Painting #219 - Aug 31 - A beautiful day to hang a show and have lunch with a friend!

Well, as you can see, it was a full day, The Tibbits Opera House Gallery (lower level), a part of Arts Alive in Coldwater hung the show "Bare Bones and a Full Moon" today, the plan was to get the show hung and then to have some lunch, then sketch and go with Susan to Hudson so she could get her paintings in the competition she was accepted in, it didn't quite work out that way, instead of the 3 of us (Carol, Susan and I), it ended up just Carol and I, we were late getting the show hung, so that we didn't have time to go to Hudson (Sue had to be in Bronson at 4:00 p.m.), so she canceled out and it was Carol and myself that had a lovely lunch at Applebee's, we then went out to sketch, but alas, we couldn't find people at home to get permission to sketch their barns, 2 places and 2 lovely barns that didn't get sketched, by this time it was 3:00 and we were both tired, so home we went.

Now you'd think that I would have gotten right after my painting, but, no! I decided to take a short nap, these 6 hour nights have been catching up with me, I do have to do one more painting for the show at Tibbits, but I chose a slightly simpler composition again tonight, I had a very busy evening trying to find the photo's that one of my student's loaned me (this is the Alaska photo I painted tonight, she spent 2 weeks up there with her daughter and was kind enough to share her photo's with me, unfortunately, I lost track of where they were, but I did find them, so all is well.

I love painting these long simple landscapes, I got this one done in about an hour, and I love that, and it was fun, I painted the sky first, of course, I'm using the opaque watercolors, so I laid in the blue for the sky then floated in the white and then on top of that the gray for the bottom of the clouds. The mountain range (I believe is Denali), went right in while it was wet, and I just kept moving down until I got it all painted once. I let that dry, and then went in with white for the snow capped mountains and some blue for the small streams, I'm uncertain if the white close to the mountains is snow or water, but it was there. I then put in the pine trees and the short bushes in the foreground, I really like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #218 - Aug 30 - Just checking, maybe getting Old timers desease

When I went into my paint program to set my photo of this one up, noticed that I already had saved yesterday's as Aug 30, duh! I guess I'm loosing it, I know today is the 30th and why did I think yesterday was the 30th, and the number for the one the day before was wrong too, so I was really off, I changed the name on those, and, I hope that I got this straight now.

This painting was started in class today, These Tiger Lily's were behind my old house, I'm not sure if they are even still there, renters tend to think they have the right to change what ever they want, I don't remember doing stuff like that when I was a renter, at least not without asking the Landlord before I did it. Even so, I did get some nice pictures of them, I did a painting in pastels a long time ago, and this is the first since, that I've attempted. When there are so many blossoms all growing together like this, it makes it difficult to keep them straight, I think this one reads ok, I did have to just fudge some of the shapes in the background though. I have always thought these were Tiger Lily's, but my friend Edith thought they were a variety called Turks Caps, but we have since determined the difference, the darker stamens are the Tiger's and the lighter ones are the Turks.

When I started this one, I just went in and put the orange for the blossoms, the green stem and then leaves, when that was laid in I put the stamens in (the best I could), and went right into the dark for the background, I really wanted to punch up the contrast. After than it was a matter of determining what colors would work best to get the shadow, and then the dots for the petals, I had some reds added to the orange to punch up that drama, but there were also some very muted violets that I put in to help with the softer shadows, all in all, I like this little painting, and I hope you do too.

Painting #217 - Aug 29 - Some days, I just don't know what happens to the day!

Today just evaporated, it was 9:00 p.m. before I knew it, I was busy, but not terribly busy, my neighbor came by a couple times, I did knit a little, I watched a movie, and other than that, I just can't remember what else I did that was so important that I couldn't get to the painting before 9:30, so, as a result, I chose a photo that my friend Carol gave me, of course most of you will know this is Niagra Falls, I haven't been here since I was 18, but she took these photo's a few years ago, this is the first one that I used, she was so kind to share with me. I really didn't think I would ever do the Niagra Falls, they just didn't inspire me, that is until tonight, I felt that I could paint this and do it justice.

I wet the Aquabord all over, then while it was damp, I floated in the blue for the sky and then some pink for the horizon. While it was still wet, I put in the tree line on the far bank, I just let the edges of the trees fade away to indicate the mist, when I got the rest of the darker colors in, I then went in with some white to highlight the mist, especially on the falls and near the foreground rocks, since this is such a famous falls, I decided to put in the power plant across the water on the Canadian side (at least I think it's the Canadian side, I'm not sure now). I reinforced the darks and finished this up in about an hour, I really like this little painting, and I hope you do too.

Painting #216 - Aug 28 - Another busy day, seems the way of things lately

So, I really painted my blog painting for today first, I was so tired (still- did I mention yesterday that I had a short night, on top of going to this paint out which was a bit over 2 hours away), well, I don't think I've caught up yet.

