INTIMATE ENCOUNTER

It was ten years ago, and I was sitting on my old wooden swing on our lower deck, sipping coffee, while drinking in the peaceful view of the late afternoon woods. A very slight movement near the bottom of the slope caught my eye.

When I looked closely, I was amazed to see, nearly hidden amidst all the foliage, one deer gently washing the neck of the other. I sat there entranced, in awe for being included in such a tender moment of nature.

The sun behind them lit up the scene better than any movie set could have. I captured it with my camera and couldn't wait to paint the special intimacy that I'd just encountered.

If I repainted this now, I think that same emotion would come out again, but I'd be able to use several more years of experience to create a better painting. Still, I felt good about capturing that almost hidden moment that I still relish.

"INTIMATE ENCOUNTER" Transparent Watercolor on 140#CP Fabriano Artistico 15 x 11" SOLD

NOW IT'S BARN SIDING

One good way to learn to control the amount of paint and water in your brush and on your paper is to paint wet-in-wet. Creating the look of worn, weathered barn boards is a great 'theme' to use to learn this.

I start out with a soaking wet sheet of paper which is wet on both sides to keep it wet longer. Previous to wetting the paper, I streak areas with miskit, especially along one side of each of the boards.

I also splatter a bit of miskit on the paper before I wet it. If I'm planning on putting in a chain or lantern, like the pictures posted, I miskit those entire shapes, too.
Next, streak the soaked paper with various shades of blues, oranges, purples, earth yellows, and browns. The colors blend softly together to give a muted depth to the eventual barn boards.

Now streak the paper with some narrow, darker lines where the boards meet, to help define the cracks between them. The color diffuses again since the paper's still very wet. Then randomly splatter some darks over the paper. Now pick up a 'broken-in-half' credit card and scratch some lines into the damp paper. The existing paint sinks into the scratch, making them much darker.

Repeat the process as the paper slowly dries, streaking with colors of paint, adding more dark in thin lines again to help better define the older diffused ones, then scratch again with the credit card. At some point while the paper is damp, add an irregular shaped knothole or two where there are no scratch marks.

Splattering at different times as the paper slowly dries results in various sizes of dark spots, some much more diffused than others. Take care to make each board have its own identity so that they all look slightly different, one more streaked, one more textured, one with lots of cracks, etc.

The whole process takes almost an hour, and you must wait for the right time to add more color, but make sure not to get it too dark. I'm careful not to paint on 'unshiny' but 'damp' paper, unless I'm dragging a dry brush or fan brush for one of the streaking layers.

I also make sure none of the streaks criss cross, since wood grain never crosses over itself, but always runs fairly parallel. I continue adjustments to the knothole, too, darkening it, creating the cracks shooting out from it, and darkening around it to look like discolored wood.

The final hour or more is spent working on totally dry paper to bring into focus some of the raised edges of the weathered wood. By adding a thin dark line along small areas that have an irregular edge, you can create the look of raised rough wood. I soften the outer edge of those darks, too.

The whole painting is truly a series of streak, splatter, scratch, streak, splatter, scratch. Using the broken credit card at various stages will help add texture, too, since the paint is squeeged off by the rounded edge of the card once the paper begins to dry.

Taking the miskit off (when the paper's completely dry) adds a lot of needed white to the painting. The white misketed edge is always too harsh (one of the big draw backs of miskit) so I soften it a bit, but make sure to maintain some clean, untouched white paper for contrast and sparkle.

I add Quinacridone Burnt Orange and Lunar Earth (Daniel Smith Watercolors) together to paint the rusted chain, etc. Before it dries, I touch in, not brush in, some very liquid but dark French Ultramarine. As the Ultramarine floctuates with the two browns, they separate to look exactly like rust. I love it. The less I touch the wet paint, the better it looks. Sometimes I have to tip the paper slightly to get them to blend better. Fold a tissue smoothly and place it on the very top edge of the hook while it's damp to lift off a highlight there.

Adding stronger darks under the shadowed side on the chain helps add dimension, too. A shadow of the hook and chain painted as one complete shape on the barn siding finishes off the painting.

