Monday, December 30, 2013

Wild Spray

Well, this was a fun experiment!  I have a lot of pieces of plexiglass that are long and narrow that wouldn't work for framing my watercolor paintings but I couldn't bring myself to get rid of them because they seemed like they could be used for something.

I decided to try painting one side with acrylic and use the unpainted side as the 'glass' to protect the painting when framed.  To have this work, I had to paint "backwards", meaning that the details in the foreground of the picture needed to be painted first, which was the spray and foam, and progress toward the colors behind.

I wasn't expecting much but I'm really happy with the result.  I'm sure I will be trying this technique again.

Wild Spray
Image size 8.5" x 29"
Acrylic on Plexiglass

Monday, December 23, 2013

Mixed Media Waterlilies

This started out as an interesting experiment.  Several other watercolor artists and I get together once a month to paint and this month we decided to play musical easels.  We each arrived with a drawing on a quarter sheet of watercolor paper.  We started painting on our own painting and every 10 minutes or so we would rotate to the next painting.  We didn't look at the photo references so we didn't know what the original artist intended.  We just added whatever we felt the painting needed.

Unfortunately for my painting, I chose a piece of paper that had lost its sizing….again.  I wonder how many more pieces of bad watercolor paper I have in my stockpile.  Anyway, everyone was challenged when working on my painting because the paint just soaked in and couldn't be blended or controlled.

After we decided that all of the paintings were finished as much as they could be, I covered my painting with gesso using the technique that I learned from Kathleen Conover.  I knew that the paper needed to be sealed before the painting could move forward.  After the gesso dried, I proceeded to overwork the poor painting to the point of no return.

This will go in my pile of non-successful paintings but I know that if the paper had been normal, it would have been a very cool painting created by my very talented friends.

Here is how it looked before I added the gesso and gobs of paint:
It looks better in this photo than I remember it looking in person.  It was pretty washed out as I recall.

Here are the other paintings that we worked on during our painting day.
Peggy Moore's painting

Peggy Minger-McCants' painting

Sue Foat's painting

Susan Gale's painting

Usually when we get together each month, we each bring paintings that we are working on and we share our opinions and try to help and encourage each other.  It was fun to pick a project that we could do together and we all really enjoyed the experience.

I want to wish you a very Merry Christmas and thank all of you that support me by visiting my blog and commenting on my paintings.  It means a lot to me.


Monday, December 16, 2013

Colimilla Dock

The reference photo for this was taken in Colimilla, Mexico.  I loved the way the sun bleached out the wood and cast the interesting shadow.  I've painted this dock before but it had more detail in the painting.

Colimilla Dock
image size 15" x 22"
Watercolor

Here is the first painting of this dock:
This one was done as a poured watercolor where I applied resist, poured paint, applied more resist, poured paint, etc.  It gives a totally different look and, of course, this first painting has a lot more going on in it.

Monday, December 9, 2013

Palm Trio

It's always relaxing to think of palm trees on a secluded beach during cold weather.   I know the weather we are having isn't considered to be cold by most standards but I'm freezing!  Painting this scene made me feel warmer.

The craziness of the holiday season has kept me from painting very much but I was able to finish this small oil this week.  Hopefully, I will be able to paint more this coming week.

Palm Trio
Image size 6" x 12"
Oil

Monday, December 2, 2013

Autumn Sky

Here's a small study of clouds.  I want to paint a series of cloudy skies using different mediums.  I think I will probably do some large ones in oil but I thought I would start small.  I want the sky to be the center of attention so I just painted a sliver of ground with some loosely painted trees changing color.

Autumn Sky
Image Size 4.5" x 11"
Watercolor
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