Watercolors by Susan Roper

Hibiscus

2012-01-24T11:06:00.001-07:00

Here is my second painting in a little over a week's time, must be some kind of a record for me lately! I am enjoying painting smaller sizes (this one is another 8 x 10) and enjoying the fact that I can actually finish them within a week. I started this last Thursday afternoon and added glazes, etc. each of the days since and finished it today.

My goal for this one was to pay more attention to lost and found edges and to force myself to attempt some negative painting. I have difficulty wrapping my brain around the concept of negative painting, but love seeing it in the works of others, so decided I had better improve my skills. While I see some softer edges in this when it is on the computer, I notice I could have done even more in some places, but it is what it is at this point, and I will continue working on these aspects.

Love hibiscus flowers!

Archway to Arches

2012-01-14T14:27:00.000-07:00

Here is the first project painting for Watercolor Workshop that I have completed and submitted in a long time. I am hoping to get back into the swing of things, meaning more painting and painting studies, now that the new year is here. Seems like a good time to start!

This was taken by a friend, Joe Ruby, on one of his many forays into the Moab, UT area.

It is an 8x10 painting on 140-lb Arches paper. Arches for arches, yup, pun intended.

Return to...

2011-12-12T07:23:00.000-07:00

...what life is supposed to be without our mother. She requested graveside services only for herself and we went along with her wishes. The services were poignant, sad, beautiful, meaningful, lonely (even with so many surrounding us), but we all survived it. The celebration of her life which followed was all of the above but with some funny stories, as well. My mother's pastor passed around a microphone for anyone who wanted to say anything about my mom and, surprisingly many did have something to say. This was all recorded and will be copied onto CD's for my sister, brother and I. There were some sweet and inspirational things said, as well as funny stories, so it will be a treasure for us to keep.

Onward and upward....

My mother...

2011-12-06T08:01:00.001-07:00

...has passed from this life to be with her Heavenly Father last night. By Saturday night, following her Friday surgery, it appeared that her kidneys were failing and her condition began to decline. Sunday and yesterday had us seeing her go into and out of consciousness, she seemed to have one foot here in this world and one in the after-life. My sister, brother and I made the difficult decision to remove the meds that were only artificially maintaining her blood pressure in the afternoon and she passed away last night at 11:30. We feel her fast passing validated our decision to not keep her with us artificially as that would not have been her wish.

As I figure out how to go through the rest of my life as an orphan, I remain thankful for the family I had and that we got to have my mom with us for almost 92 years, and that she was independent and mostly healthy up until the end.

God is good.....Susan

All is Well...

2011-12-03T06:37:00.000-07:00

...although it was another blip on our family's medical radar. My mother, pictured below on Thanksgiving Day, fell and broke her hip Thursday afternoon. Late yesterday she had a total hip replacement, so we had a late night at the hospital. She is doing very well for a 91-year-old, as she says "I am a tough Norwegian"!

Thursday afternoon I started a full sheet painting of Canyon de Chelly. I covered the entire sheet with watercolor, but am considering what I have done so far as the underpainting as I am not so pleased with it. I am considering using either gouache or acrylic paint for the detailing and highlighting. Might be fun, anyway, to try something different along with the watercolor. As soon as I take a photo of what I have done so far, I will post it. But, it is to be considered a work in progress!

Four Generations

2011-11-25T06:44:00.000-07:00

My hope for you all is that you had as nice a Thanksgiving as I did! Here you see my mother, my son, me and The Precious Two..Aubrey and Zane. After the rough beginning Zane had it was a true blessing to have him here and hold him as the joyful little person he is today.

Aubrey and Zane's "other" grandparents were here from Oklahoma and we had such a wonderful family day. Lots of good food, fun and fellowship...it doesn't get any better than that!

Five-year Blogoversary!

2011-11-12T09:26:00.000-07:00

Yup, I just realized that I past my fifth year blogoversary without noting it happening! I was reading Rhonda Carpenter's blog where she mentioned that today is her fifth year anniversary, and I went to the archives to see just exactly when I submitted my first tentative blog entry. Yup, it was on October 11, 2006! This blog, as well as the others I follow almost daily, have become an important part of my personal culture...art-wise, soul-wise and every-other-wise I can think of! I just love following along on the artistic journeys of others as well as getting a peek into their thoughts and lives as we grow together.

Thanks to Google for making this an easy-to-do and important part of our lives!

Chinle Color

2011-11-06T08:03:00.000-07:00

Canyon de Chelly is part of the Navajo town of Chinle. In the town itself, all of the cottonwoods were at their peak, as opposed to those at the bottom of the canyon, which were just approaching that phase. These old cottonwoods sure know how to put on a display, there were groves of them around Chinle that seemed to turn the whole atmosphere golden while driving through.

Another Pano

2011-11-06T07:58:00.000-07:00

This is yet another pano I have stitched together of Canyon de Chelly last week. It was from a series of seven photos, the color that day was just magnificent.

Beautiful Deer

2011-11-06T07:45:00.000-07:00

While driving around the rim of Canyon de Chelly, we turned into a long drive into an overlook. This deer was crossing the road ahead of us, Tom slowed down as it disappeared into the brush. But, when we got to where we had last seen it, she was just standing there waiting for us. He rolled down his window and I shot this through the open window.

While I am hardly a wildlife painter, this one is calling to me because of the lovely light and dark contrasts, plus this is a beautiful animal.

Canyon de Chelly Panorama 1

2011-11-04T09:43:00.001-07:00

We took a six-day trip to the Gallup, NM area and just got back yesterday afternoon. I still have lots to unpack from the motorhome, but I just couldn't wait to stitch together one of the panorama shots I took. This one is a ten-photo pano and shows the beauty of the canyon floor and walls. We have been there a few times before, but never in the Fall, and I am so happy we got to see the cottonwood trees at their peak. I have lots of single photos of the most colorful trees and will add those as soon as I get unpacked. We were there on a perfect weather day and enjoyed our day a lot.

PS...As usual, to view this in a larger format, please click on the photo. Saving a file that has ten high resolution photos makes such a huge file that I had to keep making the stitched photo smaller so it would save properly.

Next Victim (er...I mean Painting)

2011-10-20T06:55:00.001-07:00

This is a photo I took years ago while visiting Sabino Canyon near Tucson, AZ. I chose to paint this photo on a full sheet of paper because:

I want to get the perspective correct of this canyon
I want to get better at painting boulders and rocks
I love the sunlight hitting all the elements coming from the right and want that contrast to show
I am a glutton for punishment

I have painted this one much earlier in my painting life and it was not a success since I couldn't do any of the above (well, except for the last bulleted item), so it will be a fun challenge to see if I can do any better at this point. I am wondering where this flop of my first painting is, if I can pull this one off I will post the first one so we can see if there is any improvement! Otherwise, neither will see the light of day.

Hang with me for some serious hand-holding....

Grandchildren A-Z - Final

2011-10-18T08:44:00.000-07:00

I finally have had this critiqued "enough" and have decided this is my final painting of Aubrey and Zane. Not my last one ever, but my last effort with this one!

I want to leave it with the tender softness I achieved and will not go for more defined contrasts, so will stop adding to anything. Poor little Zane's face has been scrubbed out so many times it will not allow me to make any more changes.

From the latest photos I have seen of him he has filled out a lot and doesn't look anything like this rendition anyway, so will chalk it up to Grandma's artistic license! At any rate, this is ready to be framed and go up on my Grandma's Gallery.

