THE REST OF THE BATIKS

Grab of cup of tea or coffee and enjoy the second half of the Miami University Craftsummer students' BATIK slide show. Comments are always welcome.

BATIK! BATIK! BATIK!

The batiks in this slide show are original works of art, created by college students at a workshop I taught earlier this month at Miami University. Two of the students were undergrads, and two took the workshop as a non credit course while all the rest of the artists were graduate level. Their work was superb as you will see.

There were so many masterpieces that I must post the rest of them later this week. Everyone was to create five, 12" squares along with at least one larger painting. Some of the paintings are really large - 24"+ in size and fabulous!

Wish you could see them in real life. The creativity was wonderful. ENJOY!

BATIK, ETC.

A couple of weeks ago in Oxford, Ohio, at Miami University, sixteen women, mostly art teachers, met for a week to delve into the possibilities of using the wax batik process with transparent watercolor. This week I'll post a slide show of the creative works that each of them produced.

The first posted painting here is the piece I did partially as a batik demo during that unique week at Miami. The photo reference for this painting is one I've used several times because I love the shuttered window I'd photographed years ago at Sauder's Village in northwestern Ohio.

I'm also posting two other paintings I did of this same subject, one painted on YUPO and one done using a masking tape technique (rather than wax) to preserve shapes. I thought the comparison of the three different approaches would be interesting to see even though they have been posted before on this blog (along with another YUPO variation of this same subject.)

I'm sure I'll be painting this one again and again because I never loose interest in seeing what can be done with the play of lights and darks in the painting. All have been fun to do and have been painted during the last several years.

1st Painting above - Batik 15" x 20" COLLECTED

2nd Painting - Yupo COLLECTED

3rd Painting - Tape Technique

All created with transparent watercolor COLLECTED

POURING PAINT

One of my favorite things about watercolor is how luminous the paint appears. When paint is applied by pouring, without the aid of a brush, it seems to have even more luminosity, too. That's how this painting started.

The first picture here shows the painting right after I'd removed the miskit. All the edges are crisp as a result of using the miskit, but the painting has a very graphic and, unfortunately, almost monotone look. (I think I let the colors blend together too much during the early pours.) I was not ready to call the painting finished so I had to get out my brush and make lots of adjustments.

This old nurse log 'lives' in Washington State, where Dawn Bailey took an excellent photograph of it with all the moss and ferns growing around it. Be sure to check out her nature blog - Vulture Cafe - on the side bar.

We painted together a week ago, and this was one of our projects. In fact, it's actually her fault that I'm teaching 'online' now to several artists - she instigated the idea and nagged me until I said we'd give it a try. She's a great photographer and knows her way around handling a paintbrush pretty well, too. We had a good time last week painting in real life instead of via cyberspace on the Internet.

The next painting shows lots of the adjustments, but the last photo shows what I think is the finished painting. In this last photo, only minor adjustments were made to various edges along with subtle value and color changes to some small areas. Because I painted over almost the entire picture with a brush, much of the original luminosity of pouring the paint has been compromised.

See if you can find the mountain chickadee that was added in the last photo - which sang to us as we painted that day in our woodland studio. It really looks more like a sparrow, so you'll have to use your imagination.

"HAVEN" Transparent Watercolor on 140#CP Arches 11 x 15" COLLECTED

MAGNIFICENT MOLLIE

Some animals are so beautiful that it's hard to imagine painting them as magnificent as they are. Mollie is like this.

Although she's a sleek black dog, there's no black paint on her. What you see here is lots of Quinacridone Magenta, Ultramarine Turquoise, Phthalo Blue, Quin Burnt Orange, Indanthrone, Cerulean, and Lunar Earth, all from Daniel Smith Company out of Seattle.

I've started painting a full length view of her on a larger sheet of paper, but for now, she looks like this. My hope is to capture how exquisitely gorgeous she is.

"FIRST MOLLIE" Transparent Watercolor on 140CP Arches - 11 x 15"

SAM KITTY

Got home tonight from a great vacation with our 8 yr. old grandson - spent wandering down the coast of Oregon then back up the Cascade
Mountain Range, finishing along the beautiful Columbia River - beautiful, luscious country - so hard to leave behind to come back to the humid, muggy midwest.

Crater Lake was beyond any words! Thanks, Lynn, for telling us about it.

We used to come home from trips to be greeted by this gorgeous old cat named Sam. He's gone now, but I still thought of him when we got back in town.

