Stressed

I felt the need to throw some paint and this is the result.  I looked back at last year's post at this time and it is very similar.  You can check out that one, "Strained" if you'd like and you'll see that this time of year  is not my favorite but it's my own fault.  I always feel out of control.  Last year, I made plans to do a better job of being organized about the holidays but obviously that didn't happen.  I just don't think I have it in me to get things done in a timely manner and that causes STRESS.

Phew....now it's over for another year.  I know those of you that love Christmas think I'm crazy but I'm really happy that we can get on to the new year.  I'll make the same resolution to be more organized and we'll see what the outcome is for 2012.  Who knows, if I get everything done ahead of time for the holidays next year, Christmas may become my favorite holiday.

This is a watercolor with bits of acrylic which I had to use (the white) because it was getting so dark.  It sure was liberating to throw all of that paint though.

Stressed
Image size 15" x 22"
Watercolor

Skagway

There were so many beautiful places that we visited during our Alaskan cruise last year and I've been looking through all of my photos from that trip.
I found this beautiful scene in Skagway.  It was such a clear, crisp day in June.  I'm not used to seeing snow that time of year so this was a refreshing change.  The temperature high during the day was around 58 degrees F - also a first.  I'm used to our "June Gloom" but even with no sun shining, it's still much, much warmer than that.  I've never worn a jacket and scarf in June before.

This is done in pastels on Sennelier La Carte paper.

Skagway
Image size 6" x 10"
Pastels

Silk Wisteria, painting on silk

I had so much fun with this one, I think I will need to do another silk painting really soon.  This one has my favorite color combination - purple and lime green.  Wisterias have such beautiful and showy flowers.  I've always wanted one in our yard but we don't really have a spot for it.  They can get fairly large.  As they get old, their trunk structure is very interesting.  Fortunately, two of our neighbors have them in their front yards so I get to enjoy them each spring when they are blooming.

Silk Wisteria
Image Size 15" x 15.5"
Silk dyes on silk
Stretched on archival board but unframed

Breaking Through The Clouds

This was painted from a photo I took while traveling on a bus between Liverno and Lucca in Tuscany.  The sky was so beautiful and the scene was so tranquil that I had to try to capture the feeling.  I really love the Tuscan countryside and you'll probably see many more scenes from this area in the future.

Breaking Through The Clouds
Image Size 6" x 6"
Oil

Sitka At Dusk

Last year we went on a cruise to Alaska and this is from one of my photos I took as we were leaving Sitka.  I wanted to capture the feeling of cold and the overcast late afternoon light.  I used mostly cool colors with bits of warm colors added in here and there.  I used a deep electric blue suede paper as my surface.  The more I work with the pastels, the more I like them.  The softer pastels are really wonderful on this suede paper.   I wasn't sure about using such a bright color paper but I think it gave an interesting effect.

 One of these days I'm going to really splurge and get some Terry Ludwig pastels.  They make some of the most beautiful, rich darks I've ever seen and they are a very soft pastel.  I was able to try them in a pastel workshop once and I really liked them.  They are a handmade pastel and they offer over 500 colors!

Sitka At Dusk
Image Size 11.5" x 15.5"
Pastels

Sunny Spain

About 10 years ago, we visited the south of Spain and this was painted from a picture I took of one of the many whitewashed, hillside towns.  What impressed me about each town we visited was how clean and white all of the buildings were.  In fact, we saw buildings being freshened up with white paint in every town we visited.

I started this painting years ago and set it aside.  I finally finished it this week.  I used pastels on a rust colored mat board that I had coated with pumice gel which gave it enough tooth to hold many layers of pastels.  My friend gave me some Sennelier pastels that she decided she wasn't going to use and I really  enjoyed trying them.  They are the softest pastels I've ever used and have a really buttery feeling.  I can't wait to use them again.  Thanks Peggy!!!

Sunny Spain
Image Size 9.5" x 16.5"
Pastels

Fragrant Plumeria

Last spring, I was fortunate to see the work of Joseph Raffael in person.  There was an exhibit at Soka University and it was truly amazing.  His work is beautiful on his website but can't be appreciated fully until you see it in person.  His paintings are HUGE and very intricate.  I could have stayed at the show for days and not tired of looking and finding new things.

I decided to try to paint like him.   I started this right after seeing the show but it then I ignored it until last week.  Most of his paintings have these incredible borders that look like confetti.  The way he paints them (I think) is to put the confetti colors on first and then paint around them.  He had blooms in the background color of the border that I didn't want so I did my background color first, leaving white areas that I could fill in with color and then I used plastic wrap to get more texture.