PS...For those who saw my earlier post, I deleted it since I had raised the contrast a bit and darkened the photo a bit before sending it along. After I saw it on the blog I decided I had overstepped how this looks in real life. When I look at Aubrey's left cheek in real life, it does NOT look like she has mumps! I am not sure why the camera picked up that look, but it doesn't do justice to the painting. Sigh.

Grandchildren A-Z WIP 5

2011-09-30T11:55:00.000-07:00

I am thinking I am crazy for even showing anyone this version. At this point I have so very much to do to make this better that I should be ashamed. But, here is where I stopped yesterday. Poor little Zane is just not right, I misread the reference photo and gave him too skinny of a neck and misplaced his left eye, too high.

Aubrey is doing better, but I still need to sculpt her face better. I notice a lot just by posting a painting on this blog, forces me to look at it from afar and see what my eyes missed in person. Grrrr.

Grandchildren A-Z WIP 4

2011-09-22T18:59:00.000-07:00

I worked on this during today's Thursday afternoon watercolor painting session. I still have much to go, but due to spot-on critiques during my efforts I see where I still have to soften some edges, soften some darks, and continue to make Aubrey look more like a 5-year-old instead of older than that. Zane's features will suffice when I make the hard lines softer and define his little features better, as well as the shadows, but it will all come in time. I have truly loved working on this one and will continue on....either to the scrap pile or to a framed painting!

Grandchildren A-Z WIP 2

2011-09-18T14:31:00.000-07:00

I couldn't leave this alone, so did a few more shadow washes here and there and started defining their faces. I now have to force myself to leave it alone for awhile as I am starting to go for too much detail, too soon, and will mess it up if I continue.

That dark shape to the upper right corner of the painting is a shadow from a twig when I took the photo outside. I completely missed seeing that in the photo and am too lazy go out back and retake it. Please just pretend it isn't there?

Grandchildren A-Z WIP 1

2011-09-18T12:04:00.000-07:00

This has been a bad week for creativity for me, so I just got back to this painting this morning.

I have done the initial skin washes for both Aubrey and Zane, and have started laying in some of the shadows. Since the negatively-painted shadows will form the shapes of their bodies, I am trying to remember that shadows are my friend! Right now, I am scared of 'em and just trying to control my values. I will mainly work on painting the GK's and then do the furniture and background since if I flub those, it won't matter what the rest of it looks like. Lots to go on the shadows, though....

Grandchildren A-Z - Drawing

2011-09-14T10:52:00.001-07:00

In my Artbuddies group, another artist (sue Drennan) and I have challenged ourselves to paint our grandchildren's portraits from more challenging photos.

The reference photo for this is definitely more challenging since it was shot in the shade and showed little more than fuzzy details of their anatomies in most places. I ended up tracing the outline where I could and drawing in the rest. At best, I can only hope my negative painting and shadows depict Aubrey's hands more like her delicate ones than a cave man's hands! I also hope to make poor little Zane's head look less like ET as it is now. Stick with me on this one, it is going to be a kick/challenge/frustration/joy to paint!

I snapped this photo right after stretching it so the wrinkles should be gone when it is dry. I will take it to art with me tomorrow to start painting (shaking in my booties with both excitement and trepidation here!).

Wordless Memorial

2011-09-11T07:51:00.000-07:00

Captain Smith's Cabin - Final?

2011-09-09T14:25:00.000-07:00

Well, I could not just leave this alone, so this afternoon I played with it some more, adding some more refined darks here and there as well as lifting more highlights out of the shingles, etc. It feels great to have finished another one, if it is indeed finished.

Capatin Smith's Cabin - WIP 5

2011-09-08T19:38:00.000-07:00

This is where I finished for today. I made the foreground much more lush than in the reference photo, more like after a rainy Spring? I have some ponderin' to do with this, as I want to refine it a bit more and add some more shadows on the bare ground of the foreground and do a better job with the middle ground sage brush. this is enough for today, anyway. Another fun afternoon painting with my art buds.

Captain Smith's Cabin - WIP 4

2011-09-08T19:30:00.000-07:00

I took this to the watercolor group this afternoon and enjoyed working on it some more. Here, I have defined the huge boulder on the side and started adding color to the cabin stones and shingles.

I keep saying I am going to stop using masking fluid as I hate the hard lines it leaves, but then I use it again, anyway. I am running low on it and will resolve to buy no more until I see if I can do better without it.

Commercial Break

2011-09-05T11:00:00.002-07:00

I am taking a short break from my own art to share what my son, Patrick, just sent of Aubrey's newest art medium...Dry Erase Markers. I can see that being in kindergarten for just one week has made her paintings more sophisticated!

Aubrey is my pot of gold under my rainbow!

Next stages of Captain Smith's Cabin

2011-09-05T10:52:00.000-07:00

After the purple acrylic ink was dry, I did a wash with warm quin gold as an underpainting to start the sky and set the warm tones for this painting. I sometimes like having a warm yellow sky to show that it is a sunny, warm day.

This is the third stage where I stopped. I need to study this background a bit more after it completely dries and see what needs to be lifted, what needs to have the edges softened, etc. I want to completely finish the background, though, before starting the middle and foreground.

I wish I had made the quin gold glaze a bit darker, so will probably take care of that before I start anything else.

Captain Smith's Cabin

2011-09-05T09:34:00.001-07:00

Our WcW project for September is to paint something abandoned. While looking through PMP (Paint My Photo), I came across this and decided to use this reference photo instead of one of the many hundreds of abandoned buildings I have taken photos of but not used.

I decided to use the grisaille method of underpainting, but use my fav purple for the underpainting. The gray you see is the Pebeo Drawing gum I used for the resist where I wanted the lightest lights to be.

I'll keep posting as I go along, or until I give up on this...whichever comes first!

PS...In neglected to say the reference photo was courtesy of Cindy Blevins and she said it was in Escalante Canyon in Colorado. Looks like many in Utah I have seen, though.

One Hour of Fun with Gesso

2011-08-30T14:59:00.000-07:00

First, my big announcement! I spent the last two days rearranging and reorganizing my studio and it is so much better now! I didn't have the heart to even come in here and try to paint since I couldn't find anything and it would have used up all of my motivation and inspiration just to clear a space and find something I needed. It was bad! So, now I am ready to go, and this is the result.

Last week I gesso-ed over two failed paintings on Arches paper, while they were still on the boards. Today, I had an hour to play and that led to this painting. I just kept using my bedraggled cutter brush with half the hairs missing (great for foliage texture!) and lifting and dabbing until I quit at this point. In self-critiquing this, I see the my atmospheric perspective is off and, even though this mountain stream did tumble downhill I think I have it too much that way. Oh well, it is what it is at this point. Since the paper has gesso on its surface, I may go in and change the course of that upper part of the stream, but maybe not. It served its purpose of getting me back into the studio and actually using it as a studio instead of a storage room for everything I didn't know where to put elsewhere. Bad Susan!

Mendenhall Ice Floes

2011-08-26T11:28:00.001-07:00

This was one of the two August projects for the Watercolor Workshop this month. I actually did both of the projects, the first time this year I think! The theme was to paint something that looked cool, and this fit the bill the best I could find. Not my greatest work, but passable to show I am actually painting some now. I wish I was there right now...we have had record-breaking heat this week and it really is hard to make ourselves go outside for anything.

A Green Project by Aubrey!

2011-08-14T19:13:00.000-07:00

This is a painting, by my Aubrey, on cardboard ( to reduce, reuse and recycle!) As you can probably tell, it is of a car and painted using the brushes I sent to her recently.

