White Heron

I cannot seem to stop painting this weekend. We are having a quiet weekend due to my husband's accident and his need to recuperate, and I can't say I have missed any of the activities we might have done, it has been so nice to stay home and paint!

I am letting this marinate on the board for awhile while I ponder where to soften more of the edges, or detail the water more, etc. I submitted it to the WcW for critique, hopefully some of the wildlife painters in the group will help me decide if I am through with this or if anything else needs to be done.

Thanks go to Fred Reed for allowing me to paint from his excellent photo.

Marsha's Peony Final

Rhonda, one of my WcW buddies is working on this same photo for a painting, and suggested that the center of this needs to be warmed up with some of the warmer colors. So, after looking at the photo again on the computer screen I found that my print of the photo had printed mainly the cooler colors so I had missed that. This version of my painting is more representative of the original photo and I think I am calling it done.

Marsha's Peony WIP 2

Here I have added deeper colors to the shadow areas and have come closer to finishing the stem and whatever those things are that open when the buds open. I guess I should research more about plant anatomy!

Next, I will step away and ponder whether to deepen the sky color and add more darks. the peony petals are so translucent I don't want to lose that look, so I may be close to finished with this.

I'll post the final version when I figure out if I am finished.

Marsha's Peony WIP 1

I am starting another floral painting based on the photographic talent of an online friend, Marsha, who submits photos of her flowers for the group to use for reference photos. I am so envious of her ability to grow flowers like this, here on the desert we would never be able to grow them! She is also a fabulous photographer!

This will be the underside of a peony blossom and I have done the first three steps so far: Painting the sky area, tinting each petal with a pale pink and then painting the shadow areas with the same pink to establish where the lightest lights will be left. As I finish those little yellow-green thingies at the base of the flower I will start going in with the darkest darks, that is the fun part since it immediately makes the lightest lights even brighter and the petals more translucent-looking. It has been an evolutionary process for me to get over being scared of committing darkest darks to a painting for fear of ruining it. Now, I usually can hardly wait to get to that point since it always seems to be a magical turning point, taking the painting farther away from the awkward teenage phase and more toward the phases of a good, grown-up painting.

More to follow as I have time to work on this one.

Iris Macro Revisited

I added a bit more modeling shading to the petals of this and some more orange in the deepest part of the throat of the iris. I am not sure if this does it for me, still, but I can't say I hate it....it just isn't what I set out to do with this great photo I used for a reference. I have new subjects waiting on the drafting table so will just move on.

Iris Macro

I just finished this iris painting, I used a photo shared by an online group friend who took the macro photo from one of her irises. The photo was stunning, my painting of it just doesn't do it justice. This was a fun painting to do, despite the struggles. I love painting using wet-in-wet techniques. Irises are among my favorites from the flower world, they are just complicated to try to paint. I think I struggle more with roses and irises than any other flowers.

Aubrey at the Beach

I finished this painting of our granddaughter early this morning after painting the bulk of it on Mother's Day (apropos, huh?). I just love the toddler postures they all have at this age. This will go into my Grandma's Gallery of paintings.

Now, on to an iris painting I have been planning.

Magnolia

This painting was done by watching an online demo and a subsequent challenge by one of my online artist buddies, Cecilia (Cia) Price and the reference photo used was from her magnolia tree. She lives in Alabama so understands magnolias much better than this southwestern desert rat.

I was more successful this time than in any others in saving the white of the paper for the sunspots on the petals and branches, so I am proud of that. I like the technique of painting wet-in-wet by dropping-in of colors and letting them blend on the paper, I thought it worked well in this case. Some of my branches are a bit funky, but as far as I know this may be normal for magnolia branches? That's my story and I'm stickin' to it anyway.

Now, on to painting my grandbaby, Aubrey, in her race-to-the-water pose in the photo below. That one is just begging to be painted, so I will give in to the urge.

Beach baby

No art news to submit today as we are in Las Vegas (what goes on in Vegas stays in Vegas!) but I received some beach baby photos of our granddaughter in some e-mail today so will share it. I didn't crop out her mama for any malicious intent, I just thought little Ms. Aubrey looked so precious striding purposely toward the water that I wanted her to be the main focus of the photo.

