My SWAP painting received

Speaking of SWAP paintings, this is the one I sent to my SWAP partner, all the way to Zion, Illinois. I found this exercise in still life in an instructional book and decided it merited a try for my next SWAP painting. I liked the light vs. dark effects in this and was pleased that it turned out. The recipient was pleased, also, so it all worked out! Life is good.

Happy Valentine's Day to all....Susan

My SWAP painting came today!

My SWAP painting came today, and it was from none other than my good online buddy, Rhonda (see photo below!). This is so gorgeous and well-done, I am honored to hang it on my SWAP gallery wall in my studio. This is such a wonderful group to belong to, with over 50 artists from around the world participating. I never know from whom my paintings will come, and they don't know they will be receiving one from me. I'll post the one I sent when the recipient receives it so I won't let the secret out of the bag.

Artists Portrait Project

Here is the first WIP of my WcW project painting of our fellow artists. This is Rhonda, who played an April Fool's joke on her husband by havingher hairdresser apply some multicolored strands of hair, temporarily at least! She looked so mischievous in this photo I had to choose her to paint, plus I wanted to paint in those strands of color in her hair! I like it so far, except for the lips, and will work on those as I add the color. Wish me luck!

Ehrenburg Sunset V

This is the demo painting I did for the watercolor II class last Tuesday. This scene is one I have painted five times now and I never tire of it. Tomorrow we will be painting a Bird of Paradise and then Wednesday the mentoring session will feature painting stargazer lilies. Who needs flowers for Valentine's Day?

Check it out!

Check it out! The February project for the Watercolor Workshop group is to choose a photo from the member artists folder and paint one of the members. Rhonda Carpenter, who lives in Kentucky, chose my photo and that of another member to paint....she did two!

I have never had my portrait painted and think she did a great job, especially since she forgot to include any sags and wrinkles!

Isn't it something how we connect with good people online? I love the Internet!

Lady with Hat

Here is my project painting for the WcW online group. We were supposed to all paint from the same photo, of an unknown girl named Candace. Well, I decided this doesn't look like Candace does in her photo so I decided to title the painting "Lady with Hat". One of these days I will get the likeness down well, it is an evoluntionary process!

I liked doing that hat, though!

No paintings!

I think the reason I keep my blog more current is because I tire of seeing the same painting on top when I open my blog! Alas, no new paintings or WIPs today, but they will be coming. The current WIP is at the awkward teenage phase, and I haven't decided if I will allow it to grow up yet. Too strange-looking to share at this point! Another example of not doing dark enough contour shadows in the underpainting. We'll see if I can make up for that.

I am watching, chapter by chapter, a video on painting on Yupo paper. I am picking up lots of tips on smoothing and texturing the watercolor and will soon try another Yupo painting. Today starts the next phase of having our home interior walls painted so lots going on painting-wise other than fine art painting.

I'll check in later if there is any progress with my WIP portrait, this lady sure looks freaky right now!

Stone Bridge

This is what the mentoring group worked on this week. It was problematic from the beginning due to my poor planning, but I have been able to make it more presentable at this point. Or, as presentable as it is going to get as I want to get going on another project.

Artistic (?) Sunday

I have been cutting mats for the upcoming ArtChix sale next (gasp, Super bowl) Sunday all day today. I have some newer prints to mat as well as perusing through past sale items to make sure I have fresh display fodder for the sale. It is cool and rainy here for this entire weekend, but after hearing about other places nationwide I am not complaining.

Good Monday to all, I have painted this week but cannot post my painting since it is for the next SWAP and, just in case my SWAP partner is watching, cannot post it publicly until she receives it. I like it, though, and will post it as soon as she lets me know she has it.

Guess again

Well, after publishing that last comment, I see that the comment function has mysteriously returned to my blog! Might as well be lucky as good at figuring it all out! Some of this blogger stuff just is beyond me. When it all works, I love it though!

No comment availability?