Go Aubrey...you recycle and you rock!

G'Ma

August Project For WcW

2011-08-11T18:40:00.000-07:00

This is my submission for the Watercolor Workshop August project, which is where we all paint from one photo, provided this month by Jane James. It is supposed to be depicting something "cool" while we all fight the heat this summer. Unfortunately, I just cannot force myself to mix cool greens and blues! I seem always to reach for the warm golds and go with that.

This is supposedly a scene in Maine, I have never seen this kind of pine tree so was not sure I depicted it correctly.

Silverton to Ouray

2011-07-29T07:06:00.000-07:00

After weeks of not working on this, I finally finished it yesterday while painting with the Thursday afternoon watercolor group. We critiqued this and deemed it finished. Now, on to painting.....what?

Loop 303 Finished

2011-07-23T08:51:00.000-07:00

While we were gone for a month, the DOT guys finished the northern end of Loop 303, which makes a bypass through the city to connect I-10 to I-17. This takes you through the desert in places we have not seen, which surprised us as we were driving on the other side of the mountains and hills we had only seen from one side.

This part of the desert was surprisingly green for this time of the year. Most of what we see is summer brown on the desert.

One view that impressed me, and which I failed to adequately show in this photo, is the amount of horizontal planes reaching to infinity with these mountains. Living on the valley's desert floor, it always amazes me to see these mountains this way.

Home at Last!

2011-07-20T14:59:00.000-07:00

Finally, our son and DIL were able to bring little Zane home from the hospital this afternoon. Also this was Big Sister Aubrey's first time to see her baby brother in person and to hold him as she was not allowed near the NICU.

She looks very pleased, however Zane is very non-committal at this point! Happy, happy day indeed!

Better Photo

2011-07-17T07:14:00.000-07:00

I have been waiting to update Zane's first photo here until there were no more tubes and his little eyes were open, and here it is! Patrick had just fed him a lot of milk and he said Zane looked like he was so full...milk drunk!

If all continues to go well, he can go home Wednesday afternoon...Hallelujuh! What a cutie!

Zane Patrick

2011-07-11T11:17:00.000-07:00

I wish to announce the arrival of our new grandchild, Zane Patrick, to our family. Unfortunately, he aspirated meconium into his lungs at birth (a fairly common complication of birth) and has to be in the NICU for at least ten days while they treat the pneumonia and help his lungs to heal, but we are hopeful that there will be no further complications.

I like the name they chose! I can now say I have grandchildren!

Silverton to Ouray

2011-07-10T11:15:00.000-07:00

One day while in Chama, we drove the long trip to Silverton, CO. We had lunch at the Silverton Brewery, where in addition to a good lunch I had a glass of Bear Ass Brown Ale, which was yummy.

This old truck was in front of the pub and many people were posing in front of it for photos.

After lunch we drove from Silverton almost all of the way to Ouray, a mountain mining town. The evidence of minerals changed as we climbed up toward Ouray. Look at these colors!

One of the stunning views, along with the snows that were still prevalent at the 10,000 foot elevation.

This is a mining building that I recognized immediately from a photo a friend shot a few years ago and gave me permission to paint. Now, I was seeing it and photographing it myself.

This is a vista that I brought back to the motorhome and started painting it. You will sorta/kinda recognize this from my version of it in a previous post here. I still have a few more things to do with the painting since I am home now.

This is another of the photos I took with a thought to paint it. Our project for the month of July at the Watercolor Workshop online site is shadows. When I was reviewing this I knew I had to give this one a try for the project painting.

Foxes Revisited Again This Year

2011-07-10T11:05:00.000-07:00

I will begin adding a few photos from our month in Chama, NM here on the blog since we have returned home. For security reasons, I decided not to turn this blog into a travelog this trip and let everyone online know our house was not occupied for a month! So, this will be a retrospective of some of what we saw.

We had a very relaxing trip, preferring this time to not scour the countryside every day while there, mainly because we wanted to relax and we had already seen everything in all four directions on our previous trips to this area.

While doing laundry, I was overlooking the neighbor's property which had a large pile of rubbish, mainly fallen timber, but with some junk interwoven. In this enormous pile was a family of foxes, a mama and three babies.

I grabbed my camera and telephoto lens and started snapping multiple photos. This is the mama, striding from our RV park meadow to skirt around to the neighboring property to take food to her youngsters.

She arrived onto the woodpile and dropped some food off for her babies. She was very warily watching me as I kept recording her movements and probably thought I posed a danger to her babies. Not so...I only shoot with my camera, Mama !

This is my fav photo of the bunch...look at that little baby peeking out in the center of the photo!

The babies were more of a brown than the adult mother, I guess that is normal. I know less than nothing about foxes, other than I love watching them and photographing them.

Last SWAP Painting

2011-07-10T10:43:00.000-07:00

I have been including the paintings I have received from the SWAP (Sharing With Artist Partners) group online and here is the latest one. My SWAP partner was Brenda Knoll and she sent this cutie-pie bluebird to me. Sadly, this will be our last swap, but I have amassed quite the gallery of lovely paintings from all over the world through the years I have belonged to this group and I treasure them all, as well as their artists as friends.

Silverton to Ouray - WIP 2

2011-06-26T06:49:00.000-07:00

I worked on this again yesterday, getting it to the point where I have to decide what HAS to be done and what would just be considered "fiddling". I want to push the mountain farther back; it, in real life, is too demanding of attention to be so far back there. I also need to add some modeling to the pine trees in the foreground. But, all-in-all I still am liking this one.

Silverton to Ouray

2011-06-24T10:05:00.000-07:00

I have started another painting, this time from a photo I took of the scene from the 550 highway (Million Dollar Highway) that connects Silverton, CO to Ouray, CO. I loved the view with the mountains behind and the alpine valley below. There is still masking fluid on the mountains to be removed, so will do that and fine-tune that area next. So far, so good.

Great Horned Owl - Reprocessed

2011-06-14T05:38:00.001-07:00

I reprocessed this photo to more closely match the painting colors. I don't know why it was recorded as being such a cold tone before; the painting is done in warm colors, except for the shadows for contrast.

Great Horned Owls - final

2011-06-13T10:46:00.001-07:00

I have decided to quit picking on these poor owls and call this one finished. It has been enjoyable working on them but I am ready to go forth and do something else.

If anyone sees anything glaringly wrong with this let me know and I will consider making the changes. I'll submit it for critique, also, at the WcW, but for now it is done.

PS...Now that I see this photo of the painting online, I see that it is grayer than the actual painting. I will try again to photograph it in different light.

Great Horned Owls WIP 2

2011-06-09T14:36:00.001-07:00

Trying once again here to upload this so the poor owls are not standing on their heads!

I will be adding more glazes of color as I go on with this and, hopefully, refining the edges here need be and then on to the owls. Baby horned owls are without their tufts and they look so adorable, instead of intense as their parents.

Great Horned Owls

2011-06-09T14:30:00.000-07:00

This is the underpainting of a photo provided, once again, by my friend Roch Hart of NM Jeep Tours. I am trying to upload the photo showing my next phase of the first glazes and it keeps uploading upside down! I will have to see what is going on but I have worked on this past the underpainting. Grrrr!

Mountain Cascade

2011-06-03T06:49:00.000-07:00

After working on this larger painting for a month of Thursday afternoons, I am nearing the finish line. I would appreciate another set of eyes for one question. I chose to not detail the tall pines behind the focal point tree, choosing to leave them dark, almost in silhouette. I felt this set them back nicely. As I worked forward I did more detail on those pines but chose to go lighter with the values in the foreground. I know this is counter to the atmospheric perspective rules but I did it anyway. Do you think it works in reverse?

