Ritzy Rose WIP

Thought I'd show you what I'm working on now...you know how it has to be something with red or I'm not interested. This one has turned out to be rather challenging as the red on the cracker box and the red on the teapot need to be definitely different hues, and I'm not sure what I want to do with the reds on the teapot. We'll see. This will go on the back burner for a week as our workshop with Joyce Faulknor and Guy Magallanes starts Monday.

My painting buddy, Rose, brought this darling little teapot to our art retreat the other day...hence my title. I think my old standby stripped napkin really works in this setup.

Sunflower

Here is probably the loosest thing I've ever painted...and it was such fun. While at our art retreat, Pat Coburn showed us the neatest technique for this loose style using just a hit of basic color and then lots and lots of clean water mopping. The painting basically paints itself when you just drop in water and let it do it's thing. Such fun, and so spontaneous...sure does make for clean, fresh color with no mud...and that's saying a lot for watercolor.

This is small...9x11...and paints were AJ cobalt, sap green, perm red, quin burnt orange, gamboge, and lots of good clean water. I drew the center for a starting place and then just brushed the petals in loosey-goosey...such fun painting that loose as I am a tight painter. I'll definitely use this technique for certain subjects...don't think it will work on glass or crystal, but it's lovely for florals. If I painted portraits, I think this would be fabulous for softness...but...I don't paint portraits just yet.

Susan's Teapot

Thought I'd post the edited (and now finished) painting of Susan's Teapot. The red check cloth and darkening of the leaves make a huge difference in the composition feel. This is one of those paintings where something bothered me and I had to live with it a little longer before calling in finished. I do like the red checked cloth...me and my love for reds!

Susan's Teapot

Here is the latest painting I've finished while painting with my artist friends at the ArtRetreat. Susan Chesley came with some 8x10 colored photos of this darling little teapot (the silly girls actually sang the little song today!) and apples that she'd started. Of course, then several of us wanted to paint it also. This is quarter sheet, mostly AJ paints, no masking on the teapot and several darker leaves in the right corner that I've added after making this photo. It's funny how I can always see something else that's needed after I think it's finished. This was a joy to paint as I love, love, love teapots.

Orchid

This little painting was done as an exercise with some of my friends on Painting Friends to work with lost and found edges. This was my first attempt, and after posting I can see many places where edges could have been soften or lost. In my second attempt, things went much better. I usually paint tighter than this so this loosenss was a lot of fun.

My new computer won't let me resize in Photoshop (that means I don't know how to do it and won't be able to achieve this little task until my son comes to town in a few weeks and sets it up for me). So, when I can upload my second painting, you'll see a vast difference. Lost and found edges make paintings so much more interesting and I'm going to try to incorporate more in future work...just depends on the subject I'm working with because I don't see it working with glass or crystal. Just one more little project for me to add to my "to do" list.

Peppers

This study of peppers is a quickie painting with the drawing borrowed from one of my artist friends from our art retreat...I think it probably came from the library from WC. It's quarter sheet, basically wet on dry, and done so I could post something to see how my tech knowledge has failed me or what???
When storms came through Texas last Thursday night, they fried my computer...so, this is a trial run of a new computer...let's see what I've uploaded and see if I need to start over.

Tangerine Rose

Here is a quarter sheet close up on a rose I painted at our art retreat. Oranges are not my favorite colors to work with, so I "made myself" paint this one. I was trying to work some "lost and soft" edges and found that I probably need to paint a bit looser to achieve that look. I may glaze the blue leaf back some more as it is pretty bright. Was fun painting though. Now I need to get back to the tomato painting...still haven't decided on the background.