It's almost magic to watch the blurry, wet-in-wet paint slowly be transformed into a surface that looks like weathered wood. When I teach this in classes, each artist's work is expressive and different, some looking like ocean side bleached wood, some like mossy covered wood, others like well cared for barn siding. It's amazing how the same wet-in-wet process in each artist's hands produces individually expressive results.

Both of these paintings are done with transparent watercolor on 140#CP Arches. The one at the top with the hook and chain is 15 x 11," and the one with my Grandpa's lantern is a full sheet, 30 x 22" Both were done many years ago and are SOLD.

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.)

STRETCHING THE TRUTH

I've been participating in a weekly challenge from Myrna Wacknov, and this is week four's painting. Using the same photo that I started with early this year, this time I had to come up with a way to make 'size' be the important feature or element in the painting - so I stretched the people and gave them raisin heads (a Carla O'Conner ploy.) Plus, I had to use some sort of grid in the background with an assymetrical balance of the subject. Challenging, for sure.
.
First I glazed the whole sheet with a pale glaze of Quinacridone Violet to help unify the entire painting. From there, I began to develop the background areas, not caring if they had depth or dimension to them. I was going for more of a design quality this time, with flat space, not depth.
.
I painted rather timidly for a while because I felt unsure about the grid/asymmetrical compositional thing. I made the colors match, etc., instead of taking my usual liberties with color choices.

After a class critique (Thank you, Tuesday's class,) I moved in with flourish and added color and value where it was weak. I liked the results and think this is my favorite of all of the paintings of this subject that I've done. Thanks again, Myrna. And there are 3 more paintings to go. Can't wait to see how they turn out. The next one is a 'STAGGERED' composition, new to me.

"STRETCHING THE TRUTH" Transparent Watercolor on 140#CP Arches 12 x 17"

ANOTHER TIME

Painting portraits is exciting and challenging. When the brush gets it just right,the person comes to life. This photo of an old man from China was taken in the 1940's and brought back to the U.S. by a serviceman. His wife said she'd let me paint it. I was thrilled. There was a certain regalness about him that I liked, although he must've been very poor.

His droopy eye, his beard, and his hat - I loved them. And his coat wrapped him up so snug in that cold climate. My friend Linda has the painting now, looking down on her in her kitchen. He has a good home now.

"LOOKING BACK" Transparent Watercolor on 140#HP Arches 16 x 21" SOLD

HOOKED

Playing with an idea or theme can be like a story telling itself. The artist only holds the brush and goes with the ideas that come each moment.

This watercolor started out like that story waiting to be told. Using stamps I'd fashioned out of mat board as well as stencils I'd cut from sheets of plastic, I added and subtracted shapes and colors as it seemed right.

Both transparent watercolor as well as gouache watercolor made the process easy and fun. Gouache is made of the same dry pigment as transparent watercolor but has a type of chalk added, making it easier to lift and very opaque. I liked how the opaqueness of the gouache seemed to make the transparent watercolor seem even more luminous. The hardest part was knowing when to stop.

"HOOK, LINE & SINKER" Transparent Watercolor and Gouache Watercolor on 140# Arches Hot Press 15 x 11" SOLD

YUPO EARLY PAINTING

This YUPO painting is one of the very first ones I did back when I was just discovering why some colors pounced on others and pushed them out of the way so fast. I called them 'pushy' colors in a class once, referring to them several times that way, 'pushy.' The next week, one of the ladies asked me where to buy that brand of watercolors. She'd been all over town and couldn't find them.

Sooo ----- pushy colors are heavier in particle size, less finely ground, and they quickly sink to the bottom of a puddle, spreading out along the slick surface of the YUPO. When mixing just 'pushy' colors together, they get along, but when put in a puddle of finely ground color, like a phthalo or quinacridone color, WOW!!! Lots of action.

Click on photo, and you can see the 'pushy' color effect on the side of the red ship. I used only pushy colors in the sky because I wanted it to stay put and be as smooth as possible. (This was before the days of using a foam roller to smooth the colors on YUPO.)

All cobalts, most earth pigment like siennas and umbers, and cerulean are 'pushy.' There are lots more, so you'll have to try your own paints in puddles of phthalos or quinacridones to see how they behave on YUPO. Once you know what ones work against each other, then you can make good choices about the effects you want to happen on YUPO.

