Waterlily and Shadows

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday with family and friends. We were blessed to have the whole family here, in addition to my brother Tim and wife Peg from Cleveland for the weekend. We had a great weekend, but no time to post on my blogs.

This is a painting I recently completed for the class I was teaching at the Riverside Arts Center in Wapakoneta, Ohio. It is 1/4 sheet of Arches 140 lb. cold-pressed watercolor paper with an assortment of different brands of watercolors. This was NOT a popular project for the class - it caused a lot of anxiety and frustration - for that I apologize to my students. That is the last thing I wanted to accomplish. I guess, to me, it looked a lot easier than it was. I agree that it wasn't as easy as it first appeared. The source of this painting was a Wet Canvas photo.

Cheese Danish With Peach Tea

This is my answer to the other November project of Watercolor Workshop. This was painted on hot-pressed Arches 140 lb. watercolor paper and is 5" x 7". It is painted from a photo I took in my studio from a still life I set up. I had a very enjoyable time eating the danish and drinking the tea while I painted from the photo. :) I used a limited palette of burnt sienna, indigo, and sepia.

A Look Into The Past

This painting is an experiment in textures and is one where I used a limited palette. My colors were Ultramarine Blue, Deep, Quinacridone Orange and Indigo. It is a poured watercolor with salt textures. I was trying the wet in wet textural techniques of the painter Gwendolyn Bragg, but didn't do it correctly so I ended up just doing the usual pouring on wet watercolor paper. You may see a demo of her techniques on her website. I still want to learn to do her technique, so I plan to try some more using her specific technique. The textures in this painting came from the salt I dropped on it before the watercolor dried. I lifted my lights before it dried also. Then, while it was drying, I did the detailing in the bricks and stucco.

Still Life Painting for Watercolor Workshop

I finished this still life painting yesterday. It was painted for the Watercolor Workshop monthly project where the members paint from a photograph provided by Gina Hall, a member of the Watercolor Workshop. It is 8" x 12" and is painted on 140 lb. Arches cold-pressed watercolor paper. This painting turned out very TIGHT which I try to get away from, but sometimes my inner nature triumphs and out pops TIGHT! Oh well - I have discussed this before and since there is nothing I can do about it because it is my nature/style to paint this way - Here it Is!

Peppermint!

If you visit the Bright, Bold and Beautiful blog, you can received a print of this painting by Laura Trevey absolutely free...check http://www.brightboldbeautiful.blogspot.com/ for all the details.

Tara and Her Christmas Painting

I finished the painting for our Christmas card tonight. This is a painting of our sheltie, Tara. As you can see, she was a very reluctant model for this picture - she was not a happy camper:) You should know though, that she is the sweetest tempered little thing and patiently put up with my actions to get the photograph. She hates that Santa hat - probably because it pushes her ears out and makes her look like the flying nun. The painting is small - 7" x 5", and it is painted on Canson watercolor paper on the smooth side. It is cold-pressed and I used an assortment of different watercolors trying to attain her particular sable color - she is much lighter and golden than most shelties and it is hard to mix that particular color. Well - now it is time to design the card on my Print Shop Pro Publisher and that means there will be a trip to Staples for envelopes and card stock sometime this week.

Still Life With Ceramic Chicken

This is my latest oil painting. My Thursday painting group - the Muses - set up a still life in my studio because it was too windy to paint en plein air, as we had originally planned. So - I scavenged around my basement and came up with some items associated with fall and Michelle put it together into a still life. This is the result of my painting efforts - I life parts of it and there are also weak areas (like the rooster). Oh well.................

It is 8"x10" in size and painted on canvas board.