My intention for the flowers and background was to NOT care about blooms and be very loose and messy.  Well, I started out that way but it was really stressful for me so other than one bloom in the background (which drove me crazy) and the type of border I did, this is nothing like Joseph's work.  I had good intentions.  Maybe if I'd had a glass of wine first it would have turned out differently.  Also, I think the flowers I picked really didn't lend themselves to the broken, textural color that he does so well.

The border on this was fun.  I've always used borders in my silk paintings but rarely in my watercolors although I'm not sure why that is.  I'll probably use borders in the future but I doubt if I'll do the confetti look again.  That just seems to be too much of a signature of Joseph's.

To check out Joseph Raffael's beautiful paintings, click on his name.  He also has videos on his site that are fun to watch.

Inspired by Joseph Raffael
Image size 22" x 30"
Watercolor

Colimilla - Poured Watercolor

Colimillia is such cute little town.  It is in the lagoon by Barra de Navidad, another charming town in Mexico.  Both are about 40 minutes north of Manzanillo.   They were hit by a hurricane a couple of weeks ago and many of the buildings on the beach in Barra were badly damaged.  Colimilla was protected from the waves by being in the lagoon but I think there might have been some flooding.  We will be visiting there soon and I'm anxious to see how the people in both towns are doing.  The hurricane was only a category 2 luckily.  It was supposed to be a category 3 when it hit land but fortunately it lost some of its power.

I painted this from a couple of pictures I took last spring.  I love the serene feeling of the calm water and the setting sun.  The pangas (small boats), like the one in this painting, go between the several restaurants in Colimilla and the Grand Bay Hotel and Barra de Navidad.  It looks like it's time for a cocktail - and maybe some ceviche and coconut shrimp.  : )

This is the first poured painting that I've tried.  I went to a demo by Linda Baker a couple of weeks ago and this is the technique that she uses.  Of course, she made it look really easy.  I wouldn't say that it was hard but there is definitely a learning curve.  The next one will be much easier.  I really like the look that pouring watercolor gives to a painting.  It has a very graphic quality, which you should know by now is the look that attracts me to a painting.  I can't wait to try it again.

After saying in the last post that I was done painting flowers for awhile, the first thing I started working on the next day was a floral that I'd started last spring.  Sigh.....  At least this post isn't flowers but I'm afraid next week's probably will be but they will NOT be pink!

Colimilla
Image size 11" x 18"
Watercolor

Bougainvillea Mexicana

Here is it.  Can you believe it?  I actually did something I said I was going to do.  This is the watercolor version of the bougainvillea silk painting that I did last week.  Many times I say I'm going to do this painting or that painting and they never get posted.  That's because they never get painted.  I guess I have more ideas of what to paint than the motivation to paint them.  I get easily distracted by new ideas and the old ones just get forgotten.  I should probably write them down for those times that I can't think of anything to paint.

This is a large painting and I really had to work hard to finish it for today.  I fought with the paper the whole time.  It is on Arches 300# rough.  I'm not sure what I was thinking when I chose that paper for a floral.  Maybe because the wall was stucco I thought it would be a good choice.  I drew this and painted the background quite some time ago so I don't really remember my thought process.  Also, though I love the heavier papers, it is really hard to get some of the color mixtures and effects that I want.  I was hoping to paint the shadows with a looser, more watery feeling but didn't think I could get that with the heavier paper.  The edges were drying creepy (I mean creepy crawly, not creepy scary, even though it's Halloween)  instead of blurry like I wanted.   Also, when I floated the colors blends on the paper they looked beautiful but because the paper took so long to dry, the paints blended together too much and lost the effect that they had when they were wet so I was unhappy with that aspect of the painting too.  I had to do a lot more glazes to get the effect I wanted. That seems to happen on the 300# cold press paper too but the Arches 300# hot press seems very different in how it accepts the paint and is one of my favorite papers which is weird because I hate their 140# hot press.  That paper is very hard for me to work on because I like my paints to blend smoothly and that doesn't happen easily on the lighter weight hot press.  Maybe if I didn't wear my glasses while I paint I would relax and not worry about things like that because they would look blended.  : )

Anyway, enough about paper.  I'm sure those of you that aren't artists are yawning by now.  I'm really pretty happy with this painting even though I was cursing at it while I was working on it.  Maybe that helped.  I'm not sure what I'll paint next but it won't be flowers.  As much as I like them, I'm sick of them for now, especially pink flowers!

