Painting #96, just a simple rose today

I decided to try painting of gesso coated paper, I've painted on it before, it isn't quite as slick as clayboard, but still not absorbent, you can almost wipe it back to the white of the paper. So, this painting is a bit smaller than my 6" square, it's about 5" Square, I'm thinking that my 4" square paintings may become blog paintings too, there really wasn't a size requirement, I just figured it would be easier to frame them all if they were the same size, and I do believe that most of the painting will be framed 10" x 10", I started to order the frames, I've gotten the first 20, and to keep it fairly simple, I probably will do most of the painting so they fit in a 10" frame. I do have a few 12" square gesso boards and some 8" and 10", I'm pretty well set for most of this year, and what I don't have in boards, I will paint on paper, I do believe I've spent my "wad" this year already.

This photo was taken several years ago, these are roses from a bush at my old residence in Coldwater, I started it from a bush that my Mother had and it's very special to me, I transplanted part of that bush here too, but it isn't doing quite as well. This rose only lasts about 2 weeks, so if you want pictures of it you have to be on the spot. A very simple rose, and beautiful, it blooms about the same time as the mock orange, early summer.

I like the composition of this, I just held up a small vase of these in front of the window in my old living room. The light coming in the window was very dramatic so I decided the window should be there. I started with the rose, a thin wash and then laid in the darker shape for the background, the green is just a small spot under the pink, but you need the green to compliment the pink so I didn't wash that out too much, I really love the simplicity of this composition and I certainly hope you do too.

Painting #95, I'm really into this portrait thing right now

I don't know what's going on with me, I had 2 that I could have finished in about an hour, and what do I do, I start a portrait of my Mother-in-law, she passed away more than 2 years ago, but it doesn't seem so long, she was a real sweetheart, wonderful woman, welcomed me into the family, and never said boo about the age difference between her son and I, I'm sure she would have loved to have some grandchildren, but she made do with the ones I already had, even though they were already grown, wish we could have kept her longer. Of course this portrait will go on the wall eventually, and not for sale as most of the others will be.

I drew a rough sketch of her, not much detail, just the outside edges and then I put middle value flesh tone on her face and arms, I worked back and forth, lighter and darker until it suited me. Then I painted some greens, yellowish and purplish in the background, wet in wet. By painting the background, I pretty well had the shirt painted, pretty easy, I put a few shadows for the shirt wrinkles, and Ta Da! it was done (I did have to go into the background at the end and ramp up the flowers and greenery, getting really dark close to her, and that helped to clean up the edges of the sleeves. I really worked hard on the face, I wanted it to look like her (for lots of reasons, mostly my husband and his family), when you do flesh, the colors you mix vary, cool and warm, since my palette is opaque, I did use some of the light flesh tones available, juane brilliant reddish and some juane brilliant (more of a yellowish, these are very light and then I added Indian red and yellow ochre to that, then I did add some some blue to that mix to cool it down and that's what I used. I had a lot of fun with this portrait, I like it and hope you do too, she was a unique woman.

Painting 94, love my students

My students are so generous, my friend and student, Pat went to Cheap Joe's in the Carolina's and found that wonderful textured clayboard I've been looking for, and gifted one to me, so I decided to do another painting of an old photo, out of my Grandmother's photo album,on it. I think these women are related to me somehow, possible great great aunts or grandmothers or cousins, who knows now, my grandmother's been gone since 1965. I really like this photo, there were actually 4 women in it but I just used 2, I think getting 2 people on this 6" x 6" board was doing pretty good. I really enjoyed this painting today. The regular clayboard is slick, and the textured clayboard paints similarly to watercolor paper, so it's very comfortable to paint on.

I started by drawing the porch and steps with the women in place, I probably could have just jumped in and started painting, but this way I didn't have to make any adjustments. I started with the heads and then put in the clothing in the shapes of the coats, then the hair, which was kind of lost in the background, this picture was probably taken around 1910 or so, which is black and white, I blew it up but it's a bit grainy and not very detailed. I liked having to figure out what colors the clothes were, and the hair, and so on, lots of fun, it's almost like dressing dolls, which I really enjoyed as a child. The house in the background looked so dark, that I assumed that it was a brown house. I had a bit of trouble with the faces, at first I got the correct ages, then as I worked and lightened the flesh, they seemed to melt away the age, that's the one on the left, and the one on the right was just the opposite, she seemed to age from a young girl, to a 30 or 35 year old, but I managed to get them back to the right ages, or at least close. I know, I'm a slave to the photograph, I always do that, with people especially. I can move things around, eliminate things, and so on for the composition, but when it comes to putting the people in, I want them to look just like the photo. Well, this painting is close but not exact, but it was a lot of fun, love it, and hope you enjoy it too.

Painting #93, I really am painting

Today's painting is kind of out of my head, originally I painted one similar to this a few years ago, I had to come up with a painting for my class, I don't know what I was thinking, I gave them a photo, but they have trouble painting the negative spaces, they want to paint the flowers and not worry about the background, so, I'm not sure they really got into this one, it started out wet in wet and I really laid in the red orange (actually it was cadmium red light), I had them draw the rose shapes but they couldn't see the lines very well through all that red, so they struggled, so, I may have to figure out something a bit easier for the next class, or at least an easier approach to this style of painting, hopefully I can come up with something that will work for them. I didn't have any trouble, but negative painting is what I do well, so, I had fun.

Ok, now the procedure, of course I wet the whole page, which was a 1/4 sheet of watercolor paper (I don't believe the girls could handle the slippery clayboard yet), then I made a really thick puddle of cadmium red light and floated it over 1/3 of the paper where the roses are. After that was dry, I made a puddle of veridian green, and a puddle of permanent violet and one of ceulean blue, these were the original colors of the background, I had them paint water around the rose shapes 1/4 of the paper (the top 1/4), and float those colors in right on top of some of the red orange (which makes a very dark background), when that was dry then we did the other top 1/4 and did the same thing, also thinking of the stick type things in the background (this was some of the negative painting they had trouble with), then the bottom 1/4's were much lighter so I had them do the same thing only water the paint down (I know this painting looks square, well now it is, I cropped it, I didn't care for the long stems that were originally part of the design, but that was a final decision not in the middle), so I'm getting ahead of myself, when that was done I started to define the roses. some were having trouble keeping the shapes of things (paint goes where ever there is water, if you know what I mean), so, I got out the watercolor crayons, some of this painting was done with those, now I forgot to tell you that I was doing all this with the transparent watercolors, when I got home, the opaque watercolors came out and I fine tuned it to my satisfaction, that was when I cropped the painting, I like this painting now and sure hope you do too.

