LET'S GO DUTCH

Several years ago, Loraine traveled to Holland, which she absolutely loved. She looks very Dutch herself, has been an art teacher, and I'm thankful that she shared her photo with me of this beautiful place.

This OLDIE is a little more recent than the last several posts and treated fairly traditionally in the way it is painted. I liked the stillness in the pix.

"NO BREEZE TODAY" Transparent Watercolor on 140#CP Arches 22 x 15"

AN OLDIE - FOR SURE

This old place in Germany is now a car dealership. How sad.

A friend let me paint the photo which her husband had taken in the early fifties. I'd hoped to capture the charm of the place but think my lack of experience shows a lot in this painting, painted maybe 15 years ago.

Comparing how far you've come as an artist is a good thing. One instructor said to never toss out your old paintings, but to store them under the bed to check later. My bed would have to be VERY high off the ground if I had kept all the old ones.

I did frame a lot of paintings that probably should still be under the bed. At the time, they were the best I could possibly do.

The key to improving is to paint, and to paint, and to paint. Better brushes, more colors, and great books and teachers may all help, but unless that brush is working, skills can't improve.

"THE OLD MILL" Transparent Watercolor on (probably) 140#CP Arches COLLECTED

YUPO - GOATMAN

This YUPO painting is one of the first ones I attempted a lot of years ago. The resource was from one of the photos my folks took in Europe back in the seventies. It may be from Spain or possibly Switzerland.

The next few months of my paintings will undoubtedly be of many scenes from beautiful Northern Italy. In fact, the next few YEARS of paintings will probably be about how our trip there affected me.

This painting was inspired by a photo, but seeing the real thing, being in a location for a while REALLY inspires. With six women on our Italy excursion, we will paint almost everyday we are there, or at least some of us will paint. A few may choose to just watch. I'm sneaking in some YUPO in my painting supplies, just in case - only 6 small sheets, plus a little squeegee and very small foam roller.

I'm positive I will take ten times more photos than I can use. Thank goodness for 'delete' on digital cameras:o) If anything turns out ok, I'll post the paintings when we get home.

"GOATMAN" Transparent Watercolor on YUPO