"DEEP SEA DREAMS" Transparent Watercolor on YUPO 25 x 19"

ART SHOW

Texture is so compelling. I MUST paint it as much as possible. It's fun and fascinating. And it's found everywhere.

Andrew Wyeth's paintings, especially his egg tempera masterpieces, display incredible textures. He, of course, spends hours/days/weeks/months perfecting and practicing one small feature of a future painting before attempting the finished work. He's raised the level of the true meaning of 'practice makes perfect!' And his diligence has been recognized internationally and rewarded. He is a master.

This roofscape with its angles and geometric shapes (and all that texture) begged me to paint it. I'm tempted to put something alive in it - a trite pigeon? Whatever I think of seems too predictable. Any ideas?

This painting will be shown next month in an art show which I'm sponsoring to show off work done by artists in all of my current art classes.

The show will open in Cincinnati's Sharon Woods Park on Feb. 16, with an artist's reception on Sunday, Feb. 17 from 1 to 4. Everyone's are invited. We will be open from 10 to 5 from Feb.15 through the following Sunday, Feb.24. With more than 30 artists displaying their work, it will be quite a show. Most of the paintings will be for sale. If you're in the area, please stop in, enjoy the artwork, and say 'hi.'

"TIME GOES BY" Transparent Watercolor on 140#CP Arches 18 x 25"

DANCING

There are times when just ''being able to create'' is all I really want to do. That need to produce a 'product,' 'a finished painting' or 'something to show for my time' becomes irrevelant. Enjoying the moment takes over, and art becomes playtime, like when I was five years old.

Those moments happen in almost every painting, but the best is when I spend a couple of days in that mode. No expectations. Only exploration.

This painting was like that. It doesn't 'look' like most of my paintings, but I really love it for the journey it took me on. Click on it to enjoy all the textures better.

Painting freely is like having a big cardboard box to play in, making believe it's anything I want it to be. Open ended possibilities. Like dancing when no one's watching!

"ACCORDING TO PLAN" Fluid Acrylic Watercolors and Tube Acrylics on 140#CP Arches 30 x 22"

RECYCLING

Small strips of paper, including rice papers, torn into various sizes, plus a lot of mat medium used as glue, helped create this thirsty creature. There's nothing better than a stack of failed paintings to use for a collage, either. The trick is to find the perfect match of value and color for each shape of the new painting.

By the time I was done, some areas of this 'painting' were raised off the paper a whole lot because I'd kept adding more and more pieces to get the look I wanted. Collage is freeing for me to do, but incredibly messy. I usually look like Charlie Schultz's 'Pig Pen' by the time I'm done. There are bits of papers EVERYWHERE plus my fingers are thickly coated with dried mat medium.

In a workshop I once took, someone asked the master of collage, Gerald Brommer, how to know when there was too much collage on the paper. His reply - When it's too heavy to pick up! I enjoyed his workshop very much and highly recommend him as an excellent teacher.

I like this whole collage process because the final painting is actually made up of small pieces of many, many, many painting attempts that didn't turn out right. Recycled disasters!

"LONG DRINK OF WATER" Transparent Watercolor on Assorted, Torn Watercolor Surfaces, Glued Down with Acrylic Mat Medium to Arches 300#CP 11 x 19" SOLD

GOING TO THE DOGS

Painting commissions is usually about the LAST thing I want to do, unless it's of an animal. For some reason, I really enjoy painting dogs and cats. Painting them is a lot easier than caring for them, though not as rewarding.

That these three guys each had such unique personalities became very evident even though I only spent an hour taking their pictures. They were all labs, but each looked markedly different. Creating two separate and interesting paintings of the same three animals did present a challenge, though.

I seldom take commissions now because of the inspiration factor. Is there a magic way to 'get inspired' to do a commission other than being broke? I doubt that money motivates very many artists to be creative, and I usually find it to be so difficult to work up an interest in the subject matter of a commission.

"THREE'S A CROWD" 16 x 12" - top painting
"READY, SET, GO!" 30 x 22" - lower painting --- Both done with Transparent Watercolor on 140#CP Arches SOLD

BRRRRRR!!!!! irthday!

