Still Fascinated with Dry Hydrangeas ... Works in Progress

Maggie, waiting at the door - desperate for a walk

Love painting the dried hydrangea - so subtle and delicate, and almost abstract.

The colors I used were quin. gold, permanent rose and cobalt blue for the initial light glazes. Later I switched to indanthrone for darker colors.

I thought the shadow would be good in basic black, but this morning ...

... I glazed over it with indanthrone.
The painting is 11.25 x 8.25 inches.

I worked on both of these at the same time, but the first one must have caught my interest more, as it was finished first. I am using the same colors for this, too. 

9.25 x 12.25 inches

Maggie ... the Stealth Dog ... the Maggot ... She is decidedly a handful! I have been following some of Cesar Millan's videos, and have read one of his books. It's helped a lot with understanding her [and Bruno, too]. She is a very high-energy dog - could probably be out all day, walking and running. Me - not so much! I think I'll have to get an old bike, and teach her to run beside me. Walking her for an hour or so, at a fast clip is not enough. According to Cesar, a well-exercised dog is a content and well-behaved dog. Yesterday, we were out walking, and she was seriously distracted by another dog. She cut in front of me, and I tripped and went flying onto the gravel - sprained a finger and took some chunks out of the palm of my hand. It has made painting a little more interesting! 

Well, that's it for now from the farm ...

Thank you so much for dropping by!

Who Would Have Thought ... Teaching Painting

An overview of the classroom and most of the class
The sessions are held at a new center in Surrey that opened just last May - the South Surrey Recreation and Arts Center.

A happy and proud student

Another very pleased student

Working on their own projects

Finishing up the background

Pondering the next step

All styles ...

... and colors

An ambitious project - painting her cat on some colorful blankets

These are some photos of the class I taught last Saturday. I asked the students if they minded if I took some photos, and posted them in my blog, and  all said it was fine.

I am still amazed at how much I love teaching. I find it so inspiring and challenging in a very good way. And I love the interchange of ideas. I am teaching in a very loose format - most of the class has an idea of a project on which they want to work.  At the previous class, one of the students stated that she would appreciate more demonstrations at the beginning of the class. So, as we go along, I have and develop new ideas and projects. To start with, I do a demonstration, and then they are off! I'll walk around the classroom, seeing if anyone needs help, answering questions, maybe doing some more demos ... Two hours flies by in no time! At the end of class, I'll ask if there is any particular project they would like to take on the next time, so I could go home and prepare a lesson. Thats' it - very flexible and open.

Last week, I was having a fascinating chat with one of the students, and the conversation evolved into a demo of creating a work using masking tape. The entire class was very interested in the idea, so next week, it's "batik" watercolor. I read Sandy Maudlin's excellent blog, so I have gone back to it to get some information on that particular process of painting.

Initially, I kept the class size to eight students, which was all I felt I could manage as a novice instructor. But the class has become very popular, and my confidence has increased, so next week there will be ten students. I can hardly wait!!!

Thank you so much for dropping by!    

YES ... I Really Think I Am FINISHED

Pretty in Pink/ 33.5 x 27.5 cm.
I do believe I am done with Miss P. I darkened the background to bring her more forward, and glazed more pink in the shadows of her scarf. I was thrilled to find out that her mistress loves ALL the paintings, and wants them all, as well as another I did of Miss P. and her poodle friend out walking. Somehow I managed to misplace that one, so I will re-do it. 

Maine Coon/ 26.5 x 22.5 cm.

The cat is done as well. Originally, I had intended to paint all the fur with the quin. burnt orange, but when I got to this stage, I really liked the look of all that white. It seems to accent the face very well.

As for my beasties, Maggie is still a sweetheart, though she still loves to dig. I cleaned up two of her excavations this past weekend.
And Bruno has a hoof abscess. It's one of those weird ones that is very hard to diagnose. I thought I saw him moving very stiffly on Thursday morning, and later in the day he seemed to favor it a bit. So a very kind neighbor came to help me put on a poultice, and wrap it all up in duct tape. I wasn't sure I could manage with my thumb still not flexing. The next two evenings, I was able to wrap it myself. Usually an abscess will manifest with more noticeable lameness, but I see only a gingerness, a slight reluctance to use the hoof when turning. Very weird. Thankfully, my farrier is coming this afternoon to take Bruno's shoes off, trim his hooves, and re-seat the shoes. I am hoping the abscess shows itself, we can clean it out, and all will be well. Apparently they are common at this time of year, when the moisture content in the ground varies a lot, causing the tissues of the hoof to expand and contract as well. The horse picks up a bit of sand or gravel, it works its way up into the hoof and allows bacteria to enter. Well ... that's more about hoof care than you wanted to know!

Thank you so much for dropping by!!

CATS' MEOWS ... Feline Works-in-progress ...

