x22) to fit into a frame (19x28) given to me by another friend, who had a number of large metal frames given to him that he couldn't use so he shared them with several of us who were very pleased to get them. Thanks now go to Woody! The frame is a coppery metal, which should look great with these colors.

My goal for this one was to make the Kokopelli's and other figures sort of hidden among the texture so you have to look for them to see them. This Yupo is great fun to work with and makes for a nice change once in awhile from my more controlled efforts to create something realistic.

Rusty Ranch Bucket

This is my submission for the Watercolor Workshop's April project where everyone paints from the same photo. We all usually do a different take on the same subject, this time I made the photo more Southwestern by placing the fence and rusty pieces in a desert setting.

I tried painting foliage very loosely and flowing this time and want to return to my usual method of using a texture brush to lay in the glazes. But, I like painting rust!

This painting is available as an original painting, but also has been made into notecards. Let me know if you need some!

Newspaper Rock Final

I finished this full sheet Newspaper Rock this morning. I may have miscounted, but there seem to be 88 glyphs on this. The spattering alone took three sessions. Now to mat and frame this, hopefully without breaking my big sheet of glass. It will go into a 28 x 36 frame.

Now, on to my next victim, a desert scene I started at the Art Club Thursday.

Newspaper Rock WIP 3

Now, all the masking has been rubbed off and I will begin adding lots of textures to this. My hand hurts!

The fun part begins....

Newspaper Rock WIP 2

I have completed this to the stage where all the background color has been added. Next, I will finish removing ALL the masking, that is if my hand holds out. On a full sheet painting, with all this masking of the figures, that is a lot of rubbing! In addition to the masking on the figures, I used an old toothbrush to flick masking all over the painting so when it is removed it will look like rocky textures with light spots sprinkled. I have started removing the masking and so far I am glad I did the flicking ofn the masking fluid because it looks cool. But, like I said, that is a lot of masking to rub off. After the masking is removed, I will begin texturing the rock and the glyphs and enhancing the cracks and fissures in the rock wall. Did I mention that this is a full sheet painting?

Gina's Hollyhocks

This is a painting we finished in this morning's mentoring session. The reference photo was provided, with permission to paint, by Gina who lives in the Seattle area. These are her hollyhocks and I loved the look in the photo of the flowers against the white trellis. I like the whole painting, but wish I had gotten the trellis slats more straight. Sigh. too late for that now and I do like the rest of it.

The mentorees did a fabulous job of theirs, when I get some photos of theirs I will post them here, with their permission of course.

This was a fun one to do, I may have to do another one only apply the trellis masking tape more carefully!

Newspaper Rock WIP

This is the first WIP I am submitting of the earlier smaller study of Newspaper Rock. I am four hours into this full sheet painting, including three glazes of the yellow ochre and three hours of painting the glyphs with masking fluid. I am using Pebeo Drawing Gum for masking and it is a gray color when dry, the masking will be removed once I glaze on all the rock colors, leaving the ochre colored glyphs.

Seeing as there is a Vanguard Artists meeting this afternoon at the museum and a weekend ArtChix sale, I will probably not do anything with this for a few days. Once I start glazing the rock colors, it usually goes fairly rapidly from that point.

Have a good weekend, all!