Tuesday, March 31, 2009

On Guard

"On Guard" 22" x 15" private collection

Monday, March 30, 2009

Handsome

"Handsome" 15" x 15"
ROOSTER WEEK!
This week I'll post a variety of feathered friends and I'll
let them speak for themselves...but please feel free to comment!

Friday, March 27, 2009

Seasonal Colors

"Seasonal Colors" 15" x 11"
Summer's bounty on a table. Someone in
one of my classes once noted that alot of
my paintings have a dark upper corner. This
is by no means intentional and I'm sure it's just
subconscious to make the composition work.
In this piece I think it works well to balance out the
white of the foreground and the daisies in the bouquets.

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Golden Group

"Golden Group" 15" x 22"
Tulips and foliage...soon they will be poking their heads through
the ground. Spring will spring forth. This photo is a little dark and
the painting itself is brighter, but you get the idea. I tried in the
shadows to use the complement of yellow and go towards the
violet side of the spectrum. Green foliage doesn't always mean
"green"...mix in brown, blue, orange etc..

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Clouds over Champlain

"Clouds over Champlain" 11" x 15"
Clouds rising up from the horizon line...like there was a
storm brewing. Possibly, but I don't remember...I don't
think it rained that day after I painted this. A typical summer
afternoon with fluffy clouds and blue skies peeking through.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Here's looking at you

"Here's looking at you" Giclee print
This little guy is available as a limited edition Giclee print.
Matted with acid free board. I also found the company online
that licensed him for a needlepoint kit. Click the link to check that
out...He is $50.00 plus S&H. The size is 11" x 11" matted and the
image size is 6.5" x 6.5". What a flirty little rascal!






Monday, March 23, 2009

Plums, petals and pears

"Plums, Petals and Pears" 22" x 15"
I had a good time painting this piece...especially
the strong shadows under the plums and pears.
I enjoy the rich color of plums and find I don't paint
them often enough. I use payne's gray mixed in with
alizarin crimson to get the deep "plum" color on the
dark sides and their funny creases.

Friday, March 20, 2009

Spring greetings

"Winter view" 15" x 22"
On this the first day of spring I will post an image of winter as we
knew it this year...that's not to say that it can't look like this again
in the next few weeks...Heavy spring snow is not unheard of
in these parts, but it's good to focus on another season for a while.
This painting is one of the few winter landscapes I've ever done.
I worked from a photograph that I took from the passenger side
of the car as we were travelling south! I guess the new cameras
leave out the fact that you are going 50 miles an hour!

Thursday, March 19, 2009

St. Lawrence view

Another "hotel" sketch. This was way up the St. Lawrence
River in Malbaie Canada. Almost to the Gaspe peninsula.
Large barges and whales...what a combination. Beautiful
countryside and the ferries connected across the river because
there weren't any bridges. I love painting these little moments
in time, I just need to do more of them!

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Pastel houses

Here you can see the plastic spiral binding that's on my
homemade journals. I'll post another picture of my journal
sometime soon..an exterior shot. This was a pen and wash
sketch done of some Mediterranean houses...oh the colors.
Pastels are just a way of life. Or they are sunbleached!

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Algonquin

"Algonquin Hotel" New Brunswick, Canada
Here is another hotel image done in the same journal.
I received an email yesterday asking what kind of sketchbook
this is and if I made this one myself. I didn't make this one
myself, but it is full of Fabriano 140 lb. CP watercolor paper,
which is my favorite. I got it many years ago and it was made
by Brookfield Stationery, which we carried in the art store where
I worked. The sketchbooks I have made at the local FedEx/Kinkos
are about 5" x 7" watercolor sheets that I tear, leaving a deckled edge.
Then I sandwich those between two pieces of matboard that are
slightly bigger than the wc paper and they spiral bind it. You can
decorate the matboard with handmade paper, kraft paper
or draw on it!
Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Monday, March 16, 2009

Sketchbook pages

Mohonk Mountain House, New York
Vacation is buzzing all around me lately and I have
seen tan and relaxed friends who have been to various
points across the globe...so I thought I'd post some sketches
this week that I did while travelling about myself. I always
try to have a watercolor sketchbook, a small paint set and a
brush with me. If you like a particular paper you can even go
to your local copy/binding shop and have them put a spiral
binding on some cut sheets of your watercolor paper. That
way your sketchbook is whatever size you like it to be and
it's paper you are familiar with.