Painting #92, it was a great painting day.

Today was Class day, watercolor class in the morning, and china painting in the afternoon, and then, blue moon, we spent so much time getting the stuff together for the Ireland thing that we hadn't had any time to spend just doing art, which is what we are all about. My dear friend Susan even made us dinner since I had class today and didn't get home before we had our Blue Moon gathering (I'd call it a meeting, but we usually don't do a regular meeting type thing), we just paint, and plan things to do and shows to get into, that sort of thing.

Ok, on with the painting, this happens to be Kings Mill, a very picturesque place to paint plein air, I did sketch there and painted, but this one is strictly from a photo I took at the time. It's a very nice park, and lots of people go there to paint and relax.

I started this a little over a week ago, but got wrapped up with several other paintings, sometimes I'll start 2 or 3 and then work on one to completion while the other two wait for a spark of inspiration, so, I got the others done that I had started at that time, and this was the last, I had to start 2 others today, so I will have them in the wings for another day, maybe tomorrow, it will depend on how I feel about painting one of them, well, actually they are almost 1/2 done so they have a big head start.

This is painted on paper again today, and I really get into painting the reflections, but this one is very sedate compared to the other water paintings, I painted this, again, with the opaques, it has been my favorite lately, so as I started with the sky, painting around the building and painting into the trees wet in wet, then I put a thin wash on the building, and then jumped into the water and reflection, then it was fine tune the trees, then the building, and the water really grabbed me so, today I got right into that. The tree on the right was put in last and the tree branches hanging over the whole thing, this is a cute little painting and I like it, hope you do too.

Painting #91, got another late start

So many things to keep me from painting, but I did get at it, had fun when I finally got there, this painting started out a few weeks ago when I was testing some liquid watercolors, I wet the paper and then just dropped pink and blue and purple randomly over the wet paper, it was wet enough that it pretty well dispersed all over, with some color variations but pretty much one value. I was scanning the photo's again ( Saturday I decided that the bunch of photo's I had in my travel bag was getting boring, that is to say, they seemed like the same old things I've been painting, and I wanted to do something different). So, I found this photo, taken at a workshop, again, this was taken in Hillsdale and at the same Tony Van Hasselt workshop, he also painted this house, but this looks nothing like his, I tend to overwork mine, oh well. Anyway, I decided to give this composition a try, I would certainly like to get as loose as tony, but I'm still working on it.

Over the pink and blue and purple paper, I sketched this house, then I negatively painted the sky and the tree area on the left, I then decided to attempt to put in the shadows to get the form of the house, I tried to do it simply, but I had trouble with this one, so it became very opaque, not the lovely translucent watercolor that I was aiming for, I keep trying, I may get there. I think my problem is that I want it to have good perspective, so I keep messing with it. I should be able to put that brush down once and get out, leave what ever happens. Well, I can't do that yet, maybe someday. Anyway, I decided to put a couple people in it, then for some strange reason, I think that lady on the porch had a baby in her arms, did you find it? It's pretty small, but I like it. So, I just kept going around putting little bits of information here and there until it suited me, the very foreground bushes were just splattered and then, I signed it. So, it's done, I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #90, wow 3 months!

In one sense, it doesn't feel like 3 months, but, on the other hand, it doesn't seem like it should only be 90, it feels like forever. Is that bad, or good? Who knows, all I know is I'm still working at it, some days it's easier than others, but that's life, like I've said before, it's got me painting everyday, and that's good.

I started this painting in my class on tuesday, but it didn't grab me as much as a couple of the others have, it was kind of ho hum, but, I decided to throw some chickens in there, now I like it a lot better. I'm back on the clayboard, I do like painting on it, I have bought a couple other sizes, so I may jump in with one of those one of these, days, I decided, that my standard 6" was restrictive, so now I'm going to paint what ever size I feel like for the photo that I'm using, by doing that, I am hoping that I will be able to loosen up a bit, I'll have to in order to get the painting done, the small ones made it easy for me to keep my style tight, now we'll see how this proceeds.

This painting was painted my usual way, I started with the sky, then the building and the grasses, I decided to put a dirt drive in, actually it was a major highway, there wouldn't have been chickens on that road, they'd have been road kill. Anyway, I had to make some adjustments, I had to eliminate a fence and some stuff between the two barn sections, I forgot to leave space enough for it, so I just left if off, also, my photo was so dark, it was late, almost too late to take a picture, but I just wanted the shape of the barn, so the rest of this painting is all me, at the end, I decided to put something in, I pondered a person, or some horses, well, horses would have meant I would have to look for a different photo, because I would need to make sure it had the correct shape that says horse, well, the chickens came out of my head, I think they look like chickens, also being small, I could infer, so that's what I did, I like this little painting, and hope you do too.

Painting #89 it was a gallery day

I had such a good time painting the kitty yesterday, I decided to paint another painting on the regular watercolor paper, this one is not a kitty but I had fun with it, I was using a photo taken at a workshop (a Tony Van Hasselt workshop), and I used the same view as Tony did with his demonstration that day, my painting isn't just like his, I followed the photo more closely than he did, but it does look similar, I still had fun. I did do some parts of the painting like Tony did, he made the barn multiple colors, and I like that, I should be doing more of that, but my brain doesn't remember to change the colors so often, well, it's good practice to do that, so I'm going to try it again on a different painting, and see if I can pull it off. I also painted it larger than the 6" that I've been maintaining all this time, I've decided that I can paint them any size I want, I guess it will depend on the painting and how I feel at the time.

