Caricature by Madeline

At the ArtChix sale this weekend one of our members, Madeline Ledzinski, dropped by to practice her caricature skills. If you want to see her recent body of work, please go to the ArtChix blog http://scgartchix.blogspot.com/ - she did a great job and it was fun to "sit" for a portrait. She did comment, though, that I should quit talking long enough for her to get my facial features "correctly". Please note that she drew the artisan jewelry I was "modeling" for the show.

ArtChix Sale - Artisan Jewelry

This is a close-up photo of my artisan jewelry display. I received many encouraging comments about my designs and had two sales from this display, so will continue on since I enjoy doing it.

ArtChix Sale/Show

The ArtChix are holding a show/sale this weekend, with my corner of the world consisting of the space at the back of Studio I. For this sale, I am launching my new line of artisan jewelry, pictured here. I received many positive and encouraging comments on this jewelry so will continue to design and construct more. Stop in for a visit if you are in the area!

This photo was taken by Jim Greenwald, the Sun City Grand Art Club's Historian. Thanks Jim!

At the Sun City Grand Spring Art Faire last Saturday I did a demonstration of watercolor on clayboard. This is one of the photos taken during the demo. Please note the necklace and earrings I am "modeling". They are part of my inventory of artisan jewelry I have been working on for this coming weekend's ArtChix art sale, at which I will have a display of all the jewelry I have been working on. Nothing like a little self-promotion!

Gina's Teapots

In the interest of maintaining some artistic integrity on this blog, I don't think it is fair to my readers to only submit to the blog paintings of which I can be proud. We all paint stinkers occasionally and this happens to be one of mine. I got lost in the cloth patterns, I blopped some dark paint where it needed to be the lightest, I gave up on the background, etc., etc., etc. I like the arrangement and colors of this still life set-up provided by Gina of the Watercolor Workshop and will eventually try a re-do with what I have learned doing this one. We were all to paint from her photo of this and it was a great photo! I'm not making excuses, just saying ya can't win 'em all. The other project for March is to paint anything shiny, so I will try a crystal bowl next. I'll never "get it" unless I keep on trying. I love the process, it is just the end result I sometimes have doubts about.

New Art Blog!

As Secretary of the Vanguard Artists, I have committed to setting up and maintaining the Vanguard Artists Blog. I have been working on this endeavor over the past few weeks, assisted by my Co-Blog-Mistress, Ann (the President). I feel it is getting closer to being ready for Prime Time viewing now, so if you would like to see what we are about and getting up to, please go to: http://vanguardartists.blogspot.com/

We are a group of artists in the West Valley and disprove the fact that good art begins and ends at Central Avenue and is to be found only in the East Valley (Scottsdale) area. There are many lifelong artists in this group and their rich and varied art experience shows in their magnificent work.

There are slideshows of some of the individual artists' work, and this sidebar feature is being developed more as we speak. Do stop by and have a look, we'd love to hear from you!

Pelican

After letting this fellow sit in my studio for a few weeks while I made artisan jewelry, I finally got him done. I haven't painted many birds but he was in such a fine pose that I had to paint him.

Being an artist who is drawn to warmer colors I couldn't quite settle on the cool blue tones this painting was taking on so I glazed some of the warmer sunset hues over and it looked more like I thought the Brown Pelican should look.

Thanks again goes to Diana for allowing me to paint this guy from her photo.

Gila Bend Trip - PS

I will also add this photo of what I believe is a Thunderbird. This was taken at a BLM sponsored park which has preserved this rocky pile that holds hundreds of good petroglyphs. I have added many of them to my ever-growing collection of petroglyph photos.

Gila Bend Trip

Last week we took a short motorhome trip to nearby Gila Bend for a Get-A-Way trip. This sunrise below was seen the first morning we were there. It was just a fabulous photo session and the colors were glorious.












This heron was perched atop the rock of the canyon and I had to use my longest lens and a multiplier to get this photo.













This is Gillespie Dam, which harnesses the Gila River for irrigation of crops. There was quite a bit of water there this time so it becomes a bird sanctuary at times. We saw herons, egrets, ducks, and many other birds there. I hope you can see the five egrets that were standing atop the dam.

Arlene's Hawaii

This painting was done from a photo by one of my mentoree's, Arlene, who just returned from Hawaii armed with new photos from their time share. We did these large paintings today and concentrated on composition and painting palm fronds. It was great fun and the best palm fronds I have done...hooray! Go rake brushes and fan brushes!

I will await critiques on this one and let it marinate on my painting easel for a few days before deciding if it is done or requires any fine tuning.

Latest SWAP painting!

I still belong to an online group of artists known as Sharing With Artist Partners (or SWAP). Quarterly, we have a swap during which we receive an original painting from a secret (except known to the Moderator) partner and someone in the group receives one from me. This is the painting I received this week from Teresa, an artist from Madrid, Spain. Isn't this just luscious? I love the way she handled the rind, such juicy colors and just the right mottling of the rind colors.

I have a Wall of Fame in my studio on which hang all of my SWAP paintings, they are all around 5x7 - 8x10 in size and this will go right up there when I get it matted and framed. It is always such fun wondering from whom I will get my next painting! I love them all.

Brown Pelican - WIP 5

As with the last stage, not much different is being done other than more definition of textures and I began the drybrushing for further detail on the wing.

