Cypress Swamp

Here is the second painting I did in the LianZhen workshop in Dallas.   I masked out the egret totally before doing the pouring and negative painting in the background....did all that first.  It's still rather amazing to me that we produced all this color with Antwerp blue, Hansa yellow, and Perm red....it just works like magic.  After we spattered and poured the colors around, we "finger painted" and spritzed with water to blend the colors and then just found tree shapes in the background and the cypress trees appeared.  It's crazy that all this riot of color works.  The water is just extension of the colors I saw in the trees....just drug down with a really wet brush.  Like I said in my last post, this is one of the most enjoyable workshops I've ever taken.  Lian is a wonderful teacher.

Queen of the Garden

Here is a painting I just finished from Lian Zhen's SWS workshop in Dallas.  Lian is a master of pouring and negative painting and the workshop was really one of the best I've attended.

Red Pepper Jelly

Just finished this painting and it went so fast....somewhat of a surprise.  I think it's that I left lots of white space so there wasn't so much to paint maybe.  On our way home from Florida, Cindi Deweese and I stopped at a CrackerBarrel and she bought this good red pepper jelly for me so I just had to put it in a composition and use it....after all....it's RED.  And, it'll be a wonderful memory painting.

Tiger Eyes

It's been forever since I've posted....bad me.  I think I've promised myself I'd be better about posting as I have been painting...now I've just got to keep my word to myself...ha.  Last week I had the pleasure of joining a group of 21 artists from Painting Friends Forum (which you can check out by going to our site) in Indian Rocks Beach, Florida for a week of painting and fun.  Stephie Butler...a marvelous portrait artist from the UK came over as one of our demo teachers, and I completed this tiger portrait in her session.  I actually attempted some people portraits, but will have to really work on them before I post anything...if at all.  Stephie's technique is very loose and I found it very difficult to mop that #12 around when I paint almost entirely with a #8.  But...it sure was fun and I have learned so much in the week....really loved dropping in unexpected color on a tiger's face...and also using the Indian Ink for the blacks that really are permanent when glazed over with the oranges and other colors in watercolor.  These workshops really are like a shot in my arm when I've been sorta sitting on a creative "O" fence for a couple of months.  Now I'm promising myself I'll give this technique a shot and see what happens...I think we all do this to ourselves, don't we...ha.

Cherries and Silver

It's been so long since I've been able to post on my blog that I've almost forgotten how.  When Blogger changed some things, it changed my settings and being the total non-techie I am, my dear son had to get me another browser set up so I can post again.  This is just the latest one I've finished so I'll be posting "backwards" I guess.   My need to paint reds got the best of me and this little silver tray was speaking to me so I put together this little setup.  Couldn't decide what to use for the background, so I just make it a "generic" green compliment to the reds of the cherries.  I love to paint cherries.  And I'm making a promise to post weekly now that I can get back on...looking forward to seeing y'all again...

Red Chairs

This pair of red chairs sit under a wonderful oak tree in my back garden area...I can sit here and watch the hummingbirds feed and they don't pay any attention to me at all.  I don't usually paint with much difference from my reference photos since I'm basically a studio painter it seems, but these shadows were so inviting and gave me the chance to paint them alaAnneAbgott's merging technique.  It was a really fun paint.

San Diego Adventure with Painting Friends Forum...

Here are a few shots of some of the fun we had last week in SanDiego when a few of us from PaintingFriends forum met at Cindi Deweese's gorgeous home in SanDiego.  We'd had the good fortune to be there and were able to attend a marvelous demo by SanDiego artist Keiko Tanabe on one of our free nights.  Cindi actually got to attend her workshop that weekend...but we had scheduled our flights out and couldn't make it.

This is a group shot of the buildings perspective demo that our friend Wyna Woodford from Montana (the tall gal on the right) taught as one of our demo's.  Wyna is a wonderful teacher...now we can do those little alleyways we see in the photos from Europe...well...hopefully I got it.  There are more pretty fun pics to show...I'll just have to get around to doing it.