I painted a wet-in-wet wash with quin. burnt orange for her head and back - the areas getting more light. For the white ruff and areas in shadow, I first did a thin glaze of permanent rose, then an overall wash of a mixture of the rose, with quin. burnt orange and cobalt blue. When that was still wet, I tried to get some texture in the fur with curved lines painted with a thicker application of the same colors.

This is one strange-looking cat!!! 

... a bit better ...
I wet everything except the white patches, and the eyes and nose. I stroked in a thin wash of a mix of quin. burnt orange, permanent rose and cobalt blue. While it was still wet, I added some lines with a thicker mixture of the same colors to imply fur texture. The eyes were glazed with aureolin, quin. gold and touches of quin. burnt orange. The shadows in the white ruff are being done with a lavender-grey mixture. He still looks very intense! Hopefully his eyes will look less Svengali-ish when I get more of the body and head done.

Thank you so much for dropping by!  

This and That ... Some Works in Progress ... Some Life in Progress ...

FINALLY ... I think I am finished with Miss P. I have sent an image of the painting to the owner, and have left it for her approval. I scruffed the background, did some more detail and darkening in the shadowed areas, and put a bit of shadow around the other eye. It looked like a marble lost in the snow without it.

Time for a change in animals! I did two cat drawings [Maine coon cats] to do as demos for my watercolor class. I have one serious cat fancier in the class. And I wanted to show them that you can use the same techniques for all subject matter - flowers, animals, still life ... 

For the background, I soaked the entire area around the cat, and applied indigo at the perimeter. First I had to clean the well of paint - hadn't used it for about ten years, and there was a fair bit of horse, dog, chinchilla and cat hair in there! The eyes I first wet, stroked in aureolin, then dropped in cobalt blue. After it dried, I wet it again, stroked in cobalt blue, and added a few dabs of quin. burnt orange. The nose is a w/w application of quin. coral and quin. sienna.

I've done a w/w wash, using cobalt blue and a bit of quin. burnt orange.

And now for Maggie's part in the story. She has improved immensely! She is more calm, and always comes when called. However ... she still has energy to burn, and it takes the form of digging and disappearing shoes. I don't know how she fit in that tub to do all that digging!

And these are a pair of my muckers my landlady found floating in the pool. She very kindly retrieved them, and propped them up by the door to drain.

And last, but certainly not least, The Big Guy! He is starting to shed out, so is quite itchy. Here, you can see he's had a fabulous roll on the ground to scratch that itch!! It's quite mild here right now [T-shirts in the afternoon] and drying out, so I have been able to start doing a bit of riding again. I missed it SOOOO much, and Bruno missed the contact and routine [and carrots], too.

Thank you so much for dropping by!

A Tale of Two Dogs ... Drake and Miss P. Continued ...

I am still happy with how Drake is coming along.  I've darkened his chest a bit, and tied it in with the dark of the background. He looked a bit odd to my eye, being so narrow below, but he does have a narrow chest and long, lean legs.  I'll probably do that with the left side of the dog to imply a bit more shadow on his ruff and face. I also did a w/w wash of the top dark area of his face, first with a dilute black, and then while wet, with a more concentrated black to give a soft look to his fur. Not sure - is his nose is dark enough?

I am working on  the 6th or 7th version of Miss P. The background is pure and mixed washes of permanent rose, quin. burnt orange and indanthrone.

It was time to get some color on the scarf, so I could better judge how dark to go with the background. Seeing it now, I think a bit more indanthrone is in order. And I gave her  a personalized scarf with her initial on it.

Outside of painting, I have started teaching again. Still LOVING it!!! I spoke to the program director about setting up a drawing class, and she was agreeable to the idea - just have to write up a proposal.
And I still have a house full of hairballs inside, and a huge under-exercised hairball outside in the barn. The weather is a bit better, and the riding ring somewhat drier, so I get one or two rides a week. I can hardly wait till Spring!!!

Thank you so much for your visit!

Well ... It Seemed Like a Good Idea in Theory ...

looking cute ...

glazed with permanent rose ... still all right ...

glazed with indanthrone ... not bad ...

WHAT possessed me to try this, I don't know! I wanted to get more violet in the background, and also imply the look of confetti - a party atmosphere. I got very heavy-handed with the violet. And now I have to start this again. Chalk this one up to "live and learn"!!!

Started scrumbling with some dark browns and blacks for the background on Drake.

Finished scrumbling ...

... and then glazed with black. I am not thrilled with the effect the glazing created, and may have to do some lifting and scrumbling to get that rough look again.  Another start???
Well, I buggered one painting, and it is close with the second one, too. The problem with these two was that I didn't have a clear idea of what I wanted in the background, especially with Miss P. Drake isn't too bad, and may be salvageable, but I have to start the Westie again, with a much clearer mental image of what I want for a background.

Thank you so much for dropping by!