Merry Christmas

I spent several days during Christmas at my son and daughter-in-law's house.  I took my watercolor sketching stuff with me, as I expected to do a bit of sketching with my seven grandchildren.  But with seven kids and three adults, assorted presents, cookies, food prep, etc., there wasn't enough room to do much.  Plus, the kids had choir practice and someone always had some activity they had to go to, not counting video games and nerf gun chaos.  So I only got one sketch in, and only two of the kids painted with me.  I did have a lot of fun though, and didn't eat too many cookies. 

In the Maine Woods

I did this painting from a photo taken at Oven's Mouth Preserve while on a hike with my sister Joan a couple of years ago.  I liked the view of the water looking through the trees.  15 x 11 on Arches rough.

White Bird of Paradise

This one is from an old photo taken on one of my Hawaii trips.  I found the plant on one of my walks around the Air Force base in Honolulu.  "White Bird" 11 x 15

Playing with abstract backgrounds

I decided to play around with making an abstract background and these tulips looked like they would be a good subject to try it with.  I picked a color scheme, sketched the tulips in my square vase, added the pattern of lines in the background, and printed out several copies of the drawing.  Then I played with colors and values until I got something that I liked.  I don't have a title for this one yet.  Any ideas? 

Award of Excellence!

My painting, "Summertime Blues" (which you can find if you scroll down on this page) has won an Award of Excellence from the North East Watercolor Society members show this month.  It's been a while since I won an award, and it feels really good.

Winter Stream

This is a snow scene that I completed today from a photo taken at the Wildlife Center last winter.  Appropriate, since it was only 4 degrees this morning.