He was a Maine Coon, and I think, 'part dog.' Our younger son taught him to sit and stand on command! I miss him. This painting was done several years ago, and animals are just about the only commissions I ever accept to paint now.

Looking forward to class tomorrow, but it won't have quite the atmosphere that Dawn and I had as we spent the day at a picnic table in the woods last week painting amidst the Oregon ferns and conifers. Great memories.

"SAM KITTY" Transparent Watercolor on 140#CP Fabriano Artistico 11 x 15"

YUPO STILL LIFE

This bouquet was so gorgeous I simply had to paint it. I used miskit to mask out the pure white areas on several flowers. Even though I could easily lift off the paint later from the slick YUPO surface, I would not be able to get a crisp edge like I needed for the daisies and lilies.


When you have a minute, check out the slide show on the right hand side bar of this blog. All the paintings in the slide show were created on YUPO, and there are many diverse approaches shown in the slide show.


One of the exciting things about being an artist is being able to 'play and discover' new ways to do things. Painting watercolor on unusual surfaces certainly brings out the playfulness in me. I used to love painting on a sheet of gessoed paper or a sheet of paper with mat medium painted randomly over it, but YUPO is already to go just like it is.

Yesterday, Dawn Bailey (Vulture Cafe - see side bar) and I got a chance to paint together and took just a little time to play on YUPO. We painted a top a picnic table amidst ferns and conifers. It was a perfect day and felt so good to be painting with a friend! Dawn brought along her hummingbird nest, and you wouldn't believe how very small it is to have held two baby birds. We had hotdogs and smoores over the campfire, and I saw a hummingbird dart down to some petunias nearby. What a great time.

(HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Matt!)


"SONNEY'S BOUQUET" Transparent Watercolor on YUPO 15 x 21"

IRISES ON YUPO

Painting flowers on YUPO can be a challenge because flowers are soft and have lots of lost edges. It's tricky to paint lost or soft edges where you want them on YUPO.

Artists who like to plan each and every stroke and know exactly what will happen next probably will never like YUPO. But if you're an artist who likes spontaneity, excitement, challenges, and surprises, you need to grab a sheet of YUPO and find out what all you can create on it.

I recently signed up to be part of a Yahoo Group called Watercolor Workshop and am starting one of the challenges they have each month. Of course, I'll do the painting on YUPO and post it here soon, too.

Although this post doesn't show it, YUPO is very very white. Sorry for the inaccuracy here.

"FANCY LADIES" Transparent Watercolor on YUPO 12 x 16"

IRIS ON MASA PAPER

Masa paper is a thin rice paper made out of sulphite, (whatever that is???) not rice. This painting was started the same way the hollyhocks began - see post below.

The whites or light areas in this picture were left as they are and the darker shapes painted around them. Both positive and negative painting was used to create the flowers and leaves.

Masa paper is thin, and when it's wet, it tends to 'ball up' quickly when it's brushed over with several strokes....looks like a cheap sweater if you over stroke the paper. It's best to let an area dry completely before adding more color.

Once the painting was completed, I glued it on a sheet of clean, acid free watercolor paper, using methyl-cellulose wall paper paste, taking care to smooth out the wrinkles without affecting the painted surface. If you haven't treid to paint on this, give it a shot. It's fun and easy - just avoid painting too dark at first.

"RUFFLES" Transparent Watercolors on Masa Paper adhered to 140#CP Arches 11 x 15

MASA PAPER

This week I'll be painting with a new friend on location, and we'll be using masa paper part of the time. Painting on this kind of rice paper is really easy and fun to do with watercolor.

First, we'll scrunch up the paper in a ball in order to create cracks in the surface of the paper where it'll then absorb the paint darker, kind of ike a batik look. Then we'll soak the ball of paper in water for a half a minute. After carefully spreading the wet paper flat, we'll float on some soft, light colors to create a gentle, subtle background effect.

Some areas may be left white or nearly white, and we may add some salt or spritz the almost dry paper to enhance the textures more. After the paper dries, we'll sketch our subject lightly on the paper.

The next part is the most fun because it's like magic. We'll lightly paint around the subject we've drawn, using existing colors, and pulling the colors out away from the edges of the subject so it doesn't look outlined or haloed at all. The subject will magically appear, and just need to small darks to finish it.

