Something different

This first is a stained paper collage - that is, I took several kinds of rice papers and stained them with watercolor in yellows, oranges, reds, purples, blues and greens, and then tore them and adhered them to watercolor paper. I did have a loose drawing as a guide. There are some gold "strings" in the vase and the background that do not show in this photo. I can see great possibilities with this technique.




It's been a week for doing something different, and yesterday I decided to play with a piece of Yupo, that interesting plastic/paper. This is "Pemaquid Point" approximately 10 x 12 on Yupo with watercolor. The watercolor floats around on this paper for quite a while after you put it down, making all sorts of surprise textures. I also spattered some clear water on the rocks and grass to help it along.

God Bless Us All This Christmas

This is the painting that I used for my Christmas card this year. It shows 6 of my grandchildren last January acting out the Nativity scene right after the youngest was born. It was a challenge trying to get a likeness for each of the kids, especially for Joey, the little blond guy on the right who refused to be in the reference photo. The original painting is 11 x 15.

White Poinsettia

I do a few poinsettia paintings every year around this time. It gives me that good old Christmassy feeling. This one is 5 x 7 and was painted for my swap partner - I belong to a group of watercolorists who trade small paintings a few times a year. I enjoyed "finding" colors in this all white flower.

Painting With Grandma

All of my grandchildren love to paint. This Thanksgiving my littlest grandson, two year old Brandon, painted this masterpiece for me. It took him a while to learn not to rinse all the paint off his brush before putting it to paper. My job was to get more paper and more water when needed, and to tell the budding artist how terrific his paintings were.

My Latest Dahlia

This is my latest floral - another dahlia. They are a challenge to draw and paint with all those petals, but I love the shadow and light patterns, and all the "colors" I found in this essentially white flower. The size is 15"x15".

Monhegan Lighthouse

I painted "Monhegan Lighthouse" a year after I took the photo. I "collect" lighthouses. I've loved them ever since I can remember. I found this sentinel on my first trip to Monhegan Island, sometimes known as "the artists' island", since everywhere you look you will find someone painting, and the tiny island is home to a good many galleries. I enjoyed hiking to various cliffs and doing small paintings while I was there, and have a nice collection of photos for future reference.

Watercolor Shows

This is the time of year when many national and regional art societies are having their annual shows. My painting "Dahlia", 22x30, is currently showing at the NorthEast Watercolor Society's annual members juried show in Middletown, NY. I love participating in these shows, as well as meeting the other artists and seeing their work.

More ACEO's

Last night I was painting some little floral ACEO's (2.5 x 3.5 art collectable cards) in watercolor when I got the idea to try collaging a few. I did these with scraps from my mulberry and rice paper stashes. I put them up on eBay. It will be interesting to see if any of them get bids. I think they turned out rather well.

White Irises

I painted this today for a project in WatercolorWorkshop, a Yahoo group for watercolor artists. The object of this project was to paint something white without using white paint, and to see how many colors could be found in a "white" object. For my irises I used cobalt blue, permanent rose, burnt sienna, permanent yellow, and a little scarlet lake in the centers.

Lighthouse Collage

I've been reading the collage books written by Gerald Brommer. I like the way he sometimes leaves some vertical whites and adds linework to make his subjects a little abstract. This is my original painting of the famous Pemaquid Lighthouse, done with various types of rice paper, based on the methods suggested in Brommer's book "Watercolor and Collage Workshop".

Port Clyde House - from Camden Workshop

After not posting here since Christmas, I have managed to put up three paintings in one day. I started this painting in August at a workshop in Camden, Maine. It was my second painting of the day and I had only managed to get in the drawing, the sky and a few green washes before it was time to quit for the day. The barely started painting lay around in my studio for months before I picked it up last month and decided to finish it. "Port Clyde House" measures 11x15.

Abstract Rocks

My Thursday painting buddies and I decided to have some fun doing abstracts. This is what I came up with after wetting the paper and dropping in quinacridone gold, permanent rose, and Winsor blue. I laid some Saran Wrap on the initial wash to texture the paper. When it dried I "found" rocks. I have to say that I have not been very successful with my previous attempts at abstracts, and I was surprised and pleased to watch this one almost paint itself.

