March Madness and SketchCrawl 18

March was a pretty busy month for me. It started out with the Gerald Brommer watercolor workshop in Myrtle Beach (see below for workshop paintings). I came home to my street blocked by a fallen tree and no electricity, heat, internet, or phone. It took 10 days before everything was restored to normal.

My newest grandson was born in March - Louis Joseph - a bouncing 9 pound 10 ouncer, and my 10th grandchild.

I celebrated my 63rd birthday on the 28th.

And I finished the month by participating in SketchCrawl 18. This was my second SketchCrawl. My sister Joan and I started at the Fort Lee Historic Park and our first sketch was the George Washington Bridge. I couldn't believe how close we were to the bridge. It seemed to be right in our laps as we sat and sketched. We did a few other sketches in the park, one of them a sketch of a gentleman who was dressed in period costume in front of a soldier's hut sewing a pair of "britches". While I sketched he told us a lot about the living conditions of soldiers in Revolutionary War times. On the way home, we stopped at the Celery Farm in Allendale where I did a watercolor pencil sketch of the marsh from one of the observation platforms set up for bird watchers.

Gerald Brommer Workshop Day 5

Day 5, the last day of our workshop. We were ending early on Friday, so we only had time for one painting. This time the exercise was in IMAGING. The object of the lesson was to work without reference material, and to "image" a painting from memory. Again, we were to make thumbnails of a subject, choosing several elements that we wanted to include. At first I didn't think I could do a landscape without a reference, but decided that if I could, it would probably have to be of Maine, because I can probably paint Maine in my sleep. So I decided on a lighthouse, rocks, the sea, and beach roses - all things I have painted enough times that I should be able to "see" them in my mind. After 5 thumbnails, I chose this vertical view.

On Friday evening, we had Gallery Night. The rooms were cleaned up and everyone had several paintings matted and hung. We dressed up, and enjoyed wine, hors douvres and piano music as we viewed the paintings of our class as well as the other classes that were there that week.

It was a great workshop, and I was very sorry to see it end. I learned a lot and hope to incorporate the things I learned into my future landscapes.

Gerald Brommer Workshop Day 4

On Day 4 Jerry did a demo on fog, and he pinned up several other paintings depicting interesting weather, times of day, or seasons, explaining that each of these were another way to show CONTENT. I chose to depict fog and rain, which, in hindsight, look quite a bit alike except for the slight streaks on the "rain" painting. It was a challenge to keep the colors muted and pale in the distance, and darker and slightly more colorful but still somewhat grayed in the foreground. I decided to go back to my white house reference for this exercise.

Gerald Brommer Workshop Day 3

It's day three and Jerry had a new challenge for us. He handed out a printed sheet of adjectives that described MOOD. We were to choose three adjectives for each of two paintings - again using the same reference. This time I had a simple house framed by two trees. My adjectives for the first painting were PEACEFUL, QUIET, COZY, and for the second SNOWY, ISOLATED, BLEAK. As you can see, I tried to make them as different as possible. They don't even look like the same subject, but if you look at the second one, you can see the same house way off in the distance, framed by the two trees. We wrote our "mood adjectives" on the back of the paintings so that Jerry could try to guess what we were trying to say. I really enjoyed this exercise.

Gerald Brommer Workshop Day 2

On Day 2 we were able to use our own reference photos. But there was a catch! We were to choose a few elements from our photo - white house, rocks, pine trees, lupines, sea and rearrange them in several thumbnail sketches, then choose 2 of our sketches to make paintings. This would be our routine each day - to do two different paintings from the same reference/references. I enjoyed doing this one, using a photo that I had taken in Maine a few years back. Great minds think alike, because my sis ended up chosing the same sketch as I did of the barn on Day 1, and her day 2 paintings also had Maine, and lupines as subjects. You can see Joan's workshop paintings at www.watercolorsbyjoan.blogspot.com

Gerald Brommer Workshop Day 1

Last week I took a watercolor workshop in Myrtle Beach with Gerald Brommer. My sister Joan and I took this workshop together. The emphasis of the workshop was on CONTENT.

We started day 1 out by looking at slides of landscapes, and we had approximately 5 minutes to do a sketch of each one. You could hear the groans as the class tried furiously to sketch each one. Then we were assigned to take one sketch and do two paintings from it, one high key and one low key. I chose this barn because it seemed to be the least complicated, and therefore, the easiest to translate from my far from adequate sketch into a painting. I wasn't really crazy about the high key version, since I really like color, but I was pleasantly surprised at the low key one.

Here are the results from Day 1.