This painting is on a piece of 16 x 28 Yupo paper. It is really fun to work large on Yupo, just throw lots of paint on there!

Another Photo-less Post

2011-06-02T05:56:00.000-07:00

The reason this is photo-less is I was lost in the moment of serendipity and didn't grab my camera. I was at the computer and kept hearing this metallic ding-ding sound. I knew there were quail out on our patio and I began hearing a different quail noise, so went to investigate. We have a vault-type meat smoker on the patio, all of it being made of stainless steel. A male quail had seen his own reflection in one of the legs of this smoker and thought it was an interloper, so he was madly pecking at the smoker leg and the interloper reflection was mimicking his moves (of course) and he was getting more and more upset and pecking faster and faster. He would dart to the side and the reflection would do the same and he was scurrying every which-way trying to vanquish his foe. It was hysterical to see.

And what do you think his girlfriend was doing during all of this battle for her affection? Just prancing around, totally unaffected by the battle.

Pardon me for this bit of fluff today, but I thought it amusing and worth sharing. Next time, I will try to take a photo if I can, but I have never seen this scene playing out and may never see it again.

For Our Less Fortunate Friends

2011-05-24T07:06:00.000-07:00

No photos, no paintings, just thoughts for this morning. For my readers who have survived the terrible destruction for the past few weeks wherever you are, I am praying for you and those who have lost everything. I feel so very unworthy for complaining as the desert starts its inexorable heat-up because I know what is coming and dread it. But, now I know I have something very petty to complain about in the face of those who have lost so many and so much. I don't know if it is more stressful to watch the flood waters coming assuredly your way and know that it will soon engulf all you have worked for or more stressful to not know when a killer tornado is going to come. Either way, I feel for all who are going through such stress and will continue to pray for your comfort and safety.

We Have Returned!

2011-05-13T11:43:00.000-07:00

We had a five-night motorhome trip, the first one since our miserable year of poor health has not allowed us to travel. All went well, although after unpacking the motorhome we are very tired today, with lots more left to do! It was fun while it lasted, though!

We traveled to the bottom of the Grand Canyon through the road at the west entrance, this was our second time to do this. Fortunately this time we were there at the right time to see all of the wild flowers blooming. There were these beaver tail cactus, ocotillo, brittle bush, Indian paintbrush, desert marigolds, globe mallows...all blooming in profusion. There were parts of the area that had so many octotillo in bloom that it looked like a forest of them, all of them with their red flags waving.

When we were almost at the Colorado River, we were driving through a stream bed. There was runoff coming downhill from all directions, forming Diamond Creek which empties into the river at the base of the canyon. Here is a small cascade we saw. Being a desert native, I am always captivated by rushing water of any kind!

We drove to the Hoover Dam, as neither of us has seen it. I climbed to the Memorial Plaza to cross the pedestrian bridge alongside the big bridge to see the back side of the dam. It is a long way down to the bottom!

Here is the memorial bridge, named in memory of Pat Tillman and one other person (I am chagrined to think I didn't write down the other person's name and now cannot remember it!). This is a very long span, completed last year.

Here is one of the most Grand Canyon-esque views as we neared the canyon. Please note the blooming octotillo at the left, in the foreground. This is where the journey got so much more picturesque. We were driving at the bases of these buttes at this point.

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

2011-05-05T10:59:00.000-07:00

A happy Cinco de Mayo to everyone who celebrates it. Living so close to the Mexican border for most of my life I have come to realize that this is as important to our culture as St. Patrick's Day is back East. And I'm half Irish!

We plan on celebrating safely at home with something Mexican tonight for dinner, although I wish I had bought Cerveza beer to go with it! If you go out, don't drink too much and....Vayan con Dios!

Emerging Flowers Again

2011-04-30T06:38:00.000-07:00

Had to share these again as they are opening more. I love these cannas and will have to plant more. I also love the fact that the rabbits appear to not like eating cannas, a big plus around here!

The prickly pear cactus got more than the normal amount of rain this Winter so they are producing more flowers and the pads are fatter this year.

Emerging Flowers

2011-04-28T09:37:00.000-07:00

This is an emerging canna flower. It is the first bloom of the season. We had a hard freeze once this Winter that caused me to cut back half the plant so I was worried that it may not bloom again. But, it is going to! I'll take more photos as this opens more.

These are just a few of the prickly pear blooms this year. I love how artistic Mother Nature is in providing yellow flowers on purple-tinged pads...complementary colors!

Anasazi Fantsy on Yupo - Final

2011-04-21T19:27:00.000-07:00

I finished this WIP this afternoon while at the Art Club. I just let it speak to me until I decided enough! I have scrubbed it out in places, lifted in places, highlighted in places and air brushed it in places...all in watercolor. Enough! I do like the look of it and, especially, that it was done without reference photo and drawing beforehand.

So, without further ado, here it is.....

Dreadful Drake - One Last Time

2011-04-15T07:43:00.000-07:00

Thanks to good suggestions for finishing this from my local group and the online WcW group, I have finished this painting. I added more color to the drake so it would be more obvious that the goose/girlfriend was in front of him and it wasn't just one oddly-shaped bird. I like it better now, too.

Yupo Fantasy - WIP

2011-04-15T07:32:00.002-07:00

Inspired by some of the latest paintings by Barbara Sailor, I decided that yesterday afternoon was the time to play with Yupo again. I had such a good time playing with this stuff, as usual. I started with a vague idea to create the upper landscape with buttes and then using strata format to create whatever was below. When I say whatever, I really mean whatever since I had no idea what it was going to do and just went in with splashing paint and let 'er rip. I began to see something different emerge, so went with cliff dwellings in the mid ground and a stylized landscape in the foreground. I still have quite a bit I want to do with this, including setting back some of the dwellings and changing their sizes to be less uniform (right now they remind me of a mouthful of teeth!). I also have to resolve that unfortunate shape in the upper right quadrant and make it into something more believable than it is now. I have in mind what I will do up there but we will see if the paint and brush really wants me to do what I am thinking. That's the beauty and the curse of Yupo!

Dreadful Drake - Final

2011-04-08T12:41:00.000-07:00

Here is what I hope will be the final WIP of this. I am pleased with everything but the trees and wish I had not put so much detail in them with the underpainting. I suppose a lesson learned is a good way to look at it, but it still isn't great to feel I should have known better.

I like the water and foreground, though, much better than the rendition I did last year of this scene. Now, on to my next painting adventure/victim.

Desert Jaunt

2011-04-05T11:22:00.000-07:00

We have been threatening to go out for a day of enjoying the wildflowers and the desert for about a month now, but with my healing broken leg, and the fact that we both have had bad colds have forced us to remain home. It would have been more "convenient" for both of us to be sick at the same time, but I was sick for an entire week and then Tom caught my cold and that put us another week and a half into feeling like we couldn't make plans to do this. Yesterday, we decided to just go and get out for just an hour or so and get out of the house together for that long at least.

Since we live on the desert, it doesn't take that long to get out among the Saguaros, and we enjoyed it. Alas, we had missed whatever wildflowers were there earlier, but the cholla were certainly abundant and very plump at this time. Their soft fuzziness is extremely deceptive, I have come into contact with this soft fuzziness twice in my life and regretted it mightily both times!

