SAME SUBJECT

The barn posted below was created using a flat, 1" brush from Daniel Smith Art Company in Seattle. It's from their platinum series and is around $15, my favorite brush ever. However, when my hope is to paint in a loosey-juicy fashion, the way this same barn was done in the previous post (see below,) I use a good squirrel mop brush. The Daniel Smith flat brush gives me plenty of control with watercolor, rather than the looser look. This brush has a razor edge so very tiny spaces can be painted as easily as a 1" swatch area can.

Another difference in the paintings is the kind of paint that was used, with this one being done with Golden and Da Vinci fluid acrylics, with one, or at the most, two, glazes or washes. An old bristle fan brush was used for the grasses and a credit card employed to indent the still damp, painted paper for the tree branches.

Miskit was applied to cover the snowy roofs, the tops of the silos and fence posts before beginning. The paper was misted overall, then diluted colors were allowed to flow as I tipped parts of the paper at a slant for the sky. The trees were tapped in while the paper was still damp to create a soft look, with the tips of the pines being put in later when the paper was dry.

Once the sky area was dry, the whole paper was misted again. Since the sky area was painted with fluid acrylics, rewetting that previous wash didn't disturb it a bit. The snow bank was blushed on to the top of the hill and allowed to move on its own while the paper was held at a slant. (I never ever tape down my paper so that it can be manipulated at whatever angles I want when it's wet.)

The details of the barn area and fence posts were added, again with fluid acrylics. The paint seems to dry just a breath darker than it looks when it's wet, quite the opposite of watercolor, which dries considerably lighter when used in washes this wet. I'd like to try this once again using a squirrel brush in the fluid acrylics in a loosey-juicy style, but first I'll have to buy a cheaper squirrel brush than the ones that I save just for watercolor. The painting actually has much more color in the barn than it looks here. It kind of glows IRL.

"EARLY EVENING" Fluid Acrylics on 140#CP Arches 14 x 11"

SNOW

It's been a beautiful snow day, though I'm glad I'm not out driving on the roads right now. These days are best for making a huge pot of veggie soup and kicking back, which is what I've done.

Here's another barn painting created as a demo in December, using a large, floppy squirrel brush. The idea was to allow a loosey juicy, more carefree look with the watercolor. The paint on the hill was poured on spritzed paper, rather than painted, to help create that wonderful, fresh watercolor look. A rigger brush was used to put in the grasses poking above the snow, as well as the fence wire. Let it snow...

"WIND DRIFTS" Transparent Watercolor on 140# Rough Arches 20 x 15"

TEXTURES

Almost every artist I know absolutely loves TEXTURE! This class demo was done to show various ways to create watercolor textures in a rural landscape. It was the first of three barn paintings so watch for more.
"DRY FORK ROAD" Transparent Watercolor on 140#CP Arches 22x16"

YUPO - SOUP'S ON

They say if you don't like the weather around here, stick around. It'll change in an hour or so. Very true, too. We had no class this morning because of icy roads, and now our Greater Cincinnati Watercolor Society meeting is cancelled for tomorrow morning, too. Whine.

Painting with friends can be very inspiring, even though many say that making art is a solitary venture. The artistic energy in a class can create synergy, making each artist even better at what they do. At least, that's been my observation.

Today has been a day of quiet along with cleaning the studio. I manage to put that off as long as possible but had to make my way there to clean today. Even the holiday things still needed to be stored away.

This winter scene is from the archives, created from several of my photos combined together, and painted on my favorite surface, YUPO. Thank goodness we don't have that much snow right now.

"SOUP'S ON" Transparent Watercolor on YUPO 26 x 18" COLLECTED

IMAGINATION OR MEMORY?

This scene could've been from my great grandmother's place on the outskirts of my hometown. Back in the eary '50's, she had an outhouse and pumped her own water, too. I remember playing under the huge weeping willow in the front yard.

Each brush stroke was applied with a very, very dry brush. Even though it's called WATERcolor, I avoided using water except to lighten the pigment to the right value. Most all the moisture was wiped out of the brush before it touched the surface.

"Drybrush" watercolor requires a lot of layering and patience. You need to check out Andrew Wyeth's work to see exquisite masterpieces done with dry brush. If you can, go see his drybrush watercolors in real life.....and his egg temperas and his looser watercolors. He is awesome!

"FORGOTTEN TIMES" Transparent Watercolor on Bristol Board 20 x 14"

BARN BATIK

This batiked barn's still standing on the winding road to Rising Sun, Indiana, but it looks like it may not be long for this world. Next week will be spent creating batiks at the Art Department of Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, where I'm to teach a course about paper batik.