Sundays are always spent with my husband, shopping, and so on, then we had an anniversary party to go to and I had this painting to finish and another one to do, so I finally got to the painting part, but was so tired, I wasn't sure that I'd be able to do it, I am sure you are going to think, "what was she thinking", throwing in that winter scene, well, sometimes I just like to paint winter scenes, this one is only part of the whole, I narrowed it down to the barn (or garage), and the drive plus all the trees, I really got into it, I was tired when I started and was even considering not working on the painting from yesterday, that I needed to finish, but by the time I got the winter scene done, I was just into the painting thing, so the painting got done. I was originally going to do negative painting in the foreground, but I re-thought that, I wanted to paint the leaves in instead of painting around them, so I decided to do it this way, at the last minute, I also decided to put in the Tiger Swallowtail that had been flitting around all day (I'm sure it was more than one, I almost put in one of the white ones that was there too, but decided to just stick with the yellow ones). There were several swallowtail butterfly's a couple of dark ones (both different varieties), but I didn't want to put in just any old colors on it, I wanted to be as close to the actual butterfly as possible, I chose the tiger one because I had a photo of one of those and I could give it a bit of reality, I like both of these paintings and I hope you do too.

Painting #215 - Aug 27 - What a day

My friend Susan convinced me that we needed to go to this paint-out/art walk over by Lake Michigan, what a nice day, sold a few paintings and managed to get almost 2 paintings done, wow, did I talk, and I'm amazed that I got as much done as I did. I'm going to show you 2 paintings, but the first one is the only one that's done, it's small and the other one is an 8" x 10", but I was so exhausted when I got home that I didn't have the energy to finish the 2nd painting, I was painting it there, and some of the people that I met there may come here to see if I got it done, and I'm about 1/2 done with it, I did paint on it when I got home, but there was no way that I can get it done today, but I wanted anyone who was there to see how it's progressing.

I did the small one first, it's pretty much the same place, just a bit different view. I was really sitting among the weeds, this was at a Nature Preserve, and portion of the sales go to help finance it, so I chose this site because of the purple flowers, I have since found out that they are Iron Weed, I've never heard of that before, I thought it was some version of a thistle, but, not so. The second part was of a nice tree that was close by, and of course the flowers, we were watching butterfly's flit around, it was very nice, a bit hot, I was in the direct sunlight, I probably should have brought an umbrella, oh well, maybe next year.

These paintings are done on Ampersand Claybord, a product that can be used for multi-media, some people scratch into it, but it's a wonderful surface for watercolor, I love the way the paint just puddles when there is a lot of water present. I still have about 1/2 of the 8" x 10" painting to do, I need to finish the tree and the weeds in the foreground, I will finish it tomorrow, I like this little painting, and I hope you do too.

This is the painting that I don't feel is done, I will finish it tomorrow, and I'll attempt to do another small one so that I keep myself honest, with the blog painting a day theme.

Painting #214 - Aug 26 - it's going to be a short night

Well, I have about 2-1/2 hours in this one, I didn't get started with it until about 9:30, well, you are probably wondering why, well, I had to pack my car, my friend Susan thought it would be a good idea to go to an art walk over by Lake Michigan tomorrow, so, since I'm usually up for most things in the art related field, I decided that it might be a good idea, even though I should have painted earlier, it's been a busy day, my insurance man was here, and I had to frame a painting for my neighbor's birthday (a gift), and then pack the car, so, now I'm done, and since it's after 12:00 a.m. and I have to get up in the morning by 6:00, I'd better make this short.

I painted this same composition many years ago, in pastel, it was a gift to my Mother, and now I own it again, but I really enjoy negative painting, and this particular photo presents itself with lots of negative painting. It looks complicated but it really wasn't too bad, well, I'm making this short, so, I really like this little painting, and I hope you do too.

Painting #213 and 213-part 2 - it's a two for one again.

I know these are small paintings, and small paintings are not the only thing that I want to do, but, when you are so busy, and you only have a couple of hours to paint, then you have to downsize, these paintings were done in class today, the first one, the landscape, was the first one, it kind of rolled off my brush in about an hour and 15 min., the second one, took about an hour (with about 15 minutes of that at home).

The flower, was a small demonstration for one of the Thursday girls, she was working on this blue flower painting and her flowers were all the same shape and not touching plus other things, like outlined and various other kinds of stuff, so I decided to do a small painting to show them what I would do with this same flower and how messy it would look when it was first started, and how I would fine tune it. The flowers had lots of dew drops all over them, well, way too many dew drops in my personal opinion, so I just put in 2, so, all in all, there is only about 2 hours and a little more for both of these paintings, I think I'm getting faster now.

The landscape was a photo taken on one of our Northern trips to the North Shore of Lake Superior, the first of October, there was ice on the rocks and in the water, but I didn't think I could pull that off so I left the ice out. there was a big chunk of it on the foreground rock and some in the middle, but it was difficult to tell that it was ice, so I just smoothed it over, my choice. I really like the shapes of the rocks, and the water, actually, I like the whole thing, it was fun to paint, the flower was also fun to paint, I like these little paintings and I hope you do too.

Painting #212 - too hot to think today, then storms

Got into the rain coming home from the Sturgis class tonight, hopefully, it will cool things off and the humidity will go down, that was what was the killer today, the humidity. Well, got the girls going in the right direction tonight, didn't make the painting for today too hard for them, except that there wasn't enough time to finish a 11" x 15" work, so, I started a small one. Had a bit of a problem, spilled my tea in my paint bag, got all the photo's wet and some of the bords that I had in there, this painting is painted on one of the bords that was soaked with the tea, well, when it dries, I'll be able to tell if it spoiled it, and if it does, that means that I'll be painting another of these to replace this one, only time will tell.