This painting was started with the sky, I wet the sky area and the charged in with the blue, I waited to put the trees in until it was dry. The smaller section of the barn (I believe it might be considered the milk house is where I started, then the junk by the fuel barrel and then the barn, I had drawn the figure in and I did paint water around it so it stayed white, then I charged up yellow ochre and blue and purple and some bits of red, it was fun, but that layer was pretty wimpy so after I got the doorway and windows put in (after it was dry. of course), I then redid the barn, moving the colors the same as I did the first time, I put the figure in and then went around and picked up the detail in the doorway and the windows, putting sills and fine tuning the supports for the fuel barrel, all in all, I think this is a very nice barn painting, I like it and I sure hope you do too.

Painting # 88, something a bit different

Well, here I go, disrupting my plan, today's painting is much larger than the 6" or 7" that I've been doing, my friend and neighbor wanted me to paint a portrait of her cat, so, I decided to oblige her, she loves her cat, she gave me this huge album of her cat and, I think she was leaning toward the one where the cat was in the coal bucket that she keeps by the fireplace, well, my brain said that was too cute, so I picked this one, I liked the angular position of the cat and the full face of him, so this is the one I liked, and I believe she will love it, of course I may have to do an extra blog painting so I end up with 365 at the end (if that ever gets here, the end that is), I don't know, maybe, maybe not, we'll see. I just know that I couldn't put this composition on the 6" format that I've been doing, besides, it would make the cat much smaller and I wasn't sure I could pull that off. Anyway, here is the painting, I really had a good time with this one, I went back to the watercolor paper, and really enjoyed painting on the paper this time, so, I must not have forgotten how (just being funny).

I sketched the cat, and had to erase it a couple times, first time, I had the head too big, then I had the head too low and the body wasn't in the correct position to get most of the foreleg in, I like to touch on at least 3 sides of the paper (so the composition runs off the page on 3 of the 4 sides), so, I put it higher on the page, I'd say this painting is about 9" x 12" somewhere in that neighborhood, I like to put the eyes in right away, so I started there, and then laid in a wash of beige/brown/black to get the tail and the cat's back in, then I got the pink out, my friend is very fond of pink so I know she will love this. I did the background wet in wet, that was the first layer, after I got that in, I had to let it dry. Then I started fine tuning the cat, I really enjoyed painting this, so it went rather well. I decided to punch up the background, So I put in a darker wash of pink, it was too flat so, I decided to shade it, bluish on the left and peachy on the right, still to flat, so I splattered, first a bit of pink, it didn't show up enough, so I added some purple to the pink and threw that, then I threw some water, anyway, I like the texture. When that was dry, I decided to put whiskers on him, they didn't show in the photo, but I know cats pretty well so I put them in, and then I decided to get the liner brush out and make some hair shapes on the edges, I think this painting turned out really well, and I know she will love it, and I think you will too, sure hope so anyway.

Painting #87 feeling good today

I had a very good painting day today, got 2 started today and worked on a 3rd, and did manager to finish one, hooray! I've been enthralled with this photo for a while, but didn't get to it until today, and it moved along pretty good, the china painting was good too, got a commission started and that's good, also, the girls in class today really kept me hopping, so it was a good day. My class tonight wasn't too good (well, it was good but no one painted), it was just my daughter and my sister, we just sat and visited, so it was good for that, hadn't seen them in a couple weeks, so it was very nice.

I got the clayboard out again, I'm getting so used to it, that the paper doesn't feel right anymore, and I'm worried that my 6" paintings are going to be the only thing that I paint, sure hope that's not true, although, the large paintings aren't selling for me right now, of course you have to get out there and sell them, I do belong the a co-op gallery but they aren't very notorious for making lots of money, and our's isn't doing well at all, might not make it, sure hope that's not true either. Well, have to get on with this painting.

Since there isn't a sky, I just jumped in with the butterfly (I know, it's right in the middle, but when you are working 6", there isn't many other places to put it), so then the pink flowers, I'm not sure what they are, my friend (where I took the picture) said it was bee balm but I'm not sure about that, if you know, let me know will you? Anyway, I then put in some yellow green. After that, I started to fine tune the butterfly, I know it's not a perfect replica, I can only make it similar, so if there is someone out there that realizes that, sorry, it's pretty close. Then, I started to finde the stems for the flowers by negative painting, and I let the top just fade away, the flowers were fun, I just took my brush, loaded it with some pink first, and laid it down in the direction the fuz went, then some lighter pink and then some white, at the end I went in with some darker pink on the top edges and pulled out the spikes. I really like this painting, and hope you do too.

Painting #86, hanging in there still

This is my day off, wow, didn't get much accomplished, this is also Blue Moon Art night, and we are still putting together the portfolio's for the Ireland residency we are trying to apply for, I'll be glad when it's a fete acompli, feels very stresfull, what with taxes and the application thing, I'm not getting into this blog thing the way I want, didn't get it done this morning, should have but didn't, so after I got home tonight I had to finish my painting for today, the computer is partly to blame, I get on this thing and don't have sense to get off, I got a new laptop and trying to figure out how to operate this new windows thing and finding stuff and getting the e-mail set up is something else, windows 7 is nothing like windows XP, I'm really struggling to figure it out. Just trying to figure out where the stuff is is most of it, and the e-mail, wow, just about driving me crazy at this point, I'll get it, just takes time to figure it out.

Well, this painting was done in class, one of my students wanted to do this tulip painting, so I was demoing how to do it, I probably would have done it a bit smaller for the blog, but, I decided to crop it for this blog, the paper isn't my favorite either, it's on a different kind of paper than I'm used to, oh well, it's working now. I fine tuned the flowers and leaves a bit, the red needed punched up and so did the yellow, I put the lines on the leaves and added more color to the background, so, not much else to do to this painting, I like it, and sure hope you do too.

Painting #85, rain, rain, go away

It's been raining all day, and it's cold, this is supposed to be warm, so looking forward to the warm and sunshine. Had a busy day today, 2 classes, then I zoomed out to look at an easel (waste of time), and then Arts Alive Meeting, didn't get home until after 7:00 p.m., that doesn't leave me much energy to finish my blog, too bad I didn't finish it in class, oh well, got it done now. I went into veg mode for a short while and so I was late getting this done again, well, that's just the way it has to be, I guess.

