Merry Christmas Greta

A group of us from the area paint together (as I've mentioned before) in Bullard every Tuesday and Friday at the home of Greta Faulkenberry. She has a gorgeous home and decorates "to the nines" for Christmas. So, last week she brought some of her ornaments down for us to play around with and I selected some red ones (or course) to do a mini painting. We don't all paint the same things...just whatever strikes our fancy. She doesn't read our blogs, so she will be surprised when she sees this little painting framed and wrapped and given to her at our Christmas party tomorrow. I've also posted it on Artcolony. This is only 5x7 and was done in an afternoon session, but very loosly painted and was lots of fun. I just love red...obviously!:) As I mentioned in the other blog, it's so affirming when one of your painting friends really admires absolutely everything you paint! Ha!

Mandavilla Vine

This is the little painting done this morning in our Friday session. It's small...8x11...so it's one of those quickie paintings that are loose and fun. I was really wanting to play with the background and try some negative painting, but needed to quit early today to get ready to go to Austin to babysit in the morning. My daughter-in-law is going to NY to visit for the weekend and my son gets an assistant for his 7 month old. Not a bad gig for Grammy. I'm going to take my painting gear as I'll be there for at least the next 3 days. We'll see if I have time to do any painting.

Painting Day

Every Tuesday and Friday a group of us meet at an artist friend's "art retreat" south of Tyler for a few hours of painting and gossip. We are painting as peers and not teacher/students and it is such fun. For anyone who wants to see real progress in their work, just schedule these regular sessions and you'll be surprised how you progress. I have referred to the "Ruidoso ladies" many times in the past and this group is those artists. Our hostess, Greta Faulkenberry has spoiled us rotten with individual tables, lights, brush holders, tissue, a giant light box, cable tv w/stereo music of our choice...I could go on and on about the comforts of our studio. I think her husband, John, is very indulgent of us and I need to pass along a "thank you" to him also. If I finish what I'm working on this morning, I'll try to get it posted this afternoon. The weather people are saying that we might get a little snow today so I'm trying to make a sweep through my gardens to make sure that I've moved everything into the studio that I want to save through the winter. Don't know why I have soooooo many plants???

Big Red

This guy is my favorite rooster in my chicken kingdom. He is very gentle and eats out of my hand...and the ladies all like him as he shares his bug finds with them. And, he knows that he is handsome. Too bad I couldn't come up with a more original name. Ha! I am going to try to post a bit more of what I am working on and have made a promise to myself to post at least one painting a week. I'm still working on the Glass n'Stripes and hope to have it finished before too much longer. And, on our Artcolony blog we are having a Christmas painting exchange and I will post Ellie's painting as soon as we "open" our gifts from each other. It has to remain a secret for a little while. Janie Freeman drew my name and I'm very excited to have an original from her.

JapaneseCrimsonQueenRedLaceMaple

There is no way I can paint this gorgeous favorite maple and do it justice, so I thought I'd just post a photo. Our mild fall has given us absolutely glorious colors this year so we don't need to be unhappy that we missed the fall follage tours in New England. Still have a rose blooming, chartruse sweetpotato vine, orange cosmos, purple Mexican sage and all my bromilaids are still outside. It'll take me HOURS to put all my plants in the studio and I seem to put it off later and later every year. When the temps suggest that we may have our first frost, I usually kill myself getting everything inside the studio that should have been moved while temps were in the 60's. Oh, well...no sense in doing something different from what I'm guilty of doing every year!

