"The Glorious Gate"

The unfinished class project! Just ran out of time.....sorry class, but here it is for you to look at and finish! I'm expecting to see everyones when we come back for the new winter session.....(: I will post the progress, as I will be working on it as well....hopefully.

Colors for this painting:

Background: payn'es gray and quinacridone gold

Gate: Permanent rose and cobalt blue for the shadows and

glazed over with quinacridone gold.

Flowers: Cobalt blue and permanent rose .....added touches of

thalo blue.

Leaves: colbalt blue and winsor yellow, quinacridone gold

and paynes gray for the darker areas.

Rocks: (background rocks) yellow ochre at first, then glaze over

with cobalt blue and permanent rose.....deep shadow

areas: ultramarine blue and cadmium red. Glaze over

again with cobalt blue to make look shaded. Foreground

rocks have similar colors but no cobalt blue glazing since

are in the light.

Hope this helps...email me or put questions on the blog if you have any! Happy painting. A big snowstorm would help get you started right???

Value Study - Gate with Morning Glories

These morning glories were beautiful in my backyard......a color painting is in the works......important to do a value study to capture the light. This is our next class project......LOTS of negative painting in this one....a challenge but hey can't paint without a challenge!

We're working on this painting taken at Davidsonville Park near my home. The sky is very pale and the water as well. I combined cerulean blue and cadmium red to get a more gray sky. We used 3 values in the trees made up of winsor yellow and cobalt blue for the light and mid values and for the dark values we used winsor yellow and ultramarine blue. "A Challenge in Green" I call it!! Some were sick of doing it but that's ok, I think there were some valuable lessons learned in this one!

Starting New Classes at the Senior Centers

Hope those that are joining me in the watercolor classes are coming with enthusiasm to what we will learn this year. I want to focus on color mixing, paint application and composition. No matter what your style, either a tighter realistic or looser impressionistic style, and all those in between (no one style is right, by the way!), those three things matter in producing a nice work of art! We're always learning though and that's the fun part. Looking forward to the semesters ahead!

New Paintings

I'm thinking about some painting ideas and I seem to have been a little burned out from the last painting. I'm sure some of you who paint go through this from time to time. Sometimes I go and find a diversion which currently is guitar playing for me and writing songs, however, I'm trying to learn music theory and it's been difficult. I don't seem to have that kind of brain. BUT, I'm not giving up.....which is what I tell my painting students! When you learn how to play new chords that are difficult, they say to play them slowly at first and not rush into it....then it begins to come naturally. And believe it or not that works. I guess it could be good advice for a lot of things. Music is so beautiful though and complicated at the same time.........I do think it will help my painting process in the long run because I do love to paint to music....and just knowing how to play it inspires me even more. Don't hesitate to pick up a new hobby at any age.....it expands your mind and helps with living a full life!

Third Place!

Well, I finally placed in a juried show for my waterfall painting, and I'm very honored to have won third because the show had so many wonderful paintings. It certainly helps me to work even harder and not give up. I almost gave up on this painting because it was so difficult but I'm glad I didn't. Now on to the next!!!

"Rushing Waters - Revelation 19:5-8"

Finally done with this painting..........Whew.....but happy with the outcome. Will be in the Cade Gallery show at Anne Arundel Community College from July 23rd thru August 13th. Open Monday thru Friday 9:00-4:00 if you want to go see the Annapolis Watercolor Club's juried show.

Almost done!

Waterfall continued.......

It's getting there! Slowly but surely. It keeps getting more complicated the more I keep painting and now I'm faced with a deadline to get this in the AWC show at the Cade Gallery. Hopefully I will like the end result. I'm liking it better than I did a few days ago......I'm VERY hard to please.

Painting in Progress

Currently working on this waterfall painting. Also started as an ambitious class project which we couldn't finish in time. I promised them I would post it so they could finish theirs too and see how my finished painting came out. It's on a full sheet of Arches 140 lb. so it's pretty large. I'm interested myself to see how it will turn out........to be continued!

Black-Eyed Susans in the Sun

I started this painting as a demo in class then decided to work on it and improve it some. I'm pretty happy with the results.

Went to a great workshop with Jean Spicer and we did lots of flowers. This one is the one I fell in love with the colors. It's my own painting so I didn't copy anything.....she just showed us how we should get simpler in our design. Great workshop.....it's always worth it to try new things.....I think I'll hold on to simple......in more ways than one!

Finished this a while ago but my daughters said I needed to update my blog and they were right. I've been a slacker. Well actually not, just for my blog! I'm making prints of this one.

Can't believe how beautiful the colors of forsythia bushes are......it's like they are announcing "spring" to the world.

Starting new painting

Not done with this painting, obviously, but I wanted to show the progression although I should have shown it earlier! I might try it again but I'm pretty happy with it so far. Takes a lot for me to say that! Background trees were tricky to do. There was a mist in the morning that rose into the trees. I blotted the mist with a paper towel. I just loved the pink light that the morning sun cast. Used a lot of permanent rose for this one - alizarin seemed to be too red. Hopefully I'll finish this one by the weekend. We're doing this one in class.

Journal

Went to Long Island last weekend and went to Jones Beach. Gorgeous weekend. This kite caught my eye and wanted to make some kind of designy looking entry into my journal. Don't know if I accomplished that but it was fun to do. I'm so hooked on this journal thing that I don't want to cook dinner at night.....uh oh sorry Paul! I let him paint a little part on the left of the kite....(had to rework it....sorry again Paul). Finally got dinner cooking at 7.......this daylight saving time has really got my timing messed up!

Journal

Journal

Journaling with art and words.....

Starting a painting journal.....about time! I've been wanting to do this for a long time but kept thinking I didn't have the time. But what am I doing with my time anyway! I think I'm hooked......they are SO much fun to do and it's such a great way to put down memories and thoughts through painting or drawing. It's a good thing! Spend the time!

Flower Painting

This is a new painting I'm working on. We are doing this one in class. Think spring! Can't seem to paint any snow scenes! I'm thinking this painting needs something more. Any comments?

Well, it's a new year and time to get serious about painting again after all the holiday cheer. What to paint? Sometimes in the cold dreary winter months and nothing looks interesting, I head to my photos and pull out something I think would make a good painting. I'll let you know how it goes!