Red

Here is a really fun painting I've finished as a challenge to a wonderful forum (which I love)...painting friends...where we have one of our artists post a photo every first of the month...we paint it just however we want...and we post on the 20th of the month. It is just the most fun to paint with red...(have I ever mentioned that it's my fav color in watercolor?). Our son's first truck (and boys in Texas have trucks) was a 1951 CandyApple red Ford pickup...this reminded me of him. Couldn't decide what I wanted to do with the background, so I just left it for now.

RainierCherries

This one is going into my "stack of stuff" finished pile this afternoon. There was a bit more to do with the reflections here and there and also finishing the base of the glass since my last post. My "Painting Friends" buddy, Judy Buckingham, from Oregon is a rainiers cherry expert and she tells me that the cherries are not quite this red, but she'll forgive me...after all...they started out as Bings... I love how we artists can change our minds in mid stream. I'm pleased with the clean crystal facets on the glass...it's always fun when you like something you paint.

RaniersWIP

Almost done with this one...but just not quite. Today at art retreat, I worked on the cherries in the bottom, cloth, adjusted values in the glass itself...and still need to put in the stems...then I'll make the final adjustments. This is been a "doosey" painting different colors than what I'm actually looking at. I'm posting the reference photo here so you can see my challenge...it's been fun...but it's been a brain teaser for me.

RaniersWIP

Here is where I am on the cherry painting right now.l I worked a bit at art retreat yesterday, but one of our girls had just come in from her European trip...workshop with KarlynHolman and then meet-up with her church in Israel...we had a good "show and tell" time. Then, we're making our yearly trip to Ruidoso, NM for a week next Wednesday and we had to plan a bit for that. So, my painting time wasn't too long. I'm still having to take lots of "artist's liberties" on this one as my reference photo is not what I drew (bummer) so I've changed lots of colors and shapes. When I get it finished, I'll see if I can post the ref and painting side by side so you can see my challenge.

I always lay a glaze of AJ Gamboge down under anything red to get a glow...when I was shifting colors in the facets I couldn't make up my mind on some colors and values so I decided to go to the bottom and work on the cherries. This is what I seem to do when I want to "put off" making major decisions...ha. Hope to finish this by the weekend.