Paintings

More Yupo Futzing

2012-02-16T08:31:00.000-08:00

Well, I spent another evening playing and pushing the paint around on yupo. I played with more squeegee-ing, stencil lifting and trying to get a better facial image. This was never intended to be a masterpiece, but so far everyone who's looked at it really likes it so maybe will will end up frame worthy after all. I started with a reference photo of my mother back in the early 1940's. She was never so playful when I knew her. I've wondered who took this photo and some other crazy ones back on that day.

It's all about me, of course

2012-02-08T07:03:00.001-08:00

OK. I've been recovering from the painting blitz that i last posted about and now I'm on to getting inspired about working on Yupo. I've done several things before on Yupo, but just made up how it was supposed to be handled. I just watched George James' fantastic videos on how he works. It's such a different process. To move the paint around on this surface is like herding cats, but boy, does George have those cats corraled!.

It's fun and exciting so I attempted another self portrait, and then just played around with his techniques using a photo of my mom from the 40's. Totally just a worksheet, but i think it could have some potential as i go through the process.

Charity Event Painting Marathon

2012-01-09T06:27:00.000-08:00

I see that I haven't posted for quite awhile, but I've been creatively in the doldrums while live has been on a rollercoaster ride. So busy!. Anyway a friend asked if I would like to be one of the 5 featured artists for a fundraiser for the Le Bonheur Group, a volunteer organization to beniefit the Le Bonheur Children's Hospital. So a month ago I got the details and they wanted eight paintings to offer for sale so that meant GET BUSY!. So here's the eight that I've submitted. The event is tomorrow night so I guess we'll see if they like me. If they really, really like me. (or maybe not...AAAHHHH!!!????) The good news is that it has gotten me motivated again, my schedule has cleared up and hopefully I'm back on track.

Hmmm....they say there's a resemblence

2011-06-01T06:25:00.001-07:00

This is still a work in progress, but I think it's coming along. Curiously, both my husband and friend Linda think this looks more like me than the watercolor or acrylic versions. What does that say about me??? Eccentric maybe??

I'm pretty happy about the face, but I need to define the neck/ hand areas. I've pasted it down with repositionable adhesive (basically what holds postit notes on), so I can play with where the pieces are and can lift and layer differently as needed. I can give myself some pretty quirky expressions just by shifting the eyes. Not quite sure how I will permanently adhere them. I don't want the paper to wrinkle with wet glue. Any suggestions?

Will the Real Me Please Step Forward

2011-05-26T08:34:00.001-07:00

Inspired the Carol Marine's Daily Paintworks challenges a few weeks ago, I decided to do a series of self-portraits. It is HARDER than you think. For one thing, I've been using a mirror instead of a photo, so everything is backwards when you try to look at me and the paintings side by side. The acrylic painting was my first attempt. The first go around looked rather ghoulish and pasty so i tried to adjust the colors to give me more life, but now it looks overworked and harsh.

So on to attemp #2. Watercolor and watercolor pencil. I like this one a lot better. I think it's a pretty good likeness with out being too exact. My husband doesn't particularly like it - doesn't like the chin - so every one is a critic (haha)

.....so then on to attempt #3 - paper collage. this one isn't glued down yet, so there's a lot of give and take that will happen before it's finished, for one thing I need to move it to a bigger piece of paper than the one I sketched the underlying image on. Anyway, I think this one will be lots of fun to work on !

Door County Conversation X Two

2011-03-08T06:46:00.001-08:00

After looking at the watercolor for a day, I decided that I needed to break up the 3 color right edge so K will have something more to build from to paint the next panel. I also intensified the colors of the robe and changed the color of the beverage glass.

And then....

I decided to do another one using collage. I REALLY like this one. I think it needs a little more contrast, maybe paint over the white diagram area in the neck with a transparent color to bring out the design. What do you think? Cooler 1 or Cooler 2?

The begining of a conversation

2011-03-07T08:40:00.000-08:00

I was really intrigued by the "conversations" that Jill Posby showed on her blog. Since K and I are always looking for ways to inspire each other, we decided to start some conversations of our own. K is starting one and I'm starting one. Here's my start. I think I need to make the edges a little more interesting so she has something to work from. So here you go....