Batik can be a slow and tedious process, yet I really like the change of pace. It could be called artistic meditation when you're going through the process of waxing a batik.

We'll be using watercolor instead of the normal dyes, working on a variety of rice papers with regular paraffin to wax the places we want to preserve. The best part of batik is the surprise when the wax is melted off to reveal your creation.

I'll be posting more of my batiks next week which were created several years ago. To see some of my favorites, go to the LABELS sidebar at the lower right hand side of this blog, and click on batik.

Hopefully, the college class will give me permission to post their finished batiks here on line. You'll be in for a treat. I know I'll be having fun all week.

"RISING SUN" Transparent Watercolor on Kinwashi adhered to 140# HP Arches 19 x 15" COLLECTED

DEMO COMPLETED

Yesterday's post showed the photo reference for this painting, as well as the sketch and the work in progress. After lots of design adjustments, the painting is finally finished.

When I started the plans for this demo, I was inspired to do a painting of the new 'old' barn which the Women's Art Club of Cincinnati has been refurbishing for the last couple of years. The barn is really, really HUGE, and the weathervane on top is exquisite - a little lady chasing a rooster who is chasing a hen. In the painting, I not only moved the weathervane down where all could see it, but also moved the hen so she's flying on other side of the barn.

This painting began with a grid layout to help create a more contemporary look to the old barn, which for me is symbolic of the new steps the art club has taken in purchasing this historic building. The paint brush seen in the original sketch vanished as I reconstructed the composition this week. A few other things were changed considerably in order to establish a stronger design pattern.

I so appreciated being able to show the women last Saturday how much fun it is to paint on YUPO. Once the painting was completed, I added the words "Cincinnati OH" and "Women's Art Club" as well as the date the club was founded, along with some special textural effects to enhance close up interest. Double click on the painting to see the details and wording better.

Let me know what you think ..... it was a lot of fun exploring how to make it all work together. Soon I'll make arrangements to donate it to the Women's Art Club, all ready to be framed.

"THE BARN" Transparent Watercolor on YUPO 35 x 24" COLLECTED

DEMO ALMOST FINISHED

This photo shows the new home of the Women's Art Club of Cincinnati, where I gave a watercolor demo last Saturday for the group. I started with this drawing, posted here, which was transferred onto a full sheet of translucent YUPO paper measuring 35" wide.

Before I began, I explained that the demo would rely heavily on intuitive painting, even though I had a clear drawing to start with. Part of the fun of painting on YUPO is having options to be able to completely change things at any point during the painting, and for this painting, I really took advantage of those options.

This painting is a work in progress, and I'll hopefully post the completed one tomorrow. (I take photos of my paintings outside in the shade on a sunny day, but it's been raining here for a couple of days. As soon as the sun shines, I can post the finished painting.) I think you'll be surprised at the changes.

The women were incredibly nice about my not finishing the painting during the demo. I'm looking forward to hearing what they think when they see the completed painting on the next post.

Work in Progress - THE NEW BARN

Transparent Watercolor on Translucent YUPO.

NOT ANOTHER BARN ON YUPO!

Barns have always been part of my life. I played in many Indiana barns when I was a kid since we lived in a rural area where corn fields and barns dotted the landscape. I can still smell that hay, the manure...UGH! I can remember being very frightened to step down into that open space out of the hay mow.

My hope with this painting was to create a landscape of an old barn but give it a twenty first century appeal. The scene is made up, and it's created on the slick YUPO surface.

I used the grid idea that George James often starts with to 'set up' the painting. You can see the overall grid in the drawing below, but it's harder to see how the grid is shifted upward and to the left slightly where the barn is. The important parts of the painting are located within that specific section of the grid. Areas outside that specific section of the grid area get less attention and detail, helping lend a contemporary look to the old fashioned barn. This grid device has really helped me simplify and state better what is vital to me in my paintings, especially on YUPO, where I can get pretty nutty about textures, often letting them take over the painting.

The early stage of the painting clearly defines one good white shape, with other shapes painted in to surround it. Eventually the good white shape is integrated into the overall design, and even though it's no longer visible, it still provides the skeleton that helps hold the design of the painting together.