So, I didn't finish the painting I started today, I finished one I started a while ago, hopefully I'll get the one I started today done tomorrow, one can only hope. This color combination really grabs me, I did a similar combination a couple years ago with a Stella D'Oro lily watercolor, it was very effective for grabbing your attention, one of my favorites, On this painting, the colors were a bit muted, so I decided to ramp it up a bit and add the cadmium red light in some shaded spots, I think it's very nice, I'm going to keep this short tonight, I might even get to bed before midnight, wow, wouldn't that be something, well, I'm sure hoping this painting meets with your approval, it does mine.

#84, just managing this day

Well, here we go, finally got this done, and it's after 11:00 p.m. got to start doing better. Spent the morning printing, still, I printed all weekend. Why, you ask, well, the Blue Moon Art group want to apply for a residency in Ireland, so we have this huge profile and portfolio to accumulate. I have re-vamped my art resume about 10 times in the last 2 weeks, and I took a trip Friday to Battle Creek to get photo's, and that was a bust, so, I finally got the new print head for my printer and I printed, and printed, and printed. Had to throw a bunch away, printing large enough pictures, means that you only get 5 or so and you have to let the machine sit so the ink flows down, lots of the bad ones were also due to screw ups on my part but, oh well, it's done now, thank goodness, I think they look pretty awesome, so I'm hoping that they compare with the ones the other girls got by going to the print place and getting them done by someone else, well, I probably paid as much, I used up 1-1/2 sets of ink cartridges and half of the expensive paper I bought, but I think they look nice, we'll see how they compare.

Today's painting is a floral, had to get away from those landscapes (and buildings), and get into a comfort zone, probably won't last though. I still want to get that clayboard out, maybe tomorrow. This painting was started with the transparent watercolors, then I got into the opaques again. The colors are pretty close, and if you didn't know, you wouldn't, I don't think, besides the fact that what ever it takes to get the job done (to my personal satisfaction), is alright. I punched up the red a bit, and the blue flowers (the small ones), I don't think they are a real flower, but this is my bouquet, I can paint them any color I want, I decided to put some thorns on the stems, don't know if you can see those or not, but they added something, I decided to put a narrower mat on this one, the 2" one tat I've been using seemed to cut off too much of the bouquet, so,, here it is, I like this painting, and I hope you do too.

Painting #83, warm days are coming

It's a bit windy today, and cool, but the sun is shinning, I'll be glad when it warms up. Today is a lounge day, haven't gotten dressed yet, but will have too soon, have to get groceries, thought since I had this painting done that I wouldn't wait until Midnight to post it, that will probably be tomorrow, I am hoping that's not the way, but, history tells, I do have several in progress, I hope I can get one of them done early.

This photo was taken last summer, our Blue Moon group had a show at Ella Sharp Museum in Jackson, MI last fall and we were all going to try to get a picture of the building or buildings at Ella Sharp painted, well, I didn't make it, but I decided to so this one now, I didn't feel it was a strong enough composition, besides, I had several other paintings that I wanted to make sure got into the show, so I didn't do one, it wasn't a critical point anyway, so, on with this little painting, I enjoyed fine tuning this little sketch, of course, it was started transparently, then I added gouache to pull it together, I did crop it a bit, and I do believe that it improved the composition, well, it is time to get dressed so I will finish this today, I like this little painting, and hope you do too.

Painting # 82, feeling refreshed again today

Today's painting is from a photo I borrowed from my friend Carol, I started this at one of our Blue Moon meetings, and I finished it at home, I had to do it without the photo, I know this building isn't pink, but the shadows were a little pink, and somehow they became really pink, and they got pinker, so, this doesn't look like the building anymore, but, who cares. I enjoyed finishing this one, of course, I started it transparently, and finished it opaquely. Nothing wrong with that, as far as I'm concerned. This painting was started wet on dry, no wet in wet, it was painted like I was out in the field, even though I was sitting at the table. I wasn't using the opaques as much then, now, however, I'm using them all the time. I know there is a a lot of people out there that strictly paint from life, I've never been as good at that, I've done it, but I take lots of photo's, and I really work best in the studio (or dining room) when I have plenty of time to think things through. I'm keeping this short tonight, I managed to finish tomorrows today, I'm spending the day with my husband, he's made a couple of comments about this blogging thing, and I don't want to cause any friction by not spending the only day of the week he has off, painting. well, I may paint some, have some started that I want to finish, seems like the perfect solution to cleaning up some unfinished paintings. Well, have to get going, I enjoyed this painting, and hope you do too.

Painting #81, the weeks just seem to fly by

Well, I don't know if it's because of this blog, or if it's because I'm officially old now, but the weeks just seem to be evaporating. Seems like only yesterday it was the Monday, wow, hope this whole year doesn't go like that.

Well, this is the painting that I started in my class on Wednesday, I didn't have energy to finish it Wednesday night, I was exhausted, today I'm great, but, I had to go to Battle Creek to try to get copies of the pictures I'm planing to submit to the Ireland residency., Well, the Staples in Battle Creek didn't seem overly excited about helping me, and their machine was messed up, had a line in it, and I can't submit photo's that arn't perfect, so I have to investigate someplace else, hope I can find someplace soon, got to get that done.

Well, this is really a sky painting, I was trying to show the girls how to approach a sky with clouds in a couple of different ways, one strictly transparent, and the other with transparent and then charge in with opaque white, it really works for me with these little ones, but, I was happier with the transparant one, so then I decided to put a small farm landscape at the bottom, so here it is, the sky was done first wet in wet with thalo blue, skipping across the paper with the blue and leaving the white spaces for the clouds, then while it is still wet, on the shadow side of the clouds (the bottom), charge in with a mixture of cerulean blue with a touch of burnt sienna to gray it, the granulation of the heaver pigment (the cerulean/burnt sienna mixture) will keep it fairly close to the place you put it if you have the mixture thick enough, the thalo blue is a mover, and by that I mean when you paint wet in wet, the wash really moves quickly, the cerulean blue mix is a granular wash, so it catches in the little dips in the paper, I'm pretty sure that this type of sky wouldn't work with the clayboard, since there are no dips in the paper. The little farm at the bottom is opaque (again, because that is the palette I utilize at home), and self explanatory, don't know if you can tell, but one of thos little figures in the foreground is a horse with a rider, don't know if that was what it really was, too small to tell, but it looked like a rider and horse to me, so that's what it is. I like this little painting, and hope you do to.

