1955 Ford Crown Victoria

This is my answer to the Watercolor Workshop January project where everyone paints from the same source photograph. This pink car is a 1955 Ford Crown Victoria - a car I remember very well. It was painted on 1/4 sheet of Arches cold-pressed watercolor paper with Holbein watercolors. The more I painted, the tighter it got...partly because I fight "tight" and also the subject leads to tightness because of all the detail. This was fun to paint - it brought back a lot of memories.

This is a commission piece I just finished for a fellow teacher at the alternative school. It is 11" X 13" and is done in Prismacolor colored pencils on illustration board. The camera did not seem to pick up the mid-tones of the shading and also the browns are lost for some reason. This is not a good representation of the drawing. Well, at least I have a copy, bad or not:) Unfortunately, I am going to have to think about not doing these detailed drawings so much in the future - my hands are so painful when holding the pencils - dang the arthritis! :( As they say - getting old is not for cowards!!!

High Mountain Valley

This is a painting I did some time ago which is a mixed-media piece. It is a watercolor wash with pastel on top. It is done on 1/2 sheet of Arches 140 # cold-pressed watercolor paper. I enjoy doing watercolors in combination with pastels and sometimes even colored pencils. I think it adds a very interesting element to a painting and in my case encourages me to work a little more loosely, which is a GOOD thing (as "Martha" would say!)

Fingerlakes Farm

I prepared this painting for the intermediate watercolor class I have been teaching at the St. Mary's Collective Art's Center. It was drawn (with some artistic license) from a photograph taken in the fingerlakes region of New York state by my friend Sally Hendricks. I worked with a limited palette of ultramarine blue, sap green, sepia, and burnt sienna. It is 1/8 sheet of Arches 140# cold-pressed watercolor paper.

"The Elements"

A good friend who lives in Brazil, sent me a picture and suggested that we both paint our versions. So...this is my version...I flipped it and used a different girl with umbrella and unfortunately my perspective is all off, but I guess it does get the idea across that it is a very rainy day. This picture is small - about 7" X 10" - this is small for me as I usually work larger. It is painted on 140 lb. Arches cold pressed watercolor paper. The special effect of rain was created by using the edge of a wet Mr. Clean eraser, which I cut into small flat pieces for easier handling.

Portrait of Rachel

This is a painting of my grand daughter Rachel, which i just finished. I painted it for the Watercolor Passion web site's spring quarter project which is "Children". I took the photograph I used for this painting about a year and a half ago and was experimenting with light sources. The photograph is above, the painting below. Rachel is very close to being 7 years old and looks more like 10. I think the title of this painting should be "7 going on 40." Children certainly grow up fast now! As you can see, Rachel has beautiful eyes, and my painting doesn't even begin to do them justice. Oh well..... The size of this painting is 1/4 sheet of 140 lb. Arches cold-pressed watercolor paper.

Happy New Year from the Smiling Elk!

I finished this painting just in time for the December projects for the Watercolor Workshop. One challenge was to do a 4 legged friend and the other was to paint from a photo of this elk. So...since the elk is definitely 4 legged and as I was running out of time due to the hullabaloo of the holidays, I decided to enter this painting into both project categories. I will have to admit that I have never been a painter of animals, and thus my elk appears to be smiling because I had some trouble with his mouth. I decided to leave it alone because I sort of like the idea of a smiling elk, especially during the holidays. This painting is done on 1/4 sheet of Arches cold-pressed watercolor paper.