Everything BUT Painting ... well .... almost ...

It was my lovely niece's high school graduation yesterday. Here she is with my aunt, opening a gift.

Yes, that's me, and I did get out of my usual barn gear when I went to the ceremony.

Here's Paulina with her mom.

Even her brother came out from Ottawa to attend. And Paulina just gave him this haircut! 

Some hibiscus from Steph's garden

These will be painted, and that's my only reference to painting.

I had to take pics of this cool antique car, parked outside the Orpheum Theatre downtown, where the grad ceremony was held.

And life on the farm continues. The baby swallows had their first flying lessons yesterday. 

Some were not as brave ...

... as others. These two managed about 15 feet before they landed.

That's all for now. Thank you so much for dropping by!

Once One Gets Started, It's Not that Bad ... or ... Peony Painting W.I.P.

The model, growing in a small spot near Bruno's Eatery.

It was not meant to get this dark, but by the time I had some colors down, I didn't like how it looked. So on to graded washes of a green/black.

Washes done, masking off ... onward!

First wet-in-wet applications - aureolin, quin.gold, quin. burnt orange and phthalo green [blue shade] for the leaves and stalk. The peony is quin. rose, and a bit of cobalt blue and brilliant orange [Holbein].

Still chugging along, trying to see the petals [not ALL of them!].  I think I am about halfway there ...

Thank you very much for stopping by!

Things Have Become a Bit Darker for Our Feathered Friends ... Geese Painting Continues

I washed on some more indanthrone, and later a black mixture on the left side. Then I started playing with the geese - eyes, more shadowing ... The tree got some detail work, too.

This photo looks somewhat washed out compared to the painting, but here it is.  So far, I think it's all right, but the geese desperately look as if they need something more on which to park their feet. I'm still working on a story for them.

Thank you for dropping by!

A Goose-y Fairy Tale

I mentioned in my last post about wanting to paint geese again. When I drew this, for some reason [probably their positions and postures] a story started to come to mind.

It also served as a poured watercolor demo for last Saturday's class.  I started with thin pours of aureolin, quin. red and cobalt blue. I moved the geese a bit closer together than in the drawing   to have a continuous line of white.

When I bought it home and looked at it, I tried to imagine what they were doing, thinking, where they were going. The two geese on the left looked a bit lost. The goose on the right looked like he was trying to re-direct them ... but WHY? Because they were heading toward a haunted forest!!! Hence the old, gnarly tree in the background.
I did a bit of w/w on the geese, then masked them and did another pour, this time of indanthrone blue.

I gave the tree some color - quin. burnt orange, quin. violet and indanthrone.

Did a graded wash of indanthrone ...

... removed the masking ...

... and have started some work on the geese.

Thank you so much for dropping by ... the saga of the geese continues ... 

All Is Happily Busy in Class

I felt like a "real" teacher ... one of my students brought me roses from her garden!

And here is Nancy [of the roses fame] with one of her latest works.

Mark and Melanie [husband and wife who were curious about watercolor] very intent on their work.

Mark has had some art experience with acrylics, and is having a blast finding out what watercolor can do. And Melanie is fascinated with it. Yay!! ... converts! 

Ann always has her own floral projects.

I wanted to demonstrate the poured watercolor technique.  I also had a craving to paint some more geese. So I got this ready ...

 ... did the first pour in class, and took it home to work on it. I had no idea where it was going from here.

Thank you so much for dropping by! 

Biting the Bullet ... or ... Really Getting into a Painting ...

Oh ... I did not want to do this, but now it's done, I think it looks much better. I wanted to get the masking off as soon as possible, so worked on it yesterday evening and this morning.  Here it is after one wash of quin. gold, followed by another of quin.gold and phthalo green.

[This photo looks somewhat washed out]
I then did three graded washes of a mixture of quin. gold, phthalo green and quin. violet, which sounds like a very weird combination, but gave a lovely dark muted green. Now, all I have to do is clean it up [some dark leaked through the masking] and adjust the darks and zap the oranges. Thank you all for your advice!!!

"What's Wrong with This Picture?????"

I am having trouble with this. Yellows are notoriously difficult to get credible shadows. I am stumped as to how to make this look better. The only thought I have is to put in an extremely dark background, something I originally wanted to avoid. Hm ...  any ideas???

This was one of the demos I started in class last week. One of the new students [and her husband] have become fascinated with watercolor - YES - and would like to continue with this next Saturday. So ... more lobster ...

I used the idea from this painting I did a few years ago. Yup, there really are yellow lobsters, though they are extremely rare.

This was another class demo. It makes me want to be in Venice again, so I could take photos and draw and paint to my heart's content!!!

Took the dogs out for an early morning walk. Little did they know that it was actually a photo shoot :)

This was one of the images I took. Some of the students want to try poured watercolor, so I headed out today to get some photos with strong value contrasts. 

This is a close-up of the shed from the above photo. It is full of antique farming equipment.

That's about it for now. I'd like to get out early to play with His Lordship before it gets too hot ...

Thank you so much for dropping by!

The Big Guy and Me

Yes, I really do ride. Had a lesson today, and my trainer's friend was there, and kindly took a short video. I felt like a sack of potatoes in the sitting trot, but apparently we looked good. I felt Bruno was beautifully soft and relaxed, and using his hind end well, so he liked what I was doing in the saddle.

Thank you for dropping by!

Paintings on the Go ... Three Works in Progress

This started out as a class demo last Saturday. I was showing different ways of applying pigment. I dotted the branch with clean water, and then dotted in some color - quin. gold, quin. burnt orange and cobalt blue. I liked the look, so I worked on it at home ...

The leaves and stems all got a wash of aureolin. Then I used quin. colors for the leaves and softer, non-staining colors for the stems.

Here it is - thinking it will look good as an 8 x 8 in. varnished work.
The markings on the petals is a quin. pink, and the grey for the shadows is a lavender made of quin. pink, cobalt blue and aureolin.

reference photo
I was heading to the park to walk the Maggot, and these apple blossoms at my neighbor's house caught my eye. The light was early evening - just perfect.

This was another one started in last week's class. Almost unrecognizable ... OK, it IS unrecognizable!  It is a Venice scene, very faint at the top, darkening to some gorgeous warm greens and browns at the bottom.

Did a fair bit on this one before I got my camera back from repair.

I am here now, trying to get those shadows in the yellows dark enough. I think yellow is the most difficult color in which to create credible darks! I think I may have to use the oranges.

That's it in my part of the painting world for now.
Thank you so much for dropping in!!

Done Dog

This is the recently completed 2nd version of Drake. I had debated whether to just leave it with the 1st version. But I am glad I re-did the painting.  I tried some effective techniques for creating the impression of soft, fluffy hair, so it was a great learning experience.

This is version #1.

Thank you so much for dropping by!!