Painting #80, still need more sleep

This should be it, I almost have that paper work done, have an appointment in the morning to get that done, so I'm cool, but now I have to do this blog, this painting is a splash painting, I was testing some paper and decided to put some colors on the paper, then decided to make it flowers, so these flowers are made up in my head, utilizing the colors that were on my paper, kind of fun, if you don't get all tied up in a knot because it doesn't look like a specific flower, these flowers kind of look like a poppy/sunflower hybrid, hope we never grow one of these, they kind of look scary, lots of fun though, I used mostly transparent colors, up until I got home from class today, I had the opaque palette on the table so that's the one I used, otherwise, I'd have had to take it over to the studio to finish it, I don't want to haul the traveling studio over here, it's a bit bulky, you realize, I have to have everything in it, just so you can visualize this, it's in one of those rolling fold up carts (square), and on top of that I have one of those plastic crates, now, I can get pretty much anything I want in there relating to watercolor, and then some, so, since I'm working so small the last couple of months, I've pared it down a bit, but I'm ready for almost anything with that set-up.

Now, since this painting was a free form to start with, you have to look pretty hard to see the flowers, at first, once you see them, I negatively paint some areas behind the flower part and decide what color to make the background, then the leaves, once that is done, I start in the middle and work my way out, since these bunches of flowers were so close together, I had to really work hard to make them look like a flower, I think it works pretty well, I fine tuned the petals by painting some lines on the petals, and I had these funny looking centers, so I decided to ramp it up a bit, I like the centers of these flowers, even though they kind of look like poppy centers, but the yellow and magenta/pink/purple, really go well together, some of this painting is really under the matt, I cropped it down to fit my 10" matt, even though I did compensate for it being a bit larger than 6", so I only put a 1-1/2" mat on it, almost all the others have 2" matts. I think this flower painting was fun and I like it, do you?

Painting 79, fine weather today but short on sleep

Stayed up too late yesterday, again, got to stop doing that, my Husband got me out of bed on 5-1/2 hours of sleep, not enough, good thing he got me up though, I had to finish this paper work, meet with the tax person Friday and have to have my figures together, I know, it's the same old, I wait til the last for everything, if you can figure out how I can change that, let me know, anyway, almost done with that, but late getting the painting done, had class in Sturgis tonight, started a couple but wasn't in any shape to paint the rest, when I got home, so, here is my back-up, the one I had done last week, I'll show you the one I started, maybe tomorrow, we'll see, if I get it done.

This painting is a collage, I start the collages wet in wet, in the shape I intend to put the papers (oriental papers), I rip them all up into medium small pieces (I make a bag of different papers and mix them all up, so I don't get the same papers all the time), then I glue the papers down with a mixture of 50% water and 50% matt medium (acrylic), that makes the glue thin enough to allow the watercolor to lay on top of, and not too thick so it repels water. When the papers are dry, I start with the flower color and paint it in the areas I want flowers (sometimes I use reference material and sometimes I don't, this time I didn't), then the green, I fine tune the flowers to suit and then negatively paint the leaves, if I get too dark or make the edges too messy, I like to go in with gesso and paint all the background white, this may look a little blueish, but it's really white, one of the troubles with using acrylic is that the camera sees the white as blue, very difficult to get accurate color. So these are my impression of iris, not photographic like some of my stuff, but surely look like iris. I like this little painting, and hope you do too.

Painting #78, floral inspiration

Well, good day to you, having trouble keeping focused lately, too many things going on, hope this settles down soon, staying up too late and dragging butt the next day, well, that's not your problem, you just want to see a painting, well, here it is, today's painting is a small landscape with flowers as a focal point, I could have put more effort into the house in the background, but, it's just that, background, so I decided to play it down, there is such a tangle of stuff going on this this, I did kind of play that down too, anyway, this is on watercolor paper today, again, I don't want all the little landscapes on the clayboard, I am still using the opaques, but painting transparently with them (mostly).

So, the bit of sky was first, laid in wet in wet, oh yes, I did sketch this one a bit, sometimes I don't, but this is one that really required a bit of sketching. The background trees went right in next, wet on dry, then I kind of put the blue in for the morning glories, then put the green around them, then the house shape, and I kind of focused on the house and pulled that together before I tackled the mass of flowers and weeds, after the house was pretty much done, I put the vines on the house and the weeds in front of it, then the boards for the fence, they really were more of an orange color (the one on top), but it really looked strange so I knocked it down a bit. the morning glories were fairly easy (mostly since they are so small), I negatively painted some areas around them then I decided it might be easier to paint the negative spots more effectively if I went in with a lighter (remember these are opaques, you can do that), and made leaf shapes, then I painted some negative spaces behind them, the weeds in the foreground were about the same, I didn't spend as much time with those as I did the morning glories. Well, there you have it, I like this little painting, it was fun, hope you like it too.

Painting #77, back to basics

I decided, today, that I haven't been using the watercolor paper nearly enough, the clayboard is fun to work on, but, my brain goes into overdrive, since the paint moves so fluidly over the surface I find that I'm investing way too much energy in completing each painting, being 6" should equal speed and I'm really spending more time putting excess detail into these paintings than is necessary (well, maybe, you realize that the detail is the thing that really gets me revved, and I'm not so sure that I can change my approach to these paintings), so, what is the answer? I don't know, I guess we'll just have to see, since I'm having difficulty letting these paintings get too loose, I'll just have to go with the flow, I can't help but think there are others out there that feel like I do about that, I want to loosen up, but I'm having difficulty letting go of that detail, this year may make me or break me, I'm hoping that it isn't the breakage that's happening, right now, I'm struggling with the procrastination, I can't seem to get past waiting until the last minute to get these paintings done, the one good thing, so far, is that I am very diligent about the painting part, well, what ever the answer is, I need to get this blog done today so I can get my papers organized, I wait until the last minute for that too.

