Demo of Give Thanks Continues!

Been busy around here and forgot to load the next step to my painting! This is step three. I took this quickly as the sun was setting that day thus the strange orange glow on the paper and my cast shadow in the corner!
This painting was sort of being planned as I went because I knew I had to be putting the hours in or I would not meet the deadline. This is the point where I started to realize I wish I had made a few different choices. I will try to remember to mention them on the last one so it makes the most sense. I usually say to my students, know exactly what you are painting or last minute decisions could wreck your painting. Well that is the thin ice I was walking on in this one for sure! ha!

Beginning Give Thanks Watercolor

I had just finished the peony painting when Pablo asked if I would be part of the Thanksgiving Challenge. I never find time to do these wonderful things because I am always in the middle of a painting but this time I was totally free! I know those of you that follow me on FB know that I love my pet Blue Jays and I had been thinking I would like time to try to paint one of my friends. So with the challenge I decided one Blue Jay would be in it for sure but had no further ideas. So I went to a friends house who loves to decorate for the seasons and there was this Give Thanks sign on her table and I immediately fell in love with it. I took her large paper gourd that you see and marched home hoping they would work. I set them up on my art table with the afternoon sun coming in and it was magic. I loved the reflection of the word better in some of my other photographs but this combination worked best for placing my bird. I was on this deadline so I just began and had no idea what was going into the background. I had even thought of no background. This is where I began and immediately I was very excited about the words and that lovely gourd! So here you go...my first step..blocking in some color!!!

Double Delight Watercolor Peony

I am calling this painting done!!! I am not sure I have captured the best colors for this or not as we are quite overcast here today but I think it is pretty close. It will be awhile before I do all those stamens again! ha! Now to begin drawing the next one! I have so many I want to paint and I have to be selective so that I get the best ones, but I need 10 lifetimes to paint everything I want to paint!

I titled this Double Delight but if you have a better title please let me know in the comments and we can see if one strikes me better than this!

International Guild of Realism

I was honored to hang in the International Guild of Realism show in Santa Fe, New Mexico this month for one of their big shows. I told you before that Papa's Pepper was juried in and is showing at the Sage Creek Gallery there. There is a short video on youtube that highlights a few of the award winners and I thought you might enjoy seeing the show!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qxvmm3mgW1w

The Art of Watercolour

Earlier I told you of the French watercolor magazine I was published in but unable to read as it was all in French. Well their English version has now been published and is on the newstands. You can see the cover and a few of the articles at this website. http://www.artofwatercolour.com/ It has been a wonderful honor to be published twice in these French magazines!

I have several things that have come up since my two week visit in Oklahoma and they must be attended to but I will get back to my painting soon!

Update on Watercolor of Peony

My computer went down and finally is back...but had to buy a new one with windows 7 and now most everything is not compatible and am having trouble with my pictures and adobe photoshop Elements to work on the photos. This is becoming a real test of patience! I am not sure about the colors here...but it is as close as I can get right now. I might have to stop painting now for the next few weeks. I leave Sunday for Oklahoma and have something scheduled every day so it will be hard to paint before I go. At least I have advanced some and hopefully when I come home I can really hit it hard. I think before I do any more petal work I need to find the interior of this peony with all those petals so that comes next! Thank you for being patient with me!

Watercolor of Girl and Cat

I have begun this watercolor but it is a real struggle. I was not going to post but decided to do it as it will be a learning experience for us all! This is the new Arches watercolor board. I am finding it gets a gray cast when wet and so very hard to determine the value of the paint you apply and also is really not easy to lift. However it is a nice smooth surface so maybe I can learn to work with it...who knows...another media might have to be added to bring it to completion. So here you go...calling this step one. We will see how it goes!!! I want to keep it a very unified piece with color so hoping to just be very careful about adding anymore to this...we will see!

