Peggy's Cove

I painted this one for Bill Guffy's virtual paintout blog. Each month he posts a location and artists pick a spot to paint using Google's streetview maps. This is the second month that I have participated and I am really enjoying it. I almost missed getting one done this month because of travel and the holidays but I barely squeaked it in before the month ended. I can't wait til Tuesday to see where the next location will be. This is done in oils which is much easier and faster for me to do than watercolors. My oil paintings are very simplistic because it's a fairly new medium for me but as I get more experience I hope to develop more depth, detail and interesting color. I still feel like I'm fighting with the paints because of their thickness. I'm so comfortable with the fluidity of watercolor and silk dyes that I'm feeling a bit out of my element with oils.

Peggy's Cove

Image Size 11" x 14"

Oil

Unframed
$150.00

Pink Hibiscus

First, I apologize for the blurry picture. I didn't have my regular camera with me on our vacation. We've been in Mexico for the past week and I painted this down there. I took many reference photos with me so I could paint a lot but I was so busy doing absolutely nothing that I didn't have much time to paint. :-) I painted this for an artist friend of mine that works at the resort where we stay so I don't have the actual painting here with me to take a better picture of it. Over the past few years, Vidal has given me several sketches that he's done so I thought it was about time for me to paint something for him. A few years ago I was painting out by the pool at the resort and he was watching what I was doing for quite a while from about 6 feet behind the table where I was working. I could tell that he had more of an interest in what I was doing than most people that watch an artist work so we started trying to converse. He speaks limited English and my Spanish is extremely pathetic but with the help of sign language we got our ideas across to each other. A couple of hours later, he brought me a sketch of a rose that he did for me on the back of one of the hotel's paper coasters using just a ballpoint pen. Since then, I take him art supplies every now and then because he doesn't have access to any in the small town in which he lives and he gives me artwork in return. I don't expect him to do that but you should see the sense of pride on his face when he sees how much I appreciate his work.

Three Hibiscus

Image size 4" x 6"

Watercolor

Reach for the Sky

Wow, I'm really on a roll. Here is yet another project that was left unfinished for several years because my frustration level reached it's limit. This is a watercolor on watercolor canvas which, at the time, I thought was a brilliant new surface. That was until I tried it. I like to paint watercolors by building layer after layer of color, gradually achieving value contrasts. With this surface, when I tried to add another layer I lifted the previous one so it was hard to add dark values. I'm sure these canvases work well for many artists but it's not for me. This painting has been staring at me in the studio for far too long and I have been pushing myself to not give up on paintings so I decided to finish it. All I can say is that I'm glad it's done. I have one more of these watercolor canvases in my stash of art supplies but I will probably paint it with acrylics or oils unless I have a day where I'm feeling really adventurous.

Reach for the Sky

Image Size 14" x 11"

Watercolor on Canvas

Unframed

Three Birds

I finished another unfinished project this week. I started this one in March and was very frustrated with it because it is painted with acrylics and I was really fighting with them. I put the painting aside and planned to finish it with oils but hesitated to admit defeat with the acrylics. I'm becoming much more comfortable with acrylics now and this was almost a joy to work on this week. Will this medium become my favorite? It probably won't but it does have it's place in my arsenal.

Three Birds
Image size 24" x 24"
Acrylics
Unframed, gallery wrapped canvas, no framed needed
Sold

Magnolia Duo

I decided to push my frustration level this week and finish this painting that I started about 5 years ago and which, after much cursing, I had put into my unfinished pile. It is small, 5" x 7" and is painted on clay board. That surface is very unforgiving and working on it is so different than the way I like to work. I worked more loosely (which is a good thing) and actually enjoyed it. Will I buy more clayboard in the future? I probably won't but I do have some aqua board, also made by Ampersand that I'm excited to try. I does feel good to finish another old project.

Magnolia Duo
Image Size 5" x 7"
Watercolor on Clayboard
Unframed

Belfast Shoreline

This is my first attempt at painting from Google's "street view" maps. I am submitting it to Bill Guffy's Virtual Paintout. The first day of each month, a new location is posted and artists are able to 'stroll' through the streets of the chosen city from home and choose a scene to paint. This painting took me out of my comfort level for a few reasons. This felt almost like painting a plein air painting which I don't really do. It's hard for me to edit things out of a scene. I also have never painted a figure or animal so I'm afraid these look pretty amateurish. I tried to make the man hunched over against the cold with his hands in the pockets of his jacket. I also tried to capture the feeling of a cold, dreary day by using muted colors, definitely not my favorite palette of colors. And finally, I painted this in oils, a medium I'm not completely familiar with yet. I think it's good to push out of our comfort level and try new things so even though I wouldn't count this as one of my best paintings, I am happy that I did it and plan to participate in the virtual paintout challenge each month.

Belfast Shoreline

Image Size 12" x 16"

Oil on canvas panel

unframed

Rice Paper Koi

I started this painting about 2 years ago and I'm not sure why I didn't finish it before now. This is 150# Arches cold press paper with a piece of rice paper attached over the top by using a 50/50 mixture of matt medium and water. It gives such a great texture and surface on which to work. The matt medium seals the paper and the paint sits on the surface a bit which makes it easy to move the paint around but unlike some other surfaces where the paint doesn't get absorbed, it is easy to build up dark values with this surface.

This koi design may look familiar to you if you've looked at my silk painting catagory on my website. I used the same drawing for both mediums. My plan was to paint the same design in each medium in which I work but I think this is as far as it's going to go. On to new things!

Rice Paper Koi

Image Size 21" x 28.5"

Watercolor on rice paper/watercolor paper

Unframed

National Watercolor Society Exhibit

The National Watercolor Society exhibit is open now. I said I would post it when it opened and I forgot. It opened last weekend and will be open through Dec. 10th. As usual, it is an inspiring show and if you are in the southern California area, I highly recommend seeing it.

Here is the link for info:

http://www.cityofbrea.net/article.cfm?id=2182

Paradise Lost V - watercolor

Finally, the last painting in my Paradise Lost series is finished. This painting is a re-do of the very first painting that started this series in 1995. I wanted to show how the beautiful orange groves have become 'groves' of houses. I painted smog on this one as I did in Paradise Lost III. I can't believe I finally finished what I started 14 years ago. I'm sure my friends and family that think I never finish anything are shocked! After the first 3, I admit I started losing steam, especially since the last 2 paintings in the series used ideas that were not new and fresh, but I knew that if I took a break to paint other subjects, I would probably never finish the last two paintings for this series. I must say that I'm really tired of painting oranges, leaves and houses. The original painting that I painted in 1995 is shown below.

Paradise Lost V
Image Size 22" x 30"
Watercolor
Unframed

This is the painting that started it all in 1995.

Paradise Lost IV - Watercolor

This is the fourth painting in the Paradise Lost series and is a re-do of one of the paintings that I did in 1995 when I first thought of this idea. The original painting is shown below. My idea was to show how Orange County's original crop and namesake has changed and now we have a new 'crop'. In the painting that shows the oranges growing on the tree, I used pure, clean colors to show nature's beauty and in the painting with the houses 'growing' I used a more muddied palette to give a sense of a less clean, more man-made environment.

Paradise Lost IV

Image Size 11" x 11" each

Watercolor

Unframed

The above painting is the original 1995 painting.