Some people call this "negative" painting because the subject - the positive shape - is avoided, and only the shapes around it are painted. But NEGATIVE painting sounds kind of bad, so one of my art students renamed it - SHADOW PAINTING! What a good description! We are painting the shadows and darker parts of the picture, leaving the existing light colors just as they are.

Some of the stems in this painting were painted negatively and some positively, but most the rest of the painting has been done by negative painting. I'll post a masa paper iris later this week that's created in a similar way. See you soon, Dawn!

"BLUSH OF PINK" Transparent Watercolor on Masa Paper & adhered to 140#CP Arches 9 x 12" COLLECTED

WHAT A WORKSHOP!

I'm home from the workshop. WHAT A WORKSHOP! Craftsummer, as it's called, began over 30 years ago at Oxford's Miami University and originated as a craft oriented program. Now its focus is fine art and artisan works - and it's an absolutely amazing opportunity for artists and art teachers to gain new directions in their art journeys.


In a week or so, I'll be able to post a slide show of the incredible batiks that this talented class created. You'll be impressed .... no, you'll be blown away by the creativity and quality of work which these fifteen gifted artists produced.


When I checked my emails, I found that Nava from http://navartpact.blogspot.com/ has awarded me the Arte y Pico award. Arte y Pico is a blog from Uruguay, whose blogger has come up with this award. It features a gracious angel with a batik looking dress and wings ready to soar - very impressive!

What's Art y Pico mean? As Ana, the award originator puts it, "Basically, ironically, it translates into a wonderful phrase in Mexico, 'lo maximo'. It will never find its counterpart in English, but if it HAD to, it would be something like, Wow. The Best Art. Over the top".

I'll soon be passing this special award onto five other artists' blogs that are awesome. THANK YOU SO MUCH, NAVA, for passing the award on to me.

BUFFALO BATIK

This is another oldie - but goodie, I think. I like the way the batik shows off the textures on this ancient water buffalo.

To see all of the batiks on this blog, go to the lower right hand column where it says LABELS, and click on batik. I'll be adding more after our workshop is over here at Miami U.

(Have a Happy Birthday tomorrow, Teresa!)

"BUFFALOED!" Transparent Watercolor on Kinwashi adhered to 140#CP Arches 16 x 9"

BURRO BATIK

The batik process has been around for a very very long time, but to be able to do batik, you just about have to think backwards from a normal painting process.


This batik was created several years ago. I usually do only one or two batiks a year, partially because of the mess, and partially because they take a lot of time. I also prefer working on batiks when there's really good air circulation in the studio, too, since hot paraffin fumes aren't so good to breathe.


This slide-converted-to-disc didn't reproduce the colors very accurately on this painting either. It's more colorful than shown on my computer monitor.


"HEAVY LOAD" Transparent Watercolor on Kinwashi adhered to 140#CP Arches 12 x 15"

BUGGY BATIK

It's workshop week at Miami University - in OHIO, (not near the ocean.) This campus is old, beautiful, well maintained, and a delightful university town.

This batik, not reproduced here to its advantage (sorry,) was created almost ten years ago after a trip to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, at Mackinaw Island with a painting friend. This digital shows the picture as being way too blue and dark. I had a disc made from slides of paintings I'd done earlier and can't seem to get the correct coloring on my screen. I hope you get the idea.

"TRAVELING IN STYLE" Transparent Watercolor on Thai unryu adhered to 140#HP ARCHES 25 x 19" COLLECTED

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

CELEBRATE!!!

Tomorrow's the day for fire crackers and fireworks. The skies in the evening will be filled with amazing displays of colorful lights accompanied by lots of bangs and booms as we celebrate our nation's 232 'birthday.'

The little fellow here celebrates his birthday this coming Tuesday, too. He'll be eight and wants some basketball stuff for his birthday.

Becoming a grandparent and being an artist nearly requires that you paint portraits of your grandchildren. I painted this picture of our older grandson at the first Janet Rogers' Workshop I'd ever taken in Florida.

Learning to paint loosely is very challenging, especially when you're painting babies, yet I so enjoy the results when it turns out good. It looks like the paint was just haphazardly plopped onto the paper, but actually, much thought and consideration was given before quickly plopping that brush down each time.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AMERICA. And Happy 8th, B.R.M.

"BLUE JEAN BABY" Transparent Watercolor on 140# CP Arches 18 x 18" COLLECTED

SHADOWS

Last night at dusk, I was lucky enough to see a little hummingbird quickly inspect my flowers. I think he was grocery shopping. He didn't stay long at all.