Birdhouse Watercolor

Happy New Year to everyone! I am doing my typical winter thing by being sick, having back problems etc...seeems to be my routine every winter! So I have been working more slowly but I am getting excited about this piece!
I believe I will be calling it Manzanita Resident or something like that. It is a weathered birdhouse with a sparrow on top. I have drawn most everything now except the background which I think will be just leaves but have had a few other thoughts so have left it open.
Right now I am just finding shapes for the most part. I have started some of the weathered paint and a couple of feathers but I like to find a little of everything before I continue on...I thought before I go any further you would like to see my project. I hope those of you who have been copying my work will realize that this is my copyright and that you should not be copying other peoples work. It is illegal. I am seeing knock offs of my work and I suspect I post these way too big for people to see how easy it would be to copy...but I am trusting you to be honest. If not then I will have to take other measures...so please be honest and do not copy what is not yours. Sorry but a few can ruin it for the many I guess.

I hope everyone is staying well and that the New Year brings all of us many blessings and much happiness!

SPLASH 12

I found out today that "Sauced Grapes" was juried into the new Splash 12 book which is due out May 20th of next year. I am excited to be in another book!

I NEED VELCRO!

I need to velcro my butt to the studio chair as I am having trouble staying there! It is just beautiful out and after a long winter and being inside so much it is hard not to be out in it! I have been out since 5:30am and I need to come in.
I have been working on the demo for Bend, Oregon where I will teach at Art in the Mountains. This will be the demo for Calgary, Alberta as well...I think it will be a difficult but fun piece for everyone.
So here is the lake! And why I just had to be outside!!!

TWSA

I was just notified that the painting, "Monday's Wash" has been juried into the 2010 Transparent Watercolor Society of America's national exhibition. I am tickled as I love this piece and was hoping it would do well!  The exhibit runs from May 1 to July 25th at the Kenosha Public Museum in Kenosha, WI  near Chicago so if you are in the area, this is a terrific show to see!!!

In The Bag progressing

Today I worked all day and thought surely I would be further along than I am but I guess I am glad I am as far as I am!!!

Today I began working further on the painting In the Bag...or whatever it is called...my cousin said to call it Pearishable...ha! Anyway, in this first picture you can see how I am using tape to get the straight areas and I used clear shelf paper with masking around the edge to block things off to put in the water...having never done a landscape of any kind before in watercolor...except for 2 plein aire...I decided that this was the approach I would take. Well I taped one area off wrong...but I think when my reflections go in that will be covered...I hope!

Then when I removed all the tape I began the far shoreline of my lake with fall trees. That is now done but all the reflections have to go in...hopefully tomorrow that will go easily and then Sat and Sunday I can finish up the painting! I think that this process is pushing me to do more work..or work faster...not sure what it is!!!

Party Pear Final

I am not sure how this is going to appear as on my computer it looks square...and it is 22 x 17. This pear is about my dear friend Margo who passed away in December...she was the light of my life and the joy that came through the door each day...some friends are like that...bounce into your life and teach you how to live! She was the most positive person I have ever met and found good in everything...and I mean everything! I never heard her complain once through everything she went through. In August I was setting up still lifes of pears and as this one was developing it reminded me of Margo...she made everyday a party. I will think of her every day when I see this and hopefully live a better life because of knowing her.
This is going in at a lower resolution than I usually do because some of my images have been lifted again. I am sorry about that.

PBS Special....

I was filmed about a month or so ago for a new PBS special that will air mostly in the northern states but might go further...we will see. Anyway, this is the ad they are running for it and I am the first person on it. You will be able to see Mondays Wash being worked on.  http://www.facebook.com/video/?id=239741760597  

Christmas Painting Final

This is where I left the painting. It was so tempting to go in and detail out all those folds etc...but I think where I left it is enough to suggest those lumpy bumpy petals and give it some dimension...Mollie loved it and that was good enough for me! It ended up about 10x12 I think...which is small for me and really went quickly...making me think I should do more of this and see what would happen...more saleable but would not be competition size. But the biggest factor was it was fun...so that is something to consider as well!!!