Bougainvillea Mexicana
Image size 22" x 30"
Watercolor

Wrought Iron Bougainvillea - Silk Painting

Last week I taught my niece how to paint on silk and that made me miss silk painting so I decided to paint one this week.  I have some photos of bougainvillea against an orange building and am working on painting it in watercolor so I thought I would try painting it using silk dyes on silk also.  It has a completely different look than the watercolor painting.

I was planning to put shadows from the bougainvillea on the wall but felt that this design was already too busy and the shadows  probably wouldn't read right in a silk painting.  I am going to make the shadows fairly important in the watercolor painting.  That painting doesn't have the wrought iron so it's busy in a different way.

In this painting, I used salt to give a suggestion of stucco in the wall but the color I used didn't react very much with the salt.  I probably had the color too light.  I also experimented with using colored resists for parts of the details but need to go darker next time.  It's all a learning experience, right?

By the way, my niece is a natural at the silk painting.  Her painting is turning out great and she's already planning her next project.  Silk painting is VERY addictive but it's a pretty healthy addiction.

Wrought Iron Bougainvillea
Image Size 15.5" x 23.25"
Silk dyes on silk
Stretched but unframed

Orvieto

I took the photo for this painting in 2005 in Orvieto, Italy.  It's such a charming town and I love this scene.  In fact, I painted it before in a landscape format twice as large.  For this painting,  I wanted to use the portrait format to emphasize the height of the building in the foreground.  Also, this one is painted more loosely and colorfully.  I never took a picture of the original painting and although it is hanging in our home, I'm too lazy to try to take a picture of it through the glass.  They never seem to come out well without a lot of reflections anyway so you will just have to imagine what it looks like.  : )

Orvieto

Image Size 22" x 15"

Watercolor

Palau Beach

Palau Beach sounds like it should be in the South Pacific and looks like it would be there or in the Caribbean but it is in Sardinia.  That is the location for Virtual Paintout this month.  I didn't know where Sardinia was and in case you don't either, it's in the mediterranean off the coast of Italy (and is part of Italy) just below the island of Corsica (which is part of France).  I was attracted to the cloud formations and the beautiful color of the water.  This is an oil painted on a 3/4" thick gallery wrapped canvas with the sides painted and doesn't need a frame.

Palau Beach
Image Size 8" x 16"
Oil

California Vineyard

A friend gave me some velour paper - I'm not sure that's what it's called but that's what it looks like to me.  I know they make mat board with a velour or sueded surface and this seems the same but is a paper.  This piece was a bright yellow and I planned to have bits of it showing through but that didn't happen.  It was hard to get a clean looking sky because of the yellow and I had intended to have a clear, blue sky but the clouds seemed to work better with that yellow base.

This is a picture I took at a vineyard up in Buellton, CA.  In the photo, it was a beautiful, cloudless day but not anymore when a little artistic license is used.  Clouds are so much fun to do, especially in pastels.  This paper had such a velvety surface, it was easy to get the cloud effects I wanted.

I have some more of the paper in bright yellow, bright blue, bright kelly green and beige so you will probably be seeing more pastels done on this surface in the near future.

Thanks for the paper, Beverly!

California Vineyard
Image size 8" x 8"
Pastels

Cactus Flower-watercolor on TerraSkin

I'm still playing around with the TerraSkin paper surface.  I love the watery effects I can get with it and it forces me to paint more loosely.  I took some pictures of cacti flowering at Sherman Gardens a while ago and had been wanting to try painting them.  The flowers on these cacti are so beautiful I will probably paint them many times in several mediums.  This is a very small painting but I think a huge painting of these would be amazing.

Cactus Flower
Image Size 5.5" x 4"
Watercolor

Stone Hollihocks- TerraSkin

What a weird title for this painting, right?  Well, it's painted on "stone" of a sort.  I found out about this new "paper" from a blogger (sorry I don't remember who) and hunted it down because I just had to try it.  It is called TerraSkin and is made from 75-80% stone (recycled calcium carbonate, the mineral in marble) and an environmentally friendly polyethylene resin.  It uses about 50% less energy to produce, no bleach and little to no water.  It is also acid free.  When I heard about it, I couldn't wait to try it.  I'm always looking for interesting substrates for my art.