Art for Mission House

Each Tuesday I paint with a group of friends in a little town south of Tyler..Bullard, Texas. Two of my artist friends, Greta Faulkenberry and Katherine Bunce have founded a yearly art show and sale honoring the memory of their first watercolor teacher, Genny Woods, who has passed away. They bring together a great group of artists and put on a great sale and show with part of the proceeds benefiting their church's Mission House food/clothes/medical services pantry. Another of our artist friends, Kay Smith of Brushworks Art Studio in Big Spring, has given me permission to donate a painting I completed based on a demo she recently did for a workshop. I absolutely loved her pears and thought my painting friends would really enjoy painting something similar. So, I redrew the piece, added a few leaves and twigs and did a demo with my twist for our little group. The paintings are matted 20x24 and were painted on 140 lb.Arches paper. The pear painting turned out so successfully in my eyes that I thought I'd paint a companion piece of apples and donate both to the artshow silent auction benefiting the Mission House. My artist friends are simply the best!!

Moon Pies

As usual, I'm running really late with my postings for ArtColony and this is the latest challenge going..."moon". There were several other subject lines with a moon that I just couldn't see painting and one of my artist friends from Houston, Nita , suggested MoonPies. Loved the idea. In my childhood, when we came home from school we usually had a moon pie and a Pepsi. These challenges are not major productions so we can really throw something out..and this is just that..thrown out! I drew it in about an hour, painted it in about 2 hours and need to do a little more detail work, but our deadline for ArtColony is the 15th. And..today in addition to being tax deadline (for the final extension..DUH!), is the challenge deadline. This piece is only 5 x 7 so if any of you punch this up, it will look really "messy" as it will be sooooo large in magnification. Sorry about that. I still have not honed my computer tech skills enough to know how to get to the right editing program with Photoshop yet to reduce the posting sizes. I will admit to eating this setup of MoonPies, although I did half it with our dog, Gunney. On the wrapper it stated the calories at 300 so I couldn't make myself be that indulgent. And, Gunney doesn't care about calories!

NecterinesWIP

 

This is the latest painting done with Debbie Cannatella's class of the artists from Bullard who took us with them on the trip to Ruidoso, NM earlier this summer. Can't resist when I know they are going to paint crystal and Debbie's setups are always wonderful in subject and good reference photos. I did make some changes on this one as the photo was taken on a wooden table and since I didn't want to introduce browns, I made mine reflect on a white countertop. Since there are no mistakes in art (especially if you're the artist) we can change things to suit our tastes..which is a good thing. My rule of thumb seems to be..if there isn't red somewhere, I don't enjoy painting it! The darks were laid in first as I paint dark to light. When I tackled the necterines, I laid a solid wash of New Gamboge on the whole fruits and after that dried, then started in with layers of 3 or 4 different reds. I love the way reds seem to glow when painted over yellows. As usual, I really enjoyed figureing out the facets of the crystal and jumped in. Although I always love to paint glass and crystal, I do have a close focus asiatic lily drawn off and waiting in the wings when I get around to it. However, my next major project will be to get my taxes to my CPA as I've used my last extension and time has caught up with me. I always say I'm not going to wait until the last minute every year...oh, well.

Isabella Grace

 

This painting was done earlier this year and I must admit that I think it captures my little four year old granddaughter's sweetness and softness. She is a beautiful little girl (don't all grandmothers think that of their grandchildren?) and I'm please to report that when she first saw the painting she said, "Oh, Grammy, Mommy is going to love this.) That was all I really needed to declare it a success, but I will admit that I am very pleased with this one. This was conceived at a Mel Stabin workshop when he asked us to paint something out of the box from our usual fare and this is my first attempt at a portrait. I have posted this on Artcolony (I think), but had never posted here. Now I need to paint Henry (our 6 year old grandson) and Addison (our other granddaughter who is only 4 months old). Getting just the right reference photo is now at the top of my "to paint" list.