I started the sky wet in wet, then jumped in with some violet for the background trees, well, you guessed it, the violet didn't work, so I had to go back into it when it was dry to make it look like far away trees, anyway, the sky was wet in wet and then I just kept going wet on dry, keeping the was going by changing colors, I put the reddish brown in for the building and tank, but it blurred, of course, and the trees on the right, the beehives went in and then green for the grasses, when that was dry, I went back in and defined the building and tank and beehives, I also thought the small grassy trail that lead up to the group of buildings wasn't enough so I decided to put a dirt path in and some puddles (again), I had a bunch of grassy shapes but decided to wash over them, they were too much, I spattered some white and yellow in the brush up by the building, then decided to put in some Queen Anne's lace in the foreground, I do like this painting, and I hope you do too.

Painting #76 - ahead of schedule

I had this one almost done when I blogged the last one, tomorrow is Sunday and I'm trying to keep my husband happy, well, at least not antagonistic toward the blog painting, he's already mentioned that he wasn't sure he could handle it, so I thought that I would try to get a head start, well, this is for Sunday which is April 10th and my day with my husband, so there!

This photo was taken on top of a hill (obviously), the place is Negawnee, MI, the south shore of Lake Superior, west of Marquette, it was a lovely place, I took a Nita Engle Workshop there, and it was one of the best workshops I had attended at the time, I understand that she isn't doing that anymore, so sorry to hear that but she must be getting upwards of 80, maybe more, she was at least 62 or so 20 plus years ago, so I can really understand that, as I am 65 now and I'm not sure I can be teaching at 80, God willing, I will be.

I wanted something that wasn't sea or creek or falls, so I thought that I might be able to do these rocks, I barely saw the little flowers in the foreground, that put a nice little point of interest, so, here goes.

The sky was first, the purple/blue/gray and white color I usually use, then I wanted to get that far away hill in, you can barely see it, but it is there, then the little valley with the houses, I didn't want any of those houses to be too in focus, didn't want to do the detail of that, that would have been too much, the focus of this painting is the rocks and the flowers, the valley is just secondary. I put in the rocks and grasses with some beige mixed with some yellow ochre and brown and white, then the weeds which is mostly yellow ochre grayed down a bit, I didn't really get the rocks the correct color, they were more rusty, but, I didn't want to mess up these rocks because they seemed to be working, oh well, redder rocks next time. Then I just went in to the valley part and laid in some very grayed down blue/green and while it was wet, put the house and roof shapes in so they melted a bit together, then some tree shapes that looked like pine trees. When that was dry, I went for the rocks, and just tried to put highlights on the tops and some shadows on them. The grasses were next, I worked the rocks back and forth with the grasses until I got it to look the way I wanted, then I spattered yellow for some flowers and put in those Queen Anne's Lace and then some stems to connect them, I have enjoyed this little painting, and sure hope you do too.

Painting #75, take me away!

I love how these little paintings take me to a new place, I was on the California coast when I was 5 years old, my dad was stationed at one of the Naval bases (don't know the base name, one of them was in San Diego), anyway, they had a party on the ship he was stationed on, there was cake, and lots of people, obviously it wasn't for my birthday, which was at the same time, they were dedicating the ship I think, but I was sure it was birthday cake, I only remember a few things about the short stay we had there, I remember the mumps, also there was a small earth quake, I remember the bed vibrating across the room, and I remember the circus, my mother worked at a small hotel there, the lady that owned it, Mrs. Mack, took my sister and I (to the circus that is), I remember the small courtyard at the hotel, everything was concrete, and I thought that was really strange, coming from a small town like Battle Creek, MI, we had grass and trees, which they didn't have, even then. Anyway, on with the painting.

This is the second composition I've come up with from that same photo, it does overlap a bit, but that's ok. I started with the sky, after I put my usual sky stuff in, I then decided to throw a little cobalt violet at the horizon. I just kept going,I then painted the coast across the small bay,and then went right into the ocean color, which is 3 or4 shades of blue/turquoise, I put in the rock, then made some lighter shapes for the foam in the foreground water, and the beach, such as it is, with the seaweed on it. When that was dry I started at the background (horizon line) and started with the water and made some small wave action and bits of foam, the land was encased in smog or or fog, which ever, and I attempted to get that, the waves just get bigger in the middle and there is one cresting, so I started to pull the white on some of the waves, I did go into the foreground water and tried to make the spaces between the foam a bit darker and some were actually different colors, I put the the sand in and there was water coming over the beach and I attempted to get that effect too. I spattered the rocks and beach area to get that grainy effect, then concentrated on the foam and the waves breaking, I think it works, my neighbor wants to go there and put her feet in the water, must be I got it, I like this little painting, and sure hope you do too.

Number 74, all's well that ends well

Been a tough day, had to fight with my printer, trying to print, no yellow, darn! So Tired of messing with this, now, the person says it needs a new head, had to have one just this last Feb., now it needs another one? This just doesn't seem right, I was on the phone with him for over an hour, both my printers need heads, they better work this time, longer than 2 months, if they don't, I'm going to start bashing (verbally), not a physical person (usually). Ok, done with that.

This photo reference was my student Edith's, it's in California, obviously, the coast, I'd love to go there again, haven't been there since I was 5 years old, but, anyway, she gave me permission to use this photo, and I am getting 2 compositions from one photo, so this is good. I have the 2nd one started, will try to finish it tomorrow.

This is done on Clayboard again, and the opaques, I'm getting spoiled with these opaques. Love doing the water, I decided not to put the sky in this one, I felt that the rocks and waves in the foreground were a good composition without trying to do the horizon, the one for tomorrow has that. I think the water is so blue because of the sunshine, I'm certain that it doesn't look this blue all the time, if it does, it sure reminds me of the tropics. I decided to make it that blue because most of the other water paintings I've been doing are so dull or grayed down, so blue it is. I loved doing the rocks too, they were fun, I used purple and orange and brown and blue and black, so many colors, there are about 4 different blues in the ocean and I did use black for the rocks, they look volcanic again, so that's the way they got painted, I like this painting, sure hope you do too.

