Fire Blossoms

I left white paper in the wet-on-wet background and negatively painted some of the blossoms, then created others by scrubbing out color using cut edges of stencil paper and a rag.  My rag happened to be an old Christmas handtowel with some gold glitter on it, so if you get up close the painting looks like it has little bits of shiny gold dust! 

Come if you can to an artist's reception for the upcoming show "Juxtapose" by Waterloo Watercolor Group on Sunday July 8 from 12:30 to 1:30.  This painting is one of 2 that I have in this show.  It is being held at the North Hills Gallery, 7050 Village Center Drive, in northwest Austin, easy to find and plenty of parking! 

The exhibit will be up from Thursday July 5 through Sunday July 29.  The Gallery is open during regular business hours Monday through Thursday 9 am to 5 pm, Fridays 9 am to noon, and Sundays 8:30 am to 1 pm.

Crimson Bloom

The First National Bank in Elgin asked to display paintings from local artists.  Thought I'd give you a peek at some of mine hanging in their lobby.  I'll also show you one of them up close. It's called Crimson Bloom. Thanks for the comments and encouragement.  I'm not writing much because I'm busy painting!

2011 Pearls art show

This is me last night at the 2011 Pearls Before Swine Art Show here in Elgin with my painting "Just Happened." I created this one with an intuitive underpainting first, adding an image of columbines after it had dried, by painting in and around the shapes. "Summer Breeze," above, is one of my intuitive paintings which I let evolve spontaneously without preplanning a subject. Both paintings were fun to create. Summer Breeze received a People's Choice award during the reception!

There was a big festive crowd and lots of beautiful art, including youth art, in an old historic building on Main Street. And a silent auction with great participation from area businesses, with proceeds sponsoring a youth art scholarship. I am impressed with the vibrancy and support of the community and the leadership of the Elgin Art Association in making this event a success. Come if you can to the art show, which is up through Saturday, October 22 for the Elgin Hogeye Festival http://www.elgintx.com/hogeye.asp. For those of you who don't live in Texas, thanks for enjoying our fun through my blog!

"Watercolor, Free and Easy"

My brother asked me to lead an art activity at a surprise birthday party for a very special lady, his girlfriend, Sandy. She is not only his special lady, but one of my biggest art enthusiasts. How could I say no? After a trial run with a smaller group of friends, then an inspired day of analyzing my own painting process and simplifying and outlining the steps involved, I came up with an easy step-by-step process. With the key steps painted and described on an illustration board, I led the group through creating their own painting of vases with light shining through. The first step involved making a wet-on-wet underpainting. Then when the underpainting was dry, the image of vases was added by transferring a tracing onto the underpainting using graphite paper. And finally, the space around the vases was painted a darker color, causing the lighter colors to appear to shine through the vases. Voila! We had quite a few masterpieces and lots of laughter and fun, not to mention, wine, food, and birthday festivities interspersed in between!

Less is more!

I learned a lot about exciting wet-on-wet techniques at a one day workshop this week taught by master artist, Rae Andrews. She emphasized leaving plenty of the white of the paper to create breathing space and sparkle in your painting. To start, we wet the paper, but only in parts. We then flicked paint onto the paper, staying mostly in the wet parts so the paint could spread and mingle. When our underpaintings dried, we looked through our photos and imaginations to decide on an image to paint. I used tracing paper to draw the flower I selected and then moved it around a bit on my painting to see how and where it would create a pleasing composition. Using a combination of positive painting (painting the object itself) and negative painting (painting around the object to create the shape of the object), I wove my image into the underpainting. When I photographed my painting, I got some shadows over the white parts, but I hope you can get the idea of "less is more!"

Purple Mist

I have been having a fun time experimenting with wet-on-wet painting. It is exciting because you never know quite what you will get. This one, "Purple Mist, " was inspired by some flowers and surrounding color and light I photographed at the Dallas Arboretum a couple of years ago. I love to try to capture feeling and atmosphere in a loose painting style.

Just this morning I received notification that this painting has been selected to be in the 2011 Waterloo Watercolor Group Spring Show, which starts May 1 in Austin. More info about the show will be forthcoming!

Wet paint on wet paper

Sunday morning I was reading in one of my art books, but noticed I was distracted by a sensation of heaviness, or sadness of some sort, inside my body. I had the urge to paint my feeling, one color and brushstroke at a time, without analyzing or pre-planning anything. I took a piece of watercolor paper and wetted it entirely, let the water settle into the paper a bit, and just started painting. It started out as a boiling pot of wet-on-wet color at the bottom. I added color by brushstrokes directly to the paper and also by flicking a brush loaded with paint to create splatter onto the paper. I also added a little salt at the bottom, which sucks up the watercolor and creates the effect of light spots. The process of painting was playful and fun, and before I knew it the heavy sensation inside me was gone. I love the way watercolor merges in unforseen ways on wet paper. When I looked at it, it appeared like a flower emerging and reaching for the sky. It feels like "Morning Joy," so that's what I named it. What does it feel like to you?