Red Pear

My artist friend, Debbie Cannatella, invited me to come to her watercolor class with the wonderful group of ladies who included us in the fabulous week we recently spent in Ruidoso, New Mexico. They study with her for six week's periods and she has them painting like pros in the short time they have studied with her. Anyway, her method of tip-toeing into a painting is just really difficult for me and I wanted to give it a try when she told me what they were painting. (May I add that that gorgeous crystal bowl is mine and it's just my favorite piece of crystal to paint.) The blue Italian glass vase and amber candy dish were pieces we picked up on the way home from Ruidoso out in Roswell (right down the street from the "aliens" of Area 51). My attempt at going light to dark was dismal, so I reverted back to my dark to light method and might say that I am rather pleased with the results. The drawing and composition are Debbie's so I can't take credit for the originality of the piece and I did love all the elements she included. I'm at the "living with it" stage for a little while and am considering going back in with some more shadows on the fabric on the left and possibly a few more darks in the crystal bowl. Time will tell. I think I'm just putting off getting back to serious painting with my glass and stripes piece that has given me headaches and eye-strain. I have several more waiting in the wings and I really do need to finish that one first.

Strawberry Wine

 

This painting is for my ArtColony blog for the month of September and our subject was "booze". My husband brought this beautiful set of Irish crystal home from one of his trips to Europe and it is one of my favorite wine glasses...maybe a bit small, but still a beautiful cut. My original thought was to paint the huge Miller Lite balloon bottle I photographed outside the Dallas Cowboy stadium last month, but my colors turned to mud after several passes so it was junked. I'll admit that I had trouble coming up with a new piece in my mind's eye after settling on the beer bottle, but when in doubt...I always love painting crystal. I am not sure that I love the shades of grey in the piece, but did try to limit my colors to just a small palette as I completed this from drawing to finishing in about 3 hours. Decided not to go back in and clean up and soften some edges on the crystal as it was actually time to enjoy that little glass of wine and munch on that delicious strawberry.

Dallas Cowboy Game

 

My daughter, Wendy, and I were fortunate to obtain some tickets to the Dallas Cowboy Game last Saturday night and had a ball. I am an avid footballer and go into withdrawals the day after the Superbowl and I had never been to a pro game. And, I really wanted to go see what all the hype is about for this jumbotron. Well, it lived up to everything that's been said...and more. We had fab seats on the 50 yd line, third deck, which is eye level with the screen. Only problem is, you watch the screen and not the game on the floor! It stretches from the 20 yd.line to the 20 yd.line and is 162 feet wide, 90 feet off the ground and has screens on either end for those in the endzone area. But, it was great! We were also fortunate to know some people in rather high places and enjoyed the hospitality of two different suites and all the merriment that goes along with that. We wound up at the best suite of all for the after game party goingson and stayed until around 2:00AM. Needless to say, the stadium lived up to all the pregame hype as it is gorgeous and is very fan friendly. It doesn't hurt that it is all brand new and has every tech thing you can imagine going on. We renewed some old friendships and made some new ones in the course of the night and a good time was had by all.

GlassnStripesWIP Cont'd

This morning when I checked the Artcolony blog, Doris Joa had posted her latest WIP and for some reason, a lightbulb went off in my head. I have been struggling with the stripes and glass and lights and darks in my WIP and after looking at Doris progression, I realized that my true darks needed to be put in right now so I would have some reference of values as a base line. Don't know why it took so long to do this step as I actually usually work dark to light anyway. I've also included my reference photo (which is not that great) which shows just how much jumping around the darks actually are in these piece. Anyway, we'll see how far I get now that I think my roadmap has finally been found.

AHHHH...Trials of Country Life

It's time for a little venting and since this is my very own blog, I have my very own permission. Last night the joys of country life and having our own water well came front and center. My husband came out of his bathroom..voice raised..and demanded to know if I had left the water on AGAIN from watering my flowers in the heat. Well..Duhhhh..I didn't remember. So, I jumped up, slipped on my flipflops and ran outside and checked both hoses. Luckily, I was in the clear. It was so really dark and it was late, so I knew it would be morning before we really could see the problem. So, no flushes allowed in the Jones house. See, if you live in town, you never have this little problem.
Well, the sun did come up and we did go up on the hill and get to take a look. We were keeping our fingers crossed that it was not a burned up water pump as we have our trip to Galveston for this weekend all arranged. Eureka!!! It was just fire ants..almost a monthly occurance this time of year as they seem to love electricity. Anyway, my hubby filed the points (whatever that is) on the motor, we put the coverhouse back down and I turned on the switch back down at the house for our main water system. And, it worked!!! If you've never fooled with fire ants, thank your lucky stars...they're awful.