Dreadful Drake - WIP 3

2011-03-27T15:35:00.002-07:00

I have worked on this for about an hour and will stop now and let it dry completely before anything more. I have lifted out all the water surface textures and will next start the geese. Time to stop before I wish I had!

PS...After seeing this online for a few times, I am thinking I will texture those tree trunks better before starting on the geese. They are just too smooth. It is so helpful for me to see this online instead of in real life since that makes me a critique-er instead of the artist as I am viewing it as you all are. Interesting phenomenon!

Dreadful Drake - WIP 2

2011-03-27T14:10:00.000-07:00

I am renaming this painting, for the time being, to Dreadful Drake since I finally had to resort to using my telephoto lens to get a photo of him and his girlfriend. He remained ever-vigilant about me and made menacing steps toward me at every chance. At any rate, this is the second WIP photo I have taken after the underpainting posted here earlier.

There is still much to do with this in glazing on deeper colors in the water as well as more detail work in the trees. I will wait until finished with the geese before worrying about the foreground grasses. I just wanted to lay in some color, especially around her feet so I can get those buried as they were in the photo.

I plan on working on this some more this afternoon and see how far I can get with it.

Wolf Creek Pass Study

2011-03-22T15:15:00.000-07:00

This is a small study I did as a project painting for the Watercolor Workshop. this month one of the projects was to paint a painting with mostly greens and use only mixed greens, no tube greens allowed. For this painting I chose ultramarine blue and cad yellow for the greens. For the rocks I used quin burnt orange and ultramarine blue.

I chose to do this on Yupo since I want to do a full sheet Yupo painting of this scene, but wanted to try a few things out before I start the larger painting. I like some of the textures I got in this, but will keep searching and experimenting with the larger painting textures. I always learn so much if I stop and do a study first, but rarely take the time to do that.

This is a photo taken on one of our trips up Wolf Creek Pass when we stayed in Chama, NM two years ago.

Got my SWAP painting.....

2011-03-22T15:07:00.000-07:00

Three to four times a year the SWAP (Sharing With Artists Partners) group has their painting swaps. Lisa Voight from Pennsylvania was my partner this time and I just received her painting of a bouquet of eastern wildflowers from her.

Cheerful painting to be received right at the time of the first full day of Spring, huh?

Watchful Drake Revisited

2011-03-21T06:55:00.000-07:00

Those of you who follow this blog and the Watercolor Workshop online will recognize this subject from when I tried to paint it last year. Despite all the wonderful advice I received to make it better, I never felt I resolved the problems enough so scrapped it. I am going to give it another try, only this time paying more attention to the composition and try an underpainting first.

I'll post progress I make as I make it, hopefully will work on this sometime this week.

Self Portrait by an Artist

2011-03-07T11:03:00.000-07:00

Just got a call from my granddaughter, Aubrey. She told me she had painted a painting for me of herself. She said she had used one of the brushes I sent her for her birthday to paint this painting.

Our son told me he wasn't even allowed to look at the painting until she was done with it and they were sending it to me. Please note the board with her other artwork on it at her side. She really does enjoy painting and is becoming quite the prolific artist!

Grandma is lovin' this!

Rose Succulent

2011-03-07T10:31:00.000-07:00

I finished this painting this morning. Once it was finished, THEN I noticed a few hard edges in the shadows that I don't like but they were done in acrylic ink so there you go...soften the edges in the underpainting before adding the color glazes Susan!

I do like the moonlit glow of the darker colors of this, though. I wonder if I will ever learn enough about this stuff to completely like a painting I have done and not see the oops areas? I guess most artists are still on a learning/evolving path no matter how good they are, that's my story and I'm stickin' with it.

Succulent Rose Grisaille

2011-03-06T09:38:00.000-07:00

This grisaille underpainting is from a reference photo provided by the Watercolor Workshop as one of our monthly projects. I told the group when I submitted last month's project painting (the rose in blue vase below) that I had used a purple grisaille-type underpainting to set my values and they expressed interest in that process. So, I remembered to take a photo of the finished underpainting before I started adding the color.

I am glazing on blue-green colors and will post when I have finished. I have three glazes on so far and will probably only add a few more to see what shades of blue green I end up with. As I have added the glazes, some of the hard edges seen here have softened quite a bit, and when I am finished I hope to have something that looks more like the soft-edged succulent rose than a typical thin-edged rose as this appears here in the underpainting.

In the next few days I hope to finish this and post the resulting painting. then, on to the second project for this month!

Vicki's Roses

2011-02-26T08:56:00.000-07:00

This is my submission for the Watercolor Workshop project for February where we all paint from one photo. The photo was provided by Vicki Greene and the roses are from her garden. I just loved the vase as it reminded me of the paint color, Prussian Blue, which is a fav of mine. I used my evolving process of doing an underpainting first, using the grisaille method of painting with gray to set the mid tone and darkest shadows first, only I used purple acrylic ink for this as it doesn't lift when glazing over it with watercolor.

I didn't use any masking in this, but set the doily hole edges with the ink first to mark where the holes were and painted them later with the table color. I hope this was not a heritage piece crocheted by one of Vicki's ancestors as I fear I changed the pattern a bit in my rendition!

This was a fun one to do and I so enjoyed getting to paint two paintings this month. This wheelchair and walker business is becoming a real drag, but I am half-way through it all and will continue to take care so as not to re-injure myself and make it take longer to heal. I am also trying to be patient with it all since I feel so small and unworthy in complaining about my situation when I know there is a date I can get up out of this chair...so many others will not be able to do that and I am very empathetic for their struggles.

Davi's Mama - WIP 3

2011-02-21T10:06:00.001-07:00

I have this painting to this point, and, after seeing it on the computer monitor I see a few things I need to address. It is always so much more clear to see problems on the PC than in person, holding the painting! I need to reshape her eyes, especially her right eye, with the lower lid scrunching up over the right side of the eyeball more. I also need to add a few more darks to the hair sections.

I will submit this for critique to the WcW group, consider any suggestions here, and take care of what I see myself. Then, this should be done. For once I managed to get the mouth right and she does look like a toothless woman, which was one of the reasons I wanted to paint her photo. My other goal was to get the facial contours to suggest all the wrinkles, instead of just having the darker lines to suggest them. I am pleased so far with that, and with just a little further tweaking I will be finished with that. Another thing I like about this was I managed to show the kindness in this lady's eyes, and I don't want to do anything to detract from that, but I do need to fix that right eye and work on the left one a bit more, too, to make them correct.

Anyone see anything other than what was mentioned above that I need to do with this?

Update

2011-02-20T07:27:00.000-07:00

Just a short note here to let you all know I have not limped off into infinity...yet! I did see the orthopedist, who assured me my fracture was a simple one which means it was not displaced and should heal 100 percent...this was good news! He placed my leg in a long-leg immobilizer, which means I can take it off for showers and bedtime if I am careful. After wearing this for a week, I can tell it is working since my leg doesn't feel very good without it, kinda scary even.I am using a walker to do the prescribed partial weightbearing and that is going well.

Tom helped get me and my stuff into the art club Thursday afternoon, which was so enjoyable after not painting for two weeks. I have finished (I think, will await critiques) Davi's Mama, but cannot submit for critiques or here until I can go outside and get a good photo of her to show. I can probably do that today, but we are having two days of dark clouds and rain showers here so I will have to wait for the first sunny days. Be assured I am not complaining about the clouds and rain; living on the desert we always welcome the rain since we get so little of it.

I hope everyone is having a great weekend....

Now I've gone and dunnit!