2011-02-27T11:29:00.000-08:00

I was so close to just scraping this, but after adding more color and directional lines to give it a better composition I kind of like it. I'm not sure it's worthy of posting on virtual paintout, but it's getting closer to a successful painting. I really liked the contrast in the personalities of these four women through their dress that the photo captured my imagination, but I'm not sure i did them justice. Hmmm.

2011-02-24T07:37:00.000-08:00

And here's the second painting I've been working on this week. It is the Zippo lighter challenge for the Dailypaintworks challenge. The challenge here was to use the reference photo and paint it using only Ultramarine blue, Burnt Sienna and Titanium White. A nice little challenge in color blending, but of course I had to give it a twist...literally. Fun

2011-02-24T07:33:00.000-08:00

Here's the next phase on this image from Romania Google Streetview. I worked into the background more and defined the gals a little more, but I'm still not happy and don't know where to go from here. The image has the potential to tell a story, but I'm not quite sure how to pull that out. I really want to improve on my figure painting, but they continue to look like "mine" and I'm not happy with that. The deadline for posting this on virtualpaintout is next Monday. We'll see what the weekend brings, but this may just get gessoed over.. Aargh.

Romania Take 1

2011-02-17T06:36:00.001-08:00

I found a really interesting street scene on Google maps in Romania to participate in the Virtual Paintout challenge. Here's the first layer, blocking in the figures. I like the flow, but I'm not sure the figures really fit the page. Hmmm. I'll have to play with it. Maybe even to another. Also the colors are pretty much WSIWYG. I think I'll play with that too, to get a more interesting congruent painting. This scene was just so interesting. Four women, dressed from ultra-conservative and old fashion to quite the hip sundress.

Quatro Campari Tomatoes

2011-02-10T11:48:00.000-08:00

Here's what I have so far to submit to the Daily Paintworks challenge. Instead of just trying to better the paint strokes, i tried to change the feel of the painting. It was difficult to do a 10 minute challeng in watercolor considering that you usually need to let the layers dry in between applications so that you don't end up with bleeding and muddy colors. I'm going to try some more and really jump off the deep end next. You'll see what I mean later.

One more variation

2011-02-06T16:55:00.000-08:00

Here's one more variation on the lines of the Imperial car image. I rotated it 90 degrees and I get the feeling of totem pole images. I think it's a pretty successufl composition and had fun just expanding into abstraction.. I guess the underlying image imparted that to all the submissions to the challenge. Thanks Carol Marine, I've followed your blog for a long time and appreciate the challenge.

challenge...

2011-02-05T15:54:00.000-08:00

Here's what I've done for the Daily Paintworks Challenge. Then I took it out of the box. Sort of Op Art-ish. I think I may do a collage version too. What do you think?

Doodles

2011-02-05T12:48:00.000-08:00

K and I were intrigued with the Doodle a Day Calendar that Myrna Wachnov showed on her blog so I ordered two for us to jump start us each day. Since I didn't get them until the first of February I picked out 3 from January to attack. Let me say, this is harder than it looks, or else this just isn't how my brain works.

My other resolution is to try and participate in the Dailypaint works challenge each week, and also start a series of things. I'm thinking portraits, but that's yet to be decided. I'm still making progress getting organized and really that is step 1.

2011-02-01T06:24:00.000-08:00

I can't commit to being a daily painter, but I am going to try to do more than once a week. Here's a quick sketch I did just to get back into things. It's on watercolor paper, so I think I will tackle "colorizing" this.

And K, here's a little collage that is coming your way to add to. Think I'll put it in an envelope though!. See what you can add to it.

My Bad

2011-01-31T10:25:00.000-08:00

I've had paintings a gallery here in town, and they are reorganizing so I went to retrieve all of my work that they've had as part of their inventory, but these 3 guys are missing. I guess i should have been more diligent about keeping a list of exactly what they had and checked in more frequently to see if they had sold. I'm sure that if they did sell, I'll get paid, but first we have to locate them. So here you go, alley alley in free!

2011-01-27T10:37:00.000-08:00

OK. It's been a log time since I posted. It has been one BUSY year, but I think I'm back on track. I've spent the last week cleaning up my studio, reorganizing finished paintings, putting paints, pencils, and papers back in drawers, throwing away lots of paper and printed reference photos that no longer inspire me and just flat out unearthing my drawing table.

