A GOOD THING

Blind contour drawings usually result in some pretty neat line work drawings. I love to do them, and in class, challenged each artist to 'draw' the still life in front of them without looking at the paper as they drew.

After making three or four drawings, we choose the ones we liked best and retraced parts or all of them onto watercolor paper, using pen and ink. After lightly splattering the paper with miskit, I popped open some fluid acrylics and took off painting as loose and free as I could to capture these pomegranates.

They tend to show a strong resemblance to onions, (remember it was a BLIND contour drawing to start with,) but I sure had fun. After class, I peeled my 'first ever' pomegranate and enjoyed the delicious seeds.

"POMEGRANATES" Fluid Acrylics on 140#HP Arches 15 x 9"

PAUSING TO REST

One beautiful day this past September, we'd finished sightseeing on a small island in northern Italy and had about a half an hour to wait before our ride arrived. This older gentleman waited, too, as he leaned into his cane, and I saw a painting waiting to emerge. After a very quick one minute gesture sketch, my brushes were ready to fly.

Plopping some color on the postcard sized paper, I worked on what had first drawn my eye - his demeanor. I'd barely roughed in his clothes and skin shapes and glanced up to see what to adjust. At that moment, he stood up and walked away. WAIT!

So much for painting plein aire. The rest of the painting took about twenty five minutes with a little tweaking added later. One of my cousins has this at her house now, and I must go visit soon.

"LOST IN THOUGHT" Transparent Watercolor on 140#CP Fabriano Artistico 7 x 5" COLLECTED

PASSION

My passion for the past twenty years has been to create art while discovering all I can about watercolor. Acrylics, Acrylic Inks, Fluid Acrylics, Gouache, Collage, as well as other media, have been tossed into the mix as I journeyed along the art trail.

This painting is an oil, just regular old oil paints. It's just a small study from life which may be turned into a watermedia painting in the future.

The oils were fun to work with - for about a week. Clean up's no fun, though. I'm still in love with what can be said with watermedia. I love the diversity of watermedia, the textures, the ease of use, the challenges, the vibrancy...

"SHARING" Oil on unstretched canvas 10 x 7"