Painting # 73, still painting

Finished 2 today, and started a 3rd, but, I'm going away in June for 4 days and I'll need a couple extra, so, you are only gong to get one today.

This is one that I started Sunday (remember, I started 4), it really went well and I believe my Thursday group are waiting to see it on the blogspot (I didn't have it quite done when they left today), had to finish it when I got home. This painting looks really cold to me, most of the group only want me to paint spring or summer scenes now, they are tired of winter, I am to, but, I really enjoy painting winter scenes.

I started by laying a bunch of gray for the tree trunks then wiped in a bunch of dark green for the pines in the background, the gray was a bit purple gray and I laid it over the pine tree color to make certain that it looked like the pines were in the far background, I put in a cool very light blue gray color for the snow on the bank and then laid in the rusty color on the bank, I then mixed up a darker gray/blue color for the water area and added some turquoise blue into it in places to indicate the open water. The open water at the bottom was put in, medium blue for the water, and some purple for the tree reflections, while it was still wet. Then when this was dry, I started to put in some negative spaces in the upper right corner to indicate some lighter sky behind the naked tree branches. I just kept adding the gray/purple color, some lighter and some darker, for the tree trunks, then I moved on to the snow on the bank and when I had that in, I added some trunks pulled down into it so make it look like there were more than one layer of trees. The snow and frozen water were next, I used some purple with lots of white and some blue in spots to indicate that the water was open, and swirled it around then added more white to show that some of it was sticking up a bit and the light was hitting it more. The bottom water was really laid in thickly and charged in with more than one color, darker blue on the left and getting much lighter toward the right, the trees were put in while it was still wet, then I wiggled the brush to make it look like it was shimmery. The really close up skim of ice was just a small hunk of white and very pale blue at the bottom right, this is a wonderful little winter scene, hope you like it, I do.

Painting #72, transparent watercolor

This little painting was done a bit earlier, I painted today but the painting isn't up to my standards, I tried to finish it but I'm really tired, stayed up to late yesterday and up way too early this morning (spring break, the grandson was pounding on my door at 7:00 a.m. and I didn't get to bed until 2:30 a.m., not enough sleep for this chicken, I knew I wasn't up to getting it done tonight, it's late now, I had to work on some computer stuff earlier this morning and then this afternoon we had a Blue Moon meeting, just not enough time in the day lately, need about 4 more hours each day, but, given the way I work, that probably wouldn't be enough soon enough.

Anyway, this little painting is done with transparent watercolors, wet in wet, love the feel of this painting, I've done this composition before, it's one I painted with opaques on gray gesso, that painting was larger, a 1/4 sheet, so I tried this painting in the square format and really liked it, since this painting is transparent, you know I started with the background and that usually means the sky, then the far trees, as I move forward you just see so much more detail, the detail is done last.

When you paint transparently, you have to paint the light colors first and then add the dark colors at the end, and that's how this one was done, I like this painting and sure hope you do too.

Painting #71, busy day again today

I should have painted one of the paintings I started Sunday, oh no, can't do that, had to start a whole new one, then, it is a very complicated scene, and takes me over 4 hours of my day to finish it, 2 hours of class time and 2 hours plus, at home, to complete it. Just finished it and it's technically Wednesday (12:30 a.m.), at least in Michigan it is. I'm not getting anything else done, I should be able to whip these 6" paintings out in an hour and a half, but I really get involved with them and can't let it be until it looks as close to perfect as I can get it, I've shifted things, eliminated stuff, cropped it the photo, to make the composition work, I just get so wrapped up in the thing that I just can't let it go, don't know what I can do about that either, guess that's just the way it is.

Well, again, there is no sky, so I sketched the rock shapes and the falls and water shape with the light wash before I jumped into the green for the trees at the top, I didn't really see any yellow or orange in those far trees up on the high bank in this one, but with all the warmth of the rocks I decided to put a bit of it in, if you can tell, this was late October in Minnesota, and there was a skim of ice on the river and bits of frozen ice on the rocks at the falls, I hope you can tell that. I usually lay a thin wash of the local colors over the whole thing, pretty much so you don't see any of the white of the board, and that's what I did this time too, why change the procedure if it works, then I start at the top and add a bit more definition to the trees on the top, the second layer is more defined than the first but still needs fine tuning, and the same with the rocks and moving on down through the falls and the trees on the left and the right, I really didn't work much on the foreground until I did the 3rd and 4th layers and had the whole thing pretty much done except for that, I altered the trees shapes on the right side, they were just big lumps of trees hanging over the rocks, it looked static and I decided to let some of it hang over but decided to put some tree trunks on the upper part, there were none in the actual photo, so how this works is pretty much how I want to do it, it is my painting after all, and if any one has seen this particular river and falls and says that it wasn't like that, oh well, I like it this way better. Love this one too, hope you do too.

Pretty Cool, painting #70

This painting is one that I started yesterday, it was a busy day today, lots of things to get done, and then I had SWMWS (watercolor meeting), I had to transcribe the notes from last months minutes, and then I finished the painting, well, not exactly finished, I had about 20 min. of fine tuning to do when I got home, I had to put in the tree trunks and put in the foam on the water.

I started this one with the sky, a bit more purple than my usual sky. Then the trees and rocks that bring the water forward. The water is a mixture of blue, very light gray, a bit of green and lots of white, this gives me a nice greenish water base that I will enhance with bits of darker and lighter at a later time. I then worked up the trees a bit more, when they were so my satisfaction, I then worked up the rocks, I know what you are going to say, black, so dark, but that was the feel of this landscape, I get the impression that these rocks were from some volcanic era in the past, at any rate, they were dark, much darker than I even put them in, I started with purple/gray mixture, then added some blue for the highlights, then jumped right into the black to make the rocks dark enough. I started to work up the water then, of course it's the focal point, so I really enjoy this part, it's the part that makes me smile, love painting the water. I did bring it up to a point, not quite white where the water splashes, so that when I got home I could put the finishing touches on it. I really like this painting, sure hope you do too.

