SUMMER

It seems like I haven't painted for forever and haven't posted for over a week either, so here's a REALLY old painting done in the late '90's. The up close study shows the textures of the old wooden sign.

Back then, I'd never use black and still seldom do. The blacks here are just dark colors in separate puddles from my palette, then allowed to mix on the paper. I think I used Ultramarine Turquoise (a mixture of phthalo green and French Ultramarine,) Quinacridone Violet, Indanthrone, and Quinacridone Burnt Orange. All were from Daniel Smith Company in Seattle, WA.

I love the depth of color and richness that happens when darks are created this way, plus both a warm black and a cool black can easily be made depending on how much of each color is used.

Miskit was applied VERY carefully to protect the edges of the white feathers and the rope. I use an 00 rigger brush dedicated for just applying miskit, then rinse it really well in GOOF OFF before washing it with Dawn Liquid Detergent, then hot water to clean it out.

The painting is really a contrast of darks and lights with just a bit of humor thrown in. This pelican lives in Bonita Springs, Florida, and it's evident that he WAS fishing from that dock.

Enjoy the rest of your summer if you live in the Northern Hemisphere. We (grandkids and me, plus my honey when he's not at work) have spent time everyday at the pool... two more weeks of grandkid fun before they must head home. This week it's just the two girls, so life seems nearly casual this morning! Oh yes, I DID paint yesterday - little toenails and fingernails, some orange and some deep pink! I love painting, and I LOVE being a grandma.

"NO FISHIN'" Transparent Watercolor on 140#CP Arches 15 x 22" COLLECTED

CONTRAST CATCHES MY EYE

Chickadees are lots of fun to paint, and my hope is always to try to capture the spiritedness that these delightful creatures possess. Because I'm very much a 'value oriented' painter, the contrast of black and white of the chickadee always attracts my eye.

This painting is at least a decade old, and if it were to be painted similarly again, the bird would be moved in just a little closer to the center and down a fraction, putting him in the golden mean of the painting.

"SUGAR BABY" Transparent Watercolor on 140#CP Arches, about 15 x 11, COLLECTED

BUFFALO BATIK

This is another oldie - but goodie, I think. I like the way the batik shows off the textures on this ancient water buffalo.

To see all of the batiks on this blog, go to the lower right hand column where it says LABELS, and click on batik. I'll be adding more after our workshop is over here at Miami U.

(Have a Happy Birthday tomorrow, Teresa!)

"BUFFALOED!" Transparent Watercolor on Kinwashi adhered to 140#CP Arches 16 x 9"

READY TO PAINT?

This frisky fellow decided to be on patrol today while I sat on the deck and painted. Actually, I probably spent more time taking photos of him than painting.

Unless I stood up and moved around my table toward him, he would not leave. And when I did make him scoot, he'd snatch one last kernel of corn before he'd scamper down the post.

This shot's with a telephoto, but I'm still only 5 feet from him the whole time he munches his lunch. And he can put it away, too!

Years ago, my husband wrote a great story about a big white oak, which included a squirrel. Maybe it's time to illustrate it and get this little creature published. I did drawings as illustrations after Bob completed the story, but paintings and photos would be more fun. Getting the book into print is also much easier now, too. I've talked myself into a new project!

I love his little paws. Awwwwwe. Better get back to painting.

YUPO UNDERWATER!

We were in a helicopter the first time I saw a real sea turtle swimming in the Pacific below us. Later, watching them glide in an huge aquarium beside the ocean was mesmerizing, and I hoped to capture that magnificent fluid movement with paint.

This is a YUPO painting from quite a few years ago, painted as a demo during the opening of an art show. I'm not a very good 'stand around and talk' person at an art show, but I do enjoy talking about the painting process while it's happening.

"ANCIENT MARINER" Transparent Watercolor on YUPO 25 x 18"

TWO WRENS

I do love to watch the birds and am often inspired to try to capture their beauty in a painting. The painting to the left with the bigger background was painted ten years ago, while the close up was just completed as a demo in a class.

The close up painting may never be finished. Like other artists, I start a painting, full steam ahead, then other things capture my attention, making it hard later to revive my interest in the first one.

Looking back in the archives can be frightening - to think I had some of that stuff framed! YIKES! I see a marked difference in the sureness of stroke in the newer painting compared to the older one, but the flowers and twigs were executed better in the old painting, in my opinion, probably because then I cared more how realistic they looked. The same exact photo reference was used for both, with the image reversed for the second one.

