STARGAZER LILY - FINAL

After the flower was painted, I began the background.

It took a couple of passes before my background colors were dark enough. While the paint was still a little damp I spritzed a little water for the starbursts in the background.

This isn’t great, but it’s passable, and you can at least tell that it’s a lily! Maybe my next one will be better.
This was painted on a quarter sheet of Arches 140# hot press.

STARGAZER LILY

My Monday morning class expressed an interest in painting a Stargazer Lily. I have only painted one lily, that I can think of, so this was a new experience for me.

I decided that it was time for them to try a different support, and I chose hot press paper. This is a difficult surface to work on, and I figured that we would probably get some water blossoms, but that shouldn’t matter too much since we were painting a flower.

The progression of my demo painting follows.

I began with the stamens (??) pistols (?) (I never can remember what the middle parts are called!)

Next, I tried to capture the photo colors of the flower. I painted every other petal – so that the wet colors would not touch and run into one another.

VIEWPOINT - BETTER LATE THAN NEVER!

I just realized that I had not put up my photos from the ViewPoint opening.

As you can see, there was a good turn out.

My friend, Monique’s, painting of the motorcycle looked great on that yellow wall! I was so happy she got into the show, I believe it’s the third time for her. She painted this motorcycle at our annual retreat a couple years ago and I love it! Hanging next to it, on the left, is a painting by Wynne Bittlinger, one of our GCWS members.

Here is my friend, Rhonda Carpenter’s painting – “Caw Girl” – which sold at the opening! I’m so happy for her.

Here’s my painting, Dragon Tea. I can’t decide if that gentleman is looking at my painting or rushing past it to look at the oil painting next to it! 

This painting of Christmas ornaments was painted by my friend, Marilyn Bishop’s, daughter, Peggy. Marilyn had a photo of this painting at one of our GCWS meetings and I was bowled over when she showed it to me – talk about detail!

Just thought you might enjoy these photos.

If you live near Cincinnati, please go see the show – check the left hand side of my blog for more information.

ANOTHER ART SHOW

My husband and I drove up to Fairfield Community Center for another art show opening on Friday, August 9. This was an opening for a group that I used to belong to, and I still want to support them. The venue is really beautiful, with a wall of floor to ceiling windows that allows in a lot of light, and curved walls that display the paintings well.

GLASS BOTTLES - REDUX!

Remember these glass jars from some time ago???

Before . . .

My intention when I began painting them was to do some line work on them, but then I just couldn’t decide. They have been laying around all this time until I finally decided that, yes, they did need that line work.

Here is the now (hopefully) completed painting.

. . . After

Here are a couple of close ups of the line work – I didn’t outline all of the areas, just some, and I’m pretty satisfied with the results.

Up close and personal with the line work (above and below)

This painting was a nightmare from the get go!

First, I had ordered what I thought were the acrylic inks, which turned out to be India ink instead.

Then I spilled some of the ink, fortunately inside a plastic tub even though I managed to spill some of that onto another painting on the table and the floor!

Since obviously I didn’t have all of the caps tight on the bottles, some of the blue ink which spilled all over spilled into the yellow ink container – so now I have no yellow but a really brilliant color of green!!!

Then I couldn’t decide whether I should go with my first idea, outline some of the bubbles, etc. with line work, so the painting sat for a while.

Once finished, I wondered whether these inks would be lightfast.  According to the Dick Blick website they are, so guess I’m safe!  Dr. Ph. Martin's Bombay India Inks offer powerful color in a convenient dropper-stopper glass bottle.  These highly pigmented India inks not only remain lightfast and permanent, but are also totally waterproof when dry.  They adhere to nearly all surfaces and are non-clogging when used in pens.

I note that these inks now come in the eye dropper bottles – apparently for dolts like me who tend to spill things!

SKIES

 

Facing west



Facing southwest

The other day I looked out the living room window and thought it was going to be raining any minute – then I looked out the other window and saw beautiful sunshine! It really looked like two different days! So I had to take photos of each “day”.

These pictures were taken within a minute of each other!

GEORGIA WATERCOLOR SOCIETY 2013 MEMBERS' SHOW

My painting "Red Zinger" has been accepted into the Georgia Watercolor Society 2013 Members' Exhibit.

THANKS FOR YOUR PATIENCE!

Thank you all for your patience!

Lately I have either had computer issues, Blogger issues or art related issues that have made it either impossible or difficult to get my posts uploaded.

Seems sometimes the internet is non-cooperative, sometimes Blogger will let me do part of what I want, but not all of what I want!  Thanks to my friend Rhonda Carpenter, at least I know that it's not just me!!! 

And lately I have been pursuing my "art career" as much as possible and simply don't have time to do much on the computer except check email messages. 

So, if I'm gone from the blog for a while, just hang in there - I'm doing the best that I can!

PANTING BOARD

I needed a painting board that would hold a full sheet of watercolor paper before I left for my recent retreat.

You can buy these boards, called “watercolor boards”, at Jerry’s or ASW online, but it was too late for me to order one. You can buy materials to make them locally and probably much cheaper. I made a trip to our local Home Depot and found just what I needed.

The material will probably be located by the lumber and trim. It’s a corrugated white plastic called Plaskolite – you can hopefully read that here.

Since it’s plastic, paint will wash off, but it’s sturdy enough to prop up your painting.

As you can see, I rounded the corners so I wouldn’t poke anyone! I just used an Xacto knife and drew the curve by running a pencil around the edge of a cup.

Then I cut out a “handle” and wrapped it with art tape. I’m sure you could do something much neater than I did, but, hey, it works! And, “if it works, it’s perfect” – that’s my motto!

Let me know if you make any of these and how they work for you!