Today I went to Michael's in search of a small drawing pad so I can start doing some small daily projects that don't require a full blown effort. ..... but they were having a SALE on canvases and strathmore pads so I ended up getting 8 gallery wrapped canvases 8 watercolor pads....Now I have no excuse to get busy. Will post a picture of the "after" studio, since I didn't take a picture of the "before" (not to be seen by anyone not related to me) studio.

Canary Islands Virtual Paint Out

2010-04-26T07:41:00.001-07:00

Participating in blog challenges has turned out to be a lot of fun. I appreciate finding new blog friends, getting subject inspiration, and in this case finding a whole new way to explore the world. Navigating through the street views on google maps is almost as good as being there....well almost. Bill Guffey's challenge, The Virtual Paintout, takes artists around the world to find their own inspiration in a particular geographic location - but not necessarily the exact same view. In the Canary Islands, you have mountains, beaches, towns, people...just about anything that inspires you can be found here. The tool is so cool that you can spin 360 and see what is around you in all directions. You can zoom in, you can move yourself 50 feet down the road and do the same thing....So cool. I chose Carratera San Andre-Taganana. The mountains

are just beautiful. I tried to keep the watercolor loose and flowing.

Gauge

2010-04-02T12:15:00.000-07:00

The office where I work is dog friendly. My boss has dogs. Friendly, tail-wagging, college educated, duck-retrieving labs. In the summers they go off to retriever school and earn lots of blue ribbons and in the fall they return just in time to get to go to work retrieving ducks. And in thier off time they come to the office. This is Gauge - the latest in the long line of duck dogs extraordinaire.

The Power of Red

2010-03-30T06:16:00.000-07:00

One teacher I had talked about the power of red....well here it is! I've had this painting up in my studio for awhile and while I don't think it has the best composition or contrast in values, it certainly has a lot of energy. It is 36x36 so that's a LOT of energy. I've just taken it to the gallery that shows my work so we'll see if anyone else likes red.

Collections

2010-03-21T07:25:00.001-07:00

Alice Thompson, one of my fellow artsts who follows Different Strokes fromDifferent Folks blog has started an alternate artist challenge called Calypso Moon Artist Movement. This challenge was to select 2 objects that represent something we collect. Since I took a pottery class in college, I have been awed by the skill and artistry of potters. It's one of those things that is easier said than done!! So since that time I have collected handmade pottery from around the country. Whenever we are in different cities we visit art fairs, art galleries and art festivals and collect pieces. As the collection has grown we have become more selective about the pieces. First they were just cool, small utilitarian pieces, but as my space has become more limited we have only purchased pieces that relect true artistry and unique style. The larger round piece here, is by Bob Smith and we bought it in Boulder Colorado. it is a huge raku piece. The tea pot was purchased in Nashville Indiana, a small community outside of Bloomington where the streets are lined with art galleries and hand made specialty shops.

So, thanks, Alice, for starting this blog and challenge! Look forward to the next one

Robin the Queen

2010-03-15T07:06:00.001-07:00

My friend, Robin, had her 55th birthday party - no gifts, just show your love and adoration by singing songs and reading poems to her....well, I'm not a composer or wordsmith, so I presented her with her portrait!!. It was a fun party and I had fun painting her curly red hair.

But what I'd really like to see there

2010-03-08T06:07:00.000-08:00

This is a larger (30x40) abract I did last year, that I think would really spark up that beach house. It still has those soft beachy colors but a whole lot more personality!. This is one of those paintings that took on a life of it's own as it evolved. I really had fun doing it and loved the the results. I can never paint a red - yellow -blue primary painting. I can start out with those colors on my pallette, but they always end up orange, green and purple!

Life is a beach

2010-03-08T05:57:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine just bought a home on the Florida shore and asked me to do a painting in the soft breezy colors of the beach. This is what I did. It's not too exciting, but maybe a more relaxing effect is what she's after. I didn't have a photo reference, but I know the sands are sugar white there, so this is what I image it to look like early in the morning before all the sunbathes and umbrellas appear. acrylic on 18x18 canvas.