Okay, here's the deal...if you want to leave a comment you will have to e-mail me as once I initiated comment moderation, the comment availability left my blog. Others who use comment moderation still have that function, so I must have misstepped somewhere along the way. So, if you want to leave a comment just use the e-mail address above. I will eventually get this figured out, but won't spend much time on it now.

Peggy's Cove Boathouse

This is a more complex painting completed over two classes with my mentoring group. They did great with this complicated scene and we all learned a lot, including the mentor! Mass foliage, water, reflections, architectural elements, wood texturing....all in the same painting! If part of becoming a good artist is pushing oneself to learn how to do things beyond what you know and not to stick with the things you know, then this group will do well as they both want to be challenged.

There are parts of this one I would do differently, but for all of the challenges mentioned above, I think it turned out pretty well. I may darken underneath the boathouse here and there, but other than that I will consider this one done.

Comment moderation

I received a comment this morning that was in very poor taste, so have turned on the comment moderation feature for this blog. I apologize if this causes inconvenience to anyone who is commenting on my blog, but I feel it is now necessary to do that for the good of anyone reading my blog.

It is a sad commentary on the sad and empty lives of those who have nothing better to do than to pass along their distasteful thoughts, but it is a fact of life.

Please know that if you have an honest comment or critique, positive or otherwise, to pass along regarding my work that it will appear on the blog soon after you comment. That is the purpose of having an art blog, to get feedback and provide a forum for conversations that lead to growth.

Canyonlands - Absolute Final!

I received good feedback on the last "final" rendition of this painting and adjusted the foliage to show distance better and balance it on all sides of the painting. I think this is done now and don't want to keep messing with it because it will become a muddy mess if I do.

Based on the extremely favorable comments and critiques I have received on this, I entered it into a juried show, I won't hear anything about rejection or acceptance for a few weeks, but I thought it worthy of a try, anyway.

Canyonlands Sunset - Final?

I am ready to call this the final rendition of this canyon painting. I am awaiting any comments and critiques from the online group, but I like the colors, perspective and rocks of this one better than any I have done. Whether that means they are good enough or not remains to be seen, but the fact that I see improvement in my handling of canyons is satisfaction for me. These are difficult for some reason, probably getting the distance perspective correct is the hardest part.

January Project at WcW

While sitting at my ArtChix sale table today I painted this tiny (5x7) project painting for the Watercolor Workshop online group. I like my work better when I paint larger, this size feels restrictive to me. But, I achieved the objectives of the project which were the receding background and doing grasses/weeds in the foreground.

I will try to finish the canyonlands painting today.

Soccer painting for Destiny

Here is the painting I did from a photo I did of Destiny getting out in front of a competitor and going for it. This painting is for her birthday. She is picking up her presents tonight, I hope she likes it.

Canyonlands WIP 6

Here is where I stopped at the painting session at the Art Club this afternoon. The butte on the left still needs darker glazes to show it is in the shade. The midground canyon wall needs darkening at the bottom to set it back from the left butte, the foreground right hand butte needs warming up, etc. The more I do, the more I see I need to do at this point. I'll get there yet.

Canyonlands WIP 5

I have the basic rock shapes in the foreground done. I will add more value changes (need more darks to define the rock shapes) and the typical striations that show the layers in these rocks. I think I will put the first glaze of color and shape into the rock mass on the left first, though. The thought of the shape of this butte remaining as is bothers me so I want to see what I can do about it before going further with the detail work. I wish I had thought of that before committing the drawing to paper, but I didn't so will live with it for now.

Canyon WIP 4

I seem to be working on this one mountain butte at a time, but I need to step back occasionally and see where I am to adjust details and value shifts. The right foreground mass of rocks will be next. The left mass will be darker since it is facing away from the sun, but I will see how dark and bright the foreground rocks are to decide what the values should be for that. Decisions, decisions. I see on this last butte that the spires that are the tallest are "kissing" the butte behind, so will make the tallest one taller to cross the plane of that back butte better. There is always something I miss! This was totally a miss since I added much of the top detail of that butte, adding several spires and hoodoos to break up all the horizontal and vertical lines there, it was too geometric before. Looks like I missed getting the tallest one tall enough to break the plane. Onward and (hopefully) upward.....