I really am addicted to painting on this Aquabord surface, it really does paint up quickly, and that was the reason that I chose this surface tonight, only had about an hour and a half to complete this one, well, when you paint in monochrome, you can do it. That was yesterday's and today's, so I won't go into detail on this one, I just had to work a bit to eliminate the surface damage that occurred when it was wet and in the bag, so when it dries, I'll see if it held, and hopefully, it will. This photo was taken on a very gray day and this is a very gray painting, I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #211 - Aug 23 - an interesting day

This day was a bit mixed up, class was started late, thought I had all my basis covered, all my students but one couldn't make class so, she and I decided to start class an hour late, well, low and behold, got to class, later than I meant to, and a surprise student had been there waiting, boy did I feel like a heal, someone I hadn't expected to show up, did, well, she just got a free lesson, I just couldn't charge her for class when I was over an hour late, but, it was a nice class time anyway, we held class over a bit so she got a real bargain, and the student that I knew was coming to class was just as late as I was, so this was a bit of a discomboobalated day, put that in your pipe and smoke it, lol.

I originally started a painting of spent milk weed (actually all dried up), but my husband and I went for a bit of a drive and out to dinner, didn't get home until late, so I was about to start painting, and I got a call from a friend that I haven't been able to connect with, for one reason or another, and I just couldn't tell her that I had to finish my painting, we've been doing that phone chase for several months, either she's busy or I am, so I just talked (for about an hour and a half, maybe more), so I didn't feel that the milk weed would be able to get done in an hour or so, so I found a picture of this owl that my friend Edith shared with me, and I decided to do the owl. I know what you're thinking, "this is easier than milk weed?", well, I will tell you, I think it is, the milk weed will just have to wait until tomorrow morning so get finished, I also have to prepare for my watercolor class in Sturgis tomorrow, so tomorrow will be another busy day, of course, Thursday will also be busy, I have 3 classes on Thursdays. I'm telling you, there just aren't enough hours in the day lately.

I started this painting by painting a light brown where the owl was, then painted a darker brown for the tree and branches, I dampened my brush and wiped back the shapes of the eye and eye socket, then lifted the lights for the wing and the breast. then I started with the eye and laid in a yellow for the eye and black for the pupil, then dark brown for the brow ridge, and so on, I used my brush and skipped around to shape the feathers then got some light (and I mean light yellow, almost white), for the breast highlights and the highlight in the eyes. Once the owl was finished, I concentrated on the tree and branches, finally I put in some green for the leaves, I added some touches of burnt sienna on some of the leaves to give it a bit if interest. I like this little painting, and I hope you do too.

Painting #210 - Aug 22 - Not a good day for painting again, but, I did paint

Well, we are surely all cleaned out now, glad that's over, but sure didn't get much painting done, slept most of the day, right up until almost 7:00 p.m., I have woken up, and I'm glad that I had a painting started, it took me about an hour to finish this, now I'm hoping that I can get back in gear.

This painting was a free form painting, I just started with wet paper (real paper this time), and thick paint, almost any color will work, and started with a flat brush (mine was about 3/4"), and I twisted and moved it around, then switching colors, left white edges that kind of looked like flower petals, then I splattered some periwinkle blue (that's a dusty blue), and painted some shapes that reminded me of wisteria, then some red for another flower, and so on, I just kept going until I had most of the paper filled, of course on wet paper it was a bit fuzzy, when you are working on wet paper, working with thick paint helps keep it from spreading all over the whole paper, and that is key to actually having definite shapes. Tonight, when I started, I just went in and painted the shadow shapes behind (negative painting), and when that was done, I added a couple more leaves and put in some lineal details on the flowers, I like this little painting, and I sure hope you do too.

Painting #209 - Aug 21 - Not a good day for painting

I was originally going to paint on a portrait today, but, just couldn't get into it, I laid in a chair most of the day (that is when I wasn't running to the bathroom, oops, should I say that), a colonoscopy tomorrow a.m., so, this isn't one of my most stellar paintings, I would spend more time on it, but, have to get some sleep, have to be at the hospital at 6:00 a.m., so this is going to be short, I found a picture of another bunch of flowers that had a fuzzy background, I thought I'd try it, of course I probably should have painted it on watercolor paper, but didn't, so I ran into the same problem with blending. Well I did get the watercolor paper out, but the painting was way too wet to try to finish, so this is the one for today, I may be able to finish the other one tomorrow, it's just a fantasy flower painting, we'll see how that one progresses. For now, this is my painting, I sure hope you like it.