Okay, now the second problem comes about. My neighbor who usually takes care of feeding our dog, cats and chickens is going to be out of town. So, now I'm on the hunt for another neighbor (nobody owes me any favors right now) to feed and water our critters while we on the beach. Will work on that in the morning as I'm going to be Scarlet O'Hara and procrastinate on this one.

Our daughter and son and their kids will join us for a last getaway before school starts. We've never all stayed in the same condo so this will be a new experience for all of us. I'm certain that I'll be the babysitter for the 4 month old granddaughter, but I'm looking forward to that. Our other granddaughter (a 4 yr old) has never seen the ocean (if you can call the Gulf of Mexico an ocean) and we're really looking forward to her reaction to it all. So...will check back in when we get home. As a sidebar..I have done a little work on my stripes and glass, but keep getting sidetracked. Figures!!!

Glass WIP

 

Very seldom do I ever post a work in progress, but I'm feeling that I need to give this one a rest for a bit and redraw some of the stripes which I seem to have lost in translation. Don't know why I am drawn to these rather complicated paintings and glass setups, but I am. My intention was to "tiptoe" in by painting light to dark, but I'm finding that I need to go back to Joyce Faulknor's technique and go dark to light as this method maps the piece for me and I can better judge my values. I know in my head that these stripes are going to be fun to do, but when I actually begin painting, without the roadmap of the darks, they all look alike. So, we'll see how this goes tomorrow. Since we've had somewhat cooler temps around here, the garden is beckoning me so I'll have to withstand painting until I can get some weeds pulled, but that won't take long.

My Artcolony blog has our monthly challenge deadline coming right up (15th) so I may actually try to come up with something to post there. Maybe I'm putting off getting back to this piece of glass..could be???

Noonday Onions

Another painting I completed while on my little New Mexico trip was this one of some Noonday Onions that Debbie Cannatella brought along. We did the setup on the back porch and the wind almost did us in. The actual tablecloth was red and white check, but we wanted to use the complimentary colors of the onions with blue. Of course, I had to throw in some purples and magenta's although I didn't actually see any of those hues in the setup. We took a few pictures for references as the sunlight shifts around too much to be actually painting the scene plein air.
There were darling little hummingbirds (Rufus and Broadtails) buzzing us all the time and it was great fun. We hung two glass feeders about 5' from our work tables and we were able to get really good visuals. The little Rufus male was very territorial and wanted both feeders...all the time. We fed mule deer every day and they were so accoustomed to people they just stood and looked at us as we poured the corn/grain off the porch railings on to the ground. On my last morning, a Stellar Jay flew by and that was one bird that I really wanted to see. Seems as though he was telling me goodbye..good birdie.

Ruidoso Morning

If you want a wonderful trip to a cooler climate that we have in Texas, you need to make the 10 l/2 hour drive to Ruidoso. Six artist friends have just spent a week up there painting and it was such fun. Our hostess was Greta Faulkenberry from here in Tyler and she has a fabulous place in the mountains. We visited art museums, played a little at a wonderful casino several nights, did some sightseeing, visited her club for a wonderful lunch one day (salmon cakes and all the trimmings...yummmm), went to the top of a mountain and actually climbed the steps up to the forest ranger's lookout on the top (huffing and puffing) and best of all...just painted and painted on her porches outside. We had put up two hummingbird feeders and they kept us entertained the whole week as they are not shy at all when they find the east pickings. I had never seen Broadtails and only once had I seen a Rufus (who is bright orange with a bright red neck in the sunshine). We had mule deer who came right up to our porch and also enjoyed easy pickings of cracked grain. Had also never seen a mule deer as we only have whitetailed deer here. What a lovely trip we had.