2011-02-05T10:08:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure how much blogging, painting or jewelry-making I will be doing anytime soon as I fell at home Thursday night and cracked the upper part of my lower leg bone where it joins under the knee cap. So, I am wheelchair-bound and awaiting a visit (hopefully early next week) to the orthopedist to see what he wants to do with me. I am in a temporary full leg cast, non-weightbearing and will hope he gives me a brace instead of a cast, but we will see.

What a revolting development! Thankfully, my Tom is far enough along in his recovery that he can become my caregiver and I will become the patient. WE ARE TEAM!

I am hoping to devise a way, once this pain eases a bit, to do some more painting on Davi's Mama but will wait to see what the orthopedist says about further immobilization. Good grief!

Davi's Mama - WIP 4

2011-02-03T16:19:00.000-07:00

Here I have darkened some of the darkest values...still not there yet, but trying to go slowly so as not to muddy her up too much. As I work with her, I am reminded of the character Yoda from Star Wars and hope to not venture too far into that realm. But, with her squinting eyes, no teeth and wrinkles I am trying to make her less like him and more like the photo I have of herself.

I have one more photo of the WIP 5 but have to wait until after this weekend to show that and to try to work on her a bit more. This is such a busy week with appointments and art stuff for various organizations that she will have to sit and marinate for awhile before adding more life to her. Her hair needs to be darker in areas as well as her shirt folds more distinct, etc....But, so far I am sticking to my reasons for wanting to paint her interesting visage, and am pleased with her so far.

Davi's Mama - WIP 3

2011-02-03T16:13:00.000-07:00

I took this photo of the painting while working on it at the Art Club this afternoon with a different camera and it looks to be in black and white. No...I have not changed my mind, this is being done strictly in sepia watercolor paint. Here I have started defining some of the shadows better as well as the beginnings of the features.

Davi's Mama - WIP 2

2011-01-31T10:45:00.001-07:00

Believe it or not, I am not trying to freak you out with this, but this is where I have stopped for now. I see that some of the edges I thought I had softened are still pretty sharp so will have a go at that when I return to the painting. Lots more to do before I get detailed here, like I said earlier, most of her face is in shadow and she has very sharp features to I have to get the shadows right before I start defining the features that are in the shadows.

PS...Please note my handy hint above. Whenever you think you have finished a step just take a photo of it and post it on your blog for all the world to see, because then you will see what is wrong with it. I hate it when that happens!

Davi's Mama

2011-01-31T09:04:00.000-07:00

My good buddy, Roch, has once again inspired me to paint from one of his wonderful photos. He and his family recently took a cruise on the Amazon! Rather than go with the ship-guided tours, he and his family chose to explore on their own and found many friendly villagers to guide them to see their ways of life.

When working on portraits, I like minimal lines since I don't like them to show through, but on this wonderfully wrinkled face I felt the need to establish some of the main wrinkles in the drawing. This was a difficult one to get on paper as so much of the face was in shadow so I had to suggest important elements in some places instead of having all the eyes, all the ears, etc. I found this to be more difficult than trying to get them portrayed accurately. I normally will trace from the photo for portraits since it is so important to get the expression and features correct, but in this case the features did not show through the deep shadows well enough and I ended up drawing most of the facial features, just using tracing to do a few contour lines.

I know that this is difficult to see in this photo, but I will post WIP photos as I dive in and start defining the shadow areas.

This portrait will be done in sepia, monochromatically. I just love that face!

Analogous Oval

2011-01-20T16:39:00.001-07:00

To go along with the Watercolor Workshop analogous projects this month, Kathy Nesseth graciously provided one of her paintings to use as a reference. I instantly loved the peacefulness of this scene and managed to paint it during the watercolor session this afternoon at the Art Club. It was fun to do with such a limited palette. I wish I had cut the oval mask a bit more evenly, but ovals are not my specialty!

Thanks to Kathy for providing this inspiring photo to paint from, it is not often that I manage to paint both of the monthly project paintings with this group, I feel like I accomplished something this month.

Latest works

2011-01-17T11:06:00.000-07:00

The January projects for the Watercolor Workshop are all about analogous paintings. Instead of choosing the normal blue as the primary and blue green and blue violet as being the only combination I could think of, I decided to go with warmer colors and do something different.

I checked out what Zoltan Szabo had so say about analogous colors and chose a demo project from one of his books for the mountain scene below, and a simple cherries painting for the other one. I think it is fun to challenge our thinking once in awhile and it

keeps our paintings from being stale by questioning our color choices. I brought two 5x7 boards with w/c paper attached to them and did both of these during the watercolor session at the art club last Thursday. It was fun do finish them in one sitting. I think I need to get back into painting more and doing small studies like these seems to be the way to go.

The social committee at the art club here have a "mini" show coming up where we all will paint little 3x3-inch canvases and have a show. I think I will venture into the world of acrylics for this one. Wish me luck!

Good news!

2011-01-13T06:26:00.001-07:00

I think this is the perfect venue to submit this post, above the photo of Aubrey and I painting. Last night we received a call from our youngest son, Ms. Aubrey's father, informing us that we will be grandparents once again! So, I am officially starting the baby prayers again; this time asking for a redheaded little boy since God blessed me so favorably last time with the very redheaded little girl that I asked for!

Be very aware, this will mean a new input of non-watercolor photos once July gets here! Hooray.....

PS...Rhonda, I know you have vowed to stop using exclamation marks on your blog so much, but allow me this one time to jump for joy with those marks?!

Oops - Missed One!

2011-01-12T12:57:00.000-07:00

In my earlier post, I stated that no photos were taken of Aubrey and I painting. Well, my son corrected that by sending one today that he had taken with his iPhone. Aubrey was deciding which of the colors to choose for her next strokes. She seems, at this point, to make decisions based on what she wants to paint rather than just playing with the paints. Some of her grandma's paintings look as if she should quit playing and make better decisions! LOL.

At any rate, we sure had fun....

Coyote!

2011-01-07T15:33:00.000-07:00

I heard a noise yesterday outside our breakfast nook window and this coyote was searching for rabbit nests under this window. I ran to get my camera and he had moved out to the oleander bushes. He looked to be a very well-fed coyote! Right after I snapped this photo, two larger coyotes jumped out of the oleanders and each of them had one rabbit between the two of their mouths, clamped down. They moved to this guy's left and I couldn't get a shot of them as they left, hooked together by this one poor rabbit. I thought that was such an unusual site to see two coyotes walking, connected by a shared rabbit. I say poor rabbit, but if it had to be their breakfast I certainly hope it was the same rabbit who has been eating my flowers! As you can see by the frost-damaged flowers in the pot, I am not having great luck with plants at this time. I got one photo of my canna's first bloom and then it, too, got frost burned. Such is life in the desert, complete with coyotes feasting in one's back yard!

Mesa de me Padre WIP 4

2011-01-07T11:28:00.001-07:00

Well, after sitting untouched for three weeks over the holidays I finally got back to work on this painting. Now that I have taken a photo of it I can see the goofs better. As usual, I had a bad case of ellipse-itis on the pots. I doubt I can do much about that now, at this point, but will ponder it. I really want to do this one well, so maybe I will start over and pay more attention to the drawing this time.