This is another painting from the archives of twenty years of watercolor. Painting shadows has always been an exciting thing to create. This shadow on the side of our house caught my eye, and I had to paint it.

Shadows technically are darker, grayed down colors of the object they fall on. Their edges are hardest closet to the object they come from and get progressively softer the farther they are from it. Generally, shadows are also a bit warmer and darker closest to the object, and get cooler and lighter as they move farther away.

With those guidelines in mind, I try to paint shadows that are full of interest, adjusting the colors to be more than just 'gray,' adjusting the edges to be varied and softer, etc. Sometimes, I make sure that the object's local color also bounces some color into the shadow area near it.

I took Davey's Grey and Payne's Gray out of my palette about fifteen years ago. I think I've used Payne's Gray a couple of times since then but not for shadows. My tube of black watercolor is great to have for the right spot but not ever in a shadow. Shadows have color. Lots of color. Play it up when you paint shadows. Make them delicious.

"EVENING VISITOR" Transparent Watercolor on 140#CP Arches, 9 x 22"

GAYLE'S GARDEN

For many years, I had the pleasure of filling my mother-in-law's small backyard with flowers. However, that eventually gave way to my painting - allowing less time (and interest) for landscaping.

I think that it's easier to paint a flower than to dig a hole in our hard packed, clay soil, plant the flower, and then have to fight off the rabbits and deer and slugs and bugs during our hot, humid summers.

This year, my mother-in-law moved from her home of 50 years, but she's still enjoying this painting that I did several years ago for her. She misses her garden, though.

These iris are painted on a full sheet of Fabriano Artistico, a paper that allows the paint to be lifted and blended more easily after it's dry. Fabriano is slightly softer than Arches, and works well for portraits, too.

Mother-in-law's are a lot like flowers - some more beautiful and special than others - which perfectly describes mine. When our older son was about 3, he wanted to help me plant some bulbs for his grandma. Each variety was packaged in its own bag, so he 'helped' by dumping them all out . . . in one big pile . . . over 300 assorted bulbs! I was mortified, thinking that now there was no way I could follow my carefully planned, color coordinated landscape design." My mother-in-law laughed and said it would be beautiful. The next spring, it was.

"MUMSY'S GARDEN" Transparent Watercolor on 140#CP Fabriano Artistico, COLLECTED

FINISHED YUPO

This was the first big painting I did many years ago on a full sheet of heavy weight YUPO - 40 inches long by 26 inches wide. All the weights of YUPO are the same exact surface and accept the paint the same, but since YUPO doesn't absorb water at all, no matter what the weight is, it never stretches or warps like regular cotton watercolor paper does when it's wet.

I prefer the heavy weight over the lighter YUPO just because it's easier to handle. The light weight YUPO is very flimsy, so if I move the painting at all while I'm working on it, I have little control over how easily the paper flops around. Medium weight YUPO is ok to work on, too, and recently I've used the fairly flimsy translucent YUPO. Because you can see through what's called Transparent YUPO, it's easy to trace a drawing through it onto the surface.

Did you know that if you erase on YUPO, the eraser makes an invisible mark that won't ever accept paint? Using watercolor pencils - Derwent brand is best - works well for drawing on YUPO because you can 'erase' mistakes with a moistened tissue.

These colorful 'boats' in Maine were so vibrant in all that marine wilderness, that I knew they'd become a painting on YUPO. Anything with dancing colors looks extremely good on YUPO, since the colors stay put, never fading on the paper. Often, on cotton watercolor paper, the colors look spectacular while they are wet, then once the paint dries, the color looses it's pop. (Can you tell I'm very partial to all the good qualities of painting on YUPO?)

Whatever we paint on, the most important thing we can do is to 'tell' others what's important to us, how we see the world in our own special way. The materials and techniques we use certainly affect how we express ourselves, but being an artist involves creating something that lets others see our own personal point of view. Otherwise, we're just decorating the canvas or paper with some nice colors, textures, and shapes.

One of these days, I'm going to order a whole roll of YUPO. Imagine how big those paintings will be!

"FRIENDSHIP COMPLETED" Transparent Watercolor on YUPO, 40 x 26"

YUPO AFLOAT

Pulled out of the archives, this painting was practice for a bigger one and painted while I had my reference photo in front of me. In early fall, eight of us from three different classes will be painting in beautiful Italy, and we'll be painting from real life, not photos.