Painting #208 - Aug 20 - a small painting for today

Well, today was the White Pigeon Art in the Park, it started out ok, but it sure didn't last very long, we hardly got lunch over with with the big drops of rain started, and it rained, and it rained some more, well, after the paintings started to get wet and the papers on the backs started to get damaged, I called it a day, I left about 3:00 (that was when the packing up was done), I did hear from Susan that I really didn't miss much, I was just about to work on my painting and the rain caused us to have to pull all the stuff in under the tent, so, I didn't get to work on it again until I got home, I worked on it for a little over an hour and I'm whipped, I'ts pretty small so it went fairly fast, I did have it started yesterday, originally I was going to finish this one for yesterday and then finish the portrait up for today, but it didn't work that way, I got wrapped up in the portrait and the Bison didn't get finished until today, and I'm glad it was small since I didn't sleep well last night and I'm very tired. An Old friend took these photo's on a hunting trip, many, many years ago. I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #207 - Aug 19 - A very sweet lady and a trooper

Good evening, today my choice of paintings just seemed to be this wonderful lady, she was my sister's Mother-in-law, she passed away this spring, she lived along life, 101 years to be exact, even though she had a heart condition since I've known her, she lived a long life, of course, long life runs in the family, her mother also lived to be 100, but unlike her Mother, she had a devoted son who did a wonderful job of taking care of her at the last, a very hard job, I'm sure you would agree, I know I couldn't have done it for my Mother, even though I offered to have her live with me, she never wanted to, she was very independent, as was Gordon's mother. I didn't know that I was going to paint this today, I ran across a photo that just seemed to call me and so I did it. I will, of course, give this to Gordon, or one of this brother's, or who ever, I will find out who likes it, now, this photo was rather dark and I don't think she was that dark complected (if I remember correctly), so I think it could be lighter, I just couldn't get the paint to lighten up, I was using the opaques and for some reason they show up very dark, so, I'm going to make this short, tomorrow is a big day, I'm doing an art fair in White Pigeon and I have to figure out which paintings I'm going to take, I have plenty, I've decided to sell some of my blog paintings (I am keeping the ones I think might go in my show coming up in 2012 at the Carnegie Center for the Arts in Three Rivers, MI, I can hardly wait, 2012 looks like it is going to be a promising year, a trip and an art show, woo hoo! I didn't get my picture around for the application to the Bean Creek Art Show that my friend Susan thought I should enter, I just haven't had the energy to think about that with everything else that I've been doing, just too much some days. I like this little painting for today, and I hope you like it too.

After seeing how this looked on line, I decided to re-work it, so this is the new view, I hope you aren't disappointed that you are't seeing the first version, since it was so harsh, I like this version much better.

Painting #206 - 2 more again

I was going to keep this simple today and do just the 4" (the Copper Harbor Lighthouse), but, I got it done too quickly, so I started another, and I finished it up in my evening class, so tonight we get 2 paintings again, of course neither one is all that detailed, so it was fairly easy. I believe the winter scene is in Indiana somewhere off Indiana 9, as that was where my friend Lynn and I were taking photo's a long time ago, you've seene a couple of those scenes in this blog before.

The Copper Harbor Lighthouse photo was taken approximately 15 years ago, and they have it all blocked off as it private property now, so, we had to take the picture of it from another shore, that's part of the reason I kept it small, not much detail from that far away.

I'm going to keep this quick tonight, I didn't sleep well and I'm tired, so, I like these two paintings and I hope you do too.

Painting #205 - another 2 for today

I had a very busy day, but, I did get my painting started early, of course the reason is that I had someone coming over to look at some paintings, so I had to get right after things, the carpet needed swept, and I decided that I should get my painting started because I wanted to look industrious when they came, well, I wasn't painting when they came, but I did get it started, I was waiting for it to dry a bit, I also got to painting on it after they left (with one of my paintings, ah, maybe a sale, they are going to look at it on the wall, pretty sure I will sell one or the other one that they liked), so that's good, then I went back to work on the painting before I left for Blue Moon, oh yes, a call from my friend Susan, we will not be going to Ireland, they didn't choose us, oh well, we already have something else in the works, maybe we'll be going to South Dakota instead for a couple weeks next summer, Bev has a place out there and graciously invited us to go there as a group and paint for a couple weeks, won't that be fun!

Well, I had the painting well underway when I got to Blue Moon, so I finished it and started a 4" one for something to do while the others were working on their stuff. I will confess, this isn't my own photo reference, I hope I don't offend anyone by using it. I was intrigued with the fuzzy background, so I chose to work on this because of that, I think I should have worked on regular paper for this, it would have come across much better, but now that it's finished, I'll think about doing that on the next one.

I really started out with yellow and then floated in some violet for the sunflower heads, then the green at the bottom, this was so wet that I had to let it rest for about 3/4 of an hour, then I just started to fine tune it, I wiped out the petals on the main flower, and the highlights on the leaves, then I went in with darker background color to make the flower stand out. I added a dark green for the leaves and decided to put little dots for the sunflower head, then I went in with some dark green and made some lines, I wanted to show the direction of the seeds on the seed head.

Now, when that painting was done, I got out my photo of the parot picture, that my sister took in Florida, quite some time ago, she didn't have the fancy camera then that she has since acquired, so it isn't a great photo, but it's good enough to get this from. I just started out painting the bird's head, then the yellow breast and finally the blue body and tail, then I laid in some green foliage, and I inferred it was sitting on a branch instead of a metal post, so the background is invented, I liked the violet and pink for the sky, since it was up against the yellow breast, I didn't spend much more than 45 min. on this one, so it's fairly simple, I like both of these little paintings and I hope you do too.