Debbie Cannatella and I were in separate auto from the other 4 artists so we left a day early (so sorry that we left the other girls to do the maid duty)and we made our way to Big Spring on Saturday for a visit with another artist friend, Kay Smith. Kay's work is fabulous as is Debbie's. Debbie is actually the Tyler artist's watercolor teacher and one of the girls from their group couldn't make the trip so I got to fill in. Lucky me!!!

For any of you who read my little blog, Kay is also an Artcolony blog contributor and you need to check her work out along with Debbie Cannatella's.

This "Ruidoso Morning" painting was my gift to my hostess as she had this marvelous set of dishes and I couldn't resist painting them. I took lots of reference pictures of other set-ups with the blueberries and plan to do many more pictures as I loved the colors and the nature subject. The motifs were fish and dragonflies on the cups, saucers, plates, etc. Just too many to make one selection, but I love to paint color. My camers is throwing the picture rather blue, but the morning sunlight was too enticing not to try to grab a bit of the bright shadows.

I also did a painting of some Noonday onions on a blue checked tablecloth that I will post with my next pass. Really am not through with deepening some shadows here and there, but will get that up within the next day or so as I like to live with the piece a bit. One thing, this was my first painting plein air and I must admit that I really enjoyed it. I always thought I had to be in the studio or paint inside, but I think I'm hooked on the wonderful outdoor light now.

We are already planning another trip back up there to Ruidoso, but for now my suitcases are calling for me to get the washing machine cranked up so I know what my next day or so will entail around here. And, husbands don't really pick up after themselves so this is my fate for several days. Yipee!!!

Cherries, Berries and Stripes

 

This is my proposed entry in a small show on the 25th at SFA college in Nacogdoches. Debbie Cannatella, Nita Bridges (from Houston) and I were looking for a reason for a get together, and this came up. Nita is from Houston and is also a member of our Artcolony blog. This show is rather different in that we hand deliver our work by 9:30, it is judged until 12, then we come back from 1 to 4 for critiques, awards and the gallery show. If your work is selected, you leave it there at the college for the next month for their show. Sounded like we could meet, shop, have lunch and see an art show all in one day. We take every advantage for a play day.

My painting is half sheet (15x22) on 140 Arches CP. As you can see, I am still on my cherry kick, and if a painting doesn't have red in it then it's not fun to paint. And, this one has LOTS of reds. Probably used 4 reds and magenta, sienna and purple for the shadowing. The stripped placemat is from a set from Pier I and I use them all the time. It really sets a cheerful table, and I do have the napkins to match. Goodness, who ever uses cloth napkins any more in this day and age? ME!!

Chicken Ranch Prada

 

Our Artcolony challenge this month (and I'm just under the July 15th deadline) is "unusual shoes". These are my rain boots for venturing down to the chicken pen in the rain and winter cold. You wouldn't believe how the chickies ran from me on my first trip down. They usually just see the food coming, but I think the sight of big orange boots and circles probably "freaked" them out. This piece is small...originally 8 x 10...but I cropped the top of the standing boot in a bit as I felt the background was rather boring. So...if it's not right...crop it! This was painted rather quickly in about 2 hours, including the sketching time. The next time I use masking fluid, I'll be more careful of my edges as all the circles possibly should be a little neater, but, not this time.

PJ's Glass Demo

We finally found the time to snap a picture of the four of us at the close of Paul's workshop. Marla, Debbie Cannatella, Paul and your's truly are displaying some of Paul's work. The painting he and I are holding was his workshop demo and both are stunning in real life. Now the challenge will be to come up with a great setup and painting on my own. Really looking forward to working in that direction, but now I'll need to get out and find some really neat glass to paint.