I am winning big at the casinos...I won $18.95 in nickels this morning! That has to be some kind of record for me to be on the plus side at all!

Madrona Tree - Final

I have deemed this one as finished as it will get. I am not as pleased as I had hoped to be with it, but it was a great learning experience and fun to do. I am trying to incorporate more negative painting of shapes into my paintings, so that will come along more easily after I do more of it.

Madrona Tree WIP 5/1/07

I think that every painting goes through an "awkward teenage phase" and here is my teen painting. At this point, I usually wonder if this will go into the round file or whether it will be saved. There is much to do to make this background acceptable, so I will press onward.

Madrona Tree WIP 4/30/07

I am able to work on this Madrona Tree painting today so will include another work in progress entry here. I have done the underpainting of the leafy background and will next proceed to darkening that area, hopefully with the intent of darkening that more to make the peeling tree branches "pop" more and remain the center of interest for this painting. More to follow.

Madrona Tree - WIP

Here is the Madrona Tree peeling bark painting WIP that I have done so far. I will continue on with this since I am having so much fun painting it. The background will be of green foliage and leaves, but the center of interest will be this glowing, peeling main branch and bark. These trees are specific to the Pacific Northwest and I was entranced by them as we drove through the mountain highways toward the Oregon coast. Apparently there is a disease which attacks them and they are a dying breed; so sad, as they are so colorful with their peeling bark and wonderful greens amidst the darker green conifers.

More WIPs to follow on this one. I hope to be able to finish with a lush background with greens, blues and yelows, but we will have to see. One more art sale this weekend and then I can work on this more.

Lilacs on Lace

This will be my submission for the online group's April project - lilacs. I tried to stay loose with this and, as usual, when I do that I don't care as much for it, but this is it regardless. It was fun to do and nice to be able to paint again this week.

I have started offering matcutting and archival printing services and had my first printing and matcutting jobs this week. It's enjoyable work, adds a few dollars to my art supply fund and keeps me out of the pool halls and bars. Can't beat that.

NC Tobacco Farm - corrected

I realized, after submitting, that we were in North Carolina, not South Carolina when I took the reference photo for this painting. I corrected that error, as well as following a suggestion from my online critique group (thanks, Rhonda!) where it was suggested that I darken the roofs to highlight the center of interest - the barn and drying sheds. I do like it better with the value shift now.

SC Tobacco Farm

I have had these three paintings on the unfinished pile for quite awhile as I had lost the time to work on them and possibly the inclination after the inspiration left. But, today was the day and I so enjoyed working on them and finishing them. Now, onto the new ideas without guilt!

This sepia painting was inspired on our trip through South Carolina two years ago. There were so many farms set among the rolling green hills, so peacefully. I assume this was a tobacco farm considering what I believe to be large drying sheds and buildings. I may be wrong, but they were pretty farms nonetheless.

Zoltan's Fishermen

The Zion painting has been assigned to the "think on it" pile. It may take that trip to the sink, yet. But, there is no hurry if that is its fate.

I have had this painting, for a family member, on the back burner for awhile as it was on the "think on it" pile, too. I did some refining this afternoon and think it will stand on its own now, for better or worse. It is from step-by-step demo from an old Zoltan Szabo book that I had done once before during the infancy of my so-called painting career. I still like the peacefulness of this scene and enjoyed painting it again.

Zion in Fall

I started this watercolor on canvas in the Thursday painting session and finished it today. It had to be either "punched up" in the color or washed back to white at the sink and start over. I decided to punch up the color and will await a critique to decide whether I make that trip to the sink. This Fredrix watercolor canvas is difficult to work with most of the time, it just gives me fits. I am determined to master it, though, so I keep trying.

Ocotillo

Our Ocotillo has always had nice "foliage" on it and it has grown to be about 12-feet tall, but it hasn't had very many nice blossoms in the Spring. This year it has the nicest blossoms of any year and I am sure some of these will have to find their way into paintings! I guess Ocotillos perform better after having a Winter with some hard freezes since our milder Winters have not produced as many blossoms as this.

Easter Sale

This is my table set-up at this weekend's Easter sale by the ArtChix. It was a moderate success and a lot of fun...a lot of work, too! The fun part is the sale itself; the preparation and setup/takedown aspects are the work part. Today's task is to get everything put away in the studio again.