This Saturday I give a demo at the Cincinnati Women's ART Club at their NEW BARN! They've renovated the old barn where United Dairy Farmers began (love that ice cream.) Because this is their first meeting there, I felt inspired to paint a barn for them with a contemporay touch. YUPO, here we go again! I'm nervous, but I know I'll have fun. The demo drawing's almost complete, and I'm really planning this one a lot more than the one posted here. Hopefully, the finished painting will have a resemblance to their new art center in the huge, remodeled UDF barn.

"OLD TIMES" Transparent Watercolor on Heavy Weight YUPO 26 x 20" COLLECTED

BARN-a-MANIA!

Buck County, Pennsylvania Barn to left & Ohio Mail Pouch Barn below

My specialty --- "Maudlin" sunsets.... meaning '''overly sentimental!''' Enough said.

A couple of weeks ago, I threatened to post a bazillion old barn paintings I'd done over the last 20 years. Fortunately for us blog-aholics, I only found a few of them.

The barns at the top are the most recent, probably done within the last eight years as something I taught in an intermediate class lesson. The farther down this

post you look, the older the paintings are.

The gray barn with the two white silos and fence posts was done as a result of reading an excellent, inspiring book by Valfred Thelin regarding pouring on paint and letting it run. Somone's since borrowed my book... the price I pay for loaning them out..... I still have hopes of seeing it again.

There's an old mail pouch barn near us that HAD to be painted, of course, (see 2nd painting.) The late evening sunset was done before they moved the barn and put it on a concrete block base - looks ugly now, but it surely is a relic from the past.

Some of the barns came out of my imagination while some are from photos I took. The weird (and profitable) thing is that all barn pictures sell well here in the midwest. And there are lots of them, some much better than others.

Talk to an artist who's been painting a while, and they will roll their eyes about painting barns. I will too, probably, because I realize now that it's not the barn that should be painted, but the feelings we have about 'old' things like barns that need to be expressed in our paintings. I've done a couple of more modern, abstracted barn paintings that were fun to do. They took the longest to sell.

Fortunately, I'm not counting on sales to survive, so I no longer care to paint the things that I think might sell the best. I can paint what I want to paint, what interests and challenges me. And seldom is it barns anymore.

Back when I got excited about getting commissions to paint, a woman asked me to paint her grandparent's old homestead, the one here with the big white house, oak tree, garish green pines, and two distant barns. After it was done, her siblings all wanted a copy.

Now days, with the giclee' process, that would've been easy to do. But seventeen years ago, I had to repaint the same picture, with a few minor 'memory' adjustments, for all four of her siblings. GROAN... or so I thought. I found out the value of challenging myself to make it a better painting every time. Each painting was a full 22x30" sheet of paper, and I charged $129 each. YIKES. What was I thinking? But, maybe I got the best end of the deal, too, considering the lack of mature composition, garish green trees, awkward oaks...

Enough about barns. And thank goodness, they're are all sold.

Big barn above with mountains was done when I attended my first workshop in Estes Park, Colorado with Tony Couch. What a great week with gorgeous surroundings. And as he explained, we can't really paint barns. We can only paint shapes, textures, colors, lines, values, sizes, and direction.

Left barn is a scene I usually teach in my beginner's classes.

This was painted about 8 weeks after I started a beginners class with Suzanne Mayes Wentzell in Kokomo, Indiana. Nice fog but what pathetic trees:-(

THE END! (Transparent Watercolor used in all these barn paintings.)

FREEZING COLD

There's an unwritten rule somewhere that proclaims, "All artists must paint a specific quantity of barns and lighthouses early in their art journey." I certainly followed the rule well. Going through old photos of my paintings, I found way too many barn paintings. And some lighthouses, too. Since I don't keep the best records of all my paintings, I'm certain there are even more out there. GROAN!


It was VERY cold at 7 am this morning when I left to take my husband to the airport, and the painting below portrays how frigid it is here. It is one of those obligatory barns that had to be painted but was done quickly - a twenty minute painting.

Out of the dozens of barns that I've surely painted, this is my favorite one, and I did it the year I started taking watercolor lessons. The style and technique are typical watercolor. Twenty years later, I am still attracted to the shapes and angles that barns present, still photographing them frequently.

I grew up with barns in my neighborhood, and I like them. I like the openings, the darks and lights, the textures, the varied edges, the sag of the roof and rafters, the muted colors, the patterns created by the various windows and door, and all the shapes of junk and weeds that exist in abundance around most old barns. I just may have to paint another one soon. Until then, look out.... there's a remote possibilty of my making (and posting here) a slide show of all the barn paintings I've ever painted! Scary thought.


"ARTHUR'S PLACE" Transparent Watercolor on Arches 140#CP 12 x 8" SOLD