One of the environmental perks of this "paper" is that it is biodegradable in 3-9 months with enough heat, moisture and sun.  Of course, I don't want my art degrading but I would imagine that a piece of regular paper would be destroyed much, much quicker in that type of environment than this surface would.  Remember people, don't put your art in the direct sun and definitely don't put your paintings in the landfill and expect for them to survive. : )

This paper has a wonderful chalky feel to it and it comes in various weights.  I think this painting is done on the heaviest paper.  The paint sits on the surface much like on yupo (I'm talking about watercolors) but I think this surface is more forgiving in a few instances.  I started a completely different design on this paper and erased all of it and that didn't seem to change the surface of the paper.  With Yupo, I've found that erasing is a big no no.  Also, fingerprints don't seem to be such an issue with this paper as they are with Yupo.  Lifting paint was similar when the paint was freshly dried but seemed to be a little harder to lift as it sat longer.  It could still be lifted but didn't feel as impermanent as on Yupo and it was easier to get a blended edge when lifting instead of being either white or the color.  Of course, I have NOT had much luck working on Yupo so for those of you that know what you're doing, these issues are probably not even problems for you.

I like the TerraSkin surface and look forward to painting on a large piece of it.  I really like the effect of the paints on this paper, which is similar to the look on Yupo, but working on TerraSkin seems easier.

I would love to hear from anyone that has painted on this surface with watercolor and what your experiences have been.

Stone Hollihocks
Image Size 5.5" x 4"
Watercolor

Bougainvillea in Colored Pencil

I really need to get some new reference material!  I love bougainvillea but I think I've painted them enough!  We have been traveling and I needed something to work on while on the plane.  Colored pencils are the best medium for me in this instance because it doesn't take much space and if there is turbulence, there are no spills.  There were a few pencil skips during turbulence but it worked out okay.

I am so amazed by artists that use colored pencil as their primary medium.  It is a very time consuming process and being stuck on a plane is about the only time I have enough patience to work with them.  It sure makes me appreciate the skills and time needed to finish a colored pencil painting.  This is a small one and it took many hours more than if it was done in any other medium that I use.  Even though I really like the look of colored pencils that have been burnished, I didn't burnish this one because there was a bit too much texture in the paper, even though it is a hot pressed watercolor paper.  I usually like using smooth Bristol paper for colored pencils.  This paper did have a little more tooth to hold more layers of color, which was nice, so I guess each type of paper has its pros and cons.

Bougainvillea in Colored Pencil
Image Size 7" x 10"
Colored Pencil

Lake Powell Reflections

I'm really enjoying these watery, loose paintings.  I know I will go back an forth between painting like this and really tight but variety is fun.  As much as I like really controlling the watercolor, wet into wet painting gives beautiful effects.

Lake Powell Reflections
Image Size 22" x 15"
Watercolor

Lost Canyon III

Here's another Lost Canyon abstract.  This has some interesting textures that aren't really showing up in this photo.  I love what watercolor pigments do on wet paper.  You can't get that with any other medium.

Lost Canyon III
Image Size 15" x 22"
Watercolor

Gamblin Oil Paints

We just got back from visiting friends in Portland, Oregon.  When I found out we were going up there, I contacted Gamblin Oil Paints and asked if I could tour their factory and they graciously said yes.  I've always liked their paints and mediums and they have one of the best, most informative websites I've seen so I was really excited to be able to see their facility.

When I got there, I was surprised by how small it is considering that they have an international presence with their product.  Every step of the process is checked and their quality control is wonderful.  I am now a complete Gamblin convert and plan to only buy their oils when I need (want) new colors.

Not only are they really focused on keeping their quality high and consistent, they are also careful about the health of their employees and the environment.  They use an air filtration system to capture the pigment dust while the colors are being mixed, which could be harmful if inhaled.  Once a year, they make Torrit Grey paint using everything collected in the filtration system.  The grey varies from year to year because the colors and amount of dust from each color made each year can vary.  Torrit grey is released around the end of April and is only available while supplies last.  It is given as a gift when another tube of Gamblin oil paint is purchased.

Artists can enter their annual Torrit Grey competition in which they use only Torrit Grey, white and black in their painting.  This year the deadline has been extended until Oct. 1st.  You can visit the Gamblin website to get the details and see examples of past work.   If you can't find Torrit Grey in your area, I just got some at Art Supply Warehouse which is located in Westminster, CA but they sell on-line also.  I don't know how much they have left but I was really surprised that they still had any because it's usually gone from stores pretty quickly.  If you contact them, be sure to mention the Torrit grey because some of their employees (the first on I talked to) don't know about Torrit grey and if they look on the Gamblin color chart they won't see it.  This company is different than the Art Supply Warehouse with the website aswexpress.com (one of my favorite places to buy supplies) They ran out of the Torrit Grey a while ago.