Canyon WIP 3

I managed to complete more of the mid ground. I will probably float in some quin gold over the sunlit edges of this butte and eventually, when I see how dark the foreground elements will be, I will darken the colors in the sky some for balance. But, I will wait on that.

Still holding my breath....

Canyon WIP 2

I haven't worked on this since before we left for our holiday trip (see December 21, 2007 blog entry), I couldn't stand not working on it any longer so added the beginning of the mid ground this morning.

So far, I have to think that having the grayscale underpainting is heping me not to get lost in the canyons as I usually do. So far, so good. More to come....

China Ranch Oasis

Per request from Rhonda to see more of the date palms and the area of the oasis, here are three more. They hang either white or colorful rags to protect the date clusters from birds while ripening and there were rows of colorful ones and some had mainly white cloths. The cottonwood trees followed the creek in the area and many still had late Fall golds and some orange color.

We have done the gemshow stuff in Quartzite today and will return home tomorrow. I found lots to keep me busy when I am not painting, wire wrap, beading and jewelry-making supplies. Very interesting things they have!

Tecopa, CA

We are spending our last day in the Death Valley area; at Tecopa, CA. This is an area rich in mineral hot springs and the so-called lake below the mesa our RV park is on the edge of consists of marshes, salt flats and some mineral ponds which reflect the nearby mountains. That is what the mountain reflection photo shows.

We spent yesterday exploring the area around Tecopa, near the China Ranch area. We stopped on an off-road overlook and saw a canyon, which we got on the road which led us into and through the canyon to China Ranch, which is a working date ranch, bed and breakfast, gift shop, etc. The canyon drive itself was amazing with high mud hills, dotted with mine shafts and arches and rocks. The date ranch was interesting also with brightly colored cloths protecting the hanging date clusters and the surrounding cottonwood trees which still retained their Fall colors.

This morning we saw the Dumont Dunes, where many RVs had stayed right on the sand over the recent holidays and there were still a few remaining holdouts going up and down the high dunes today. The stream photo shows the Amargosa River which runs through the canyons at the base of the Dumont Dunes. We then went to the world famous "The Mad Greek" (or at least famous by being featured on the Food Channel’s Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives show with Guy de Fieri). The Greek gyros were just as luscious as they looked on TV…yum! I will go no-carb again when I get home!

We will leave here for Brenda, AZ tomorrow and do more of the Quartzite rockhound shows for a day (we found so many interesting things there on the trip up here, January is a primo month to go there for the rock shows) and then return to home on Saturday. It has been a great trip so far, much colder than we anticipated, but then it has been so very cold all over the country, it seems. In listening to the news, I know we are fortunate to not have to deal with the below zero temps and snow, but it has certainly been cold according to our wimpy, desert-rat standards.

Death Valley 2007

This is one of the over 300 photos I have taken in the Death Valley area so far. It is so cold that we have taken major advantage of our motorhome propane, heavy coats and whatever we can do to keep warm, but the scenery here is the usual spectacular.

We will be here until at least January 2 and will probably head toward home (or at least Quartzsite!) then.

Girls with Christmas Paintings

We had our family's Christmas tonight with our son Ben, his fiance Deb, and her two daughters Kennan and Destiny. I had done paintings for all of them as part of their Christmas gifts. Kennan collects Marilyn memorabilia so I did my rendition of Marilyn Monroe for her. Destiny's desert tortoise, Roxy, disappeared for a long period of hibernation this summer and then reappeared, ravenous. I did this painting from a photo Deb took of her (Roxy) eating everything in sight, including these pink petunias. The girls were so happy with their paintings, it made it even more of a joy to give the gifts to them.