It's another cold morning, but it's also a day to celebrate. Rhonda Carpenter's birthday is today. Happy Birthday, Rhonda. It's been a good year for her, and I'm sure today will be special, too. This month she was voted Watercolor Workshop Artist of the year - see info and accolades at http://www.susieshort.net/2008-wcwaoty.html or go to her diverse blog at http://rhcarpenter.blogspot.com/. Here's Rhonda experimenting with a new process in class... looking pretty contemplative at this point. Karen's behind her, and you can just see Kathy's hands in the back.


Rhonda loves cats so today's post is a painting of the cat we used to have. Sam was a gray, long haired Maine Coon cat with the gentlest disposition in the world. When he found us, it took well over 3 months for us to get to touch him. He was a mess, matted fur, etc. Eventually, he knew he could trust us. He lived to the ripe old age of 19 years old and was probably even older than that. He was the best kitty.

"TIME FOR LUNCH?" Transparent Waterolor on Arches 140#CP 6 x 6" SOLD

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

MORE YUPO

I recklessly painted the right hand side of this piece, then set it aside for several months. After deciding it was worth pursuing, I tried to capture that same reckless abandon as I worked on the other two thirds of the painting. Of course, as soon as you try, on purpose, to paint recklessly, you become immensely aware of each movement, therefore not painting recklessly.

Can you see the difference in the left and right hand sides? The left side still looks more calculated, timid, careful. The right hand side has a vitality to it that happened because I was just playing, not caring as much about the result as the joy of doing the painting. I was focused on the shapes, colors, textures, darks and light, edges...

I really really worked at getting the two sides to work ok together in the same painting. This fall, I'll be painting in Venice and the northern lakes area of Italy with several of my friends from Wednesday's morning class, so I may give this another try then.

"CITY OF LIGHT" Transparent Watercolor on YUPO 36 x 22"

YUPO FLAG

Painted several years ago, this YUPO painting shows the patriotic leanings of a business owner in our town. Soon after 9/11, he had one of his semi cabs painted to resemble a waving flag, and it gets a lot of attention. After capturing the truck on film (in the days before I had a digital camera,) I knew I wanted to paint it.

Because watercolor on the plastic YUPO surface stays exceptionally bright, I was able to capture the intensity of the colors on my cropped version of the cab of the truck. I liked the abstract shapes within the realistic reflections. The painting now belongs to the truck owner:-)

"ALL STAR SALUTE" Transparent Watercolor on YUPO 26 x 20" SOLD --- Giglee' prints available

CALL IT A DAY WITH YUPO

Here I go again. Same picture but I think a much better composition than the demo I did last Friday night - see January 12th post.

The large dark cruciform design shown here goes off the page on all four sides and is connected. I like this painting the best of all five that I've done. I'll send it to Myrna Wacknov as Week 3 for her challenge.

I'd drawn 'TEXTURE' (YEAH!!!) as the dominant element of design to use plus the 'cruciform' design (easiest one for me to do,) so painting this after designing it was very freeing.

It was done quickly with no fussing or fiddling, mostly relying on instinct and intuition. And it's on YUPO, too. That made it seem even more spontaneous and fun to do.

Colors I used = Burnt Tiger's Eye, in every color to unify the painting, as well as Ultramarine Turquoise, Cobalt Teal Blue, Quinacridone Violet, Quin Magenta, Transparent Pyrrol Orange, Raw Sienna, Perylene Green, and Indanthrone Blue, all from 'Daniel Smith/Seattle, WA' Watercolors.

"CALL IT A DAY" Transparent Watercolor on YUPO 11 x 15"

A DREAM

"I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident; that ALL men are created equal.....'

"I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plains, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.....

* "We've got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn't matter with me now, because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!
And so I'm happy, tonight.
I'm not worried about anything.
I'm not fearing any man!
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!!"

"When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of that old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God almighty, we are free at last!"

* The third paragraph above was from the last speech he ever gave. The other paragraphs are from his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. Dr. Martin Luther King would have been 70 years old this month.

"DETERMINED " Transparent Watercolor on Gesso on 140#CP Arches 9 x 15"

LINES AND CHECKERBOARDS

California artist Myrna Wacknov recently started a weekly blog painting challenge which intrigued me enough that I finally jumped in. Her challenge goes something like this:

First you select a photo reference to work from - one you LIKE a lot.