Sugarbowl Surprise

 

This was a really fun little painting...although it is by no means "little". This is 15x22 (half sheet) on 140 lb.Arches coldpress. I must say that the primary colors of the M&M's were a real challenge in that those colors are hard to present the correct shadows. However, challenges are always good learning tools and this one took several passes in the tweaking stages. The sugarbowl was my mother's and I also have the creamer to match. Maybe one day I'll come up with something for that too...maybe cherries or strawberries. I love to paint crystal and glass and have worked with two of the best out there in workshops..Joyce Faulknor and Paul Jackson. Joyce paints dark to light and Paul paints light to dark and they are both fabulous painters. I'm always anxious to get on with the next painting so I'm calling "Sugarbowl Surprise" finished.

Glass Reflections

Here is my finished painting from Paul Jackson's workshop. I'm very pleased with the perfume bottle and all the colors. I do think I need to go back in and tweak the orange bottle a bit more, but I'll live with it a few days and see then. We used so much water for the glazing and I was scared to make my paint so watery, but obviously that's what lets the light shine through all the layers. I'm so used to painting dark to light that this was a real challenge. However, now I think I'll try more light to dark as my method. We'll see. The worst thing now is that I'll have to go out and buy some glass for some setups. I've always had a whole lot of crystal and china, but no colorful glass. But, I think I'm hooked and really like the idea of broadening my subjects that I particularily like to paint. We'll have Paul back down here in August for the opening of the Downtown Tyler Arts Gallery and I'll certainly look forward to seeing him and Marla, his pretty wife. They were so gracious and so much fun. The workshop itself was a blast. We had 3 ladies to come down from Dallas and they were all excellent artists. They came out to our house after the first session to photograph my chickens and I know that he got a whole bunch. Now, we'll see if he works them into any of his masterpieces.

Watercolor Workshop

This weekend I will have the great joy of attending a watercolor workshop with a fabulous artist, Paul Jackson. My main passion seems to be painting crystal and glass and Paul is a master with the glass and reflections. Was able to go through his book and check out his earlier glass paintings and loved them. His lights and shadows are wonderful and I am going to turn into a giant sponge and soak up everything he throws out. The workshop is being held in our little Noonday community so he will get a dose of East Texas country while he is in our Tyler area. We have some ladies coming down from Dallas and Louisiana and it is a marvelous opportunity to learn when these really accomplished artists do workshops right in your own back yard! Will post my results (if they're good enough) early in the week.

Cheeries aLa Pink Limoge

This painting of cheeries and china is one of 4 that I have drawn off. My original idea was to teach myself how to paint the gold trim on the china, but I have really benefited from the glazing of the cheeries. Started off way to timidly with my reds and had to go back in and reglaze them many times. However, I did get depth and I couldn't seem to get it with just one pass. Good learning curve for me. I think I enjoyed painting the china the most. May go back in and tweak the left hand top and side a bit more, but it's my practice to live with a painting for several days before I call it done. I am going to change the colors slightly on several of the other drawings and will probably redraw this on a half sheet size. We'll see just ambitious I can get with a larger piece.

Photo Session

Like I told myself earlier...I'm going to do better with posting to my blog!! This morning I took at least 15 pieces of crystal and different table cloths and other materials down to the studio to do setups in the East window. Wouldn't you know that the sun was not right! So, I'm getting everything ready for tomorrow morning. Have some really good ideas for crystal and glass with strawberries, or cheeries, or blueberries, or blackberries and the combinations of all of them. I'm trying to come up with some closeup pictures that would be suitable for some of the exhibition competitions I'd like to enter later this summer and, for sure, in the fall. Paul Jackson is coming here to Noonday to do a workshop on glass and reflections later on this month, and I'm going to be ready to take it all in like a sponge. Really excited about him as a teacher...he is sooooo accomplished!!!

