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.