Next, you randomly (without looking) select one of the seven elements of design - line, texture, shape, size, direction, color or value.

Then, randomly select one compositional design motif to use to design the painting. These include a vertical or horizontal compositional design, or a cruciform shape, or a pyramid shape, a bridge shape, a 'T' shape, or an overall pattern, a checkerboard pattern, a spiral, a radial design, frame-in-frame, or medallion shape, etc. There are many to choose from, depending on what you read. Marianne K. Brown's book called "Watercolor by Design" teaches about them extensively, and Gerald Brommer does a great job explaining various design compositions in some of his books.

The final thing to do before painting is to select one color to mix somehow throughout every bit of the painting. Myrna calls this the mother color.

Once these four selections are made, the challenge is to paint a picture and make your selected element be obviously dominant in the selected compositon. Each week, a new painting is completed, using the very same photo reference, but selecting a new element, a new design composition, and a new mother color.

I like doing this so much that I am passing Myrna's challenge on to my classes with a few variations to the challenge, (with her permission and blessing.) So far, everyone's really enjoying the challenge, as well as discovering that they are no longer in their comfort zone.

The painting posted to the right is Week Two for me. I randomly selected LINE as the element to dominate the painting and CHECKERBOARD as the design composition, with TRANSPARENT PYRROL ORANGE as the mother color. It was challenging and fulfilling to play with the concept, especially with the conflict that line and checkerboard together presented. I think the line here needs to be more dominant and broken so that shape doesn't play such an important role in this painting. I may have to break out the Caran d'Ache crayons for some more line work, and I'm already looking forward to the next painting.

.

.

Week One (left side) incorporates the same composition as the YUPO demo done on Friday night. My Week One's selections were VALUE, VERTICAL DESIGN, & RAW SIENNA, easy ones to handle because I use them a lot.

Each painting is 11 x 15" on Arches 140#CP. You can see the reference photo which I'll continue to use at the end of yesterday's post. And, no, I do not ever get tired of painting from the same photo, especially with all the diversity that's happening with this challenge.

To see Myrna's blogspot and website, check the side bar info on the right of this blog, titled, "PLACES I VISIT." Thank you so much, Myrna, for so freely sharing, teaching, and encouraging others. You are an inspiration!

YUPO DEMO

Lasts night's demo went okay. It was a lot of fun to do, but there were some tense moments when I wondered how I was going to pull it off. You can see all the supplies I used, including a small bottle of rubbing alcohol to clean the surface of the YUPO right before I painted. The 3" and 4" Jack Richeson brushes are brand new (part of a prize I received at the Watercolor Society of Indiana art show:-) It was great to have some good sized brushes to work with on the full sheet of YUPO - 40 x 26."

This posted painting has been cropped, but, other than that, it's not been tweaked or corrected since the demo. When I moved it to take it home, there were still some puddles of wet paint that dripped a little.
I'm not sure how much I'll work on it. I'm notorious for over working paintings and must always remind myself that 'perfect' doesn't exist for a painting (or for any other human endeavor, for that matter.)

I'm thinking as I look at the painting--- Have I expressed what I wanted to express? Is the composition holding together? Is that green background shape still too strong? Do the edges need more variation? Must change the angle of the horizon on the right to angle down a little so it doesn't pull my eye out of the picture. Anything too distracting? Need to realign those two gray slightly angled lines near the bottom of the painting to be completely horizontal..... Adjust the dark drip on the man's lower leg.....
I may crop it some more, too, but right now the painting's composition is built on the phi principle.

I'll look at it a while and decide what else to do. My hope was to create an impressionistic watercolor painting involving interaction of people, and your comments would certainly be appreciated.

The demo lasted an hour and a half, and about twenty minutes before I was done, I began to really feel the pressure of making the painting work. Up close, the painting has a VERY abstract quality about it.... and I was up close working on it. (Click on it to view a close up of it.) Once I stepped away and viewed it at a distance, I relaxed and enjoyed the rest of the evening. The group was very receptive and seemed so appreciative. I do think that many were motivated to try something new.