I'm hoping to try a painting or two to submit.  It will be a really good exercise in value control.

This is a painting I did awhile ago but I never posted it to the blog.  It's one of my first oil paintings and I painted it in a traditional manner glazing many layers.  The color is much richer in person.  I just love these dramatic, huge flowers.  They have a long blooming season and are really flashy in a garden.

Garden Angels
Image size 24" x 18"
Gallery wrapped canvas painted on sides.  No frame needed

Fairbanks, Alaska - Silk Painting

I found this log cabin while I was traveling virtually in Fairbanks, Alaska.  I used a bit of artistic license with the yard.  I got rid of some of the stuff they had sitting around the yard and then re-landscaped.  I know it's very green but that's one of my favorite colors and there really is a lot of green up there.  I haven't done a silk painting for awhile so I decided to do a graphic painting of this scene.If you want to see the street map view I used, you can see it on Google street maps here.

Fairbanks, Alaska
Image Size 8" x 21"
Silk dyes on silk

Water Violation - Watercolor

Here is a painting that was a struggle from the beginning ( well over a year ago).  I started by pouring a very light color over a dry piece of paper which gave the foreground design which is very similar to my painting "Fish and Flotsam" in how it began.  In this painting, I broke up the poured area into interwoven sections and because this is a handmade paper with lots of texture, I used my most sedimentary paints to show off that texture.  Unfortunately, I put no thought into how those colors would look together and what I ended up with was a cacophony of disharmonious color.  I tried to wash it off in the bathtub and then chose colors that worked better together while still trying to get a lot of texture.  Once I got the colors the way I wanted them I still didn't have any type of focal point and I think you need that even in an abstract so of course I added......Koi!  There's a reason I used to be known as the flower and koi artist.  Anyway, after a year, I'm calling this finished.  I think I actually am happy with how it turned out but I certainly would recommend starting a painting with a little more of an idea of where it is supposed to go.

Water Violation
Image size 22" x 30"
Watercolor

Summer Stream - Oil

Virtual paintout's location this month is Fairbanks, Alaska and points north.  There's some beautiful scenery in that state for sure.  My husband and I visited there last summer on a cruise so we didn't make it to Fairbanks but the places we visited were beautiful.  By the end of the week I felt like my eyes couldn't handle any more of that green, lush scenery.  As I was virtually traveling through Alaska this week, this spot caught my attention because of the yellow foliage along with that little stream against the mountains in the background.
This is an oil painting done with a brush.  I was very tempted to use a palette knife in the foreground but wanted to keep a soft feeling throughout the painting.

Summer Stream
Image Size 6" x 6"
Oil

Fuchsia Fuchsias - Oil Painting

This is an oil painting that I actually used a brush to paint.  I've used only palette knives for oil paintings for the past year.  I've started out using brushes on a lot of paintings but after a couple of strokes, I've picked up my palette knife and dumped the brushes.  For this one, I felt I needed a little more control so that I could give the flowers a more delicate look.  It was a lot of fun and I think I'll pick up the brushes again soon.

Fuchsia Fuchsias
Image Size 6" x 6"
Oil

After The Storm - Pastels

I wanted to get in one more submission for the Virtual Paintout in Jersey this month and since it is an island, I wanted to do one that showed at least a little of the ocean.  I was really attracted to this dramatic sky.  I found it and went to the studio to paint it but it disappeared from my computer and it was hard to find again.  I went all of the way around the island thinking that it would be really easy to find this sky but with Google you can have sunny skies, travel 20 feet and have a sky like this.  Crazy!  Anyway, I finally found it and this time I sent the link to my e-mail so I wouldn't lose it again.

I thought that using pastels would be the best way to capture the look that I wanted with the sky.  I love how dark and ominous the sky is on the left and the blue sky peeking through on the right.  We don't often get dramatics skies like this here so it's fun to find it in Google to paint.

After The Storm
Image Size 6" x 9"
Pastels
Sold

Nicholas Simmons' Workshop

Last week I was lucky to take Nicholas Simmons' "Watercolor Unleashed" workshop in Idyllwild, CA.  For 3 days we got to experiment with watercolors and acrylics used thinly as watercolor.  It's amazing how many different results you can get by combining the two.  Here is my first demo piece using only acrylics.

Nick gave us reference pages of chinese writing, the Geisha and bamboo leaves and we were to come up with a composition using all three.  He showed us several fun techniques and the day flew by.  And no, I don't know what the writing says - I hope it's nothing bad.  This group of lettering just fit my paper the best and I really liked the shape of that top letter.