The Thank You Project

2010-02-15T06:45:00.000-08:00

After the tremendous effort that Karin Jurick put into her portrait swap challenge, fellow artist Jill Polsby put together a secret thank you project, where all of us who participated in the portrait swap were invited to paint Karin's portrait and Jill put them together in a book as a gift to her. Here is my submission. You can see all other 118 portraits by visiting Jill's blog, jillpolsby.blogspot.com. It truly is a world-wide community of artists, and Karin has been one of the hubs of the wheel connecting us. Thanks, Karin, and thanks, Jill.

Artist Portrait Challenge

2009-12-14T09:25:00.001-08:00

12x12 Acrylic on canvas

The end of the year challenge on the Different Strokes from Different Folks blog is for the participating artists to paint each other anonymously. Here's the photo Karin Jurick sent me, and this lovely lady is painting me!. It's been a lot of fun, and I hope she likes the resemblence. As I was studying her she made me think of Mona Lisa, that glance to her left, and the little hidden knowledge in her look. Am I crazy? Well, that pensive look is what I tried to capture in the painting.
Now on to Christmas shopping, decorating and preparing the house for the holiday guests.
Happy Holidays to everyone!.

Leaving on a Jet Plane

2009-11-07T19:18:00.000-08:00

Karin Jurick comes up with some great challenges on her Different Strokes From Different Folks blog! This one was particularly fun for me, as I love painting figures, especially with foreshortening, and love the abstraction of the floor. I rotated the image first, so the travelers are walking to the right, instead of towards the right-bottom. They also appeared to be walking towards a black abyss, so I added another skylight spot light so their way is illuminated....and it also balanced the overall composition. I'm really happy with the way this turned out and look forward to the portrait exchange challenge. I just didn't have enough time to jump in last year and regretted it.

A Sentimental Journey

2009-09-21T06:13:00.001-07:00

My sister and I have a great relationship and when we were dividing up things at my Mom's house this painting was one of the few things that we both remembered from our childhood. It was painted in 1940 by C.E. Jones, on black velvet. It's about 4 feet wide. Both of us wanted to keep it in the family, but neither of us particulary had a place to hang it in our homes - but it's now hanging in my family room, at least for the time being. As the story goes, she went to my grandparents church and my grandfather saw some of her work and asked her to paint this for him....and now 69 years later it still is hanging!. Wonder if they will say that about my work.

Happy Anniversary Karin

2009-09-13T12:59:00.000-07:00

This is Karin Jurick's latest challenge in honor of Different Strokes from Different Folks blogspot hitting it's one year anniversary!. This was a real challenge - at least compositionally!!. By the time I got to view the challenge, several responses had already been posted, and that always makes it harder to come up with something original and not be influenced by the work of the others. Hope this holds up to comparison!

Life has gotten in the way the last few months, my mother got ill and passed away and I've had to take time off to take care of her as well as settling her estate, but hopefully I can press on full steam ahead now with painting, singing, and just getting back to my normal routine.

New Zealand Train Station

2009-08-03T08:59:00.000-07:00

I had such fun with the relaxing man, that I pulled out some photos from my big trip down under. We had about a 45 minute wait at the train station in Greymouth so I snapped a bunch of candid pictures. I don't know this girl but I love the huge stack of luggage she was guarding and her casual stance reading her book. Don't know if this is done yet - think it needs a little reworking after letting it rest a few days.

Land of the Long White Cloud

2009-07-20T06:48:00.000-07:00

I have finally had a little time to sort through all the photos we took on our big trip down under and did this loose watercolor landscape. The cloud formations in New Zealand are awesome. Everyday we would just be overcome by the beauty and say "WOW!!" This painting may not do it justice, but I think it conveys the feeling of enormity! I bounce back and forth with subject matters, so in between painting the small figure series mentioned in my last post, I'm also going to continue doing some landscapes based on our trip.

Revised Long Day

2009-07-20T06:41:00.001-07:00

I was away this weekend but came back this morning and knew I had to fix this painting this morning. The seated man just needed to tell more of a story so I added his yard - just enough to put him on the front porch, cooling off in the shade. Now I'm happy with this and am inspired to do a series of figures on small canvases (8x10).

