Poured Rose Succulent

I finally finished the succulent that I started before the demonstration at Lima Area Watercolor Society.  It was part of the pouring demonstration.  The painting was poured, but poured in areas that I had divided with miskit.  I used acrylic inks for the initial pours and then removed the miskit and finished with transparent watercolor.  The painting is 15" x 19" and is painted on 140 lb. cold-pressed Fabriano Artistico watercolor paper.  This was also painted for the March project of Watercolor Workshop.

Using a High Horizon Line in a Horizontal Composition

I was back to the Mary Todd Beam book "Celebrate Your Creative Self" and did this project from the chapter on composition.  This particular project is using a high horizon line in a horizontal composition.  In the first example from today the horizon line should be higher.  I think the lower painting more successfully used a high horizon line.  I did both paintings on illustration board with acrylic paint.

Working with Staining Colors in Fluid Acrylics

I went back to the book "Celebrate Your Creative Self " today and experimented with fluid acrylics.  I applied my colors - quinacridone gold, and turquoise straight from the bottle - the gold in shapes and the turquoise in drips and dots.  Then I drew a line of quinacridone crimson across the top, and using a wide putty knife, scraped down through the paint - cleaning off the putty knife after each swipe.  The fluid acrylics stain the illustration board.  I cut some designs out of erasers and stamped black designs on the bottom work - and also embellished it with black ink designs.  These works are both, so far, nameless!  I had a lot of fun and learned a lot from this project.  What a great book!

Bob, The Train Clown

My brother and sister-in-law, Tony and Mary, celebrated their 45th wedding anniversary by treating their family and friends to a beautiful early autumn afternoon train ride on the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad.  It was a lovely afternoon and one of the perks was Bob the clown, one of their friends who entertained the children on the train.  I took a photograph of "Bob" and decided it would make a nice painting.    It is approximately 10" x 8" and is on 140 lb. Arches cold-pressed watercolor paper.

Pamela's Barn Truck

Well - I finally finished this painting yesterday.  I did this from a source photo taken by my friend, Pamela Baker, an excellent photographer.  The painting is 15" x 30" and is painted on 140 lb. Fabriano Artistico cold-pressed watercolor paper.  I hope to have it framed soon for a show next month.

Moonglow

Today I decided to use a sample jar of Golden Light Modeling Paste that I had hanging around.  This is done on a piece of illustration board, 7" x 12."  I put a light coating of modeling paste on the board with a putty knife and then drew on it with the rounded end of a paint brush handle.  It was painted with watercolors and then I dry-brushed Golden gold fluid acrylic over the surface.  The light modeling paste is very different from the extra-heavy gel - it is not as hard to work with and does not dry to a real hard surface.  It seems to be more fibrous - much like a refined paper mache product.  It takes the watercolor very well.

SWAP 28 Painting: "Dominique" from Brenda Knoll

I received this precious, wonderful painting in the mail yesterday!  What a wonderful treat and surprise, since I had previously seen this and had expressed my desire to receive it.  I was so lucky to have my name matched with Brenda Knoll's and - voila! - it is mine.  I am so lucky.  I love this little gem of a painting and will treasure it forever!  Thanks, Brenda!

Imagine Your World

Well, I am back with the book "Celebrate Your Creative Self" by Mary Todd Beam.  This particular project is a tissue paper collage with watercolor pencils and pastels and liquid acrylics.  It was a lot of fun just letting myself go with shapes, texture and color.

John Thompson's Old Truck

Today I finished the truck I started a couple of weeks ago.  I was teaching my intermediate watercolor class at Riverside Arts Center how to paint this.  It is 9" x 9" and is painted on 140 lb. Fabriano Artistico cold-pressed watercolor paper.

"Pretty in Pink"

It is finally complete!!! The source photo of this painting was a photograph taken by Cia Price, who is now deceased. This will never do justice to her beautiful paintings, but hopefully it will honor her. The name, Pretty in Pink, comes from Norena Fox, a friend who suggested it. Thanks, Norena!

The painting is 22"x28" and is painted on 140 lb. Canson One cold-pressed watercolor paper. The drawing itself was done by using a grid which I divided into 16 sections and the underpainting was poured using acrylic inks during a demonstration at the Lima Area Watercolor Society last Tuesday evening. It was completed using traditional transparent watercolor techniques.

Soup Tonight

My friend Michelle set up a still life during our Thursday afternoon painting group so I decided to put aside the watercolor for the day and do an oil painting.  This one is 9" x 12" and is painted on a canvas panel.

"It's Improv, Man!"

I'm putting the Mary Todd Beam book aside for a day to post this little creation.  While mixing acrylic inks this afternoon for a demo pour I am doing Tuesday night, I was cleaning my brushes on a scrap of watercolor paper.  I began to really like what was happening and continued to develop it into an abstract painting.  The size is 4" x 10" and is painted on 140 lb. Fabriano Artistico cold-pressed watercolor paper.  I guess you can tell what colors the pour will be on Tuesday night!

Bringing Back the Whites

Lifting color to Bring Back White...I first did a thumbnail of my idea and then layed in washes in burnt sienna, yellow ochre, and ultramarine blue and various mixtures of the three colors.  Beam recommends that you use a foam brush to lift color, but since I didn't have one, I used an inch flat watercolor brush and proceeded to lift out areas including my leaf shapes.  After it dried, I added paint to define and tweek the composition using the same colors I used for the initial washes.  Except for the final application, which gives you hard edges, this lifting technique gives you a gentle, soft effect.  This painting is 6" x 12" and is painted on Canson Tientes 140 lb. cold-pressed watercolor paper.

Opaque and Textured Cornflowers

In the book "Celebrate Your Creative Self", Beam talks about when opaques surround your subject matter, it will make your subject more special. In this painting, I drew some cornflowers on a reject painting from the "archives" and then surrounded them with light blue acrylic paint allowing the original painting to be the subject cornflowers. I tweeked some areas with glossy green and ginger acrylic paint. Beam states that the opaques help focus attention on the subject of the painting.



This painting is 9" x 6" and is on 140 lb. Arches cold-pressed watercolor paper.

View from the Window

I received a new book in the mail today - Celebrate Your Creative Self by Mary Todd Beam. It is wonderful - chocked full of wonderful projects that are so creative and pushing the edge...just what I need!

The project I selected today asked you to come up with a composition which starts with a triangle, square and circle. She used a bird and so did I, but my bird is not like her bird I assure you! She also used liquid acrylics and I used watercolors. The challenge in this projects was to protect white areas by masking with contact paper, which I didn't have! Soooo - I used masking tape to create my dark and light patterns. I put the tape on the areas and then cut around it with an x-acto knife. Then I did the painting with quinacridone burnt orange, yellow ochre, cereulean blue and quinacridone gold. Of course I used salt to texturize some areas. I plan to work my way through the book using the projects.