Laguna Rocks

"Laguna Rocks

Image size 8" x 10"

Water Miscible Oils

I participated in a fun morning workshop in Laguna Beach last Saturday.  There were three different teachers helping students.  I worked with Rick Delanty.  I met him several years ago when he was a judge for an art show.  I have always admired his paintings and he is a wonderful teacher.  I learned a lot in the short workshop.  I wish he still taught classes, but he now spends all of his time painting.

This was the first time that I had tried water miscible oils.  In the past, I have talked with people that have tried them that didn't like them, so I was never tempted to try them.  I surely don't need another medium.  

After using them in the workshop, I think I really like them.  They act like oils, but don't have the noxious smell and they clean up with water.  I like thinning them with water since it seems more natural to me with my watercolor background.  I also like the slow drying time.  They have the blending capabilities of oil with the easy clean-up of acrylics.  It seems like the perfect medium for plein air painting, which I am wanting to try.

Mexico Surf

"Mexico Surf"

Image size 15" x 22"

Watercolor

I wanted to work on a saturated piece of paper for this and I could tell as soon as I wet it that the sizing was gone.  The paper looks translucent when wet if there is no sizing.  Since this has happened to a lot of my paper, I'm becoming used to working with this blotter-like paper.  The things that make it hard to work on are:  

* You can't blend colors because the paint soaks into the paper immediately 

* It's hard to get dark darks. 

* Color can't be lifted

This probably wasn't the best subject to pick having a paper with these limitations but I muddled through anyway.  It was actually fun because I went into this not expecting much.

I would have liked to have the look of some misty spray from the waves but that wasn't possible with this paper.

In this photo, you can see the ripples in the paper because I haven't flattened it yet.

I should probably buy some new paper to be sure that there is sizing in it (apparently the sizing degrades over time) but I have so much paper that I need to use first so I'll wait.  I hate to waste art supplies.  Also, I think working with this limitation is a good exercise and will force me to work differently which is a good way to grow.  I can always seal the paper to keep the paper from slurping up the paint but a sealed piece of paper has its own challenges and is also different from working on a piece of paper with sizing.  

On The Beach, 30 in 30 - Day 1

With the new year comes new resolutions and challenges.  I've decided to start the year off with a challenge of a painting a day for 30 days led by Leslie Saeta.  She's done this before and in the past I've never participated.  I usually have a hard enough time finishing one painting each week but I decided to take advantage of the motivation I'm feeling with the start of the new year.  I know plenty of artists routinely finish a painting each day.  For me, the hardest part of this challenge will be picking what to paint.  I'm pretty sure that you are going to see a lot of fruits and vegetables sitting on a table.  : )

This painting happens to be fairly large but most of them will probably be small.  This took me more than one day to paint.  The beach where the photo for this was taken is dangerous for swimming but it's very beautiful.  The waves really do break right on the sand like this so swimmers would get slammed if they chose to swim here.  Sometimes the waves are so forceful that when they break, it sounds like a shotgun firing and the buildings shake.  Mother Nature knows how to get our attention, that's for sure.

Happy New Year everyone and thanks for looking at my paintings.  Your interest and comments mean a lot to me.

On The Beach
Image Size 12" x 30"
Acrylic

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

Wild Wave

Here's another wave painting.  I took lots of pictures of waves while we were in Mexico and I plan to paint a series of them using different mediums and in different sizes.  This one is oil and is 5" x 7".  With summer coming, these paintings are getting me in the mood for warmer weather and longer days.  I hope they have the same effect for those of you that are in colder parts of the country.

Wild Wave
Image Size 5" x 7"
Oil

Costa Brava Cliffs I and II - Oil and Encaustic

I played around with some more encaustics this week.  I painted a seascape in the wax and then did the same scene in oil to see how different they would look.  Here's the oil painting:

And here is the encaustic:

So far, two people (who have seen them in person) have said that they like the oil painting better.  I think I like the encaustic better because it is more loose and wild looking and I like the brighter colors.  Also, it was really fun to paint which probably enters into the mix.  I also really like the shine on the wax after polishing it.   I must admit though, looking at them in person, sometimes I do like the oil better.

These are both small.  The oil is 6" x 6" and the encaustic is 6.5" x 6.5".  I'm anxious to try a larger painting in the encaustic but I should probably continue working small until I learn the medium better.

Costa Brava Cliffs I
Image Size 6" x 6"
Oil

Costa Brava Cliffs
Image Size 6.5" x 6.5"
Encaustic