Escargot For The Ducks!

Escargot!

(Ducks at Young Park)

8 x 6 oil on linen/board SOLD

Artist Note

I have a Beta fish named Mr Fabulous 

who lives very happily in his tank with 

Mr Snail

One day I bought home some fresh weed 

and behold...Mr fab

had a new tenant - another Mr Snail.

The striped one below.

Soon I discovered it must have been a 

Mrs Snail because lots of baby snails appeared.

I could not bring myself to kill them

so I kept putting them in another tank. 

At about 100 baby snails I knew I was in trouble

so I decided to take the new tenant and 

offspring to our local park with a

beautiful small lake.

It has a concrete bottom so lots of healthy algae. 

Yummy for the snails.

I checked with the city first and got the OK.

What I didn't know was that ducks love to eat snails.

A friend teased me saying the ducks would think,

yummy - escargot.

I really laughed, but when I got to the 

water's edge, look what happened

Out of nowhere... all the ducks came!

I hesitated, this was supposed to save the snails 

There was no way I was going to let the snails

be gobbled up.

Out of nowhere

my snails were unknowingly

rescued by this enthusiastic young man

who scared all the ducks away.

I was able to slip them into the water 

feeling my good karma was intact.

Pike Place Market - Watercolor on Yupo

Flower Lady

9x12in watercolor on Yupo NFS

Pike Place Market is printed on her apron. 

I was told that it is a lottery system 

to get a space each day at the market, 

but obviously 

the fish and flowers vendors

must be permanent.

Artist Note.

Okay - I am not going to pretend that

this one was easy.

Talk about busy - even with all the editing I did.

So, how to get a design that works and at 

the same time try and capture 

all the flowers,

and a person? 

And do all this on Yupo!

It kept me totally absorbed all day.

Linking the lights.

I used the left down light

joining the strong angle of light from the 

left front flowers...across her arm 

to the back white flowers on the right.

Having her head stand out,  

and by how much was the 

difficult part. 

Until I started this series 

I had never painted

women of Asian descent. 

They were all so beautiful.

I will be trying more of these 

in watercolor - trying to simplify.

Like the gouache below... still unfinished!

I know you agree - painting is life long learning

Pike Street Market - Painted Clothes!

Hand Painted Clothes

8 x 6in oil on canvas panel $135. SOLD

Artist Note.

I always admire the merchant 

who uses the air space

 above their tables to display their wares.

This vendor cleverly strung lines to hang

layers of hand painted clothes.

I was drawn to the scene, 

but it turned 

out to be rather difficult. 

To arrive at a good design

I had a choice to make...

 feature the hanging clothes 

OR 

the two women. 

As you know - 

the eye nearly always sees the 

color white first 

so I arched the white items together, 

and offset the women to the side.

 I started off with one woman, 

but preferred it when I added another.

Lots of scraping off while 

trying to solve problems as

they emerged, 

completely held 

 my interest while painting this one.

Enjoy the weekend! 

Pike Place Market - Flower Ladies

 Flower Ladies

8x6in oil on linen SOLD

The flowers at the market have
competition because of the beauty
of many of the young ladies
who work there.

Artist Note
I have also been painting with watercolor
this weekend, trying to work out
a good format to convey the
power and beauty of all the shapes
and colors. Not easy...
kept me totally absorbed though.
It did end up with me tearing a
sheet in half as the only way to
stop me from overworking it.
Poor hubby gasped, and I thought
he was reacting to my act but no...
it was a missed golf shot
during the British Open!

Pike Place Market - Veggies Galore!

 Veggies Galore!

8x6in oil on canvas $135. SOLD

Artist Note.
Continuing the market series.

The line of lights attracted me to this 

stall. The blue is cast light 

from a high window.

 It was a clear day and

the sky outside was a 

true blue. It cast an amazing 

cool color over everything it fell on.

Feeling it is time to do a close-up
of something. These last few have been
rather complex for a small surface.

Pike Place Market - The Flowers

 The Flowers at Pikes Market#1
6x8in oil on canvas panel $135. SOLD

Artist Note.

You can imagine my pleasure seeing
so many gorgeous flowers.
Unbelievable shapes and colors!
The young women who work with the
flowers are beautiful too.

This was a fast one. I want to do a
larger painting of the flower stalls
so will be working on a few small
flower paintings
 to explore my options
for colors and design.

Pike Place Market - T-Shirts!

Pike Place Market - T-Shirt!

8x6in oil on canvas panel  $135. SOLD

Artist Note.

Continuing to explore with paint my

Pike Place Market experience.

This was fun to paint...

but difficult with the many

shapes and colors. T-shirts were
hanging all over the back
and staggered in different piles
on the counter - and not color
co-ordinated at all.
I had to decide 

on a focal area, and make 

everything subordinate to it.

It is too easy to paint everything
with every little detail when painting
from a photo like I did here,
but I wanted to capture how I
responded to the colors
and artificial lighting because
they were what had excited me.
Every time I got too precise I
closed my eyes and took myself back
and remembered the atmosphere...
then scraped off and redid.

Above, I show the vendor folding up a
shirt and he had the brown bag
already opened to place it in.
Efficient!

This is one I really liked.

Guess Where This Is?

Pikes Fish Market, Seattle.

8x6in oil on panel $135. SOLD

Never, ever, thought I would paint a fish

market, but going to the famous

 Pikes Market in Seattle

and seeing the fish throwing...

the colorful lighting...

 and the enormous

selection of all types of sea food 

made me want to tackle it.

Artist Note.

I want to thank my hosts in 

Wichita, KA,

Portland, OR and Edmond, WA

for making my time easy and enjoyable.

All of them are art lovers and collectors

so staying in their homes was a 

genuine treat.

The reception to my teaching

and the fracturing technique 

plus seeing the amazing results

was heartwarming and good for my 

ongoing growth as an instructor.

It will take a while to assimilate all the 

experiences and settle back into my 

regular schedule, but I am already working 

on a Pikes Market Series.

Now I am off to catch up on all the blogs

I follow. Looking forward to seeing what 

you all have been up to.