Wiped Out

This iris was done using a technique made famous by Cheng Khee Chee and Roland Roycroft. I wet my paper thoroughly, and dropped in some blues, greens and purples, and while it was still wet I used a "thirsty" brush to wipe out the white iris. Of course, it didn't come out pure white, but that was okay - in fact, my reference was a pale blue iris. When everything dried, I added some shadows and the yellow beards. It's an interesting technique, and I felt that I really struggled with it, but I like the effect.

And Now the Collage

I started this collage before the Masa one and gave up on it. But I don't like to give up, so I went back to it today. The camera cropped it a little close on the sides - it's really a square. I'll try to get a better photo if the weather is better tomorrow. This was done with stained and torn washi (rice papers) mounted on Arches 300 lb. rough 11 x 11 inches. The element of design is still "texture".

Masa for Texture

This is the third version of the Ti plant, focusing on TEXTURE. My first effort for this one was a collage, which I was not too happy with, so I got out my trusty Masa paper. Crumpled Masa creates great texture, and I love the way the paint settles in the cracks. I used an underpainting of Quinacridone Gold (my "mother color"), various greens, blues and reds, sometimes mixed with the Quin Gold and sometimes on their own. I think I'm ready to move on to something new now.

Sketchcrawl 17

I don't sketch enough. In fact, I rarely sketch at all unless I am doing a painting en plein air. So when I read about Worldwide Sketchcrawl, I knew I had to try it. A sketchcrawl is an all day sketching event held simultaneously all around the world. I wasn't expecting the next one to be in January.

It was cold, so my sister, Joan, and I went to one of the local parks where I knew we could sketch through the observatory window. We did a few sketches through the window, and some from the aquariums and displays inside the building. Then we drove to another park which had a little zoo. Many of the animals were gone or inaccessable for the winter. The only ones we could find were a few bison which were too far away to sketch, and some farm animals. I sketched a cow and started on a sheep. By then we were freezing, and the zookeeper actually made us leave before I finished my sheep drawing because it was getting late. So we went to a nearby mall for coffee and sketched some people and called it a day.

You can see the rest of my sketches at http://www.sketchcrawl.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2789

It's All About Shapes

This version of the Ti leaves is all about shape, so I painted the shapes negatively. I first poured the background - Winsor Red, Winsor Blue and Winsor Yellow, and then painted behind shapes layer by layer, going darker with each layer. This was a relaxing painting to do. The hardest part was waiting for each layer to dry.

Emphasizing Line

Through my internet buddy Rhonda, I found Myrna Wacknov's blog and have been watching her and other artists as they work on challenges that Myrna proposes. This month's challenge had to do with the Elements of Design. I've modified Myrna's challenge a bit to make it less complicated for myself and have chosen a subject and an element. My subject is a Ti plant that I photographed in Hawaii, and the design element I want to emphasize is LINE. Originally I was going to draw the lines with pen, but just before I started it got the idea to paint red lines instead. As I went along it occurred to me that I could leave some of the leaves white for more interest, and then I decided to put the black rectangle in the background to add more lines, as well as a good dark to make the subject "pop". I evidently did not take my photograph entirely straight on, so please forgive the little bit of distortion in the rectangle. Next I will be doing the same subject emphasizing SHAPE.

Ti Leaves 11 x 15 on Winsor Newton Hot Press

Christmas Greetings

Wishing everyone a wonderful Christmas with family and friends.

Koi

When Daniel Smith announced their Toucan Triad sampler, some of the artists on WetCanvas decided to start a Toucan Challenge. I decided to do a painting for the challenge, and my first thought was "Koi". The colors in the triad, Ultramarine Turquoise, Quinacridone Gold Deep, and Transparent Pyrrol Orange, were perfect for the koi, and the cracks in the crinkled masa paper can easily be seaweed or the movement of the water. I think this is my first non-flower subject done on masa.

Pouring Watercolor

I don't usually include my failures on my blog, but these failures were so much fun to do that I decided to share them.

Last spring my sis and I took a collage workshop right next door to where Jean Grastorf was doing a pouring workshop. We peeked in a few times and everyone was having so much fun that we decided we had to try it. Last week we both did a few small "pours". Mine were on 7 1/2 x 11 Arches, kept small so that we could easily pour into a foil roasting pan. The colors were Winsor Red, Winsor Blue and Winsor Yellow.

This technique involves a lot of masking, something I usually avoid doing. It's supposed to produce really vibrant, glowing colors. Well, my first pour created a really pretty mixture, but as I masked and poured subsequent layers I ended up with DULL. In my estimation, my colors are dull, my whites too white and blobby, my lights are too dark and my darks are too light, even after several attempts to darken. A lot of work for not so satisfactory results. I suppose I could add brushwork to these and improve them, but I think I will save them as learning aides for my next try. Yes, I will try it again.

I've been tagged again!