The Red Amaryllis

I started "Red Amaryllis" (15x22) in January, but got sidetracked and just finished it recently. I used just about every red I had on my palette, plus a couple of yellows. This was the first year in a long time that I did not have a new amaryllis for Christmas, so I had to make to with one of the many photos I have taken of them thru the years - easier to paint this way, but not nearly as much fun.

Merry Christmas

This is the image I used for my Christmas card this year. I can't believe how fast the Christmas season arrives each year and this one is no exception. I've been in a painting slump for several weeks due to Thanksgiving/Christmas preparations as well as the usual seasonal cold/flu thing, but I'm looking forward to a new and exciting year of painting.

The Pet Project

This month's project for WatercolorWorkshop, one of my favorite groups, is pets. I found a terrific cat photo on WetCanvas (hope it's okay to mix groups) and painted this fluffy critter for my entry. It was the first time I've painted "fur". I was drawn to the softness of the cat, and the bright blue eyes. I really enjoyed this one. P.S. The reference photo for this watercolor was taken by Sandy Derry. You can view her artwork at www.countrycottagestudio.homestead.com

Curtis Island Lighthouse - Camden workshop painting

This is one of the paintings I started in the Camden watercolor workshop with Joel Popadics. We had a good view of the lighthouse and I'm pretty pleased with my painting, with the exception of the size of the schooner. I added it from memory because I thought it would be a nice touch, but in reality, a schooner would have been much larger. I may have to call this one "Lighthouse With Toy Schooner".

Drawing

Okay, so it's not watercolor. I just had to share this one. A good drawing is the foundation for a good watercolor. I was not happy with my drawing skills, so when I saw an online drawing class starting on WetCanvas, (www.wetcanvas.com) I decided to try it. Our first assignment was to draw something that we felt was too difficult for us. We are now up to lesson #26, and in this lesson we re-visited our first drawing and did it again. This is the drawing I did today of my grandson, Matthew, at about a year and a half old. Forgive me if I don't post the "before" picture. I learned a lot in these 26 lessons about being patient, really looking, and starting very lightly and progressing until I was happy with the drawing, and then pushing the darks. I'm quite happy with this one and discovered that I like pencil drawing not just as a preparation for watercolor, but as a medium of its own.

Camden Workshop

I recently attended an outdoor workshop in Camden, Maine. We learned to paint harbors, schooners, sailboats, fog (lots of fog), and lighthouses. I also learned that I need to consolidate my painting gear more as it was tough lugging it all around to the various painting destinations. I highly recommend an outdoor workshop to anyone who wants to paint landscapes/seascapes in watercolor. Here are some photos from the workshop. The workshop was given by Joel Popadics (www.watercolorpop.com), shown giving a demo at left. That's my painting of a schooner in the second photo, and that's me in the red shirt in the middle one, painting sailboats with Mt. Battie in the distance. During the 5 day workshop I started 10 paintings, which I will try to finish at home from notes and photos. I will post some of them here when they are completed.

ACEO's

Until several days ago, I had never heard of ACEO's (Art Cards Editions and Originals). In case you haven't either, they are tiny paintings measuring 2.5 x 3.5 inches that artists have been trading for quite some time. They fit in the plastic sleeves or pages made for baseball cards. Recently they have become popular with the general public too, and have been appearing on ebay. They are cute, made with a variety of media, some are realistic, some cartoonish and funny, some collaged with photos, fabric and beads. I decided to get in on the party and have turned out a few that I have listed on ebay. Let's see what happens with them.

Michelle

Grandchildren and Art

I love doing art with my grandchildren. I have eight of them, and they all like to paint with me. This week I had my 8-year-old granddaughter here for a sleepover. We did a lot of fun things like swimming, shopping, and a carnival. We also did some arts and crafts, like watercolors, origami, rug hooking and painting on rocks. These are the watercolor and rice paper collages we did yesterday.

First we stained washi (several different types of rice paper) with bright watercolors and let them dry. Then we collaged tulip shapes on a support of watercolor paper. It was exciting to see the colorful bits of paper as they began to look like tulips.