Saturday, April 30, 2011

Wine and Roses

MUSIC OF LOVE
Original Watercolor Collage - 11x15
$60 - Buy Here

Music of Love started out as a class demo showing how to paint roses using transparent layers of watercolor to create form and shape. I later decided to spice it up by using gesso to stamp the word 'love' and some music notes. I also used bubble wrap to stamp the green dots and collaged on some thin rice paper. When all of that was dry I reinstated some of the darks with watercolor and called it finished.

Is there anything more romantic than a bouquet of roses and a bottle of wine? This painting was included in an Etsy Treasury titled Days of Vintage Wines and Roses - click here to see the other items.

Friday, April 29, 2011

Creative Journey - Dive or Wade?


GERANIUM MORNING
Original Watermedia Collage - 14x20
$85 - Buy Here

Are you someone who likes to dive into something new or wade in slowly? As an artist do you like to carefully research a new technique or idea, do small studies first or do you like to quickly gather all your supplies, start applying paint and see what happens?

My background is in engineering and architecture so I had many years of careful planning, detailed drawings, and precision calculations so when I discovered watercolor I was drawn to the free flowing, spontaneity of the medium. I loved the way the colors would move and mix on wet paper creating loose, soft edged shapes. Then the challenge was to try and create a finished piece from such an unplanned beginning. Now I love to experiment by combining watercolor with other mediums, adding collage papers and painting on different surfaces.

Geranium Morning started out with small pieces of colored tissue collaged on illustration board. I then used acrylics to paint the pots, flowers and leaves. A little more collage and some gesso to negative paint the background and I had a totally different piece than my normal watercolors.

On your Creative Journey are you a diver or a wader?

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Breckenridge Batik - WATER LILIES

WATER LILIES
Original Watercolor Batik - 12x19
$100 - Buy Here

Pretty white flowers floating on their own soft pads. I have taught several workshops where water lilies were the subject of the Watercolor Batik process. The waterlilies and pads are first drawn with ink on the fibrous rice paper and melted wax is used as a resist to keep certain areas white. Watercolor is then used to paint in light values of color all over the composition. When everything is dry, more melted wax is applied to the areas that are to stay light, then more watercolor, more wax and the process is repeated until the entire piece is covered in wax. When the wax is ironed off you are always in for an exciting and surprising finished piece of art. Notice the fun drips and squiggles created by the melted wax.

I will be demonstrating and teaching the Watercolor Batik process in Breckenreidge, CO in November for the two weeks that I will be an Artist in Residence - can't wait!

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Stained Glass Iris

IRIS POTPOURRI
Original Watercolor - 11x15
$55 - Buy Here

Iris Potpourri was a demo for my weekly watercolor class. First I used a thin liner brush to paint masking fluid around the main iris and leaf shapes and spattered some around the whole paper. Then I did what I call 'psuedo pouring' where I wet the whole paper and using a mop brush dripped someyellow, red and blue paint and let them mix and mingle to create soft jewel colors. When everything was dry I painted in more darks, removed the masking and did a little negative painting in the background. The final effect is rather like a stained glass window and all the students had great success with this technique!

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Happy Easter


HAPPY EASTER to everyone. I hope you have a wonderful day with loved ones.

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Favorite Beach?

FLYING LOW
Original Watercolor - 18x27 matted
SOLD

Another beach painting on its way to a new home. I think everyone, including myself, is getting ready for summer.  Each August before school started, my family would vacation at Padre Island - a long, skinny island along the coast of Texas. Most people head to the north end near Galveston and many miles of the center section of the island is state park but we always went to the south end near the Mexico border. As kids, there was only one motel to stay in and three places to eat dinner - we loved it. So many great memories of vacationing with my parents and brother, my husband proposed to me there and later we brought our three little kids to play in the sand and body surf the waves. I have been to other beaches in Hawaii, Rhode Island, Mexico and South Carolina but my summer heart will always be in South Padre Island.