Top Painting "CAROLINA WREN" Transparent Watercolor on 140# CP Arches 15 x 11" COLLECTED

BLUE PHASE

Just like the previous post, this painting is from my archives of the last 20 years of painting with watercolor. And, this painting leans strongly toward the blues and turquoise end of the color wheel.

For more than 17 years I painted by using cool dominance as the usual temperature of my paintings. Of course, warms were in the painting, most often near the focal area to add interest and change. Even though I'd had read that warm toned paintings sold better than cool temperature ones did, that didn't stop my inner instincts from using the temperature I liked the best, usually with teal or turquoise as the main ingredient.

Then I traveled overseas to Europe for the first time, with a short stop in northern Italy. From that point on, it seems that my instincts have been telling me to paint 'warm' temperature pictures most of the time. Could it be that a life changing experience or journey can also result in an artist preference responding occurrence? Surely... if that's even a sentence that makes sense???

"SHOW OFF" Transparent Watercolor on 140#CP Arches, 15 x 11" COLLECTED

YUPO LIONESS

Sliding paint around on YUPO can be compared to the phrase we often hear now --- '''herding cats.''' (Doesn't THAT paint a picture in your mind?)

For this painting, the sliding paint almost worked for the fur on this cat's face. Then the little spot dried between her nose and eye, leaving an unnatural hard edge where I did not want a hard edge. Somehow, for once, I was able to leave that spot alone and go on with the rest of the painting. Trying to correct it after it had dried would've resulted in destroying the beauty of the cheek area.

Once the whole thing was completed, I found that the hard edged spot no longer bothered me. In fact, I liked what it did for the painting.

I also got lucky under her chin where the background color sneaked into the wet paint of her fur, adding just bit cooler look to the shadow there. The grainy area between the ear and the eye is a result of the Lunar Earth separating or granulating in the Quinacridone Burnt Orange area.

If you haven't tried YUPO yet with watercolor, you are missing out on a great adventure. Although this was painted back in 2001, it's still one of my favorite paintings. Fortunately I'd made giglee' prints of it before it sold.

"GRRRRRRR" Transparent Watercolor on YUPO 10 x 12" Collected

HAWKEYE

We have a wildlife area near us that's full of many native creatures. One of the men who enjoys that area, called Oxbow, also has a Red Tail Hawk that he rescued long ago and cares for now. His educational talk one Saturday was exceptional, and I was really thankful to be able to take pictures of this beautiful bird on his arm.

I find that painting wildlife brings me a lot of satisfaction. I am lucky to have had parents who took us outside through many state and national parks for vacations or long weekends. Hiking and discovering all kinds of wildlife was a 'normal' adventure during my childhood.

The beauty of wild animals just astounds me. They are so complex and wonderfully made. Glorious creatures!

And so much fun to try to paint, especially with watercolor.

"SHAKE A TAIL FEATHER!" Transparent Watercolor on 140# CP Fabriano Artistico Collected

RECYCLING

Small strips of paper, including rice papers, torn into various sizes, plus a lot of mat medium used as glue, helped create this thirsty creature. There's nothing better than a stack of failed paintings to use for a collage, either. The trick is to find the perfect match of value and color for each shape of the new painting.

By the time I was done, some areas of this 'painting' were raised off the paper a whole lot because I'd kept adding more and more pieces to get the look I wanted. Collage is freeing for me to do, but incredibly messy. I usually look like Charlie Schultz's 'Pig Pen' by the time I'm done. There are bits of papers EVERYWHERE plus my fingers are thickly coated with dried mat medium.

In a workshop I once took, someone asked the master of collage, Gerald Brommer, how to know when there was too much collage on the paper. His reply - When it's too heavy to pick up! I enjoyed his workshop very much and highly recommend him as an excellent teacher.

I like this whole collage process because the final painting is actually made up of small pieces of many, many, many painting attempts that didn't turn out right. Recycled disasters!

"LONG DRINK OF WATER" Transparent Watercolor on Assorted, Torn Watercolor Surfaces, Glued Down with Acrylic Mat Medium to Arches 300#CP 11 x 19" SOLD

SELLING PAINTINGS

This is an older painting that I really liked a lot and didn't ever want to sell. Soon after I'd painted it, a local art group I'd joined had a show, so I put this in the show with a high enough price on it to 'keep' it. Wrong.

It's a weird feeling to appreciate the nice check you get for a painting yet wish you could get the painting back instead. The great people who purchased it love the painting very much, and they've said I can come visit it if I want.

Eagles are incredibly majestic. The first ones we saw in Alaska took our breath away, but in a matter of a couple of days, we'd say, "Oh, that's just another eagle." Same for the puffins we saw. We never saw enough otters or whales to feel that way about them.