It's Been a Long Day

2009-07-15T08:46:00.000-07:00

Here's my latest work for Karin Jurick's Different strokes from different folks challenge. It's been a very hectic summer so far and I haven't had time to paint as much as I'd like. I had been wanting to get back to doing some figurative work, so I'm happy Karin choose this photo to paint from. I like the way the figure has come out but may rework the background before I send it on to Karin.

Summer veggies

2009-06-15T06:31:00.000-07:00

Karin Jurick's subject for the current Different strokes from different folks challenge are summer vegatables. Here's my attempt. It always amazes me at how many different paintings result from one photo. I have had a very chaotic spring and haven't gotten to paint as much as I had wanted to, but hopefully I'll get back on track this summer. The summer program involves exercising more, dieting more, reading more and painting more......now if I just didn't have to go to work I might have time to do all that!!

NY NY

2009-05-13T07:27:00.000-07:00

This is my submission for Karin Jurick's Different Strokes from Different Folks blog. I painted it in guache, which is actually one of my favorite mediums. I like the textures that the windows creates, and I've simplified traffic....oh, if 34th street always looked this empty.

Unfortunately, before I could get it photographed and uploaded my elderly mother fell and I had to fly off to be with her in the hospital so this never made it to Karin's blog. I enjoyed painting it.

Also, I'm posting a picture of Bessie, our friends yellow lab. I usually use Yupo paper for my pup paintings, but with her slick coat, I went with transparent watercolor and and colored pencil. Bessie is getting framed this week and was a 25th wedding anniverary present to them.

And, life is settling down a little now and I'm ready to attach my travel photos to Australia and New Zealand. I haven't had time in the last month, as my husband and I co-chaired a fund raising event for the Red Cross. It was a fun wine tasting/pairing dinner that raised over $8000 - pretty successful I'd say for a first time event! Now back to a little painting time.

Bay Watch

2009-03-30T06:19:00.001-07:00

Here's my painting for Karin Jurick's current challenge on differentstrokesfromdifferentfolks.blogspot.com. My first attempt was more literal to the reference photo. It was ok, but not too interesting. So I decided to start again with a little different perspective on the scene and zoomed in on the female figure and put her on alert at the beach. Whether she's a life guard or just a mom watching out for the kids, I don't know. Technically, I still need to do some work. Ithink it could use more contrast and depth of colors, so I might come back and make her bathing suit a deeper color and also make her head a little bigger. After putting it down for a day or two, I can see where it can be improved, but over all I really like the composition and it gives the painting a little more of a story.

Blast from the Past - more collages

2009-03-23T11:22:00.001-07:00

After the Sushi challenge, I thought I'd show you a couple of the challenges we had in our class. The red one is composed of torn paper, candy wrappers, packing cloth and pen. The green one is wrapping paper, a watercolor scrap, wall paper and magnolia leaves. When you just have a little time and want to play see what you can come up with.

DSFDF SUSHI

2009-03-18T08:08:00.000-07:00

Here's my take on Karin Jurick's challange of sushi rolls on her blog, differentstrokesfromdifferentfolks.blogspot.com. Instead of paint, I chose collage, incorporating a soy label, origami paper and my watercolor paintings of the sushi and soy puddle. I couldn't see a good composition in the original photo, so by using collage I could add a lot of other elements and play with their placement until I was happy with it. It passes the "twirly test" as an old art teacher used to say. It really works well no matter which end is at the top.I had a lot of fun doing this. Also as a side note, there is a really cool book called "A Year in Japan" by Kate T. Williamson which is beautifully illustrated that also inspired the feel of my piece. Check it out on Amazon, and preview a few pages.

OH, Yeah....and abstracts, too

2009-03-17T10:53:00.000-07:00

Look for future paintings based on these ariels. I love the shape and line. And after seeing Karin Jurick's choice of wigs in windows for her last challenge, we saw these manniquins in a window!! It was a store selling retail display racks, hangers and manniquins... Looks like a pretty good price for a new body! Too funny!