69 days, I was tempted today

It was a very close call, I wasn't sure I would be able to get this painting done, I actually started 4 (so much easier to start them than finish them), I was kind of lazy today, then the grand kids came, then dinner, then shopping (and ice cream), so, I was pretty wiped out, very tempted to not paint (or rather finish) one today, and then catch up tomorrow, but, I was good, I got out there and painted, this little scene caught my eye, love the oddness of it, just everyday stuff, I've painted this one once before, I did it in pastel (that's all I used to paint), then watercolor grabbed me, and so I'm hooked. I decided to use my regular opaque watercolors today, the liquid ones are ok, but I'm so used to the others that it seems easier, and it's on the clayboard (I did start one today on regular paper).

I started out with the sky and background trees, I laid the purple/blue/gray mixture in for the sky and then jumped right in with the darker gray/brown color for the background trees, I did make a very light blue wash for the far snow and then started to lay in the grassy color and some blue for shadows, the trailer was kind of neat, it is a color by Holbine and is very unique almost yellow but with a touch of reddish cast to it with lots of white, it's called Juan Brilliant (I am very bad about the spelling of some of these colors, I can't even begin to remember how to spell it, you can find in in the list of colors though), then the rusty oil tank, very cool, and the fence posts, then I attacked the small building on the left, I really meant for it to just be a dark color but I put it in too far from the edge so I had to give it a side and a roof edge, but it's ok, I think it works, the foreground was just a bunch of curved shapes in the grass color, then I went in with some blue for shadows, I went in at the very end and put in the tree branches on the top right and finished off with a bit of negative painting in the foreground, not as much as I usually do, but I think this little painting works, I like it and I sure hope you do too.

Painting #68, it's been a long day

Saturday is supposed to be relaxing, not so today, trying to get some stuff done on the computer. The Blue Moon Art Group is trying to get applications and pictures of paintings ready to apply for a residency, not known yet even if we will be accepted, but it sure would be a feather in our hats, still have lots of stuff to do, mostly getting the pictures together to take to the copy place to get very nice copies, then it's upgrade my art resume and also, need to finish updating my web site, I have let it sit the way it was when I first set it up, and I surely have painted a whole bunch of pictures that are not on there, so it will be a good thing, all be it a lengthy operation, one I'd rather not do, but, oh well, someone has to, and since I don't pay anyone to do it for me, guess who gets to do that now.

Well, I did have a very good start on this painting this morning before I got side tracked, then had to fix supper, and got tired (I always get tired when I eat), and so I didn't get to finish this until late, as I just finished it. I decided to try another barn painting, I liked how this one had a building going off on both sides of the picture, I also decided to use those liquid watercolors again to see how they reacted to the clayboard, not bad, I'm fairly happy with them except I need to contact Dr. PH Martin to let him know that I'm not happy with the sepia, it's really watery and doesn't have any pigment to speak of, all the other colors seem to be just fine. I did utilize the white with them, so this is really an opaque watercolor (as soon as you add white, they become opaque).

I like the way the clouds and sky looked in this one, kind of swirly, using this clayboard, you have to get used to that when you add a bunch of water, it just puddles. I painted the sky sort of a purple/blue/gray with white, then charged in with the the blue that's sort of green (I'd spell it but I'm not with the paints just now, oops, no brains, pthalo I think), anyway, I waited for that to dry, then added the roof lines in and the barn shapes, then charged in with green for the grass, this grass was difficult, it, obviously, hadn't ever been cut, so the weeds were very tall and dry so they had lots of patches of beige, very difficult for me to accomplish, so this is the best I could do with that, after layers and layers of over-lapping colors, then I decided to put in a wheel track with a mud puddle, since I didn't have one to go by, I tried to imagine what it might look like, does it work? So, then I put in the trees between the buildings and the telephone pole, I was going to go ahead and put in the wire but then decided that it would be on top of all the rest so I waited until last, I do like this painting now, hope you do too.

Painting #67, it was a struggle

This painting is a bit different, I decided to attempt to use my Dr. Ph. Martin's Liquid watercolors, I've had them for several months now, I attempted to play with them when I first got them, but have just been sitting since. Well, I thought I should get back into the transparent watercolors a bit, so I decided to see if I could make them work. For some strange reason, I decided to try this photo, well, I did struggle with it, all those bricks, I worked on it off and on all day, finally got it to a point that I felt it was as done as I could make it, I'm not as fond of it as I am of the waterfalls and the other water scenes, but you just can't paint water everyday, sooner or later, I'm going to run out of water photo's, so today I painted bricks, I think this is an interesting picture because of the hole in the wall, and the stuff that's growing inside the old building. This photo was taken in Bellevue, MI, it's an old furnace used to make bricks, they said it was where the bricks for the State Capital were made, obviously it's not still in use and is falling down, I really like scenes that you can look through and see things on the other side, although this looks pretty much the way it was, I believe that may need some other interest to pull you in, I'll think about that and decide if I will put something else in it or not, if I decide to, I'll let you know, I'll post it.

I'd like to explain about these watercolors, they come in bottles with eye droppers, so I didn't want to mix them in with my other watercolors, so I used a paper plate and put them by drops around the plate, then when I was mixing I used the center, that was where most of the paint went, as I used it up, I kind of just kept mixing other colors where I needed and used up the color that was there, so the colors all kind of got mixed together a bit, so none of the colors went on pure.

I started with the sky, wet in wet, then a thin wash of a mixture of cobalt violet (this cobalt violet is much darker than the stuff in the tube), and yellow ochre and a bit of indian red, when all that was dry, I put the green in the center hole. When that was dry, I started to fine tune the bricks a bit, I took my flat brush and started to make brick shapes, thinly, then I put some darker color green in at the bottom of the window area and put some darker shapes in for some tree limbs, I added a bit of orange to give it a bit more color, and put the tree coming over the top of the brick wall. When that was dry, I took my small round brush and put sompe pinkish color between the bricks, after that I darkened the part of the wall that was at the top behind the wall with the roof attached, to give it depth, then with the liner brush, I put some cracks in the bricks, that was pretty much it, I'm still looking at this painting, but it's as done as I can do just now, hope you like it.