Working outside on location has some strong advantages. The emotion of the moment, the inspiration, the smells, the breeze, the sun, the action, our reaction, all of it is there when you paint on location. Somehow it adds to the energy in the painting. We'll sure experience it this fall - can't wait!

"WAITING IN FRIENDSHIP" Transparent Watercolor on YUPO, 14 x 10"

READY TO PAINT?

This frisky fellow decided to be on patrol today while I sat on the deck and painted. Actually, I probably spent more time taking photos of him than painting.

Unless I stood up and moved around my table toward him, he would not leave. And when I did make him scoot, he'd snatch one last kernel of corn before he'd scamper down the post.

This shot's with a telephoto, but I'm still only 5 feet from him the whole time he munches his lunch. And he can put it away, too!

Years ago, my husband wrote a great story about a big white oak, which included a squirrel. Maybe it's time to illustrate it and get this little creature published. I did drawings as illustrations after Bob completed the story, but paintings and photos would be more fun. Getting the book into print is also much easier now, too. I've talked myself into a new project!

I love his little paws. Awwwwwe. Better get back to painting.

BREAKING IT UP

Artists can be notorious for not giving up on a painting..... all that time and effort, let alone the paint and paper expense. We keep at it no matter how bad it gets - we can be such a stubborn bunch.

Fortunately, most of us have discovered that we can salvage parts of a painting by cropping. I'm posting the original painting below that really must be cropped into smaller shapes. Here you see my future book mark, business card, greeting card, a coaster? and possible grocery list! (I'm just kidding... I'll pitch it before I go to all that hassle.)

The poor composition and design made the painting a loser from the start, and that circle of the roses was my fatal mistake.

Although I really liked the way the paint hit the paper 'loosey juicy style,' the overall painting just didn't happen. Got the title right, though:-) Since it's overly sweet, it's appropriately named "COTTON CANDY," on 140#CP Arches, and presently about 14 x 20" - from the archives.

GARDENS

Recently a new friend who's an avid gardener purchased this tulip painting I completed a couple of years ago. Since I've been puttering in the garden all day, it seemed fitting to post her painting today.

Her gardens were so full of treasurers, surprises, and intrique. Just by walking along the natural curving paths she'd created, you could sense that the landscaped area was brimming over with love. It was beautiful and delightful, just like the gardener!

"KLINGER COUNTRY" Transparent Watercolor Poured on 140#CP Arches 21 x 14" COLLECTED

YUPO UNDERWATER!

We were in a helicopter the first time I saw a real sea turtle swimming in the Pacific below us. Later, watching them glide in an huge aquarium beside the ocean was mesmerizing, and I hoped to capture that magnificent fluid movement with paint.

This is a YUPO painting from quite a few years ago, painted as a demo during the opening of an art show. I'm not a very good 'stand around and talk' person at an art show, but I do enjoy talking about the painting process while it's happening.

"ANCIENT MARINER" Transparent Watercolor on YUPO 25 x 18"

HOW MANY YEARS?

This ancient building with its strong arch reaching to yet another ancient building begs me to drink it in. I am not trying to toot my own horn, but I want to say that this painting ranks right near the top of my favorite paintings that I've ever done. I loved how it turned out, but it was 'touch and go' a lot of the way.

The tedious taping process was used to create the painting, but then I delved into it more to adjust and fine tune it. Actually, I overworked it a lot and nearly killed it. I had to rebuild the left side twice and retrieve some sky area. The archway gave me fits trying to make it read right, especially with that little balcony area above it. Advice from other artists helped guide me, too.

Several times, I was sure the painting was lost, but fortunately, it revived. Major reconstruction was done in certain areas using gouache, an opaque watercolor that actually seemed to help the transparent areas in and around the big window to glow more. Because I really liked certain things about the painting, I couldn't give up on it. I wanted to see it succeed.

The shutters and windows are purposely crooked and askew, partially because I didn't start out with a well planned drawing, and partially because I was focused on making my love of this scene be more important than an accurate rendition of it. I'm posting it today because it so symbolizes the past 40 years my husband and I have been married.

Today's our 40th anniversary so I looked through my paintings trying to decide which one would best describe today. These old buildings, connected by an ancient archway, could be the two of us. Pretty much everything I've just typed about this painting and the struggle it was to create can also describe our marriage.

The light in the window is my favorite part of the painting, and maybe the archway represents the commitment it takes for two people to survive being together for this long??? One thing for sure, we're getting to be ancient, too. Or at least it feels that way at times.....