Canyonlands WIP 1

I took this photo several years ago while in Canyonlands Nat'l Park near Moab, UT. I put it through the color filters in Photoshop Elements and really liked the orange-red version so decided to paint the scene in those colors. I have a terrible time painting canyons, I get so lost down in the depths. So, I am trying this one with a grayscale underpainting to at least try to keep me on track. The mass on the left is very typical of Canyonlands, where there are great slabs of rock with layers visible in a diagonal patters as opposed to individual boulders. I am hoping it doesn't come out as a huge blob of rock when finished, that is one challenge. I will enter different phases of this as I get time to work on it, we are taking a holiday motorhome trip so this blog will become more of a travelogue blog (or would that be "traveblog"?) once again and I will finish this painting after we return. It, being a half-sheet painting, is too large to take with us and work on it while gone so I will take along smaller things. Since we are going back to Death Valley I know the emphasis will be on photography as opposed to painting! We will be exploring more of the surrounding areas this time, should be interesting.

Christmas Card 2007

This was our Christmas card for this year. I had done the painting some time ago and decided to use it for our card. I am wishing all who follow my blog the very best of holiday seasons and a great 2008!

Blessings,

Susan

Peggy's Cove Lighthouse

I am mentoring someone who wanted to paint this lighthouse in this morning's session, where we painted together. I like the angles of this lighthouse and how the light hits it. Not bad for one morning's work and it was enjoyable to do.

Succulent Project Painting

Here is another project painting for the Watercolor Workshop online group. The theme was to be succulents and I wanted to do this loose agave since I liked the lights vs darks aspects. I stayed loose with it and like the mood of it, but it isn't one of my best. It helped pass the time at the latest art sale, though.

Glacier Alpine Flowers

This is a project painting I did for the Watercolor Workshop online group. The project theme for this month is alpine flowers and I had photos from Glacier Nat'l Park to combine to come up with this scene. Well, the TeePees were just outside the park, but they were close! I painted this while sitting at my sale table at this weekend's ArtChix sale.

Art Chix Sale

Tomorrow, December 15th and Sunday, December 16th the ArtChix will have their last art show/sale before Christmas. If you have the time, please do stop by and see us! We will be at the Sun City Grand Art Club on Sunrise and Remington Drives from 9:00-4:00 both days. Hope to see you there!

Painting with Aubrey - Finished painting

I finished this painting of our Aubrey while sitting at a weekend art show. She draws a lot of attention, even when only in a painting! I will have to say this painting has been very well-received, although most of the credit for that comes from Aubrey being so adorable.

Budding Artist - WIP 1

This is the grayscale underpainting of our Aubrey that I want to paint to commemorate our first painting session together. She grasped the entire concept of using the caran d' arche watercolor crayons first and then using this big brush to add "wa-wa" to it for paint. I will next start adding color to it and see how this grayscale underpainting works for skin tones. It is an experiment! Stay tuned for either the successive stages or the announcement that it didn't work and has been filed with my pile of tears.

Christmas is Coming!

This is a teaser for part of a painting I am doing for xxxxxxx for Christmas. Can you guess what it is and for whom I am painting it? Just wanted you to know I am not slacking here, but can't show the WIP until it is seen by the recipient at Christmas. Working, working, working.....

Here is MY SWAP Painting!

I neglected to share with you the wonderful SWAP painting I received! Susie Short is a well-known and wonderful artist and I was lucky enough to have been drawn to be her SWAP partner this time. She packed so many wonderful but soft details into a 5x7 painting! It is matted nicely up to an 8x10 size and I have already framed it for inclusion into my SWAP Gallery in my studio.

Don't you just want to walk through this scene and relax a bit? I will treasure this painting!

ArtChix Sale

This is my ArtChix sale table for this weekend. Alas, the attendance was not as anticipated so we all didn't do as well as anticipated. I know these successes and disappointments come and go in the art world so perhaps the next sale will be a big one? Our next big sale is December 8 and 9 so we will hope for the best.