I hesitate over posting this, but as before, I am trying to run an honest blog here and feel I must show the goofs as well as the triumphs, so here it is. I do like some parts of it but when and if I redo it will try to control my pencil while doing the drawing. Grrrrr

Painting, Cookies and Special Memories

2010-12-29T08:58:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the day! Our son, DIL and granddaughter, Aubrey, spent the day with us and had Aubrey's second of three Christmas celebrations. They will continue on, weather permitting, to New Mexico to be with Aubrey's other grandparents for her third Christmas of the season. It was a special time since, at the age of almost five years, Aubrey is able to fully participate in all of the activities that Grandma had planned, and carry on lively conversations all the while. Here we have Aubrey and her Daddy assembling the desk/easel that Grandpa Tom found for her artwork. It took awhile to put together, but Aubrey pronounced that she "loved it" upon completion, so that was a good thing!

We baked chocolate chip cookies and we did a super job because they were delicious! I have to say, though, that the sugar rush that resulted (and lasted all day) just about wore poor Grandma out by the end of the day.

No photos were taken of Aubrey and I painting, but we did paint for quite awhile. Grandma's Frig Gallery now has some new pieces of artwork added to the collection. She brought her brushes I sent her with her and pulled them out immediately upon coming into our house and said "let's paint, Grandma"! Later, we did paint and she painted what she said she was going to paint for me....a car and some trees.

For my background-challenged artist buddies you will note that around the trees she actually carefully painted a light blue sky!

Today she wants to make a bracelet for herself and paint some more. What fun this is!

Happy Holidays!

2010-12-25T07:55:00.000-07:00

I want to wish all of my blog followers and their loved ones a happy holiday season and the very best of new years. Since 2010 has been such a challenging time for so many of us, if you pray please pray for a healthier, happier and more prosperous new year.

I am thankful for all of my family's blessings, as well as my online friends (many of whom are like family to me) and send prayers for a special 2011 for them all.

May God bless us, one and all.....Susan

Well past my anniversary

2010-12-21T19:13:00.000-07:00

I just went back to my very first post on this blog, it was October 11, 2006. So I am past my fourth anniversary with this blog! Time certainly flies. I look back at my first timid attempts at blogging and am thankful I did not give up back then and stop trying to blog. Soon after starting this blog, we started construction of my art studio onto our house. That was fun revisiting that process, although I doubt I would want to go through that again. Needless to say, the room looked much bigger then than it does now with all of my files (better make that piles!) taking up every available space in here. Sigh. Thankfully, it has French doors leading into it so I can just close the doors and the blinds on the door and my disorganization goes away. That is better than, gasp, cleaning and organizing it or something!

Not much time left before Christmas friends! We are as close to being ready as we care to get for now and will just take things as they come. This is not the year for big celebrations for us; we are just thankful that we are all still here and reasonably healthy and able to enjoy our families and friends. God is good.

Neglected painting

2010-12-19T07:12:00.001-07:00

Alas, an entire week has passed and I have done nothing with this painting. I have had muscle spasms between my shoulder blades and have had a very uncomfortable week. I could not even think of lifting a paint brush so there it is...my painting is sitting with the temporary mat where I left it last Sunday. Maybe I should have tried to paint while under the influence of muscle relaxer meds...they might have loosened my painting style some? LOL

I will be keen to work with it when I can, although in this last few days before Christmas I am sure I will have other noteworthy excuses to offer of why I haven't been able to work on this. I still have plans and inspiration, though!

La mesa de mi padre WIP 3

2010-12-12T07:24:00.001-07:00

I decided to digitally crop this to see what I thought; not sure, still. That's the beauty of digital imaging, you can completely destroy the photo but not the painting before you act! I do like the tighter focus of this, though, so the final crop (with the scissors!) will be something similar, I am sure. I have added two more glazes to the stucco here, but didn't wait for the last glaze to dry before shooting the photo, hence the wrinkles in the wet paper. I will add at least one more glaze to the stucco and then start detailing the pots and table. At that point, most of those hard edges will be softened and it will start to come together better. That is my plan, anyway...we all need to have plans!

Sunset

2010-12-12T07:13:00.001-07:00

I am mulling it over to crop the la mesa de mi padre WIP before I continue with it so, in the meantime, thought I would share this sunset photo from two nights ago. This is looking toward the west (obviously, it is a sunset photo!) from our neighborhood. I especially love the sunrises at this time of the year here, but this sunset caught my attention as being worthy of a quick photo.

La mesa de mi padre

2010-12-07T08:15:00.002-07:00

This is the sketch and underpainting of my next project. I am using another of Roch's excellent photos for this painting. It is of a portion of his patio, and shows a table hand-made by his father when Roch was a young boy. His father has passed and he cherishes this table, crooked though it is. It sits among a colorful set of Mexican pots and, as his photos usually do, has great light-dark contrasts. I intend to maintain these contrasts as much as I can throughout the painting.

As I have been doing lately, I am working on starting paintings with a purple grisaille underpainting. I want to explore this technique more fully to see how it works for me. So far, so good.

This is the next WIP, which shows the first glaze of color over the masking fluid applied here and there. There will be many more glazes to show the stucco and flagstones as they need to be, as well as the very dark shadows enveloping the pots.

As very often happens I see, now that this is on the computer screen, that I have drawn and painted the table top incorrectly. So, thanks to my trusty Mr. Clean Magic Eraser (MCME) I will attempt to correct this so it reads better. What was I thinking? When it comes to drawing, who knows....it is just wrong!

For those whose Spanish is better than mine, please advise if I have incorrectly titled this...I am trying to say "The Table of my Father"

Top Watercolor Blogs Award!

2010-11-29T15:11:00.000-07:00

I received word today that my watercolor blog had been recognized as being among the top watercolor blogs on the Internet! This was by an online graphic design school, Online Graphic Design Degree. The announcement read as follows:

Dear Susan, 
 
Congratulations! Amanda here, and your blog, Watercolors by Susan Roper, is 
an essential part of our resources! 
 
As a website dedicated to help those consider a career in graphic design, 
we only provide the best information available.  Whether it's a resource 
that explores the art of sketching, or provides inspiration for your next 
painting, we provide them for those seeking to obtain this information. 
This is why we've featured your blog, as it is one of the best to teach our 
readers. 
 
You can see your blog and others at: 
www.onlinegraphicdesigndegree.com/features/painting-watercolor/

How cool is this? My good friend, Rhonda, announced she had received a similar honor this morning for her great art blog from another online design school, now I see she is considered among the top watercolor blogs for this same online school as the school that recognized my blog. I see other familiar names, also, so I feel I am in exalted company!

Like I said, Cool!

Sunset Ruin - Final

2010-11-24T10:15:00.000-07:00

I have taken the suggestions of the Watercolor Workshop group, gathered my courage and finished this on this Thanksgiving Eve. I pondered and pondered, and every time I looked at it I wanted a stronger sky. So, that is what I did. For better or worse, this is finished!

Today, I am smoking a turkey and making dinner rolls to take to my family dinner, so welcomed the chance to sit and paint for awhile.

I want to wish all of my US blogees a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday, stay warm, safe and enjoy being with friends and family.

Sunset Ruin - WIP 4

2010-11-18T13:09:00.000-07:00

Here is the second-to-the-last WIP for this painting. I have submitted it to the Watercolor Workshop for critique and will wait to see what, in addition to what I want to do, should be done to this to finish it. I want to strengthen the sunset mood of the sky, I think I quit too soon on that part, so will work on it. I can't believe I have gotten to paint quite a bit this week. It was so nice to do that!