It was great to have Rhonda Carpenter as my dinner guest, too, and she seemed to really have a good time. Someone asked me if my husband ever went to art functions with me, so I replied, "Yes, about as often as I go to Nascar races with him." Actually, I am thankful that he is very supportive and always attends art shows with me when it is important to me that he's there.

Although the painting took only an hour and a half to paint, I did have the composition and drawing resolved before the demo, as well as already having miskit in the small areas where I knew I wanted crisp, white shapes. Tomorrow I'll post another variation of the painting and will continue to add new ones as I create them, all inspired from this same reference material.

A challenge for you - next painting you do, use only the 3 biggest brushes you have. The ones I used for this were a three inch flat, a four inch flat, and a 1" flat. Let me know how you do.

"GATHERING" Transparent Watercolor on YUPO 21 x 36"
Original reference photo to right, taken in London near Lincoln Park, but I used the oil painting study as my reference last night - see previous post of Demo Preparations on January 12.

YUPO A LITTLE FISHY

I'm posting older paintings right now including some of the first YUPO paintings I tried. Anything with bright colors seemed a natural for YUPO, and the fish theme worked very well.
I used rubbing alcohol to 'draw in' the white coral, resulting in blobbery edges that I liked. Very thin layers of filaments from halloween webbing created the thin dark lines, and I removed it after the paint dried. Paint on a tissue made some good foliage texture, too.





Top Painting - "FISHY FISHY" Transparent Watercolor on YUPO 17 x 16" SOLD

Painting to Left - "PRETTY WOMAN" Transparent Watercolor on YUPO 16 x 15" SOLD

SAME IDEA

This painting was not done outdoors, but rather from the photo I'd taken on the day I really did paint plein aire, (see previous post.) First I coated the watercolor paper with gesso, allowed it to dry, then sketched the picture on the gesso.

I did this painting long before I ever knew about YUPO and just loved what crazy things the paint would do on the gessoed surface. I think the gessoed surface must be a first cousin to YUPO's surface. They are both invigorating to paint on, not allowing the paint to soak into the paper.

Last week one of my classes painted on another challenging and playful surface - TYVEK paper - see Myrna Wacknow's blog for great paintings on that paper. One of her paintings has just been accepted into American Watercolor Society's annual show. Her entry is very eyecatching, and I sure hope it wins an good award. Way to go, Myrna!

"GRANNY'S AGAIN" Transparent Watercolor on Gessoed Arches 140# CP 22 x 15"

SIXTEEN YEARS AGO

This was actually painted 'on location,' while I was sitting on a ridge above a lake on a summer day. Our neighbors' cottage had old concrete front steps with a neglected geranium growing beside them. I'd only been painting in watercolor a couple of years and wanted to give plein aire a try.

Painting outside: bugs, heat, wind, sun, uncomfortable seating..... is there any reason to do it? I do have to admit that being in the presence of what I'm painting makes a positive difference in my response with the brush. This painting won the first big award I'd ever gotten, from the Logansport (IN) Art Association's Spring Show, Best of Show! I hadn't even gone to the opening banquet, so they called me with the news. I was astounded.

My husband asked me why I hadn't painted a more flourishing geranium, but I liked the sparseness and resilience this plant had on that hot August day in the sun beside the heated concrete. However, I still avoid plein aire painting if at all possible.

"GRANNY'S GERANIUMS" Transparent Watercolor on 140 CP Arches 22x 15" SOLD

YUPO POSTING OLDER WORK

It's fun - and sometimes appalling, too - when you look back at old work you've done. The next several posts will be earlier works which I liked when I did them. Now I see changes, VAST CHANGES, that would improve each painting.

I remember one instructor wisely saying that an artist's work should always be changing. To paint what we're good at may be comfortable, but to push ahead and discover new ways to paint and express ourselves is absolutely crucial for a thriving artistic journey.

Painting on the slick YUPO surface challenged me for several years, then I quit painting on it altogether, wanting other challenges. Much later, I did a class demo on YUPO. WOW! I'd forgotten the joy, the excitement, and spontaneity that painting on YUPO gives me. Now I'm challenging myself in other ways on YUPO, other than just knowing how to control the paint. Pushing ahead ..... how are you pushing the edges of your artistic journey?