Our other project was done by copying a picture of a photo that he had abstracted and we used both transparent watercolor and thinned acrylics.  By using the combination of both, we were able to employ different techniques and get very cool results.  Here's the painting:

Because we were all using the same reference photo, there are about 15 versions of this floating around California but each one has a different look as each artist put their own spin on it.

This was such an informative workshop and so much fun.  I can't wait to try these techniques some more.  I was not really successful with a couple of them so I'm anxious to try again.

I had watched Nick's video before and learned so much from it that I didn't think I needed to take the workshop but I'm so glad I did because I learned so much more by having hands on practice with Nick giving feedback and that is something you can't get from a video.  If you ever have the chance to take one of his workshops, I would highly recommend it.  If not, get his video.  He's an amazing artist, has a unique contemporary painting style and is very generous in sharing his techniques.  He's also a really nice guy and kept us entertained with lots of stories.  Check out his website and you'll see how crazy creative his paintings are.

Nature's Fury - Watercolor

I had a lot of fun with this one.  This is another piece of that handmade paper that has the beautiful deckle edge.  I love this shape and the deckle edge adds an interesting little extra something to it.  I had to seal the paper because it has no sizing in it.  Once it's sealed, the paint sits on the surface of the paper. It's a different way of painting than on a regular piece of watercolor paper but it's really a fun change.

I wanted this to portray the energy and force of water as well as how dangerous it can be.  I think this painting shows the energy and force but maybe the colors are too pure and pretty to convey any sense of danger.  You know me and my love for pure colors.  I guess if I'd used blues with more gray and other dull colors that would have given it a more dangerous feeling but that wouldn't have been nearly as much fun to paint.

Nature's Fury
Image Size 21" Diameter
Watercolor

Jersey Shore

This is another painting for the Virtual Paintout challenge on the island of Jersey.  This one is a palette knife painting done with oils.

Jersey Shore
Image size 6" x 6"
Oil

Fig Trio

I was so excited this past week to find out that we have a purple fig tree in our back yard!  I know it seems like that's something I should have known.  The back corner of our yard has a lot of trees and shrubs and I rarely go back there.  Of course I knew that there was a fig tree there (it's about 20 feet tall so it's been there a long time and is hard to miss).  It's one of many trees that the local birds decided to plant for us.  I guess they thought our landscaping style could use some help.

We have another fig tree that they planted in the middle of our yard that I really like.  It's got a beautiful shape and I love the way the leaves look (on the tree and in flower arrangements) so that's why it gets to stay.   Unfortunately, I don't like the taste of the fruit.  It is a green fig tree and I thought that I was picking them too early or too late but maybe I just don't like figs.

Seeing that we also have a purple fig tree made me happy because I thought that surely they would taste better.  Everyone has told me how good the purple ones taste.  I always assumed that the tree in the corner was also a green fig tree because I  had never looked at it when the fruit was ripe.  When I saw that they were purple, I couldn't wait to taste them and also paint them.

Well... they were fun to paint and I really like the shapes of the figs but they taste worse than the green ones!  My friend that loves figs was over yesterday and she tasted one and also said it was terrible so it's not just me.  Why couldn't the birds plant a fig tree that makes good tasting fruit?  At least they are pretty for painting although I think I like the look of the contrast between the inside and outside of the green ones better.

This is a palette knife painting on a 6" x 6" panel.  I really like the look of this size and shape of painting and how they look in the floater frames with the painting mounted to the front so that none of it is covered.  I wanted to be a little different with this one so I painted it rotated 45 degrees and it will hang this way.  Here's how it looks in the frame:

 Fig Trio
Image size 6" x 6"
Oil on canvas board

Jersey Cottage - Watercolor

This month's location for the Virtual Paintout is Jersey.  When I first read the post, I thought Bill was just being cool and referring to New Jersey as "Jersey".  I hate to admit my geographical ignorance but I'd never heard of the island of Jersey.  I DO know that New Jersey is NOT an island so I was eager to see where Jersey is located.  It is close to the French coast and is one of the Channel Islands.  It's a very beautiful, charming island and I hope to do one or two more paintings to submit to this month's challenge  before July is over.