Painting with Aubrey

This is Aubrey during her painting with Grandma session on our patio this morning. We used caran de arche' crayons and brushed them with a BIG brush loaded with water after, which she seemed to grasp easily....what a genius, takes after her Grandma! This Grandma stuff gets better all the time!

SWAP painting to my partner

I just heard that my partner's SWAP painting arrived safely this afternoon and that she likes it. Hooray! Here is what I sent her. Now I am getting very anxious for my painting from my SWAP partner to arrive!

Visit to Aubreyville

We had a short viist to play with our granddaughter, it was great! She is at a very interactive (as well as active!) age and was a lot of fun. We all went to a park and she just ran the whole time.

There were ducks in a pond at the park and I got lots of reflection photos, too. My camera did keep going back to Ms. Aubrey, though. Nice trip!

Conch Shell

This is another watercolor Workshop project that I completed this month. I can hardly believe I got them done before the end of the month, indeed was the first to submit paintings to the cows and shell project. I am disappointed that the little sand piles that were supposed to be on the top of the shell didn't materialize to look like little sand piles, but I do like the colors in this. I also used my airbrush on the background sand and like that effect a lot. This was such a cool photo to paint from, it was provided by the project leader and we all were challenged to paint from the same photo. It always amazes me to see how differently each artist interprets the same photo.

Contented Cows

This is my submission for the November project with the Watercolor Workshop - Cows. I have had this photo for a few years but haven't been inspired to paint it until now, when the project was announced. I started it yesterday while with the watercolor group and finished it this morning. It was a fun painting to do.

Second Place

Good news to announce! I took my rose painting (shown in the Gallery section to the right of this message) to the Arizona Artists Guild (AAG) meeting last night for their Artist of the Month competition. After viewing the other submitted paintings I felt a bit out of my league considering the quality of art brought. I spoke with one artist whose painting of an African child was just so magnificent that I had to speak to her about it. When the winners were announced, the African child's artist was chosen as Artist of the Month and my rose was chosen for Second Place! How cool is that? This is a great group of artists from throughout the state and I feel privileged to be a juried member of the AAG, so having one of my paintings be chosen for second place was gratifying for sure.

Prickly Pear on Yupo

This is another Yupo painting I just finished, a project for the watercolor Workshop for October. It didn't turn out exactly as I intended, but there are parts of this I like very much; mainly the intensely vibrant colors achieved on Yupo. I intend to keep developing skills with this "paper", it is fun to work with although quite a challenge. But, as they say, "fools rush in where angels fear to tread" so I will keep on keepin' on.

Fall Foliage on Yupo

After the critiques I got on this were considered, I broke up that large green shape in the corner and tamed it a bit by adding some of the warmer colors from above. I like it better now and am considering this one finished.

Fall Foliage on Yupo

This is a Yupo painting that will go into a 24x33 frame. I was thinking I had finished it, but am pondering whether I care for that large, clumpy evergreen shrub on the lower right. I have submitted it to the WcW for critique, so I will see what the consensus is. I don't know why I can't see these things while I am making the clumpy objects, but I usually don't see anything bothersome until I see the photo on the PC screen. Hmmmm.

Fall Foliage - 2007

We took a planned trip up north today to see the Fall foliage, supposedly at its "peak" this week. We did not see any Fall foliage in Sedona or Oak Creek Canyon, indeed had to travel to over 8,000 feet elevation to the Snowbowl to see any color at all, then it was only the yellow of Aspens. I had hoped to see some oranges and reds in the mix, but it was not to be this year. Despite this, we had a great day with nice weather, enjoying eating breakfast and lunch "out" at restaurants and being together on these adventures is always so nice for Tom and I. We were planning on exploring a scenic loop somewhere near the Snowbowl, but never saw a sign for it and the smoke drift from a (probably) prescribed burn by the NFS would have made it difficult and too smokey for photos had we found what we were looking for. All-in-all it was a good day and I will add what few photos I got to my Flickr site shortly.