Great Weekend

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

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

Have a good week everyone.

Aubrey and Daddy

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

Art Sale This Weekend

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

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

Have a good weekend...

Pink Dogwood

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

Petroglyph Photo Jaunt

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

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

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

Pow-Wow Indian - Final (I hope)

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

Pow-Wow Indian WIP 7

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

Pow-Wow Indian WIP 6

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

Pow-Wow Indian WIP 5

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

Pow-Wow Indian WIP 4

I have done a few more things to help me see better "road maps" of this man's anatomy, such as blocking in his hair and I continue to work on his jaw. The eyebrows will need some refining and then I think I will move on to his hat. Lots of detail there. I need that to be the correct darkness to be able to gauge how much darker the skin tones or his face paint needs to be.

Pow-Wow Indian WIP 3 (or 4 or 5?)

I have mainly been working on this at night and haven't stopped during the daylight to take WIP photos as I promised. Sorry. This is probably more like WIP 4 or 5, but here it is, the third one.

He is wearing paint on his face, very dark and black on the lips and upper face, so I have to soften the edges so it looks less like a mask. Also, I misread the modeling shadows below his chin and needed to use the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser to correct that and will make it right the next time I work on it. There is more paint to add in the face and then the hair will be blocked in lightly so I don't get lost again. Details, details. I really owe a debt to Mr. Clean, he knows his stuff!

Stay tuned, when you see his black hat with the bead work and feathers hopefully you will like this guy as much as I liked his photo. Slow going on this one due to time constraints, but I will continue on.

Pow-wow Indian - WIP2

Just added the beginning modeling shadows late yesterday and this morning. Will work on it as I can today and see how far I get. So far, so good.

Pow-Wow Brave WIP 1

This is the underpainting for my newest project, an Indian man from a pow-wow in Banderra, TX. The reference photo was taken by a new online friend, Diana Webb. She graciously gave me permission to paint from her photo. I was taken by this photo and wanted to paint it immediately upon seeing it. It is hard to see in these early stages, but his gaze is intense, yet pensive and calm. Plus, I love his hat! Pardon the buckling of the paper in the face as I got in a big hurry to take the photo before the paper had dried after the wet-into-wet application of the underpainting. This will be my first attempt at these magnificent feathers that were part of his attire. I'll keep working and posting WIPs as I move along, although it will no doubt be fairly slow for awhile.

The image size of this painting is 24 x 16, watercolor on Arches 140-lb paper.

A Christmas Wish - Okay Three

I have three wishes for us all this Christmas Day. As so much of the country is enduring harsh winter weather this year, I pray that you are safely within the embrace of your families in a warm place. As we enjoyed the fellowship with my side of our family last night I was struck by the basic need of connecting and reconnecting with those whose pasts we share.

I also have a wish for all to be safe financially in these troubled times. I speak not of wealth, but of the security that allows us all to feel that we can take care of ourselves and have freedom from the threat that we will not be able to if the world's economy does not level out. This needs to change, may those who are in charge of making this happen for us be guided by good and not greed.

Lastly, my biggest wish this holiday season is for health for us all. If you are dealing with health issues may you find healing in this new year that will allow you to enjoy all of the above as well as look forward to many future holidays. This has been a year of working through health issues for my family and I realize that this is the greatest wealth one can have, health.

God's blessings to you and yours this Christmas Day......

"Rock Talk and Autumn Framed"

These are the two paintings I finished last week, but due to spending so much time working on my new computer, transferring files, etc. I have not updated my blog to include them. The reference photos for both of these was provided by Roch, of New Mexico Jeep Tours. His photos just inspire me, plain and simply. He stops to take the photos I believe I would take if I were where he happens to be as he leads Jeep tours through the wonders of New Mexico. Thanks once again, Roch!

Now, I can maybe squeeze in some painting time to work on my Indian brave painting. I have the background in, so far, so good.

12/12/08 Sunset

I neglected to share with you our sunset the night before last here. This was shot from our driveway. Whenever there are clouds present in the West at sunset you can count on a spectacular display here. I just about missed this one but got out in time to snap a few photos.

ArtChix Sale This Weekend

This will be my home on the planet for this weekend, an ArtChix sale. Hopefully, people will feel compelled to buy something, but in this economy one never knows. It was worth getting prepared for, I just hope it all works out to be profitable. Lots of people looking, few buying so far. The cooler weather tomorrow may hinder this effort, also. Sigh. Such is the life of an artist, I guess.

Cell Phone Sunrise

While leaving our house to run some early morning errands yesterday I noted this great sunrise. Not having my good camera with me, I resorted to using my cell phone. While this isn't the best photo I have ever taken, I think it shows this display of color very well for having been shot from a cell phone camera. Love these rosy sunrises!

The Birth of a Blog

I have added a link to my new friend's blog. While meeting in an RV park in Kingman at Thanksgiving, we discovered a mutual love of painting and talking about painting and she was intrigued with the idea of a blog. She immediately took my suggested route of using this blog forum and set about creating her own blog. I have watched her fledgling blog since then and think you all might like to pop on over and have a look for yourselves! She has a style of painting in oils and watercolors that is realistic, but definitely charmingly painterly as well. Her name is Connie Hummel-Kornell and the link to her blog is: http://chummelkornell.blogspot.com/ She will soon be adding more of her paintings and this promises to be a very beautiful addition to her blog. The paintings I have seen of hers are reminiscent of Norman Rockwell or maybe Currier and Ives with a bit of Thomas Kincaid thrown in.

Check out her photos and ponderings on her very interesting life.

Winter Scene

Another mentoring session today, the choice was for this Winter scene, copied from a favorite greeting card of the student. Since this was a study, neither of us will be selling this copyright-protected work but it was a good one for trying out new techniques and learning from it. What does a girl from Yuma, Arizona know about painting snow scenes? You are right...not much! It was fun to ponder and experiment a little on what might work to get the right effects. I learn about as much when teaching as I did as a student! I am nothing if not brave!