Sunset Ruin - WIP 3

2010-11-17T13:55:00.003-07:00

Just taking another break from this painting so I will show what I have done - not much, just darkening some of the inside of the building, lifting a few more highlights, adding a mountain along the horizon to define that better, etc. I am not getting the golden yellow color I want on the landscape surrounding the ruin so will glaze some color there. I do want to glaze on the reddish shadow side colors over the purple underpainting on the darkest side of the exterior building before I do much more though, that will determine how much more highlights I want up next to the finished outside. I hope that makes better sense than what I just typed!

I am so enjoying my painting time this afternoon. It is a great day, temps in the mid-70's, sunny, cool inside the house and just an overall great day to be painting. If I had the gumption, I would move my painting stuff out onto the patio; but that would seem to waste time I could be painting. So I will be satisfied to stay in my studio and have the doors open. Life is good!

Sunset Ruin - WIP 2

2010-11-17T11:37:00.003-07:00

After looking at this photo on the computer screen I am thinking I have a lot of nerve posting something in this stage. However, I do have a plan and will remain true to my commitment to post everything I am working on, warts and all, to this blog.

While I have not been painting on this after last Thursday, I have been studying it and have figured out that I got confused about what was the glowing, crumbling stucco and adobe that we see inside the window and what was in the deep shadows outside, which made the left (our view) of the window look wonky. Okay, it still looks wonky, but it is a ruin, after all! I have not finished deepening the sky where it needs to be, nor defining the horizon line in the few places it is shown, and will finish that soon. I see lots of areas that are not what I want, but hopefully I can work my way out of this corner I have painted my way into.

I still love this reference photo and hope to achieve half of the glow that is photographed so well by Roch.

Sunset Ruin

2010-11-12T05:53:00.002-07:00

I am getting a bit gun shy about posting WIPs on my blog since the last few times I have done that I have failed to complete the paintings to my satisfaction (my Iris on Yupo being the last failed painting) so I don't post the completed painting. I may or may not wash that one off and start over, I just never can re-create a painting and like the second version.

Anyway, here is my latest work in progress. The photo that inspired this is from my friend, Roch of NM Jeep Tours. He has access to such wonderful areas of New Mexico and is a great photographer. This ruin has no roof and the light was streaming in at sunset and created such a glow through the window opening that I will try to capture that. This will require more than the two glazes I have applied so far, also some lifting after the glazes are applied.

Additionally, I am trying again to lay in the darkest shadows, etc. first with acrylic ink. That seems to provide a good skeleton for me to start fleshing out a painting. So far, so good. I also will darken the sky as I go along.

Wow!

2010-11-03T18:12:00.002-07:00

Twice in one week I feel like winner! My painting of the Giant Argentinean was chosen for the home page for this month of my beloved Watercolor Workshop group! It is such an honor! Forgive my exclamation marks, but I just discovered this after receiving messages of congratulations from the group, so I am truly excited.

Some Days You Lose, and -

2010-11-02T18:57:00.000-07:00

- some days you WIN!!!!! A few weeks ago, I entered a blog give-away offered by a blogger I follow every day...Lisa Crone of A Bead a Day. I love her daily blogging because it always contains the latest news of beads and things that everyone is trying now. She was giving away one of her new books on beading and jewelry making, so I entered a comment on that day. As Fate would allow, I was the winner! So, I am now excitedly awaiting the shipment of my great new book. I'll post a review of this when I get it and read it. It is so exciting to have your name drawn above all the others who entered!

Iris on Yupo - WIP 1

2010-10-29T11:25:00.003-07:00

This is where I remembered to take a photo so I could share another WIP series. This is a painting that was requested to be "just like" one that had sold at our Oktoberfest sale recently. Well, I hope this person will settle for something "kinda like" since I don't think it is humanly possible to paint an absolute replica of any painting. Maybe I am not disciplined enough, or can't remember what I did to get an effect in a prior painting, but I just know this will have to be similar to the first one.

The second WIP photo I took will not be submitted here since I will wash off what I did in that step. I think I was just enjoying the fellowship so much of our large group of watercolorists yesterday that I let my hand do the painting instead of listening to my head. Since it is Yupo I should be able to correct what I did and do not like. You'll just have to stay tuned to see how that turns out. I'm still lovin' the Yupo.

Nuthatch SWAP Painting

2010-10-28T07:18:00.004-07:00

It's swap time again, and I received this charming, cute, sweet, masterfully painted nuthatch from my partner this time, Lenora from West Virginia. Isn't this just great? With my limited knowledge of ornithology, I at first thought it was a bird standing on a log, but Lenora corrected me by saying it was a nuthatch, which run up and down the trees looking for bugs. So, I rotated it to show correctly. This made it even cuter!

My painting arrived to my partner and I received mine, life is good!

Giant Argentinean - Final-ly

2010-10-23T12:11:00.002-07:00

This is the same Giant Argentinean that I started last Spring, before Tom got sick. It has sat on my easel, waiting for me to finish it, since then. As often happens when I don't get back to a painting very soon I find that I have lost my enthusiasm for the project when feel guilty enough to try to finish it. That happened here, but I did do as much with it as I care to do and call it finished now.

It is on a full sheet of Yupo and will be framed under glass ASAP.

Maroon Bells - Final

2010-10-22T14:20:00.003-07:00

I finished two paintings yesterday afternoon, but for some reason I am not photographing the second one very well so will wait until there is better light outside for that one.

This is from the Maroon Bells area of Colorado. I really played up the maroon colors in this, but another artist saw it yesterday and asked if it was of the Maroon Bells since he had been there and recognized it. That made me feel very good!

This is a combination of acrylic ink, transparent watercolor, gouache, and finally acrylic. It was an experiment so I am not sure I accomplished much after using so many different approaches. At any rate, it is finished!

2010-10-15T07:05:00.002-07:00

I haven't worked on this as much as I thought I would but have gotten it this far in two more sessions. I have switched to acrylic paints for this and feel very far out of my comfort zone. I cannot remember doing the darks first and then the lights! Anyway, I will keep putting paint on this, trying to make something happen so I will like it better. It may end up weighing 50 pounds before I toss it but I want to keep trying. I will still push those mountains back more as well as add more pine trees on the mid right side.

Maroon Bells Experiment

2010-10-07T06:39:00.004-07:00

Last week I took this whole-sheet painting to my art group and did this loosely organized underpainting of the Maroon Bells area of Colorado. The photo is from Freefoto.com and I loved the composition of it when I first saw it. My plan was to do a transparent watercolor underpainting and then do the detailing with gouache. As I attempted to do the gouache part I just didn't care for the appearance of the dull gouache so yesterday I took the painting outside and gave it a shower with the garden hose, let it dry, and have changed my plan of attack to using acrylics. I have lots of acrylic paint and will take my Stay-Wet palette to my art group this afternoon and see how this goes. If all else fails, I will try something else, I feel like I just HAVE to paint this scene since I like it so much.

Maybe,....gasp, an acrylic on canvas?

Canyon de Chelly

2010-09-27T12:16:00.004-07:00

I forgot to stop and take WIP photos of this as I was working on it but here it is in the almost done stage. I will let it dry well before softening some of the edges, lifting a few more highlights and a few more calligraphic lines. Not too much more to be done on this one. What to paint next, I wonder?

Canyon de Chelly WIP 1

2010-09-25T11:11:00.003-07:00

This is my underpainting, using acrylic ink to establish my shadows, for my SWAP partner for the upcoming painting swap. I am not revealing for whom this is being painted, I just hope that he/she will like paintings of the Southwest!

We'll see how this grisaille approach works on this one. Life is more fun when you take a few chances? Like I said, we'll see.

Reference photo provided by a Grand Canyon Tour Guide, Marvelous Marvin.