Friday, March 13, 2009

Shades of Poppy

"shades of poppy" 7.5" x 7.5"
I'll round out the week with another poppy. I try very
hard to paint my poppies with a variety of colors. It's easy
to get caught up in thinking a flower is a particular color. I
like to push those limits by adding additional colors that might
not be in the actual flower, but make the subject a little more
interesting. We like variety and painting a solid red or orange
poppy would not be so compelling, but throw in some yellows,
purples, alizarin, vermillion, scarlet, violet, rose...you get the picture.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

"Celebration"

"Celebration" 6"x6" Oil on Stretched Canvas
Today is my one year anniversary of starting this blog!
I am also announcing the launch of my latest venture, my
Oil Painting blog...This little cupcake painting is for sale
in today's post...hope you have a chance to check it out.
Click the link above. Here's to many more postings and
various celebrations.

"Unfolding" 8"x8"

How could I not post a watercolor?

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Feathered Forager

"Feathered Forager" 15" x 22"
There are days when my roosters just want to come out
and play among the flower paintings! I try to change up
my painting habits in the studio by not painting too much
of the same thing for fear of getting in a rut or bored...Plus
it ends up being too much of a routine and you need to shake
things up every once in a while! With roosters you can really
let loose and splash that color around, scrape back some
highlights, drip and dribble pigment and create speckles all
you want. They are feisty creatures, they can take it!

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Cozy corner

"Cozy corner"
I love a red/orange and blue/green combination...
Plus I really enjoy painting poppies. They can be quickly
overdone, by not making the paint transparent enough. I know
I've had to put a few paintings aside over the years that just
became too dark and heavy. Poppies are like tissue paper
and need the white of the paper to play an active part in portraying
them.

Monday, March 9, 2009

Blazing bottles

"Blazing Bottles"
Hope you all had a nice weekend..I'm heading in to
my first anniversary of blogging! I can't believe it's
been a year already. Time flies...It's been fun and I
have made a slew of new cyber friends as a result. I've
been in the studio wrestling with oils...and the keyword
there is wrestling..I actually put them away at some point
over the weekend and went back to the watercolors and it
seemed I had forgotten how to use those as well. I guess things
will be a bit jumbled in the beginning as I try to find my footing
with the new medium.

Friday, March 6, 2009

Gettin' wiggy with it

"Gettin' wiggy with it"
This was the last assignment for different strokes. I really
enjoyed this one. I post this on the side of my blog, but some
of you that only get my emailed posts might not check that out,
so I list it here as well. The next challenge is slightly more unusual.
It's a picture of sushi...now I do always look at the wonderful colors
and combinations of sushi at the grocery store, but I've never painted
it...So that'll be a unique subject matter. I've been cruising the blogs
lately and want to thank all of you who have my blog linked on your
blog. I'm going to try to reciprocate and get a list going on mine as well.

Thursday, March 5, 2009

New direction, older painting

Another earlier watercolor of mine...I should take some of
my older work and put it around the room and create a historical
timeline. I sort of cringe at the thought to see where I started.
But we all must learn to crawl before we can walk and that says
nothing about how hard we must train to run in a marathon. So
there is nothing wrong with progression! Having said that...I have
started with oils..big gasp...what did she say? Isn't she just exclusive
to watercolors...well now, yes I am, but I just took a workshop with
Carol Marine from Austin, Texas and just had a blast...so who knows,
I might share some of my efforts with you right here in the future!

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Striped cloth

"Striped Cloth" 22" x 15"
For my regular style and color selection, this
is a very subdued palette choice. Almost too pale.
But the fun part of this painting were the stripes. I love
having a striped cloth to paint..it's very challenging. But
you can have some fun and exaggerate your point of view.
That's one thing that'll always be unique to you...your
perspective and how you compose your paintings.
Push some boundaries, be bold, make a statement!
It's what I say in my workshops: "it's just some paper and some pigment!"

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Stargazing

I guess I'll be on a lily kick for the beginning of
this week...They are such powerfully scented blooms.
Plus the stamen, watch out when that gets on your shirt.
I ofcourse always happen to be wearing white when I brush
against them...but if you take some tape and slowly, gently
try to lift the orange pollen off...you might have success! It's
worked for me in the past. Brushing it off or trying to rinse it
off is not a great idea! I also always strip them off the freshly
opened bloom..I think it's supposed to make them last longer?
Or maybe it's just to avoid getting stained by them and that's
why the florists do it?...

Monday, March 2, 2009

White lilies

Here I used some watersoluble crayons for the underdrawing.
They are these thick, stubby crayons that can be used dry, wet,
melted with a heat gun etc..They are by Stabilo...they used to be
available individually, but I think that now they are only sold in sets.
I know alot of different paint and pencil manufacturers are making
watersoluble products, from paint sticks, to blocks, to chalks etc...
What are they going to come up with next? Maybe watercolors that
are not watersoluble! Huh? Well that's almost as strange as oils that
are watermixable...,right?