Pooking Along ...

I added a foreground, first with a w/w wash of phthalo green mixed with sienna and indanthrone, with some quin. gold in spots ... 

... then I felt I had to darken the entire painting, so I did two w/w variegated washes   using cobalt blue, quin. coral and quin. sienna. I stayed away from the focal area of the sun with the colors. 

I added some mid-ground trees and a fence line, and I am calling it DONE.  You all know I am not much for painting landscapes, but this very ethereal, foggy scene does appeal to me. Might do more ...

This is a portrait of another blogging buddy. Her name is Tweedles, and she is the cutest pug, who writes about her adventures visiting Mother Nature. Miss T. recently had two major surgeries, and she and her moms have been through a very rough time. I thought, as they love my work, I would send a portrait of The Tweedles to them to cheer them up. I was introduced to Miss T. by another good blog friend, Suzanne Berry. She paints exquisite oils [including pugs], and is truly weird and wonderful! Take a visit ... suzanneberry.blogspot.com

And this cutie is Roxie. She belongs to one of the artists - a jewelry maker - at my cooperative gallery. Linda has commissioned a portrait for her husband for Christmas [hopefully].

Thank you so much for dropping by, and your comments are always welcome!

Another Run at a Landscape ... or ... If at First You Don't Succeed ...

Boy, this painting looks so stark on this page! I did several washes of thin aureolin, quin. coral and pink,  and cobalt blue to get the background sunrise. Then I started doing some thin washes of the coral and blue, with quin. siena to paint the distant tree-line.

I then did more w/w along the bottom of the trees at the horizon to suggest fog. Again I used coral, siena and blue.

At this stage, I extended the line of water all along the bottom, and dropped in some of the coral/siena/blue mixture, with a lot more blue. Before I did that, I lifted some lines to suggest sunlight coming through the trees and fog.
NOW to tackle the foreground!

Thank you for dropping by, and all your comments are most welcome!

Progress on My Make-Work Project ... or ... Let's Break Some Rules ...

I really could not get the shadowed petals dark enough for my liking, so ...

... I decided to glaze them with the same black I had used for the background.  Unfortunately, I took the photo at night, under studio lighting, and the colors are way off.

Thank you for dropping by, and your comments are always welcome.

Feature Friday

 

Carrie Waller, a superb American watercolor painter, has written an article on her blog about me and my art. I warmly invite you to take a look, find out more about my art, and view some of Carrie's beautiful work. We met on blogger, and have been following each others work for several years. Thank you so much, Carrie!
http://www.carriewaller.blogspot.com

Thank you for dropping by, and your comments are always welcome!

A Quick Update ...

So far, still glazing and glazing to get the dark red shadows - it's a bit scary painting on the intense reds, but when I step away from the painting it looks all right from a distance. So I'll continue with the dahlia. The background is NOT dark yellow, but when I adjusted the warmth to show off the petals, the black came out this color. 

Miss Betty

These are two free-hand drawings I did, last night and this morning, for my niece. Last week, their little pug crossed over the rainbow bridge, and Paulina wanted a momento of Betty. She was a funny little bug, and I know the family will miss her. 

Thank you for dropping by, and your comments are always welcome!

Two Different Christmas Cards ...

Here are two images I am making into cards for the gallery. I apologize - I've had to place a watermark on them, as they are soooo cute, and I've had an instance of what I believe was some copying of one of my florals. 

The cards are $4.50 Cdn, with $1.00 shipping, or 5 cards for $20.00.

Please leave a note if you are interested.

To order cards, please follow the green link that says "GALLERY AT THE FARM" on the upper left of the blog ...

Am I Out-Horsed with This Painting???

I started off with some glazes of a cool orange and aureolin on the petals.

Then I decided I needed to mask to get an even background. BOY!!! Did I ever need the masking!
This is after two washes - aureolin and burnt orange, then thin burnt orange and  quin. violet.

Ultimately, I had to do about five washes of black. As the brush was leaving faint streaks, regardless of how gentle I was, the last wash I applied on sprayed- wet paper, and did it much like a pouring. That technique gave me a smooth black background. Now I am going over some of the petals with a thin violet glaze for shadows. It's about ready for some intense yellows and oranges now.
The size is 13 x 19 inches.

Reference photo
I was coming home from the library one summer evening, and these glorious dahlias caught my eye. I had to stop, ask the home-owner's permission,  and take some photos.

Thank you so much for dropping by! Your comments are most welcome.