Each new year, I select what I think is my weakest area in art, then focus on improving it. This year I chose 'expressing specific concepts' in my paintings. (I'd written 'conceptual art' earlier but changed the wording to more accurately define where I want to go - see comments below.) I'm hoping to rely on the versatility of YUPO to help me pursue the concepts that I want to convey in my art.

"BOY, OH BUOY!" Transparent Watercolor on YUPO 17 x 12"

SELLING PAINTINGS

This is an older painting that I really liked a lot and didn't ever want to sell. Soon after I'd painted it, a local art group I'd joined had a show, so I put this in the show with a high enough price on it to 'keep' it. Wrong.

It's a weird feeling to appreciate the nice check you get for a painting yet wish you could get the painting back instead. The great people who purchased it love the painting very much, and they've said I can come visit it if I want.

Eagles are incredibly majestic. The first ones we saw in Alaska took our breath away, but in a matter of a couple of days, we'd say, "Oh, that's just another eagle." Same for the puffins we saw. We never saw enough otters or whales to feel that way about them.

While Marianne and I kayaked across an Alaskan bay with our guide, Howie, we watched as a silver gray seal followed our kayak for a long, long time, keeping about twenty feet between him and us. An otter swimming near us maintained a much wider berth and turned to always keep his feet pointed at us. Being outdoors, seeing wildlife, being an artist .... it all goes together for me.

"EAGLE EYE" Transparent Watercolor on 140# CP Arches, 14 x 11" SOLD

DEMO PREPARATIONS

Next week I'm to paint a demo for the Cincinnati Art Club. It's one of the oldest art clubs in America, and the dinner meeting will be well attended.

I'm considering what to paint for the demo. The club leans strongly towards conventional art - lots of landscapes, still lifes, and portraits in oils, pastels, some sculpture, so my thoughts are to expand their horizons on materials. This small study was done this summer in oil, and I really like how it turned out. I'm wondering - should I paint it again really large, on YUPO, and in watercolor for the demo? I think so!

Another option would be to paint it on a big sheet of hot pressed paper, maybe 26 x 40" using fluid watercolor acrylics. I consider the new 'fluid acrylics' to be watercolors since they act and look exactly the same, except for the fact that the acrylic stays put, can't be easily lifted once dry ..... a benefit and a hinderance depending on the situation.

It's a bit of a change to use an 'oil study' for a watercolor painting. Conventional practice does it the other way around. My hope is to maintain the impressionistic look done in the oil study. This will be fun.

"AFTER CLASS" Oil study on paper - 6 x 9" (The paper will eventually disintegrate due to the oil on it.)

YUPO SALSA

When I paint on YUPO, I feel like I'm having a party. The ''''rules''''' of watercolor, which can be so daunting, are no longer in effect on YUPO. It's all play and fascination watching the paint as it moves in its peculiar ways on the slick surface, and I'm always intrigued by what happens without my help.

It was funny watching one of the kids at the new year's eve party at my big brother's house. She was probably an eighth grader, (oops, actually in high school,) and when I began painting this picture, she glanced at what I was doing and gave the whole scene a look of dismissal. A couple of hours later, as the painting was really coming into focus, I saw her eyes glance over at the painting and actually light up. To see that look of unanticipated amazement and appreciation in a young person's face is refreshing. We talked a bit about her art classes in school, and my hope is that she's encouraged to pursue her interests in the arts.

I had to put the tomato in the painting, not only for the color it added, but also because it's my favorite food in the whole world. The salsa that Mayte' made for me to take home has no tomato in it and is superb! It won't last long at our house.

"ALMOST SALSA" Transparent Watercolor on YUPO 19 x 12" SOLD

TAPE TECHNIQUE

A blank canvas or piece of paper affects artists in different ways, even causing some to say that it paralyzes them. But I always feel excited when that blank piece of paper is before me, waiting on that first brushful of paint to liven it (and me) up.

A friend and I were together painting as I started this piece by first pressing pieces of torn masking tape onto the white paper, then painting randomly over them with colors I liked, drying it, adding more tape, then more paint, and so on until I had seven layers of tape and paint. The pic shown here is a bit lighter than it was - there were seven different values from light to dark.

This beginning stage, above (which is upside down from how I originally painted it,) shows the paint shapes and colors left after I'd removed all the masking tape. I had no pre-conceived idea of what my final painting would be, so at this point, my imagination had to get in gear to help 'find' the hidden painting.

