Great Weekend

No photos of this weekend's ArtChix sale. And it was one of those memorable ones for me as I sold more than usual, which in this doubtful and sad economy is an accomplishment, indeed! I sold my large petroglyph painting I did last summer to a return customer whom I dearly love. She is such a wonderful lady, so full of spirit. While sitting at my art tables, I was able to paint yesterday's painting of my son and Aubrey and then today I did a small painting for my SWAP partner, but I won't share that until he/she sees it....it's a big secret! I got lots accomplished this weekend, had a great time, visited with so many people, the weather was great and painted two paintings...it doesn't get much better than that!

Tomorrow is my best-blogger-buddy's birthday so do stop by and wish Rhonda ( http://rhcarpenter.blogspot.com/ ) a happy day, her blog is very worthwhile to follow! Happy birthday, Rhonda....and many more!

Have a good week everyone.

Aubrey and Daddy

While at my ArtChix sale table today I worked on this painting of my son and granddaughter, Patrick and Aubrey. I loved the moment portrayed in the photo and hope that showed up in this painting. I changed the composition just a bit to make it more "artistic" and compositionally correct. I like the figures best of all, but that makes sense since these are two of my favorite people!

Art Sale This Weekend

I am preparing for another ArtChix art sale this weekend. If you are in the area of Sun City Grand, do stop by the Art Club Studio and have a look at what we are displaying and working on. A number of us will be doing demonstrations of our process as we visit with those who stop by.

Valentine's Day is coming, maybe you will find something for your Sweetie!

Have a good weekend...

Pink Dogwood

This is a quick project painting I did for the Watercolor Workshop's January project - to paint anything that is pink. Very simply done, but nice to do after that detailed Indian painting I just finished. The reference photo was courtesy of Doris Glovier.

Petroglyph Photo Jaunt

This fellow was waaaaay up the side of the hill, spotted first by my eagle-eye son. It was the last photo I shot as we left, a reminder that we were returning to the land of the present, with a living creature saying goodbye.

I don't recall ever being to a petroglyph site that did not include quite a few glyphs depicting deer, this one was no different. It amazes me that the different tribes in far apart areas all used the same symbolism to depict deer, they are instantly recognizeable in all cases. There are also always depictions of snakes...I guess they all ate venison and dealt with snakes!
This one shows what I believe is a tree, probably a Paloverde, since those were in abundance in this area.

We joined our son and his fiance yesterday on a photo jaunt to an urban petroglyph site near Phoenix (Deer Valley Rock Art Center). To protect the vulnerable petroglyphs, there was a path winding through the most visible ones, but they were high up and we had to shoot photos into the sun, never a good thing! Most of the other petroglyph sites we have visited have allowed much closer access to the glyphs, but since this was an urban site I suppose extra care had to be taken to protect them. Here are a few of the ones I worked with for the blog. This one is the worst for sun flare, but I wanted to share it since I believe it contains the Thunderbird symbol. I was using my 49-150 mm lens with a x 1.7 multiplier, polarizing filter, lens hood and fingers crossed that I could capture these.

Pow-Wow Indian - Final (I hope)

Here is what I am hoping will be the final version of my Pow-Wow Indian. I have submitted it to the Watercolor Workshop and, barring major suggested changes, this will be it. While it took longer to do this one, I have grown somewhat attached to it. I do like it, even though I don't consider myself a portrait artist. I think his face painted itself because I loved his features when I first saw the reference photo. Again, thanks to Diana Webb for her excellent photo and especially her permission for me to paint from it.

Pow-Wow Indian WIP 7

I worked on this at the Thursday watercolor group session and then only once during the busy weekend. I roughed in the feathers and darkened the hair a bit more. Next, I need to refine the details on the feathers and darken his hair more, although I don't want to go all the way to black since there was quite a bit of sun on it. I am thinking this will be the last WIP, I will next post the final after it has been critiqued by the various groups and individuals I rely on for critiques. So, for now it is what it is, we will see what it finishes to be.

Pow-Wow Indian WIP 6

I have been working on and off on a few of the headband details, more modeling shading for the neck area and some more of his face paint. Next, I will take this to my Thursday afternoon watercolor group and work on the details of the beaded breastplate and start on those big feathers directly behind him. I still like him, what do you think?

Pow-Wow Indian WIP 5

I have worked in two sessions to paint the top hat and start the feathers in the hat band. Now, I want to work on the beaded hat band next. This is fairly detailed work and with my limited time this week I probably will not have much to update very soon. This is still an enjoyable painting to work on, though. I am eager to see some of the colorful bead stripes go on this hat band. I like how adding that hat adds dimension to the figure.