BACK AND READY TO WORK

2009-03-17T10:43:00.000-07:00

After a 4 week vacation to New Zealand and Australia I'm back with 4000 pictures as reference material! It was an awesome trip and puts me back in the mood to paint some landscapes and incredible skies. Here's a few New Zealand shots. I was also inspired to do some abstracts after viewing and learning about Aboriginal art. (I see dots in my future). It's incredible how the work has proliferated since the introduction of canvas and acrylic paints since the 1970's. There are some very traditional works which relate tribe stories, and then lots of abstracts that have departed from the story telling. They were pretty amazing. We also visited the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney and well as the art museum of Christchurch which was pretty cool too. I went knowing nothing about artists of the area, but there is a lot of European influence there, obviously, since it is part of the Commonwealth. So as soon as I'm over jetlag and get settled back in (and laundry done) it's paint to paper!!

The Southern Cross

2009-02-18T01:05:00.001-08:00

I admit it - I'm addicted to blogging! Here I am in NewZealand on vacation and I'm posting. Amazingly I can get free internet access at the hotels we've been staying at (so far!). So maybe I can stay connected. We are off on a great adventure and boy what landscapes and skies I've photographed so far! The countryside looks a lot like my paintings from Scotland, and some of it looks like the hills in northern California. I have my card reader in hand, but there's no usb port, only monitor and keyboard. Maybe next hotel. But I decided to bring my watercolor pencils and a paintbrush. I painted our green lipped mussels we had for dinner, and a landscape so far, but I need to go to an art shop and buy paper, I brought a tiny journal, but it doesn't like water ;-(.

I'll get back on when I can. Karol....Keep on getting that blog set up!!!

My Painting Partner

2009-02-13T08:00:00.000-08:00

I belong to a little artist group that meets once a week. This grew out of a few people who took painting lessons together and then our teacher moved away. We decided to continue meeting sans the instruction and have been doing so for 5 additional years. My friend, Linda, here creates the most amazing photos and collages. So last night I just painted her while she was focused on her work. Not bad for a quick little watercolor.

OK, I need feedback

2009-02-11T14:15:00.000-08:00

Here's a painting that I'm stuck on. I got this far and don't know where to go. I have a love/hate affair with the red. The photo reference was really when we were on a boatride, and the shoreline is all (ho, hum) green and blue. I think the red is striking, but is it too much like hitting over the head red? Once I cover it up, I'll never be able to reestablish it again because of its transparence quality. What do you think?

I'VE BEEN TAGGED!

2009-02-10T06:28:00.000-08:00

I've been tagged by R Garriott this past week. The photoshop tips are so useful and generous and I appreciate the notice my humble blog. So here goes, 7 unusual things about me:

1. I'm left handed and only use a Wacom tablet for a mouse. I don't see how anyone ever gets around with a mouse shaped like a shoebox. Definitely check it out, it is so much easier and intuitive.

2. I folded 400 origami birds for an art installation at my church (see above) - the trick was in the hanging!

3. I love to cook and have a cookbook fetish - I have over 400 cookbooks!

4. I learned to drive a stick shift in a 1953 MGTC - It made it all worth it!

5. I've zoomed down the Olympic bobsled run in Utah in a 4man bobsled - an adrenaline rush for 58 seconds.

6. I earned my private pilot's license on my 16th birthday - I could fly a plane alone before I could drive alone.

7. I'm taking all of my vacation and sick time at once for the year and packing my bags for New Zealand and Australia!!!! (So if I'm not posting for awhile, it's because I'm down under;-)

And now for my seven artists picks to tag. I've not been blogging long enough to know if you've been tagged before, if you have I apologize. So I've picked some of you who have honored me with comments on my blog, and those of you whose work I admire. Hope you will join the game and play too.
Lesley Spanos, Carmel Indiana http://www.spanosart.com/
Annie Salness, California http://anniesalness.blogspot.com/
Jessica Cook, Atlanta, Georgia http://www.jessicacook.com/
Theresa Miller, Geneva, Switzerland, http://theresamillerwatercolors.blogspot.com/
Jill Donahue, Baltimore, Maryland http://jilldonahue.blogspot.com/
Maria Kovalenko Leysens, Mars, Pennsylvania http://mklart.blogspot.com/
Laura http://lauraswatercolors.blogspot.com/

Thanks in advance for playing!