Possibly because it was close to Kentucky Derby time, and we live close to Kentucky, one of my Kentucky art friends said she 'saw' a lady in the painting with a big Derby hat on. I liked the idea, so when I could finally imagine seeing her there too, I began to develop the painting in that direction. Thank you, Barb, for 'seeing.'

I took a photo of the original painting and overlaid it with tracing paper. Next, I laid out a design on that tracing paper to show where the medium and dark values would go. A paint brush, an elephant ear sponge to lift color off, and several hours of painting produced these results.

This turned out much more romatic than I usually paint, but it's proved to be a very eye catching painting. The finished painting (below) sold the day after it was dry!!! and many smaller giglees have been sold, also. Whatever the appeal of the picture is, I do not understand. In fact, it's not at all on of my favorite pieces. Funny how everyone's taste is different! I do know that I like to paint from chaos to control, from not knowing, to finding out what's there.

"FOREVER FREE" Transparent Watercolor and Gouache on 140# Hot Pressed Arches, 54 x 22" SOLD (giglee prints available)

YUPO IN PARADISE

Until I saw an actual live Bird of Paradise flower blooming in Maui, I had no idea why people thought they were so neat. WHEW! The striking vibrant colors and unique flower structure are breathtaking for sure. Any time a watercolor painting calls for vibrant color, I consider YUPO paper first.

Although I can easily lift paint on YUPO, even after it's dry, I often choose to miskit areas that are to remain a pure white or pure light color. Here, the warm yellow and orange areas were miskited first before I applied liberal amounts of juicy blues and greens for the background. Even the edges of some of the foreground leaves were miskited to help maintain sharpness and clarity. Once the color was on and allowed to flow, I added darks into areas by charging them in rather than brushing them over the area.

The more I can get the paints to move together on their own without help from a brush, the fresher the YUPO painting looks. This also helps encourage the possibility of spontaneous accidents that can add great life and excitement to a picture. I suppose that the hardest part of painting on YUPO for me is to keep my brush out of the paint as much as possible.

If you're a watercolorist and have not yet tried YUPO 'paper,' make it your resolution to give it a try soon. If the painting doesn't work like you hoped, wash off the paint and go again and again and again.

"PARADISE" Transparent Watercolor on Heavyweight YUPO, approx. 17 x 13" SOLD

CELEBRATION

What a treat to welcome in another new year. Last night was spent painting a still life (with lots of people watching) until midnight, finishing it after the new year arrived, then soaking in my brother's hot tub with a wonderful view of fireworks and stars over the city of Austin, Texas. It was a great evening. Today will be art lessons, probably capped off by another hour or so in the hot tub tonight.

This painting was done several years ago using normal watercolor techniques (if there are any 'normal' ones.) He was dressed for a parade when Dave took his picture and must be quite a character. I hoped to make the viewer hear music when looking at the painting.

Have a happy new year and be sure to include in your resolutions to try, each month, at least ONE NEW THING that you've never tried before. Enjoy.

"MUSIC MAN" Transparent Watercolor on 140# CP Arches, 15 x 22" SOLD

RESOLUTIONS

This painting started out with an overall wash on white gessoed paper, creating a medium to medium light value of randomly placed colors over the whole sheet. After the paint dried, I lightly sketched in the subject matter, then lifted off the lighter areas. Darks were added as needed, but almost half of the painting remained untouched, leaving the original color wash in place.

Don Getz demonstrated this technique several years ago at the Cincinnati Art Club, and his works literally glows when he works like this on gesso. Watercolor painted on top of gesso always results in fabulous textures and vivid colors, and the nice part is that the paint will lift off easily in most areas. (Until YUPO came along, I painted on gessoed watercolor paper a lot. Next month I'll be doing a demo on YUPO at the Cincinnati Art Club, but I have not selected a subject yet.)

Painting on both YUPO and gessoed paper is like making new year's resolutions. If you don't like how it's going (the past year,) you can wipe it off and start fresh (like our new year's resolutions.) May all your resolutions for the new year result in positive, creative growth in your life!

"AHOY" Transparent Watercolor on Arches 140# CP covered with gesso, 14 x 21"