This is where it was left, to be picked up soon, I hope. I will strengthen the color of his beak, model his legs/feet more realistically and texture the wooden post on which he is standing.

My next decision, after that, will be to decide just what to do about a background. In the photo, there is nothing but blue sky behind him; so I may do that, may leave it white, may do blue sky with some clouds, who knows? Decisions, decisions.....

Brown Pelican - WIP 4

At this point, it is more a matter of just strengthening what I had done in WIP 3, further defining the values of his body and working in more feather texture on the wings and back. I also added some darker areas of where his neck feathers are separating as he bends his head.

Brown Pelican - WIP 3

I started defining the wonderful beak on this bird, I just loved his posture. Diane said he actually just stood still, posing like this for her for the longest time. Cool photograph!

I brushed in the beginnings of some of the wing feathers and started putting in more modeling shadows at this point. I strengthened the yellow area of the head while lifting some color to show the bulge above his jaw. I keep saying "his", I truly do not know if it is a he or she, but it is posing proudly like a he so we will assume that is so.

I am trying to make haste slowly so I will not lose many of those lightest areas but adding the necessary darks to show modeling of his anatomy.

Brown Pelican - WIP 2

As usual, when beginning a watercolor painting, I start with a wet-in-wet underpainting to act as a roadmap of sorts for the more detailed painting later. I added bits of warm yellow to the pelican's body where the light will hit it.

Brown Pelican - WIP 1

This will be a painting of a Brown Pelican from a photo by Diana Webb. She gave her permission to me to paint this and suggested that she would like to watch this photo "come to life" as a painting on my blog. So, I will begin with the drawing and submit work in progress photos individually in all the stages.

The first five photos were all done during the open painting session of the watercolor group that meets weekly at the Sun City Grand Art Club. This is an atmosphere rich in creativity and shared interest in watercolor. Great group to paint with!

Newest Creative Media

Well, I can't say I was looking for something else to occupy my spare time since I don't seem to have a lot of that recently, but the opportunity presented itself for me to take some classes in wire-wrap and wire-sculpting to create jewelry. Since I have collected beads, polished gemstones we have "mined", and have lots of just pretty things to work with I just couldn't resist taking the classes.

Friday was the first class and I created the turquoise pendant, which I added to a string of turquoise beads after I got home. The copper wrap necklace was done by enhancing what was already strung to add some pizazz to this natural stone necklace I beaded about a month ago. I started wrapping a sodalite pendant this morning and am working on beading it now. I'll post that photo when I get it finished. I have to say this is so enjoyable to do, and I hope to improve enough to make them really look great. If my arthritic hands will hold out long enough, I hope to continue on with this.

Gila Ruins in Sepia

This is the second painting project for the Watercolor Workshop group for the month of February, they both have had the sepia theme - a favorite of mine! I wanted to paint something looser and free after the tightness required by the satins and lace painting and this fit the bill.

These cliff dwelling ruins were near Silver City, NM and required a long, hot climb to reach them. However, once there, I was able to climb into portions of the ruins, including on a very long ladder to reach some of the upper portions. This is a protected site by the National Parks Service and one of the few cliff dwelling sites we have seen that allows this option to experience the ruins from the inside of the dwellings. This was done about five years ago, before increasing physical limitations started so I doubt I will do anything quite this arduous again, but I certainly have the photos and memories to prove I once could do it!

Now, onto something with a bit more color.....

Satin and Lace in Sepia

This is one of the February projects for the Watercolor Workshop; to paint, in sepia, from the same photograph. When I first saw this photo I thought "oh no, not me" but I studied it and, since I love painting in sepia, I decided to give it a try. What made it do-able was the fact that is is just a collection of value shifts and shadow shapes, so it really wasn't as complicated as first thought. I do like the old look to this and hope that someone who is a seamstress will be attracted to it for purchase. I used to sew constantly, but once I started painting that got pushed aside and, finally, put to rest permanently! I am still drawn to piles of laces and satin ribbons, though!

The other February project is to paint anything in sepia, so I have drawn a cliff dwelling we visited outside of Silver City, NM a few years ago. It is good to be painting again more regularly.

Brenda Quartzsite Adventure

We took the motorhome out for a few days to nearby Brenda, AZ. We have stayed there before when we wanted to explore Quartzsite but had never traveled on any of the desert trails. This was our trip to do that. We were very glad to be in a 4-wheel-drive vehicle since parts of this Ramsey Mine Road went through washes which had quite a few large rocks to crawl over. This is a photo of the mine entrance, my longest lens was used to get this photo without endangering myself or trespassing as the signs warn against.

We saw a desert scene emerging from the winter drabness with Teddy Bear Chollas very healthy looking and the Ocotillas were leafing out with new growth. When the cholla was backlit they looked so soft and fuzzy, like they were neon....but we have learned that you don't get anywhere near them since they have earned their nicknames of "jumping" cholla. I can still remember how painful it was to brush against one and having one of the balls of thorns in my foot.

The panoramic shot was stitched together from 10 photos, I loved seeing those distant mountains behind all the foreground desert. As always, you can click on the photo to make it larger and see more detail.

When in Quartzsite we visited a few of the rock/gem shops and vendors. I found way too many things I loved and bought stones and findings for making some necklaces and earrings. It was a fun day!