Where is does your summer heart live? Do you have a favorite beach? Vacation memories from childhood? I would love to hear them as we all head towards the easy days of summer living!

Thursday, April 21, 2011

German Landscape


The Daily Paintworks challenge for last week was to paint one of the landscape photos shown above. The pictures were taken in Germany during a vacation trip by the artist posting the challenge. I chose to paint the one on the left because I liked the winding road.
GERMANY LANDSCAPE
Original Watercolor - 8x10
$45 - Buy Here

Since so many of the artists who participate are oil painters and tend to paint very realistically I decided to take a more fanciful approach - even added some wild flowers for added color. To see more paintings entered in the challenge click here.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Tea With The Artists

Every year as part of the Alzheimer's Association Memories in the Making Art Program an Artist Tea is put on to honor some of the artists from each Care Community in Colorado Springs, CO. Above is the signature painting for the event and a photo and biography of the artist who created it. Notice the pretty tea cups with flowers and a paint brush!

All of the paintings are created by artists with some form of dementia who participate in the Memories in the Making art program. Expressing themselves verbally may be more difficult than it use to be but painting allows them to communicate visually and express their creativity. Each painting is matted and framed and displayed with information about the artist.

Here is on of the artists with her daughter on the left and her art facilitator from her care community on the right posing in front of her painting of a bird. Each artist was given a small framed print of their artwork to take home with them.

As each artist was recognized during the tea a volunteer pinned a special corsage on them. It was so cute to see them all dressed up wearing their pretty flowers.

Another artist with her daughter enjoying tea, scones and finger sandwiches. Sometimes the artist does not remember that they painted their picture or why they are at the tea but they know they are being honored and are with family and you can see it by the wonderful smiles on their faces.

As the art coordinator for the Memories in the Making program here in Colorado Springs I love this day every year when the program, the artists and their paintings and are celebrated in such a grand style.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Wild and Crazy

WILD IRIS
Original Watercolor - 15x22
$100 - Buy Here

I had alot of fun painting this. I began by using white gesso to stamp small and medium swirls and also scraped some gesso here and there to create texture. When it was dry, I wet the whole paper and applied color all over. After that dried, I began negative painting petals and leaves and reinforced the color on the big iris. Since the gesso is acrylic based it acts as a resist to the watercolor creating interesting effects. I love paintings with a hint of realism, strong compositional design and a bit of fantasy thrown in!

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Creative Journey - What is Your Favorite Brush?

When I teach a class I am often asked what kind of brushes that I like to use. Years ago when I first started painting in watercolor I used Loew Cornell brushes - relatively inexpensive, synthetic brushes - but always thought I needed to get a sable brush someday. Well, I finally did fork over the money for one, only to find that I thought it was too soft and I could not get much control with it. It did, however, hold more water so then I tried a blend of synthetic and natural hair - holds more water but springs back for more control.

But now I have come full circle and am back to using the Loew Cornell Series 7000 (Cheap Joe's sells them) that you see above. I do 95% of my painting with the 1 1/2 inch flat and a #14 round - they hold water, spring back, keep a nice point and don't cost a fortune. Finding the tools that work for you is definitely part of the Creative Journey!

Do you believe the old adage that we are only one brush away from a masterpiece? Do you love to use alot of different brushes or only a few? What is your favorite brush?

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Quiet and Serene

ROCKY STREAM
Original Watercolor - 11x15
$60 - Buy Here

This painting was included in an Etsy Treasury called Undisturbed featuring beautiful, serene locations. I think there are times that we would all like a quiet place to escape from this busy, hectic world - click here to view the other featured items.

Friday, April 15, 2011

Breckenridge Batik - ASPEN LEAVES

ASPEN LEAVES
Original Watercolor Batik - 19x24
$160 - Buy Here

One of the great benefits of living in Colorado are the beautiful aspen trees. I love the great texture on the trunks and sound of the leaves rustling in the wind. It is almost time for the leaves to start budding out for springtime - can't wait for warm weather!