Painting #204 - Aug 16 - a very tired day again

I just don't think there are enough hours in the day to get 8 hours of sleep and get all the other things done too, I should have come right home from the Arts Alive meeting, that was after classes today, I didn't get home until 7:30 (since I had to go to the grocery), then cooked supper, I just couldn't make myself get moving on the painting, so I got a late start again. I think I'm starting to get used to only getting 6 hours a sleep a day (well, that's a lie), I'm just exhausted, so this will be short.

I should have done something today that was simpler, but I had this one started (started it in class today), and I really am glad it's finished. I laid in the golden tone for the sky, and overlaid the trees in the wet sky wash with greens, I put in the rocks, trying to make sure that they were different sizes and shapes, and finally I put in some brown for the water, I let that dry, then, when I started working on it again, I went back into the sky and put in shome negative spaces behind the trees to create some interesting shapes, I put in the tree trunks, and then laid green over for the branches, I also put in some darker branches for the trees. I spattered the rocks, and laid in several layers of different grays and some purple for the rocks, and finally I put in the water ripples, and the foam, oh yes, this painting is on 8" x 8" claybord, I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #203 - Aug 15 - tried to get this done early, well, it is before midnight

I really tried to get done early, I started it at 4:30 and I really only took (actual time), about 3 hours, but I didn't get this done until 11:30, of course, that is earlier than 12:30 or 1:00 a.m., at any rate, it's finished and it's still the 15th, so, it's good.

I decided on this landscape, it's done on claybord, I think you can see that by the smoothness of the surfacIe. I started out by painting in the broken dam (I didn't sketch this except with paint), then I laid in the surface of the water in the distance and the trees were painted in with a middle value of green with some yellow and orange mixed in here and there, then I laid in the shape of the foam on the water with light blue and the bank and tree in the foreground, the water was a mixture of brown and green with some yellow ochre mixed in. I had to wait for that to dry before I could continue, since I had puddled it on quite thickly. Once that was done I finished up the water by laying in some waves with a bit of darker purple/blue and then some ultra light blue on top of that, I don't think I can give you a complete play-by-play since there was a lot of going back and forth to bring it up to this level, the tree and foliage on the foreground bank were next, after I finished the background trees, then the last thing was the grasses over the water and the dead leaves on the grass, I really like this little painting, and I hope you do too.

Painting #202 - Aug 14 - My day of rest

You probably think I'm stuck on these 4" paintings, well, not really, I just have been running behind lately, and I can paint a 4" painting (when it's flowers), relatively quickly, and when I'm trying to appease my husband (who dosen't really care much for me being obliged to paint these paintings everyday), well, I chose the small painting, besides the fact that I'm just tired, so, I'm going to make this one quick today so I can get the bed made and head there.

My choice today is this Stargazer Lily today, this one went really quickly, and I did styleize this one a bit, I didn't go too crazy on the detail, I do see that the centers of these flowers have little spiky things on the petals where the spots are, these were fun, I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #201 - Aug 13 - glad this day is done

Just tired today, I worked at the Gallery today, it took me 3 hours to get my old paintings down and the new ones up, I had to add them to my inventory list, and the Gallery's list, plus, there were a few that I didn't have on my own list of paintings, so it took a while, there were a few people that came in, but I really had a hard time painting, I didn't get this one done until I got home and then I really didn't get into it until about an hour ago, I chose this photo because I originally thought that I would get two done so I didn't have to spend the time tomorrow painting, well, I didn't get the other one finished, so I'm sure this one will do.

I took this photo several years ago (about 32 years ago), on my lunch hour from the factory I was working at, I was playing with a new camera (an SLR 35 mm), they didn't have the digital that they do now, I still have the SLR but don't use it at all, I've gone strictly digital, I know that the resolution isn't as good, but when you are just using it as reference material, it's good enough, my favorite is this small Kodak that I carry in my purse everywhere I go.

This painting is a composition from a much wider view, I didn't have the close up, so I made a composition of 3 of the trillium with some leaves, this, again, is a small 4" square painting, for this composition, it's enough, it's the Ampersand Aquabord, I almost like the smoother claybord more, but once in a while it works great, this time, I struggled getting the washes to blend, I decided there wasn't much more I could do to it, so it's finished, I like this little painting, and I hope you do too.

Painting #200 - Whew! Made it to 200, love it!

Now it really is downhill from here, I'm feeling stunned, amazed, and gratified, that I did manage to keep this up, I'm not quitting, I'm just amazed that I did it. When you say you're going to do something like this, you never really know (or believe), that you actually can do it, so this is good. Today's painting was started late, so it's a small one, this scene seemed to speak to me, I took this photo several years ago, it's in the U.P. and I believe it's the north shore of Lake Michigan, I don't know for sure, because there were a few pictures I took at Lake Superior just west of White Fish Point, oh well, it's a great lake at any rate.

