The Gravey Boat

Not sure that this is the title however it is a gravey boat and found that to be kind of a funny title...we will see if it lasts. This one will take alot of patience and I am not sure I will last! Some have called me the Lace Queen but I am afraid this lace will be the end of that history! HA! I am also testing the transparent Lunar Black from Daniel Smith in this painting to see how it works and it granulates very nicely and I think will lend itself to sterling well. The grapes are Yellow Gold mixed with Phthalo Turquoise or Manganese Blue Hue depending on which grape and sometimes just straight Yellow Gold all of which are Daniel Smith. I hope this painting comes together as I have loved this photo for several years but hesitated to paint it because of all the lace. I will continue to post but it might take some time before there is a real noticable difference so you will have to have some patience too! Thanks for looking!

Waterlily Slide Scan

I just scanned the slide I had made and am not sure I am still getting the correct colors with this picture. I think sometime I need to project the slide itself and see if the colors are off somehow in the slide! I surely hope not but will post this so I can compare.
Now that it is up it is way toooooo blue but the purple is better. I hope that it is just my computer but these colors are just not correct. The water is quite gray, not blue but the lily is quite purple and that is not showing up either...hmmm I will have to improve this before I put it up on my website!
I just redid this again hoping it is coming up better!

Purple Waterlily Demo Finished!

My photographer just sent this jpeg. I might scan the slide when it arrives to make sure we have the most accurate colors so this might change some. The problems with the water were solved by a glaze of Indigo very lightly applied to allow some of the blues from below to come through. The shadows and ripples were needing some jazz so i applied some Phthalo Turquoise and yellow into the water in areas. I never am afraid of color to liven things up. The same with the purple waterlily. Being only purple was very boring so in the final stages I started using Quinacridone Rose and Quinacridone Gold to liven up some of the purples. Both in the pictures and in my drawing I did not see a problem with the lower leaves but they became a problem and I had to leave them rather undefined or they would have been too dominate. I did the same with the background leaves so that they had little interest but supplied nice shapes and values. I hope it worked well enough. Now I have to live with it for awhile as once I finish a painting, the problems are too fresh in my head and I cannot enjoy the entire piece for what it is. It feels good to have it done and I have begun the next drawing, silver and grapes with lace. Joel from the Philippines has told me that this lily is commonly called Midnight in the tropical countries. So thanks for that info and now the title of this waterlily is "Midnight Waters". Isn't technology amazing? Ask a question and someone in this world will give you the answer!

Demo of Purple Waterlily step 3

I have begun to lay in the water in this case, blues as I would like the blues to move through the last layers of gray that I will be adding. This has been a difficult piece because I am straying from my resource material and plan which is one of my first rules when I teach a workshop! I am setting myself up for failure. Not a complete failure but that it will not be the best it can be because I have no plan and I could make a big mistake in color choices at this point. I always work from the back to the front so I am trying to lay in any background colors and to find shapes before I proceed.

Purple Waterlily Demo 2

Well, I wanted to update you on the water as I am unsure how to approach it. I am changing from the photo I took so that the painting will have more color and I want the reflected blue sky to be showing on the water rather than the gray color that was actually there. I also am attempting...[and I strongly emphasize that!! HA!] to paint more loosely on this one and I will freely admit I am not comfortable at all doing this. Without a plan and being loose, I run the risk of ruining this wonderful start to what could be a very nice painting. So here is the blue added and then I will come in with the darks and show you how it is progressing. Hopefully it will not be ugly and scare the bejeebers out of you!!!

Purple Waterlily Demo

This will not be a complete demo telling you colors I use etc but rather one of solving a problem. This painting first of all has been on hold because of Christmas, company and then a friend moving. Now the days are mine again I need to get back to work. The problem is that I would like the water to express more blue of the sky rather than the grays that my photo is showing. It actually was very gray water that day but I want this to be more colorful. I run the risk of course of making it look unrealistic so I will proceed carefully. I have decided that I now have a few of my darks in and before I go any further with the flower, I want to see what the values of the water will do. It might alter what I think I will do with the flower...so it is essential to see this large mass filled in so I can more accurately gauge what to do with the flower. I could go to far with the flower and have a very dark painting. I want the flower to stand out so that is why I choose to now switch to the background to help me make some decisions. They might be wrong...but I find this lessens my chances of error. So the stage you are looking at now is before any water goes in. Hopefully having shown you this will spur me on now to work faster and get the water in to show you how this will progress! I just peeked and of course I loaded the picture sideways!!! Leave it to me...but the rest will be the right way I promise! HA!

Wishing you a Merry Chirstmas!

I have been so busy that I have had little time to think about blogging! I know all of you are having the same problem as this time of year all we do is play catch up it seems!
I have begun a new painting of a purple waterlily which I am anxious to get at but cookie baking took me away yesterday and then there was wrapping presents one day and shopping...the list goes on but at least it is there on the drawing board, ready to go when the opportunity strikes!
I wanted to mention a new blog I have started for artists. It is at http://artcolony.blogspot.com and hopefully it will grow with artists who can share thoughts and ideas. We all need encouragement from time to time and hearing what others are doing can often get us off the couch to paint!!!
My book is about done and the title has been chosen, A Celebration of Light, and there is also a subtitle but cannot recall it. It is about texture however. Ha! It doesn't come into the bookstores until next October so by then I will have forgotten I even wrote a book!!! But it feels good to have accomplished that and now I am ready to move on. I am teaching a few workshops which I will talk about later. Hopefully I will meet some of my internet friends at them!
MERRY CHRISTMAS!