This painting is a Watercolor Batik - a process that I will be teaching at my Artist in Residence in Breckenridge, CO in November.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Southern Living

I am still in that Southern frame of mind so I wanted to show more about the location of our daugher's wedding. The Legare Waring House is an Historic Antebellum Plantation Home located at Charles Towne Landing in Charleston, SC. It was an absolutely perfect setting for a wedding celebration. The upstairs bedrooms are all decorated very elegantly and can be used by the bride and bridemaids to get ready on the big day. The ceremony took place under the live oak canapy shown above and the reception was held on the beautiful grounds near the lagoon and fountain. For a photo tour of the inside of the house and the grounds click here

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Sale Basket

BASKET OF FLOWERS
Original Watercolor Painting
16x22 Matted - $55
Sale Price $44 - Buy Here

Time to clean out my studio and make room for new art so I am putting this painting and many others in my Etsy Store on sale at 20% off. Click Here to check out all the Spring Studio Clearance Sale pieces!
Basket of Flowers is sold with a double mat and backing.

Charleston Wedding

Luckily for all of you we don't have the over two thousand official wedding photos that were taken this weekend at our daughter's wedding but I could not resist sharing a few family ones.

This is our oldest daughter Laura and her fiance Eric at the rehearsal dinner last thursday. They got married in Charleston, SC - a beautiful city!

Here is Laura with her bridesmaids having fun at the reception. Both the ceremony and the festivities afterwards were at Legare Waring House - a beautiful southern home located in an historic park area. They were married under arched trees with hanging spanish moss and the food and dancing took place around the beautiful grounds of the house, pond and fountain.

Laura getting ready to throw the bouquet to all of those single gals!

Laura and Eric driving off to start their new life together. We had a fantastic five day with family and friends that came from Alaska, Hawaii, Colorado, Nebraska and Texas to help us celebrate their marriage. I cannot begin to tell you how very special it all was and we feel extremely blessed to welcome such a wonderful new son-in-law into the family!

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Southwestern Treasures

PUEBLO VILLAGE
Original Watercolor - 11x15
$45 - Buy Here

This painting of pueblos was included in an Etsy Treasury featuring many southwestern art pieces - Click Here to see more Southwestern Flare.

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Hand Over Hand

Last week I taught a Memories in the Making Basic Training class for the Alzheimer's Association. Staff from the Care Communities and volunteers interested in helping with the program attended to learn more about how people with dementia can use art as an outlet for creative expression and as a way to connect with memories from their past.


Part of the day was spent introducing watercolor and some of the techniques that can be used in a Memories in the Making session. Traditional arts and crafts activities have all the residents producing the same finished product but with MIM the focus is on encouraging each individual's own creative process as a way to communicate who they are and their rich histories.


As part of the Memories in the Making training the participants role play the part of the facilitator and the resident artist. Dementia can affect the artist's ability to remember how to hold a brush, what the brush is for or how to get started with the painting. Here the facilitator is using the hand over hand technique to guide the artist through the process of holding the brush, dipping it in the water, getting paint on the brush and then placing the brush on the paper. Once the artist's brush touches the paper the facilitator removes their hand to allow the resident the freedom to paint as they wish. The facilitators are there to encourage and suggest but are NEVER to paint for the artists. The paintings are to be an expression of the artists and who they are - no one else.


This is a painting that was created by an artist with dementia. The role of the facilitator was to provide pictures or objects for inspiration and to give support and encouragemnt when needed. Because the artist had very shaky hands they were given a sea sponge to paint with instead of a brush to make it easier for them to hold and apply the paint. This is a wonderful example of the kind of individual help the facilitators give the artists with the Memoreis in the Making program.

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Sunset on the Beach


BEACH SUNSET
Original Watercolor
SOLD

I must not be the only one dreaming of warm sandy beaches. Holly from Ohio just purchased this painting and since it is her second piece of art from me she is now officially a "Collector" - enjoy!