I wanted something simple that could be done in under an hour, I didn't leave myself time to spend more than that, I have to work at the Gallery tomorrow and I have to get some sleep, mostly so I don't fall asleep trying to paint tomorrow, I had a hard time last month with that. This was a very misty day, I hope you get that, with it being a bit indistinct, the figures are ultra small, so there isn't much detail there, but they do pull you in, so I like that. There were some dead Christmas trees pulled up on the shore in the foreground and I didn't like that large dark brown look there, so I just eliminated them, the rocks look pretty good, and they were there but with the trees on top of them, so I just left the trees off. I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #199 - almost to 200, can't believe it!

Wow, getting close now, I'm on the downhill side now, I have less to paint than are already painted. I felt like painting drippy today, well, not really drippy, but I chose this photo because of all the colors, how they melted together, and also because of the complimentary colors. I have been tempted to paint it several times, and I just decided that it felt right today. I really enjoyed this project today, it is Thursday, so, class in Marshall, I tried to keep it as loose as possible, that way I would still have time to move around and help the girls, I have 5 regular students in Marshall for watercolor, and that's about all the room there is, we share Edith's kitchen (which is very kind of her), so if there were more, it would be hard to fit them in, I could stand, I guess, but I'm sure I'd get tired of that soon enough, I did do that at first, but since I'm doing the blog, the paintings I work on are small, and that seems to fit alright at the end of the table, I feel like a queen with her court, I point and tell and they do, sometimes I show them what I mean, and they all crowd around the table, Pat likes to stand there and watch what I do a lot (I think its because then she doesn't have to figure out what to do, or where to paint what, on her painting, well, not really, but she does like to watch. When I was a student, I liked to watch too, that was how I learned to china paint.), lol.

Well, the grape photo was taken at Meijer gardens in Grand Rapids. My friend Carol and I went there one afternoon, we hadn't been there before, so we decided we should see what all the fuss was about, and it was a lot of fun, we did kind of push it time wise, we were running (almost), to get back before they locked us in for the night. we didn't get to see the gardens but the sculptures were marvelous. Some of the koi that I painted are from that pond there.

The grape color (blue) was what I jumped into first, then the purple, well not purple, its really more like permanent magenta, then, I dropped in some green and some yellow ochre along with some purple on the grapes. I then floated in some darks around the leaves and started to fine tune the grapes by adding some lights and some darker blue, the rest was just adding more of the splotchy colors on the leaves and some spattering, and then just put in more highlights on the grapes and finally I added some neutral tint to some spots in the background, I like this little painting, and I hope you like it too.

Painting #198 - Aug 10 - Another class project

Well, here I go again, another project that is just a bit above their head, I thought it would be a good exercise for white, I forgot that there would be a lot of negative painting, opps again! We are going to try a still life next time, maybe that will be a little better, I can do that! I just forgot that those petals in the middle might be too hard to figure out, well, we'll try something else, maybe they'd like the swan, that was white, we'll see.

Well, I had them start with the yellowish color in the middle and alternating with a cobalt blue for the petal shadows, then I went back into the yellow with a bit darker color to make it stand out better, I just mixed some of the cobalt blue in to make a grayed down yellow for the shadows under the ball head, and I just darkened it a bit more for some definition of the petals, the lower petals were painted in with a light pink, then to make the shadows I made it a darker pink with some cobalt added, and finally, almost straight cobalt blue. I mixed sap green with some black for the background green, I painted around the bud in the foreground and the stem, and I put one positive leaf shape in by painting it negatively, the background wasn't dark enough for me, so, I got into a new color I acquired, a ShinHan Hybrid watercolor called Shadow green, wow, is that dark green! I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #197 - Aug 9 - A pretty abstract day

Well, the order for the day, abstraction, class today was really quite interesting. My friend Sue decided to bring the painting her husband bought her for Christmas, in today, of course, he bought it from me. In my estimation, it is an unusual piece, it's abstract, not my usual style, I've done a couple abstract pieces here on the blog site, but they were just for fun, I don't feel it's my strong suit, but that's not to say it couldn't progress, I do want to grow in that area, and the only way to do that is to do abstracts.

So, today's piece is an abstraction, I'm not sure what she meant me to do, but, I decided to do a still life, the fruit I've been doing seemed to call my name, so that was my choice, it's the cherries, this isn't a composition you've seen, I did set this one up when I was taking photo's of the Queen Anne Cherries a week or so ago, I put the cherries in the wine glass, like I did the dark sweet cherries, but I wasn't happy just doing the same set-up so I added a few things, here are the cherries in the wine glass and along with it are a cream pitcher (that round blob in the middle), and a sugar dispenser, the background is just invented as I was painting along, I really got into this, and it went really well, I managed to get it done in class, which is about 2 hours, since I gave a little talk (explaining what I was trying to do as I drew it on the board), I then sketched out my design on the 8" x 10" Ampersand Aquabord, I tried to help them understand the concept of abstract and the difference between an abstraction of reality (my personal favorite), and non-objective (the kind that has no reality). I'm thinking I should do more of these, since this one went so well, I really like this painting and I hope you do to.

Painting #196 - Aug 8 - Live, love & Laugh

I know, what's up, right? Well, had another friend die, so sad, I also know that as I'm aging, so are they, but I now know how my mother felt when all her friends were dying, it's just sad, so I'm going to get to go to this funeral, I've only known Jean 5 years but she was special, super sweet, and very generous, her last 2 years were hell, she had cancer, so, enough said.

