Workshop Schedule

I am beginning to list the workshops at my site for next year. One the first ones is in March to the Mexican Riviera aboard a cruise ship! For all the details you can go to my website at www.janefreeman.com and check out the workshops. I am now team teaching with Cindy Agan so it will be twice the fun I think. She does wonderful portraits and pets besides everything else! Again, it will all be in watercolor.
As for the scan of my last painting, when it came back it was not dead on with the colors so had to have it redone...so still waiting for the proof to ok it. Then I should get the slides and be able to put it up here. Sorry for the delay.
I will be in Michigan teaching a workshop next week and then things will slow down and I hope to be more active here. Thanks for your patience!

My Book Has Arrived!!

Yesterday afternoon my book arrived by UPS. It was very strange to see it all together as a book! I hope that you will enjoy it as I have also a page of instruction from 10 artists whom I call friends as I have known them now for a number of years through emails and encouraging words. They are: Cindy Agan, Peggi Bstcheck, Janie Gildow, Susan Harrison-Tustain, Paul Jackson, Laurin McCracken, Arleta Pech, Sueellen Ross, James Toogood and Marilyn Wear. My foreward is by Robert Reynolds, artist and professor of Art/Emeritus, Cal Poly University. He and I have also been friends for a number of years. So I have quite the list of A list watercolor artists behind me which I think will be of interest to everyone because they share a little about how they capture light as well! Wow! Now that is done and I have been booking workshops for 2008. I will be team teaching with Cindy Agan which should be great as it will you two instructos and twice the attention!
My proofs are suppose to be here by Wed and I hope the jpeg will arrive too so I can put up my new painting! It is yet unnamed so I might need your help again!

Off To The Printer!

My latest painting is off to the printer to be scanned and have slides made. As soon as I have the image I will post it. This is one of those paintings that I will not know if it was successful until I see it framed.
Lately I have been very busy with my second business which is reconstructed clothing for little girls. I have had to come out with the fall line and so that has been alot of work as with summer my seamstress that helps has been busy so.....I am doing all the stuff. Hopefully I will be able to juggle all of this without dropping the ball in either court. I hope to have an update by the end of the week but if anyone has an interesting title for the gravy boat with grapes, I would be very anxious to hear it!

My Book Is Available!

My book "A Celebration of Light" is available at Amazon for pre-orders! I was quite surprised to see it there already as it will not be available in bookstores until perhaos the first week in Sept. You can view it here http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_nr_i_0/105-3676027-9721251?ie=UTF8&rs=&keywords=A%20Celebration%20of%20Light&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3AA%20Celebration%20of%20Light%2Ci%3Astripbooks and hopefully you will want to order one to see what this old goat has to say!
I am nearly done with the gravy boat painting but unforseen things have kept me from finishing it of late but I believe it would just take a couple of days to get it done and off to the printer for scanning...so hopefully my next post will be of the finished piece! Thanks for your patience!

Watercolor Apologies

This blog has been dangling for way too long! I am very sorry but life just gets in the way sometimes and for me, if my mind cannot be on my painting completely, then I should not paint as I do a poor job when my mind is somewhere else.
My husband broke his foot and so I do all the yard work which means 3 hours of mowing every third day! We have had stacks of company which means I am a glorified maid and cook while that goes on. I am now under the gun and am hoping to get real close by Monday morning and I promise as soon as I get this thing done I will post it. It has been so complicated with the lace and when you are away from that for awhile it becomes unfamiliar and hard to find the lines again to retain the pattern. Hopefully this will still turn out ok and I will be ready to move on. Then off to the printers to scan and hopefully like what I see.
This brings up something for you artists...do you notice that once you finish a painting you can be tired of it completely and not like it? Then once I send it off to the printers it takes about 10 days and then I see the print and say...oh my...it did turn out after all! I think we need time away from our work sometimes to get a clearer perspective on what we have done. But not so long that we forget what we are doing! HA!
Thank you for putting up with the delays...I hope to post within the week...In the mean time...Happy July 4th! Janie

Watercolor Workshops

There is still space available in my workshop in Maine this year in July. It is right below the Arcadia National Park which is very beautiful and there are bike trails from where we stay right into the park. There is whale watching as well! You can view the site here and if you are thinking next year, I will teach July 7-11 for 2008 there. I will give you the link here to the workshop so you can see the area. www.acadiaworkshopcenter.com Thanks! Janie

Gravy Boat Step 4

I am so sorry this is taking so long. There have been a number of things that have traspired over the last few weeks that have kept me hopping! First I was signing a contract to license all my images which is final now so I hope that some good things happen! Second, my other business has taken off unexpectedly and so have had to make more time for that. I design and reconstruct clothing for small girls. It is a popular fashion on the westcoast where recycling is important. They have been selling well and I thought it was just going to be a fun thing to do for a few weeks and that was that! Hopefully this next batch of clothes will be done this weekend and I can get back to this painting.
Gravy boat has been a challenge because of the lace. There were so many folds that it was a case where I finally had to just find the shapes and patterns to make sure it would read correctly. I believe I have that now so it will go much better as I do not have to worry about the shapes but can just paint. Nothing is done at this point but it is reading lace and most areas are filled in so I believe it will be much more fun now and go faster. The colors in the lace are Transparent Brown Oxide, Quin. Gold Quin. Sienna and Carbazole Violet. I have tried to keep a variety of values even at this stage but now will have to go in and define things better and get more darks in so the holes in the lace pop better. Thanks for your patience!