Christmas Painting

Since I have not found time to paint as we still have company. I thought I would post a few of the steps to a painting I did for an exchange at the Artcolony. This painting went to Mollie who lives in Texas and is an avid gardener...so felt pretty safe doing a flower. We worked smaller and also faster which was strange for me....I sure would have liked to do more detail etc but time was an element and I needed it to be shipped by a certain date...It was fun to do as it sure went alot faster than most of my work! HA!  My first image was taken in such a dark space and I cannot get the background to look white...sorry about that. I was sort of letting the background color mingle in case something surprising would develop but decided to just continue to go dark...it was the easiest with time constraints.

WIP Still Progressing

This was taken outside just now and the sun is setting so it is far too yellow...perhaps I will retake it in the morning. It is a long ways from completion but at least I pretty much have all the shapes defined at this point...I have begun to play with the bamboo some. It was fun starting a light pattern across them and will define that more but have to put this aside and begin the demos for Pasadena...so will be posting that when it is done...

I am looking for a title however and maybe when it is done it will be easier...but since I have almost 50 regular watchers here...you can begin thinking maybe of what to call this. The ribbons are from my daughters hair when she was little...she is now 36. The dish was my husbands favorite when he was little. The seashell was a napkin ring my daughter made for her ocean beach wedding. The clothespins reminded me of my grandmother...so that is why I have been thinking of Memories, Remembered or something along those lines...any suggestions would be great!!!

WIP Continued

I am making slow progress. Mostly because I am drawing on other things for the Pasadena workshops and trying to guard my hand. You can see I am beginning to find the shapes of the other ribbon and more bamboo and clothespins...there is just so much to do to deepen what is there but I like to get things to the middle values all over before I do any final work. This will no doubt not be finished until I return from Pasadena in October but I would rather take my time as it feels like a strong piece and do not want to rush it. So I hope you will be patient. Once I get to the painting stages for the workshops I might post them here as well so you can see what I am doing. It sure would be nice to meet some of you at one of these...I think if you visit the website for this expo you will be pleasantly surprised by all the artists coming to teach short workshops. Alot of info going to come out under one roof!! Anyway, thanks for all the well wishes about my hand. It is better when I do not use it so much.

Clothes Pins WIP

I wanted to show you where I am on the clothespins painting. It is slow as it hurts to paint but I am trying to locate all the shapes gradually. There is still much more to do to the bamboo and more of it on the mid left of the painting. I am not sure I will go as dark as originally planned but I suspect I will go darker than this is now by several values for sure. I wanted to post this as I will not be painting for the next week and you can see where I am at. I have not used any new colors...just layering up back and forth with the same ones. In the dark shadows I started lighter in areas knowing I might want to add some highlights down there. I have begun to do that and perhaps I will like that...it is one way to try on the look and if I do not like it I can go dark completely. I really hope this one turns out...even though it is painful to paint I can still do small things and leave and bounce around and get something accomplished.

Clothes Pins Stage 2

Still no paint arriving here so I am becoming worried about this...so the last few days I have done some painting...not as much as I would like because we finally have some nice weather and I have been doing alot of gardening as well...moved a few roses I have wanted moved for 3 years! So that feels good. Tomorrow it is suppose to rain and if it does I will work more on the painting but my husband has also taken time off so then I do not get as much done. At least I am seeing progress! There still is much to do...alot of darks etc but I like to build my areas slowly...all of this will change again as I layer up on the different areas. This is not the complete painting either but it is not yet all drawn so felt I would let that be a surprise! Ha! My colors are Daniel Smith, Quin. Sienna, Quin Rose, Bt Sienna, Carbazole Violet, Transparent Brown Oxide and New Gamboge. The ribbon has not been completed as it is such straring that I have gotten headaches and backaches so will let that develop slowly I think. Anyway, it is moving along!!