I will also confess, I chose this photo because I knew I could paint it quickly, I spent the whole day getting mats cut, I still have about 25 to do, but that is less than half of what there was, I have been bad this last 2 months about getting to the studio and cutting, I put the equipment away, since I will not be able to get to the others until Friday, and I have china painting class on Thursday, I've not always been good about putting the stuff put away until I absolutely have to, it's a bad habit, I'm trying to get myself into a rhythm, probably the only way that I will be able to correct all my lazy habits, I am trying, this blog operation is a device to get me into better painting and organizational habits. I did get this painting done tonight before 10:15 (and that's amazing because, I didn't start it until 9:00, opps!), well, I'm thinking that is what I have to do, look for the simple compositions for a little while, to get me back on schedule.

I did not draw this, I just started with the sky, then while that was wet, I put in the distant hills (the far distance, they are blue/purple), then the close hill, and the middle ground, then the round bales of hay and the grass, I didn't put the trees in the foreground and the middle ground until last. I also forgot to mention that I used a 5" x 5" Aquabord, these paint up so quickly and I really needed that today, since my back feels like a pretzel from leaning over the mat cutter. I laid in a bit more color on the close hill, then went over it with a bit of misty blue, so it looked like distant atmosphere. Then, I worked on the bales, they were really easy and once they were in, I put the tree in over the background, and the grasses in the foreground, then, I decided to put in the drive to lead you into the painting, of course there was no drive in the photo, and no puddles. I really like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #195 - Aug 7 - another late day

Like I said, story of my life, I probably could have had this done sooner, but got caught up watching a cute movie, so, I had it about two-thirds done and just finished it up, I don't know if these are morning glories or if they are something else, they appeared on my fence (they seem to be trying to take over, my blue morning glories didn't do as well this year, but these ones, look great, of course they want to cover the climbing rose bush, but maybe I'll try to figure out where else to put them, right now, they look good to me. The sun was shining brightly, I think I captured that, so on with this.

I sketched them in with watercolor (the flowers), and aimed the centers so I knew what was where, then I floated in the medium green, I did work on the flowers a bit then I started the negative painting in the leaf area. As I started to figure out some of the shapes, I started to fine tune them and make them buds or leaves or what ever they looked like, now when I'm painting negative, I don't follow the photo very closely, I just let the under-painting tell me where to put the darker shapes, this is the fun part for me, I love painting the negative, the stuff just appears, I forgot to mention that this is the opaque watercolors on the Ampersand Claybord. Finally, I go in on the flowers with white and soften the shadow shapes and put more blue in where the shadows don't show well, then, when those were done, I went into the bright yellow-green (I did add some white so it was lighter), and that helped to bring those buds into focus, I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #194 - Aug 6 - late again

I think being late is the story of my life, I would like to do better about getting these paintings done, I started early, then, as per, things changed and it got put on the shelf for a few hours, but, I did get this one done, all be it later than I wanted, oh well.

I really enjoyed those sheep I painted a few months ago, so, when I ran across this sheep photo, I decided to give it another try, I did get into it, once I got started, it's the getting started that is tough for me lately (well, most of the time), I can lay it all out, get the plan going, and even have it started, but for some reason that I can't fathom, I drag my butt betting at it again.

I didn't sketch these either, and I did have to make some adjustments, but the claybord is very forgiving, you can wipe it back almost to white. I laid in the shapes of the sheep and then painted the background around them, I did kind of sketch with the paint brush, so then I did my usual, I started with the farthest (sky), and then the far ground and trees and then the middle trees, and the grasses moving up to the sheep, then I just randomly moved around to finish up the sheep until it looked as close as I could get it, I wasn't going to put the fence in, but, I had trouble, some of the sheep were hidden behind it and I couldn't make it look right, so I put it in, it looks ok, I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #193 - Aug 5 - would have liked to have gotten more done

Well, don't we always think we should get more done? Well, that's been the way of my life, I always think I could get more done than I manage, that's part of the reason I'm doing this blog, I don't know what happens to the day if I'm left to my own devices. I mean that it takes me most of the morning just to get moving, and once it's past noon, the day just evaporates. I wanted to get some mats cut, and some of these paintings matted, I'm getting quite a bunch that need it. I'll use any excuse I can, my grandsons were here today, I had to run the checkbook over to my husband, I am struggling with the internet connection (had to deal with that again today), so you see, I can just find all kinds of excuses, that's why I put this blog into action, I need to paint everyday, and I do believe that I'm getting better, today's painting is from some pictures I took at the Coldwater Waterworks park a few years ago, I came across it this afternoon when I was scoping out pictures to paint. I know, it's only 4" x 4", but, I think this painting is just the right size, in the photo, the light was so bright that you can't see much detail in the feathers, so, I don't believe it would have been such a successful painting if it had been larger, but I do believe that it works, and it didn't take all that long either, and that is the other thing I'm trying to do, get much faster at this painting thing, of course, those larger paintings will take longer to paint.