Deanna, who owns Waterlily Gallery where this is hanging, told me last weekend that a lady was very interested in buying this painting. I have a feeling I may want to keep it instead.

I wish a Happy Fathers' Day to all you dads today too!

"OLD ITALY" Transparent Watercolor on 140#HP Arches 22 x 15" NOT FOR SALE

A DAY WITHOUT PAINTING IS FUN!

If you're stopping by to see more art, I hope you'll enjoy the change of pace that I'm posting here today. This was 'VE' day - for Volcano Eruption. As you can see in the photo below, all went as expected. We even had a newsgirl, with her yellow microphone, on the scene to give us updates about the situation as it unfolded.

Any creature that didn't evacuate this one-of-a-kind, artistic, hand built mountain was destroyed by a rumbling blast and prolific lava flow, which triggered a major mudslide that seemed to move part of the mountain. It could be years before things grow in that area again!

It was an exciting day overall that also included delivering trees and some shopping earlier with Grandpa. After the volcano completed its outstanding performance, we all headed to the pool for a two hour swim, followed by dinner on the deck of steak, corn on the cob, and chocolate milk. We enjoyed the sights and sounds of nature all around us even though we were continually 'visited' by a mammoth wasp that actually landed briefly on my arm. Yikes! Life is so good!

BATIK AGAIN

This batik became a challenge, mainly because I tried to paint and wax on a very, very thin rice paper called Ichimatsu. Since I chose a subject with so many right angles, using a washi paper with the tiny squared pattern in it seemed like the natural choice.

This photo isn't the best to capture the painting, either, since it was taken several years ago. 'Ichimatsu' means 'checked' or tiny squares, and it's a fun word to roll off your tongue.

Every layer that I waxed and painted on this surface had to dry completely before it could be handled, or it would easily tear. Any rice paper can tear, but this was pushing the limit.

The final mood of the painting suited what I was after.... an empty chair in an antiquated and poorly equiped kitchen. I liked the way the blocks of lights and darks helped create movement in the picture too.

"COUNTER PRODUCTIVE" Transparent Watercolor and Sumi Ink on Ichimatsu Rice Paper, adhered to 140#CP Arches about 13 x 18" COLLECTED

SCULPTURE & FLUID ACRYLICS

This past week has been bubbling over with activity - but not on watercolor paper. We have two of our grandkids here, and the project was to make a volcano and let it erupt. We'd tried it last fall with a makeshift volcano and had no luck getting the baking soda and vinegar to spew out of the volcano.

Tomorrow's the day we will try again - but this time with a 'state of the art' volcano, carefully crafted out of plaster wrap and paper maiche, then covered artistcally with snow, a mud slide, a mountain stream, many crevasses and rocks, plus adorned with dinosaurs devouring the lush vegetation growing on the side of the volcano. The kids built the whole thing then painted it with my fluid acrylics and did an awesome job. They are really proud of what they've done, too.

I'll let you know how well the newly created volcano erupts and if any of the dinosaurs survive. Our oldest grandson is going on vacation with us later this summer, and is especially excited about it since we'll be staying on two dormant volcanos, Mt. Mazama and Mt. Hood.

FLORAL BATIK

I just got back home from a gorgeous lake setting in Michigan where I enjoyed a relaxing and inspiring weekend with one of my favorite art 'cronies' (my husband's terminology.) Lynne is a gifted photographer who has incredible timing with her camera and is able to see (and capture on disk) aspects of nature in her own unique way.

She has hummingbirds EVERYWHERE! She fills her feeders with a 3 to 1 water to sugar ratio, and it does the job of attracting them constantly, even during torrential downpours. There was quite an array of wildlife to enjoy - cranes, herons, frogs, turtles, butterflies and song birds, as well as exquisitely beautiful gardens at Linda's home to explore. It's an excellent fishing lake for catching bass and for watching storms roll in across the lake --- WHEW! Exhilarating.

We never did make time to produce any works of art, even though I packed all my painting and batiking supplies. The batik shown here was painted several years ago and belongs to Lynne and Jamie now.

It's sometimes a much needed inspiration to just unwind and share with friends rather than to spend the hours producing paintings. Either way, we would have fun together. Not only can Lynne take great photos, but she's become an excellent cook, too!!! So I was well fed, got my batteries recharged, and now have a great weekend full of memories. Many THANKS!