Getting ready for the big one

2009-02-02T11:00:00.000-08:00

I'm getting ready to go on vacation again with camera in hand, so I thought I'd post a few landscapes from previous travels. I know when I get back, I'll be so inspired I won't be able to sit still. These are inspired from our trip to Scotland!

TO THE HILLS

2009-01-28T08:54:00.000-08:00

I painted this dyptic of the hills last summer, but I have it hanging in my office and it's like having a window to the outdoors. It is transparent acrylic on 12 x 12 panels.

Victorian Abstract

2009-01-28T06:24:00.000-08:00

I am really enjoying this challenge from Different Strokes from Different Folks. The victorian house was posted by Karin Jurick on her blog for us to use as a reference photo. I first mentally cropped the photo and painted the house, then decided that it was a much more interesting composition to zoom in on the eave line and balance the position the contrasting windows in a square format. Then I intensified the colors. I think I'm going to take this design one step farther and do a more abstract picture using these division lines, but drop out the indication of the architecture. I think I will do it in collage and use textured papers and paint. Stay tuned......

It's a Beau - tiful Dog

2009-01-26T13:56:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine asked me to paint a picture of his son's dog, Beau. He's a very regal Chesapeake Bay Retriver. Here's the finished watercolor that he gave to his son for Christmas.

Most of my dog portraits have been on Yupo paper which lets me get a lot of serendipitous texture in the coat, but with Beau I needed to achieve a softer finish so I use transparent watercolor on illustration board.

A RETRO FIT

2009-01-20T10:08:00.001-08:00

I haven't had much time to paint this week, but I did pull up some of the previous references photos from Karin Jurick's blog and did some quick, loose studies. They are not near as finished as the pieces submitted to her site, but I just wanted to use these as some warm up practise. I haven't really done many watercolors lately so if I do try a more finished piece, I'll start again and lay down a better drawing first. I was mostly trying to work with tone values and composition, rather than details. There's a new challenge this week, so I'll work on that, as well as on some acrylic abstracts this week.

A Second Chance

2009-01-12T06:19:00.000-08:00

I started on the Different Strokes from Different Folks challenge again. This time I used acrylic on canvas, 12 x 12. I added the people to improve the composition and I'm pretty happy with it. This was a tough subject to approach, but the point is to push us out of our comfort zone and use our imagination as well as our paint brushes.

Thanks, Karin Jurick for creating such a great network for us.

A STAB IN THE DARK

2009-01-09T05:59:00.000-08:00

Here's my first 3 stabs at the jefferson memorial at night. Part of the DSFDF challenge. I like the zoomed in version the best, but it needs to be more precise, but it is giving me a direction.

LOOKING FORWARD TO A PRODUCTIVE 09

2009-01-05T14:12:00.000-08:00

I have just been facinated with all the portraits appearing daily of DSFDF..they are all great, but I am also enjoying the links to the other artist's websites and blogs. You guys are really articulate about your struggles, goals and philosophies. You are inspiring me to become a daily painter, or at least setting a goal to accomplish 2 or 3 a week, anyway. I am also going to add a few of my figuratives here. These are all older works for me, but I hope to publish new works from this point forward.

ABSTRACTS

2008-12-31T10:44:00.000-08:00

I get bored doing the same thing, so I flip back and forth between abstracts, landscapes and people. I love all three and just go with my mood or inspiration. These are some of my works in abstract.

MY FAVORITE 4-LEGGED FRIENDS

2008-12-31T09:07:00.000-08:00

I'm a dog lover and two of these are mine. The golden I painted on commission. I love painting them on Yupo paper, you can really get movement and expression. It's also so unpredictable that you can't get too tight.

HERE WE GO!

2008-12-31T08:37:00.000-08:00

I've been following a few blogs, but it never dawned on me to create one until I discovered Karin Jurick's blog, DifferentStrokesFromDifferentFolks.blogspot.com. I am so excited to become a part of this creative group of artists who post there work in response to her challenges. I have been painting for 10 years, and work mostly in watercolor and acrylic, but like to dabble in other media as well. I am a part of a small art group that meets weekly and the feedback from others is so helpful. This blog network is amazing!! I want your comments. I plan to tackle the next DSFDF challenge next week!