AN OLDIE - FOR SURE

This old place in Germany is now a car dealership. How sad.

A friend let me paint the photo which her husband had taken in the early fifties. I'd hoped to capture the charm of the place but think my lack of experience shows a lot in this painting, painted maybe 15 years ago.

Comparing how far you've come as an artist is a good thing. One instructor said to never toss out your old paintings, but to store them under the bed to check later. My bed would have to be VERY high off the ground if I had kept all the old ones.

I did frame a lot of paintings that probably should still be under the bed. At the time, they were the best I could possibly do.

The key to improving is to paint, and to paint, and to paint. Better brushes, more colors, and great books and teachers may all help, but unless that brush is working, skills can't improve.

"THE OLD MILL" Transparent Watercolor on (probably) 140#CP Arches COLLECTED

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

BLACK & WHITE ARCHIVES

The photographer at my niece's wedding several years ago was a painting ready to paint. I love contrast in paintings, and his wedding attire, his salt and pepper hair and beard, and his camera equipment provided all the dynamics needed to make up a portrait that I wanted to paint. The sun even co-operated that afternoon, providing more contrast by casting some nice soft shadows and creating some good highlights for the painting.

To make the blacks in the painting lively, I used Daniel Smith brand watercolors of Ultramarine Turquoise, Quinacridone Magenta, Indanthrone Blue, and Quinacridone Brunt Orange .... but no black paint. By making four separate puddles of very dark pigment, I could pop in the dark areas, allowing the colors to charge into each other and blend on their own. The luminous 'black' colors stayed transparent even though they were very strong darks. No glazing was done in the dark areas here, just one shot in with the darks mingling together.

I snapped a lot of film that weekend of the wedding in beautiful Buck County, PA. What a great area to visit - and have a wedding!

"SAY CHEESE" Transparent Watercolor on 140# CP Fabriano Artistico 11x 16"