Sandy Maudlin http://www.sandymaudlin.blogspot.com/ tagged me this time. Here are 5 more things about me that you probably don't know:

1. I am the oldest of 5 children and was born while my dad was in the army waiting for things to wind down at the end of WWII.
2. I spent 12 years in Catholic school.
3. My first job was as a dictaphone typist for the U.S. Civil Service Commission. If you were investigated for a job in any government agency between 1962 and 1965 I may have typed up the results of your investigation.
4. I have three grown children and will soon be a grandmother of 10 - yes ten!!!
5. My happiest memories from childhood involve being with my family at the beach - usually Jones Beach on Long Island, NY. I can still smell the salt water, feel the sand between my toes, and I loved jumping off the wall at the far end of the beach.

The people I will tag this time are:
http://www.ginahallstudios.blogspot.com/ - Gina is in the process of painting a bazillion dog portraits for Christmas gifts but I hope she will have time to respond.

http://www.maineart.blogspot.com/ - I've loved Laura's work ever since I found her on Ebay a number of years ago. She paints watercolors and oils of Maine - one of my favorite places.

http://www.watercolorist.blogspot.com/ - you may have seen Jane Freeman's work in the Splash books. She has recently published an instructional book of her own through North Light, and is working on an amazing painting of glass crystal and peppers. Hope you have time to play too, Janie.

http://www.onewingoriginalwatercolors.blogspot.com - Tracy just started her blog a few days ago, so I'm pretty sure she hasn't been tagged yet.

http://stopanddrawtheroses.blogspot.com/ - I met Stacy (Fireman's Kid) while participating in the Drawing 101 class on WetCanvas.

If anyone is interested, check the archives for my May post, or just scroll down a little ways, and you can see the stuff I posted and the people I tagged last time.

Happy Birthday, Joan!

It's my sister's birthday today. This is the image that I used on her birthday card. We frequently paint together, and we both recently purchased Daniel Smith's Toucan Triad - Quinacridone gold deep, Pyrrol Orange, and Ultramarine Turquoise. Those colors were perfect for this cactus. (Reference photo provided by Gina Hall)

"Birthday Cactus" 5 x 7 on Arches Cold Press.

Les Belles Artistes

This is a photo of myself and a group of artists that I met more than 10 years ago while taking watercolor classes together. We have stayed in touch and some of us have taken workshops together. Earlier this year we decided to exhibit our art as a group. One of our members, Monique, named us "Les Belles Artistes". Recently we hung our first show at the Gallery of the Franklin Lakes Presbyterian Church in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey. I decided that it would be fun to make a blog just for our group, and you can find it at www.lesbellesartistes.blogspot.com.

Lots of Leaves

I painted this "negatively" by painting around each leaf and then blending it out, putting one leaf behind another until the paper was filled. Some of these are from stencils that I made a few years back to paint t-shirts, and some of them are from new leaves I found in the driveway.

Sunflowers Win Award at NEWS Show

This painting was posted here previously but today I found out that it won an award at the North East Watercolor Society Members Show. It was a surprise, as they evidently do not let the award winners know ahead of time, and there were no awards attached to the paintings or listed in the catalog. I found out with everyone else when they announced the winners at the awards ceremony. Quite exciting!

Wave Watching

Don't you just love watching waves! I must have taken hundreds of photos of waves at the Jersey Shore, in Hawaii, and in Maine. This painting was done on Yupo (that plastic "paper") from one of my Hawaii photos. Yupo is great for painting water - it runs and puddles all over the place, but you can wipe out the whites if you need to. And you get neat puddling effects that you can't predict which makes it really exciting.

Approximately 10x14 on Yupo

Myrtle Beach Palms

Recently I sold a small palm tree painting and wanted to do another a little larger. This is a half sheet watercolor (15 x 22) of some trees I saw while taking a workshop in Myrtle Beach last spring. I focused in close and left out the large hotel in the background.

White Rose Travels to India

This little painting travelled to India last week as part of a swap with an international group of watercolor artists. I have previously sent paintings to the Philippines and to England, as well as several states in the USA, and have received paintings from some interesting places as well. My latest swap painting came to me from Steve Sorrell in Tasmania.

I've Been Tagged

I've been tagged by my sister Joan. http://watercolorsbyjoan.blogspot.com
If I understand the rules correctly, I now have to tell 7 things about myself that no one knows (well, my sis probably knows all of them), and then tag 7 other people. Let's see if I can find 7 people I know who haven't been tagged before.
About me:

1. I was named Michelle after my father, Michael, and got the nickname "Mickey" from one of my father's boyhood friends. My brother Joe was named after my Mom. We sometimes do things a little backwards in my family.

2. I was exposed to art at a young age when my aunt took me to the art museums in NYC on my birthday outings. I knew right away that I wanted to be an artist when I grew up.

3. When I was about 10, I accidentally stuck my hand into a wet oil painting belonging to an artist who was next to me on the Fire Island ferry. I was trying to keep from falling when the ferry lurched.

