Berry Picking - and other stuff

Berry Picking

13inx10in  Alcohol Ink on Yupo  SOLD

Artist Note

Painting a series allows an artist

to experiment freely with 

different media. The Alcohol Inks 

were a real adventure into

the unpredictable.
I enjoyed it.
I had 9 out of thirty paintings
done with the inks.

Below I am looking happy
that all the work was over
on the night of the opening.

My house became a real mess due 

to a knee injury which 

prevented easy access to the 

steps to my studio.

Guest room

and dining room below.

The kitchen table was worse

so no pic of that!

Invaluable lack of complaining 

and total support from hubby

earned him a few gold stars!

Life is getting back to normal.

Everything picked up and clean.

Daily painting has resumed.

Window Flowers

Window Flowers

8"x6" oil on canvas panel $135. SOLD

Daily Paintworks hosts a

weekly Challenge

Carol Marine chose a window theme.

I love painting windows so I dug out a 

pic from a trip to Acapulco, Mexico.

I still managed to get this month's

theme of flowers in it though...

happy smile...

Artists Note

I do not believe in competitions

between artists for a few reasons - 

mainly that art is so subjective to taste.

I do enter Invitationals and enjoy

them very much so something 

like the DPW Challenge, 

allows for an artist to share in the 

pleasure of a venue with 

like minded painters

without pressure..

I used to enter weekly until my 

schedule became too busy.

I was fun to participate again.

http://www.dailypaintworks.com/challenge/the-window

Mums for Mother's day - Watercolor

Mums for Mother's Day

9x12 watercolor on Yupo NFS

Artist Note
My very special mother loved
this soft color of the classic
 chrysanthemum.
Long gone, she remains very much
alive in my grateful heart and mind.

Wishing all mothers a very happy DAY.

Challenge Abstract

Challenge Abstract

6x8in painted and wiped off.

The painting above represents

controlled  frustration.

Artist Note.

In the spirit of doing the collage 

of all the paintings from the challenge

I tried and totally wasted a couple of hours

trying to learn PicMonkey.

Lesson learned.

I am full of true admiration for all of you

who whipped out a collage

I do know enough about PicMonkey 

now to know I really like what it can do.

I thank Leslie Saeta for doing all the 

work to pull another successful 

challenge together.

It appeared that less than one third 

of the enrolled artists 

showed their work on her blog. 

That is good in a way because would I 

have ever been able to see ALL their work?

It was mind boggling to try and get through

the images of the 300 - 400 daily artists.

At the same time...

the best thing about the challenge was

being introduced to the work of

artists I was not familiar with ,and seeing a 

whole slew of new and fabulous paintings 

from artists

 I already admire.

See the final collages from everyone

HERE

Kat - day 24

Kat 

6x6in oil on canvas panel. Gifted to self!

This is my dear companion, Kat. A Blue Heeler.
She died a year ago and I have tried to paint her
several times. This is how this one came about.
It caught her anxious look perfectly

After making an abstract gesso 
mono printing on my canvas
I turned it around looking for an image to
appear...something...anything.
The one below said waterfall!
Done that already.

This one said dark stream, snow 

and shadows

In this one you can clearly see a 

Native American's head in the middle 

with outstretched arm

and then this one...

I could clearly see the dogs eyes and nose

in the middle especially the nose.

Can you see it?

(click to enlarge.)

It inspired me to paint my
beloved dog in a way I had not done before
-  it was more about my memory
I am very happy with the results. I have had too
many failed results going from a photo.

If you are interested
Here is a previous Utube

video gesso demo

I showed some examples on my blog of painting
in color over abstract mono printing on canvas.
See back post gesso mono printing

and this post gesso mono waterfall

Sunrise At Caballo, NM. Day 14

Sunrise At Caballo, NM

6x8in oil on canvas panel $125. SOLD

The only time of the year the sunrise is

 in this position is during the winter

I am always amazed at the large swath 

the sun travels from summer to winter.

The sun doesn't always rise in the true 

east as far as my sense of direction

is concerned.

Artist Note.

Day 13 passed in a blur of busy work.

No post...gasp!

We are learning about the 

Ned Jacob Palette. 

I took a workshop from Ned in the later 80's 

at the Art Students League in Denver,

and his palette was all I used through 

most of the nineties.

That plus ONE accent color if needed. 

Like a turquoise for a door.

The colors.

Yellow light or med, Orange, Alizarin (Perm) 

Ultra Blue, Black and Titanium White

Beautiful harmony can be achieved

by mixing all the secondary and grays with 

with these few colors.

The most important reason for using a 

limited palette is to learn what is IN certain colors

Example... to make yellow ochre you have to use 

yellow and a reddish purple. 

Too blue a purple and you 

get marvelous greens

Fascinating stuff, color!

I did not cheat and used the limited palette 

for this painting knife painting.