On The Count Down!

I have completed the talk to 100 artists, did the two day painting demos, packed now and getting groceries as will be gone until Friday night teaching a workshop. Then I have a little down time with my daughter but will be back into painting again with fewer distractions! It has been a strange spring starting with 5 weeks of being sick...so I have really been slow here and do apologize for that...but hopefully will get back into the swing of things soon!!! I have friends who will be going to the Transparent Watercolor Society of America exhibition and perhaps they will take a picture of my painting there that they can post! Thanks for your patience! janie

I'm Back!

Well, the presentation to 100 artists went well. I now have a two day demo to work on and then a workshop for 3 days coming up in 2 weeks...then I hope to raise my feet in the air and review my life goals and weed the garden.
I did fiddle with the dahlia painting some more. Once I added the birdhouse to cover the pom juice I spilled, I realized the blue sky was too light...it fought with the light dahlias. I will be darkening them anyway now because this shifted the values alot but at least it will not have to be as much as if I had left a light colored sky. In the end this is going to be more of a painting to see if it can license for garden flags than for anything else...but I hope all of you will stick with your work and solve problems...it is always a neat learning experience...I found I loved the blue wash on all those leaves,,,so much blue and I wondered if those background leaves would even work but the veins being blue is working...and it just pushes me to think outside the box and make up things. I did take a photo before this to show the sky partially covered so you could compare but silly me. I did it with that new camera that I cannot seem to get a program to run to bring the photos in...so that one is there but unobtainable now...I will post it if I ever get it out. so here is where I am right now...alot of work now needs to be done on the flowers but that is not bad,,,the shapes are there so when I get time I will get into that and try to finish this up. still alot of work to do...deepen shadows in leaves and birdhouse etc...but I always adjust as I go to make sure I do not go too dark too soon.

Still Working!

I am still working on the big event this weekend with 100 artists. To talk for 2 hours on values is a real challenge...not because of lack of info but how to make it interesting. It is so important but for 2 hours it can be like beating a dead horse! Ha! Anyway, that is still what I am doing for now.
I did want to repost the painting that was juried into the Transparent Watercolor Society of American national show in Kenosah, Wisconsin. Remember I was trying to do a floral with an abstract quality to it...well it seems that it was successful and liked! Yipee!
I have done some work on the Dahlias but the camera I used to take the pictures doesnt seem to have a program I can upload the picture too?? I am totally confused so will continue to try to figure that one out! Sorry about that!

Delays Delays!

I have not progressed at all on the painting but it stares at me...really stares! Ha! It just has been a succession of things and what I am hoping is all that bad stuff is done and I can move on. Right now my 86 year old brother in law is in ICU. Been there for 12 days I think now. Keep hoping there will be improvement there or I might be headed to Oklahoma.
I have been working on a slide show that I will be presenting to over 100 artists on the 12th and also on several demos as I have so much coming up it scares me. But once this passes I think I have clear sailing...I really want to grow flowers for painting...unusual ones if I can. But so far the weather has been bad which is good as it keeps me inside working on these other projects.
I teach a 3 day workshop in Grand Forks, North Dakota the first week of June and then my daughter comes for a week...then my calendar opens up. I hope I have not forgotten how to paint!
What is hard is I already have a nearly complete full sheet drawing done and more new ideas than I can ever do...so once I start I will have plenty to keep me busy! Hope all of you are busy painting for me and enjoying spring. Spring has not really come here too much...still have 40 degree days and frost on the roofs in the morning but once it arrives, it usually just becomes summer!

What Blue Was That?

I have been asked what blue I was using in that background. It was Daniel Smith Verditer...supposedly low staining but I am not being to successful in it's removal...I only try to buy low staining colors for this reason. The other problem is it is a color mix...I wish I had the tube to look at what colors were used...I never use mixes either...so there is rule 2 broken. I also never use a new color in large areas until I have tested it...broke that one too! HHHa! Obviously not doing well that day! This blue is stunning but it separates alot, even in my little dish I made up of it. Also I think it might work better on 140# paper which would be less thirsty...the 300# was soaking it up pretty fast I think. Different papers react differently...I wanted to try this theory out but cannot find the tube and I think because I was working so fast I wonder if in turning the board my tube fell into the garbage can and got taken out because it has totally disappeared! Ha! Evidently I am not suppose to use that one again! :) I will not be working on this very much for awhile because I have a demo to work up for a group of about 100 artists. Then I have a demo for the RRWS and then a three day workshop all by the the first weekend in June and with everything happening as it has, I have not had the time to pull things together. I think what I will do is maybe post some of my thoughts on the demos to see what you think...hope I have the time. I will be discussing values for them and so have to work up the demo...a dear friend has lent me a photo actually because it showed exactly what I was thinking about and it will save time to use hers for now...it is sure great to have friends!
Also I have been asked what blues do I use...and so here is what is on my palatte right now...Indanthrone blue which is my favorite blue...it mixes well with everything. Indigo is there...just playing with it again because I normally do not have it on my palatte but it does help to go darker in mixes, Prussian Blue which I added recently and have not had on my palatte for about 7 years but testing it again, Phthalo Turquoise which I like to mix in my shadow greens, and Cobalt Teal Blue. I think this would change if I did more landscapes but since it is mostly still life work these seem to be the colors I need. I maybe need to try more landscape blues to see how they work. I have Cobalt but since it is a granulating color it is not good for glass etc so that is sort of my criteria. Hope this answers a few questions!

The Fix!

Ok...for those of you seeing this...check out the picture below as well to see the mess I have and here I am going to explain what I am trying to do. First of all...just going dark was not the answer...it is a bright sunny day to begin with and secondly a dark color would have hidden the one bird completely. It was not appropriate. I eventually came up with this rock wall as I felt the blue could come through it and not be too bothersome. The blue is staining and so lifting as you can see in the far left edge is not easy and will abraid the paper. The rocks seem to be working and so will continue with that and then I will have to figure out the area above the tallest dahlia as I spilled some juice while I was sick...it will only darken with any washes over it...so that I am still thinking about. None of the painting is done at this point and now with the wall this dark it will mean that the flowers will need alot of value adjusting...but I am going to try to save this piece. Oh, I forgot to mention why I thought of trying such a bright blue! Not my normal color is it? Ha! I started to think this would make a great garden flag etc. and they usually want a bright color in them...I guess I learned my lesson...play with new paint and understand it. I never use new stuff as I know what my old palette will do. It was careless with such a beautiful piece to do this. I guess we can safely say I was not in my right mind at the time!!! Lesson learned!

My Apologies!

This area of my life has been put on hold. It has been strange how so many things can happen at once. I got back from my one week trip after being sick 5 weeks...only to have a dear friend dying and she passed away the 10th. In between that another dear friend was told her cancer was not operable...so that has been troublesome to me. Then another friend on Sunday when returning from sunrise services was in a car accident and lost her left eye, shattered jaw and eyebone area. I am hoping it will settle down but went for a massage today and he said that even on athletes he has never felt such tight muscles...all stress I guess because it is not that I have time to exercise! Ha! But things will improve...it is always those initial weeks that you adjust and move on.
I wanted to show you the mess I made of my background and then try to show you gradually how I HOPEFULLY solve it. I was pretty depressed the day I tackled it after the first news of my friend...and for some very odd reason thought I would try a new blue I had never tried...it is a mix and you know I stick to pure color and transparent. Well it separated even on the paper and it could not be made into a smooth wash...once I started with it I felt I had to keep going as it was shifting the values of the whole painting...so I will post that here for you to see and then post again as to what I am trying to do now.