I did sketch this one a bit, just a simple line where the swan is, then I jumped in with the shadows to find the swan's neck and head, then, I painted the lighter blue green water and finally they dark water, I fine tuned the swan by putting the wing shadows and the shadow close to the water in, I softened the edges and Ta Da! I like this little painting and I hope you like it too.

Painting #192 - Aug 4 - another small painting today

It was class day today, I specifically chose this small one because of that, I have been trying to keep my painting less complicated so I can help the girls (no guys, not because I wouldn't, they don't). I also forgot to take my bag with my reference material in it so, I chose to paint the butterfly that my friend Edith, had laying on her table, she found it laying in her yard, what a beauty, I have seen several of these lately, but I just didn't have an opportunity to get a close look, well, when it's laying perfectly still, you can, I laid it right in front of me, I had to move it back several times, because, it is so light, it moved off the piece of paper it was laying on just by breathing, of course I was probably breathing too hard, who knows, lol.

So, now you know why the butterfly, I did paint one once before, but that one was from a photo, this was really interesting, almost like biology, but not quite. I am certain it's a swallowtail, but unsure of the actual name of this beauty. I decided on the violet/mauve background because of the yellow, the purple is it's compliment. I really picked this one apart, I tried to make it as accurate as possible, of course, I didn't have the same velvety texture, but, this is as close as I could get, I like this little painting, and I hope you do too.

Painting #191 - Aug 3 - the days need to be 3 or 4 hours longer

I just can't get everything done in 24 hours, sleep, clean, eat, paint, visit family, boy, the last few weeks I've been running on short sleep again, the paintings are getting done, but I'm staying up way too long, hope this settles down soon. My dear friend Susan and I decided to go to Life Drawing in Battle Creek tonight, I did paint early, but not early enough to get the painting done, so, I came home at 10:00 and finished it (well, after I ate a bit salad and mac and cheese, had to re-fuel, I'm going to make this rather short.

I noticed in the painting that the cup seems misshapen, well, it's not, there is a light edge up there that doesn't show up very well, I may have to do something a bit darker behind to let that show up, right now, I'm just going to do the blog and get to bed.

I decided to paint this painting with coffee and beans, I put it on 12" x 12" watercolor canvase, but I'm thinking it might have been better on a smaller size, I don't have time to mess with it now so I'm letting it stand. I do like it, it just seems like a lot of cloth and not enough cup and stuff, maybe I'll add something else in the background behind the cup so the cup rim stands out, we'll see, right now it's time for me to get some sleep, I can evaluate it much better in the morning, if I change it, I'll re-post another picture of this to let you see what transpired, for now, I like this painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #190 - it's another two for

I decided to paint this same rose on two different surfaces, the first one is painted on the Aquabord, with the opaque watercolors, the second one is painted on watercolor paper (Arches 260, which is slightly heaver than 140#, its the size of the paper, mural), I haven't painted on regular watercolor paper in a while and I thought I would like to see what the difference is. My first impression is that the watercolor paper has more definition, well, I did make the colors stronger on the watercolor paper, technically that was the first one that I finished, but my brain put the number 2 on the watercolor paper and the number 1 on the aquabord, it really doesn't matter, they both have some lovely qualities, I like the one with the watercolor paper a bit better, but that's probably because I was more aggressive with the darker washes, oh well, they both look nice to me.

An open rose is probably the most difficult rose to paint, so many petals, and it's really hard to keep track of them, you will note that these two have similarities but they are not exact, of course that's because I'm human and I can't make that rose exactly like the first one, I started these two paintings in class, and of course I didn't get either one done, but it really wasn't too long to finish them.

I started out with the centers, then I went in with some lavender and added some cream (acually a yellow with white added to it), and let them mingle together, for the petals on the shadow side (the top half), then I changed up the color for the other shadows, to a more golden color, and added some violet to it to gray it down. I then added the hot pink on the edges and some of the petals had spots too, so it is a very unusual rose, if you ask me, but it really does look like the rose I took the photo of, the background is a very dark green, I did let some of the information show on the right side, keeping the left side less (it really was like that in the photo too, I know, I am a slave to the photo), well, that pretty much sums it up, I like these little paintings and I hope you do too.

Painting #189 - Aug 1 - late again

So, here I go again, late, tried about 3 times to get at the painting, then went swimming with my sister, oops, fixed supper, and didn't get at it until 10:30, so here it is 12:45, so I guess that means I have 2-1/4 hours into this painting, well, that would be better if it wasn't so late, so, this will be a short summation.

I bought these wonderful cherries yesterday at the grocery, thinking all the while I was drooling over them, that maybe I'd paint them, so, at 10:30, I set this up and took some photos and Ta Da, it's a painting, I didn't draw them this time either, I just jumped in with yellow and painted yellow over the whole cherry shape, then I took a gray color (mixed), and painted the shape of the crystal dish, then a bit darker and more purple gray for the cloth, then I went in with the red and kept working up the cherries until I had them the way I wanted, I didn't spend much time on the cloth this time, hope it doesn't show, but, I think it looks alright. This is painted on the Ampersand Aquabord, and probably one of the reasons that is didn't take too long, it's 5" x 7". I like this little painting and I hope you do too.