Jersey Cottage

Image Size 9" x 12"

Watercolor

Unframed

$110.00 

The Question - Oil Painting

I painted this as a gift for my friend's son and his new bride.  He is also friends with our daughter and he is the first of her high school group to get married.  The wedding was this last Saturday and was so beautiful.  It was held in a vineyard in Temecula.  It felt so strange to see him standing up there getting married.  I still think of him as a kid even though he is now a young adult.  I know that others in their group will be following his lead soon but I wish they would wait because it really makes me feel old.  Geez, what's next....babies????  I'm too young for this next generation business.

On their wedding website, they posted the photo that I used for this painting.  According to the caption on the photo, 'dead ahead' is where he 'popped the question' in Peter's Canyon.  I always hesitate to foist one of my paintings on someone unless I know that they like that specific painting because art is so personal and subjective.  However, I wanted to give them something that would be personal because their entire family is very special to us.  I hope this reminds them of that special day when they committed to becoming husband and wife.

The Question
Image Size 6" x 6"
Oil - Palette knife painting

Three Trees

There's nothing like waiting til the last minute to do something.  Procrastinating is one of the things I do best so this makes sense.  This month's virtual paintout location is New Zealand and I did look around through Google Street Maps at the beginning of June but didn't take the time to pick any spots to paint even though I thought it was such a beautiful country.   So today, with one day to go before the deadline, I decided to paint something.

When I first looked around I found a lot of scenes with fog that were really cool but of course I couldn't find them today so I picked this pretty spot.  This was done with a palette knife.

I can't wait to see where we will be virtually traveling next month.

Three Trees
Image Size 6" x 6"
Oil
Sold

Succulent sketching

This has been a busy, very fun week with house guests but not much time for artwork.  I used the little time I had to do a colored pencil and ink sketch for the inside of the Tustin Garden Club yearbook.  I do the artwork each year for the cover and also 2 simplistic sketches for the inside.  So now I only have one more sketch to do and that one is almost finished.  The cover will be "Graptoveria" from a couple of weeks ago so I wanted to do different succulents for the inside.

It was fun working with colored pencil again with some ink but I really prefer doing more realistic pieces with colored pencil. Unfortunately I find that I really don't have the patience to spend the time that is required to do that.  I'm always in awe of artists that do such detailed colored pencil art.  If you want to see some incredible examples of realism in colored pencil, visit the Colored Pencil Society of America website.  So many beautiful art pieces make me both frustrated and inspired.

Copala - Watercolor

Copala is a small, quaint town in Mexico not too far from Mazatlan.  I loved this scene with the strange windows and mix of architectural details.    Of course, the colors are great too.  Each building in the town is a different color and most of them are bright.  The bougainvillea are growing everywhere which adds more shocks of color.   There are donkeys roaming through the town, each with a human attached waiting to charge tourists for a chance to take their picture with the donkey.  I resisted the temptation.

Copala

Image Size 12" x 16"

Watercolor

Graptoveria - Watercolor

I'm not really sure what this plant is named but  I do know that it is a succulent.  : )  In my succulents book, the graptoveria looked similar to this and was described as having the variety of colors in one plant that this one does.  That's what drew me to it.  The combination of colors almost make it look iridescent.
This is a large painting and I think I will enter it in the Watercolor West competition coming up.

Speaking of competitions, today I got the news that my painting Fish and Flotsam has been accepted into the San Diego Watercolor Society's International Exhibit.  I am so thrilled!  This is a prestigious exhibit and I feel honored to have one of my paintings included.  This is the time of year that many of the big shows deadlines come around.  There are two other international watercolor shows (Watercolor West and National Watercolor Society) and a couple of local shows, all with deadlines within the next month. Now I'm wishing I had worked more in watercolor the past few months.  Since my paintings have been all over the place (every medium imaginable), now I'm feeling the crunch.  Sometimes I am more focused when my time is limited so we'll see what happens.

Graptoveria
Image Size 22" x 30"
Watercolor
Framed

Bird of Paradise Murals

Here are two murals that I recently finished.  They are painted in niches on either side of a door in Mexico.  They are very similar because of their symmetrical architectural placement but I didn't want them to be identical.

This week is the anniversary of my posting a painting each week for the past 3 years.  I think my art has progressed throughout this process and it's really been a lot of fun.  I plan to keep it up and hopefully, I will post more than one each week in the coming year.  My self-imposed deadline every Monday has kept me on track and some weeks it's been a real challenge getting a painting done but compared to the many daily painters, I look like a slacker.  Of course, many of my paintings are much larger and more involved than most of the daily paintings but I should be able to do some smaller paintings each week along with my larger paintings, right?

