Seawall Art Festival

I have spent the day cutting mats, matting prints, folding note cards, bagging and pricing them. I am exhasted. It's all in preparation for the Sewall Art Show in Olde Towne Portsouth this weekend. If the weather holds out, it should be a great show. So if you're in the neighborhood come on down and see me along with about 100 other artists showing their work.

Red Geraniums

I have been working on Under the Palm for about two weeks now. I am so stressed out and it is not going the way I expected it to. I had a vision of what I had hoped the painting would look like and it doesn't look that way at all.

So I decided to pull a painting that was just alot of fun. And here it is my Red Geraniums. This summer I taught Watercolors on the Go. Each week we went to a different location and painted for the fun of it. There was no pressure to make a beautiful painting. I find that ironically when you are painting for the fun of it and do not worry about how the painting looks the experience is very rewarding. Often the painting comes out looking good and if not it does not matter. I think we can all learn from this.

Anyway one week we went to the Atlantic Garden Center and I started painting these Red Geraniums. I took some photos and when I got home I completed them. When I look at them I see a very relaxed painting, not alot of tricks and techniques, not alot of hard work and yet I feel that I captured the spirit of the Red Geraniums. That is an experience that I really feel is from the purity of painting without the little critic sitting in my brain. It was simply fun!

Palm Leaves

On my last post, I was talking about all the ways that I was trying to plan my next large painting. I took pictures, searched through photos, did some sketches and experimented with different media. I finally decided with the help of my muse, that I'm going to paint a palm tree from below.

This painting started by my working with Da Vinci fluid acrylic paints. I used the paints in new ways. With a little more water added, the acrylic paints were more transparent. Then in subsequent layers I used them a little thicker. Then I added watercolors. I did a little bit of this and a little bit of that and voila a painting was born.

I see the painting with beautiful colors and sensuous movement of the fronds. It will be challanging but I have a good feeling about it.

Koi

I have said goodbye to my Koi. I sold it and even though that makes me very happy, I am still a little sad. I mailed it out to a very nice woman that I met on Facebook and I'm sure she will take good care of them.

Now I have to paint another large painting and I'm stressing out over it. I would like to have it done and framed by the end of the month so I can put it in the Seawall Art Festival. (Check my listing of Art Shows.)

I have had a couple of ideas and have not been able to decide on which to pursue. I have been taking photos and pulling pictures, drawing possible sketches and playing with different media but have not come up with a decision yet. I go back and forth between something that is relatively easy and would not give me a hard time to produce. (This is due to my limited time frame.) Then I feel that it needs to be really special and I have some ideas but do not know whether or not they will work out.

I like it much better when I see something and know I need to paint it. I know what media and size and colors I want it to be. And then I sit down to paint and I'm immediately in the zone and the painting just flows off the brush for me. Like when I painted the Koi!

I sure hope that my muse visits me tonight as I need to start the painting tomorrow.

Sisters

I just finished my painting of my daughters Kristin and Kim. They were such beautiful subjects and I'm afraid I did not do them justice. I have been working on them for a couple of months on and off. And voila I am done.
This is the fifth portrait that I have painted in watercolors. I feel that I am making progress, but I'm not all the way there yet. I feel that if each painting is better than the previous one then I'm going in the right direction.
When painting a portrait I become very intimate with the subjects features. When painting my daughters I already felt intimate with the way they look. But there are challenges to painting people that you know that you do not experience with strangers. You want to capture the essence of the person not only in terms of how they look, but also in terms of how they are. And you truly know how they are.
And when you love your subjects as much as I love my daughters then you put that love into the process of painting and it carries you through the process of creation. Then you only hope that the love shows in the painting. It is a big challenge. But with big challenges come great satisfaction.

Water Lily

Here is one of my recent paintings. I really feel as if this painting (and others that I've recently done) is representative of my developing style. I feel like I am starting to go in a specific direction rather that exploring many avenues. This is like an awakening in my art. Awakening to a path that I am to follow. I feel that it will take me to wonderful places and that I will enjoy the journey.

I really enjoyed working with the colors and the values while doing this painting. There are so many layers of colors on the leaves and in the background. I love the colors in the leaves, how you can see the yellows and greens through the blues. I also love the little bit of red on the sides of the leaves. The background is a very dark color but you can still see through the transparency of the colors. That's one of the things I just love about watercolors. You can continue to see through it no matter how many layers of paint you use. Then there is the delicate flower...

I feel that I have reached new places with the development of my values and I am exploring the use of my colors in new ways. I really feel that I am on my way to new places with my painting.

Artisans in the Park

I spent the weekend at Artisans at the Park. We really lucked out as far as the weather went. They had been predicting thunder showers the entire weekend and they did not hit until about 2:30 pm on Sunday. So we packed up early. I don't think I ever packed up so fast! Of course things were not packed in an organized fashion.
It was a good show. It was a little slower than last year. Was that because of the weather, the economy or just some arbitrary reason? I certainly don't know. But I had alot of fun and enjoyed the people that came through the show. I want to thank all my students and friends that visited my booth. It is always nice to see all of you!