Niko Blues

Seems like too many things are getting in the way of posting right now, but I am painting and working in my flowerbeds. The hydrangeas have never been prettier or more lush than they are this season. I have everything from pale pink, pale lavender, purple, hot pink, white and of course, my favs, Niko blues. The Nikos change colors with each passing day and I can see pinks, lavenders, pale greens all in the same flower head. They are a real joy to paint and there's really no doing them wrong as they are so versatile. Am working on some large drawings for possible exhibition pieces right now so I do keep myself busy. But, I'm going to be more deligent at my blog...starting right now.

Texas Style Daffy Doll Chicks

On my other blog, www.artcolony.blogspot.com, we have a monthly challenge where we all paint an agreed upon subject and intrepret it any way we wish. Our May challenge was "Daffy Dolls" and my painting was a result of several of my artist friends coming to town for a workshop and coming out to our farm. We went down to the chicken yard to see the chickies and took pictures. This just happened to be one of those pictures, plus several of the resident chickens thrown in here and there. It's pure fluff and such fun as I tend to get rather sloppy unless I'm doing a "serious" piece. Had done a larger version and got too ambitious and ruined it and just had to start over. But...the girls are telling me that they can see a likeness to all of us (heaven forbid) so I guess it works in some quarters.

I did one for April that I particularly liked of "messes" and it was a crumpled up Whataburger sack and drink cup. Will post that when I can find it on Picasa. I'm just not that great with the computer posting of photos yet.

Caliope Crystal

This week looks so crammed packed with things I need to do that I don't really know where to start and what to procrastinate on. First thing I must do is get my painting off to the Louisiana Watercolor Society exhibition in New Orleans. Caliope Crystal was a real labor of love as it was probably the first ambitious large painting I attempted. And, eureka, it looks like it was a winner. Painting crystal and glass is a real passion and you'll see much more of that subject...if I get my act together.

We welcomed our new granddaughter, Addison Sabine Jones, into the world on April 27th and we are going down to Austin this weekend to see her in person. I just love babies...especially grandbabies. If it would just stop this raining so we could get some of our farm type chores done around here, it would help tremendiously. My husbands veggie garden is soup and we can't get it all planted. Of course, my flower gardens do their own thing in that it is mostly perennials that come back every year and the ones that self sow in the annual families that are the wonderful surprises that appear wherever they want. Love those unexpected surprises.

I have some new drawings in the works and hope to be able to post some progress and stages real soon.

Mary's Petunias

Seems that I'm still fooling around with this blogging stuff and my original post that accompanying the photo of Mary's Petunias is floating around in cyberland somewhere. This is one of my favorite floral paintings and belongs to my friend, Mary Grabbe of Noonday, Texas. It was painted while studying with a premier Dallas, Texas artist, Naomi Brotherton. She had us execute a painting with no drawing underneath and this was quite a challenge for a pen&ink artists who always does a rather detailed drawing before a painting...ME. Anyway, I loved the way it turned out. I wet the paper thoroughly, dropped in color wherever I did not want the white of the petunias to appear and went from there. There is much negative painting going on here and after many times of drying a wash and rewetting and dropping in more color here and there, the petunias magically appeared. Negative painting is a method of bringing your stars forward that I hope to persue in future paintings...it is really rewarding.

Mary's Petunias

False Alarm

Well, we're going to have to wait a little while for Addison to come. Seems that we had a false alarm and they went back home. So...it's back to trying to finish a new painting. It's full blown Spring in Texas and the flowerbeds keep taking my interest away from my painting. How fickle!!!

Life Is Just a Bowl of Strawberries

Today is my first posting to my art blog and my blog heading image is really large because that is the way I am looking at life. Large and colorful. For those who don't have a passion in life...please go out there and find one. You don't know what you're missing. Watercolor is my passion and colors my life with abject joy. It has brought me friends, admiration, comfort, a sense of accomplishment, and even some good money here and there. My family supports my art and have always seemed to know that it is a great part of me, and now, in my retirement from the work-a-day world they all seem to understand it's importance. I am very fortunate. I am hoping to take anyone who reads this blog along with me on my adventure into becoming a better watercolorist. So...let's get started.