Both murals are:

Image Size 26" x 48"
Acrylic

Irvine Park

Last weekend I participated in a plein air class at Irvine Park.  That park is beautiful and has many rural areas as well as a zoo, train rides, and pond.  This tree was at the edge of the pond and has a wonderful sculptural look.  Did I enjoy the day?  Noooo, but I didn't hate it as much as the last time I tried plein air painting even though it was cloudy, cold and windy.  Where's the warm So Cal weather when you need it?  I actually lasted two and a half hours.  That's a long time with my short attention span.  I'm pretty happy with how it turned out even though it's a lot of green.

I've always been afraid to paint plein air with watercolor because it's harder to cover mistakes but this wasn't painful at all.  I may go back and re-paint this tree in oils as some point in the future and try to get more color into it.

Irvine Park
Image Size 12" x 16"
Watercolor
Unframed

The Coastal Route

It's taken almost the whole month for me to get around to painting something to submit to the Virtual Paintout blog.  This month's location is the French Riviera.  I was attracted to the interesting shapes of these cliffs leading into the ocean and the bushes in the foreground.  This is a watercolor and I tried to paint it in a loose manner.

The Coastal Route
Image size 12" x 16"
Watercolor
Unframed

Lost Canyon II - Oil Painting

I know this will surprise you but I actually did what I said I would do this week.  I always have good intentions but am easily distracted by new ideas and projects.  This is my oil painting version of last weeks' abstract.  Of course, it looks nothing like the first version but I like it for different reasons.  First, it is BIG -  30" x 40"!  I really like working large but this is really big for me since I usually work with watercolor and a full size sheet of watercolor paper is 22" x 30"
This painting has a drippier look where last week's painting had a more subtle, diffused look.  I like both but being a watercolorist, I probably would choose the watercolor because I love that look I can get as the paints mingle before they dry.  This painting has a more graphic look I think, which works with it's larger size.
I painted this with very thinned oil paints which feels more natural to me having worked with water-based mediums for so long.  I really don't like the feel of thick oil paints unless I'm doing a palette knife painting.  It feels like I'm fighting the paint when it's thick.  I'm sure it's just lack of experience with oils but the fluidity of thin paint just feels better to me.
What do you think?  The oil or the watercolor?  Which do you prefer?

Lost Canyon II
Image Size 30" x 40"
Oil
Unframed - gallery wrapped canvas painted on sides, no frame needed

Lost Canyon - Watercolor

I felt like doing an abstract this week.  I'm really happy with the colors and textures I achieved with this one.  I think I might try to get a similer look in oils on a large canvas.  To me, abstracts are much more impressive when they are really large.  I think if I work the oils with a lot of turpentine I can get the look of a watercolor.  It will be a fun experiment.

As an update, (July 2011) this painting received an honorable mention in watercolor at the Orange County Fair.

Lost Canyon
Image Size 15" x 22"
Watercolor

Great News

I forgot to mention that I received 2nd place in the professional division at the "Scenes of Tustin" juried competition at Chemers Gallery.  I found out Saturday night at the reception but forgot to post the results.  It was for this painting.

I think this is my favorite silk painting that I've done so it was really nice to be recognized for it.

Tropical Fragrance - Watercolor

This was such a fun painting.  I love these flowers.  I know I say that about almost every flower but I am a gardener so that's to be expected.  Plumeria are such fragrant beauties.  They remind me of my first trip to Hawaii and bring back wonderful memories.  I painted this on Ampersand's Aquabord which I love.  I also really like this 6" x 6" format.  When they are framed in the drop-in frames, they look stunning and none of the painting is hidden behind the frame.  You can see what I mean below:

Tropical Fragrance
Image Size 6" x 6"
Watercolor

Cabernet

This has been a busy week so I've only done a small palette knife painting this week.  I am going to be at an art show on Thursday and I've been trying to get a bunch of silk paintings framed.  If you are in So Cal and would like to spend a relaxing day watching about 20 artists painting and displaying their art in a beautiful park, come on by.  The art show is a part of the annual Tustin Garden Tour.  If you are interested in coming to the art show, it is free.  If you want to attend the garden tour, the cost is $30.00 and you can buy tickets that day.  There are 3 gardens on the tour and they are all really beautiful.  One of the gardens is across the street from the park where the art show is being held and you can buy tickets there.  The park is on Lower Lake Drive, North Tustin, CA so just go maps.google.com and input that and it will show you the spot.  It doesn't work in mapquest for me.  The event will be held from 10:00 - 3:00.

Cabernet
Image Size 6" x 6"
Oil
Sold