"HE LOVES ME..." Transparent Watercolor and Sumi Ink on Thai Unryu Rice Paper, adhered to 140#CP Arches about 15 x 11" COLLECTED

TWO WRENS

I do love to watch the birds and am often inspired to try to capture their beauty in a painting. The painting to the left with the bigger background was painted ten years ago, while the close up was just completed as a demo in a class.

The close up painting may never be finished. Like other artists, I start a painting, full steam ahead, then other things capture my attention, making it hard later to revive my interest in the first one.

Looking back in the archives can be frightening - to think I had some of that stuff framed! YIKES! I see a marked difference in the sureness of stroke in the newer painting compared to the older one, but the flowers and twigs were executed better in the old painting, in my opinion, probably because then I cared more how realistic they looked. The same exact photo reference was used for both, with the image reversed for the second one.

Top Painting "CAROLINA WREN" Transparent Watercolor on 140# CP Arches 15 x 11" COLLECTED

YUPO & VARENNA, ITALY

Here's a painting done from the same photo reference as the last post, but the surface I painted on was slick plastic called YUPO instead of cotton paper. The textures that can be created on YUPO are unending.

I loved the textures on the walls and steps in Italy. They were yummy, and I've often said I could've crawled inside them. Next summer, if you want to paint there, Janet and Steve Rogers will be teaching a watercolor workshop in Varenna. Their website is on the sidebar here on my blog. Janet will be here at my studio teaching again in April, 2009. Carol Carter will be here this August, and life is full of ART!

This fall I'll post some more paintings done on location in Varenna, Venice, and near Lake Maggiorie, all in gorgeous northern Italy.

"CHURCH SPIRE IN VARENNA" Transparent Watercolor on YUPO 13 x 20"

ITALY

Staying on Lake Como in the delightful village of Varenna was my favorite part of the first trip I took to Europe. This painting is from one of over five hundred photos I took in Varenna, and the scene was near our hotel, Olivedo, right on the lake.

In September, seven of my friends and I will be there painting, laughing, eating, and totally enjoying the beauty of this well kept but ancient little town. I can't wait to hear the school kids gather after school and break into beautiful, impromptu melodies like they did when we were there two years ago.

It's an artist's paradise, and we will be painting outdoors some of the time. Varenna's built on the side of a mountain, and all the steps lead down to spectacular Lake Como. I wonder how many thousands of well worn steps are in Varenna.....

This painting actually has a vibrant orange color on the spire, but the color doesn't read very well in this post. I used my masking tape technique to create the painting and have another one done on YUPO of the same scene that I'll post next.

We'll see you in a few months, Laura! CIAO!

"STEPS & SPIRES" Transparent Watercolor on 140#HP Arches 14 x 21" COLLECTED

FINAL PAINTING FROM THE BLACK AND WHITE SERIES

This is the last archived painting from my black and white series done almost ten years ago. So many artists say they paint in a series, but I certainly never intended to be 'painting in a series' when this black and white phase hit.

Carla O'Conner stated in a workshop I took that a series should just happen and not be planned. I totally agree with her. That's what happened here, as well as when I got interested in painting openings - like windows and doors. The black and white was as much of a series as was the melding of the shapes together into one value area in these past few posts.

I do not seem to know that I'm painting in a series of related paintings until I'm well into the third or fourth one. Then I can see the relationships between them, and realize that I'm painting what's important to me at the time. That's what a series should be all about.

"CHORES" Transparent Watercolor on 140#CP Arches or Fabriano (can't remember) 12 x 20"

CLOGGING FROM THE ARCHIVES

Another 'black and white' theme from the archives here... of a friend clogging at a Fourth of July festival about 10 years ago, right about the time the sun was setting. I liked that his partner's foot showed and just the edge of her head, but she's hidden for the most part.

There was such spirited energy in this group of cloggers, and everyone's toes were tapping while we watched. Dave's wife, Connie, is the teacher of this particular group, and Dave's a super watercolorist and artist, too, besides being an accomplished dancer.

Once again, I loved connecting as many dark values as I could, subtly changing colors as I painted them in. I used multi colored shadows to help add a feeling of festivity to the painting.

The fireworks that went off over the Ohio River soon after their dancing ended were spectacular, but I've never been able to paint fireworks effectively. I'm not sure anything, even photos, can ever do justice to the glory of a good fireworks show.

"DAVE DANCING" Transparent Watercolor on 140#CP Arches 12 x 20" COLLECTED