4. I wanted to play for the Yankees when I grew up (in addition to being an artist, of course). The closest I came was a mom's softball team when my kids were little.

5. My favorite foods are lobster and ice cream (not together).

6. I met my husband on a trip to a dude ranch with a church youth group. I was from New York and he was from Pennsylvania, and we met in Massachusetts.

7. A couple of years ago I joined a beginners senior tap dance class and have performed in two of their annual shows.

The 7 people I tagged are:

Rhonda Carpenter - http://rhcarpenter.blogspot.com
Susan Roper - http://wcbysusanroper.blogspot.com
Cia Price - http://artmaker-cecilia-price.blogspot.com
Jane James - http://janefranart.blogspot.com
Dabs - http://artbydabs.blogspot.com
Marilyn Fuerstenberg - http://marilynfuerstenberg.blogspot.com
Elizabeth McRorie - http://emcrorie.blogspot.com

African Violets

I started these African violets from life at my friend's house the week before I left for the workshop. I didn't finish it, and luckily the plant was still flowering so I finished it up today. Watercolor 11 x 15 on Arches.

Sunflowers

I started this painting over a month ago, and I finished it today. We do not get many sunflowers in suburban New Jersey, so when I saw these last fall I made sure to get a photo. This is 11 x 15 watercolor on Arches.

Two more small collages

Here are two more small abstract collages that I did to show my Thursday painting group the techniques we learned in Jerry Brommer's workshop. I hope to do one or two larger ones with them this week. I was happy with the purple and yellow radial design, but it took some work to resolve the blue collage. It didn't come together until I glazed some Winsor blue over it to unify, and added the whites with gouache.

Workshop Days 4 and 5

On the 4th and 5th days of the workshop we did landscapes. As I watched Jerry do his demo, I decided on a photo I had of the gazebo at Laguna Beach, California. There were no flowers on the hill in the photo, but I knew that flowers grew there in the spring, so I put a lot of color into my collage. Jerry said it looked more like Tahiti, so I guess I will have to call it something like "Tropical Surprise". On Friday after our last class we had a "gallery night" where all the classes displayed their work for the week. I truly enjoyed this workshop, or as I call it - my trip to art camp.

Workshop Day 3 - Flowers

On Day 3 Mr. Brommer, "Jerry", had us do flower collages. Being a flower painter, I was really looking forward to these. It took me a while to get the hang of it - they were harder to do than the abstracts, because we were just trying for the "essence" of flowers. I liked my third attempt best.

Workshop Day 2

The second day of the workshop we did larger abstracts on 11 x 11 inch paper. My first design was a horizontal one with a cool (blue) dominance and warm accents. The second is a "box in a box" design with a warm dominance and cool accents. It was fun to see how many different collages the class managed to come up with for this assignment. We spent many nights after class staining papers for the next day.

Stained Paper Collages - Gerald Brommer Workshop

Last week my sister and I took a "Stained Paper Collage" workshop with Gerald Brommer. I have been a fan of his work with both watercolor and collage for many years. During the 5 day workshop we learned to stain paper - lots and lots of paper. And we learned about several different designs and how to utilize them in both abstract and representational work. These three small abstracts were done on 7 1/2 x 7 1/2 Arches rough with watercolor stained washi. The designs used were a "bridge", a "T" and a "cruciform".

Snow and Fog

I took the reference photo for this painting a year ago at Ramapo Reservation, near my home. It was still snowing slightly and it was sort of foggy and soft. I loved the way the distant trees and mountains looked, and I think I nailed them pretty well in my watercolor. The foreground evergreens gave me a little trouble, since I found it difficult to put the snow on the branches without making it look too sharp and defined. I originally masked it, which was a mistake, and so I had to scrub them to soften, and then add some midtones and darks trying to keep it somewhat indistinct. I think I succeeded somewhat - not what I originally had in mind, but not bad.

Pemaquid Point

A few weeks ago I painted a smaller version of this scene from Pemaquid Point, Maine on yupo. This one is on Arches 140 lb. rough, and is a half sheet. Pemaquid Lighthouse and the rocks that surround it are my favorite landscape subjects. I was probably standing with my back to the lighthouse looking down to the left when I took the reference photo for this painting. I also love to climb down on the rocks, find a comfy place to sit, and do a watercolor sketch in my journal. It's getting harder and harder for this out-of-shape, almost 62 year old to get down there and back up again though.

Something Different Again

This is a "posterized" portrait of my grandson David, which I did by following a tutorial on the WetCanvas website. I had been admiring the posterized portraits done by a couple of WetCanvas regulars, and when the tutorial was posted, I decided to follow along. It was interesting to see how getting the shapes and values right made an accurate likeness.

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".