While Marianne and I kayaked across an Alaskan bay with our guide, Howie, we watched as a silver gray seal followed our kayak for a long, long time, keeping about twenty feet between him and us. An otter swimming near us maintained a much wider berth and turned to always keep his feet pointed at us. Being outdoors, seeing wildlife, being an artist .... it all goes together for me.

"EAGLE EYE" Transparent Watercolor on 140# CP Arches, 14 x 11" SOLD

YUPO GIRAFFES

A good friend gave me a really great giraffe gift yesterday that delighted me. I've loved giraffes since my early teens, when one was born on my birthday at the Brookfield Zoo and named 'Sandy.' We even have a giraffe-themed bathroom that the grandkids use.

These four creatures were munchin' lunch and enjoying the Colorado sunshine when we visited and fed them. Painted on YUPO paper, this painting is a celebration of their grandeur. If I redid the painting now, I would incorporate some easier methods of painting the sky area in order to make it more uniform.

I love the casual sassiness that giraffes seem carry along with them and have probably completed at least a dozen giraffe paintings in my lifetime. They are such awesome creatures.

"THE LUCKY LUNCH BUNCH" Transparent Watercolor on YUPO, 11 x 35"

Myrna Wacknov recently '''tagged''' me to play an internet tag game. I must tell 5 obscure things about myself, then tag five other people. #1. Besides giraffes, I love otters, too - because they are so playful, spending their time either playing, eating, or sleeping...a good life. #2. My husband and I went to the same kindergarten, but didn't meet until Mr. Fox's high school geometry class when we were 15. In June '08, we will celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary. #3. Once upon a time, I was in a unique group that called themselves the 'OTTERS.' #4. My dad always called me 'Bugs.' I miss him. #5. I cannot remember ever believing in Santa Claus. The chimney thing never made sense to me. When I was about 5, the Santa whose lap I sat on at Mal's Sporting Goods Store had the same watch and glasses and shoes as my dad had. Seemed a little 'fishy' to me.

As per Myrna's instructions, I'm tagging some of the people who have responded to this blog. They are
Cecelia in Texas at http://cecelia-throughmyeyes.blogspot.com/
Michelle Himes in New Jersey at http://mhwatercolornotes.blogspot.com/
Suzanne McDermott in Nashville, TN at http://suzannesketches.blogspot.com/
Art Lover in Vancover BC, Canada at http://artloverscorner.blogspot.com/
Diane Kasparek from Washington State at http://www.orcasislandstudio.com/

NOT A VISA OR MASTER CARD ON YUPO

My sister is an adventurer, and
when she lived in Africa, she managed to snap this picture (without a telephoto lens) and still escape the charge of the beast. She said she did it for me, and I really appreciated her risking life and limb for a future painting.

YUPO was about the only surface I painted on four years ago when the top painting was done. When I did the lower 'close up' view this fall, I chose YUPO again.

For both paintings, I miskited the palm leaves before painting. Once the foliage and elephant were painted and the miskit removed, I spritzed some diluted yellow-green paint over those sharp leaf shapes to help soften the harshness of the miskit, then jiggled the piece of YUPO to try to loosen the edges of paint a little. The leaves could have been lifted out with a moist brush, but miskit helped create crisper edges.

Because of the unique YUPO 'slide-of-the-paint' on the elephant's trunk in the lower painting, I decided not to add too much detail to it. I was especially pleased with the intensity of that painting. It seems like he's just come out of the brush, and we can almost feel his breath. What do you think, Marilyn?

Upper Painting titled "CHARGER" SOLD
Lower Painting titled "CHARGE!"
Both done with Transparent Watercolor on YUPO about 26 x 20"

YUPO = PAINTING FEARLESSLY

"OVER THE RHINO" Transparent Watercolor on YUPO 25 x 11" SOLD - Giglees are available
This old girl in the Cincinnati Zoo seemed to like showing off her old, wrinkled skin, and I couldn't wait to paint her. First I tackled the background area, letting the paint have its way with a little encouragement from gravity.
Mixing sedimentary colors with juicy puddles of the more finely ground colors, like Phthalos and Quinacridones, resulted in fascinating textures on YUPO ..... making it totally fun to watch paint dry. YUPO 'paper' won't let the color soak in, so the colors stay brilliant and strong. It's a perfect surface for making the wildest textures. If you paint in watercolor, I really encourage you to play with YUPO. I call it FEAR FREE watercolor, because anything can be changed/fixed/washed off! Go for it!