Fanciful Fish

This looks like a silk painting, doesn't it?  Well, it's not.  It's actually a watercolor that I did a long time ago.  This was way before I'd ever even heard about silk painting but I guess even then I liked the effect of the white lines and graphic quality this technique gives.  This was done without any resist.  I painted around all of the white lines which are about 1/16" wide.  I don't think I could do that now.  My eyes aren't as good as they used to be nor do I have the patience anymore.  I should try this design in silk and see how different it looks.

Mt. Fuji From the Golf Course

Here is a small palette knife painting that I did to submit to the Virtual Paintout challenge.  This month's location is Japan.  I found this beautiful view of Mt. Fuji from a golf course (hence the name) .  Can you imagine golfing in such a beautiful spot?  It would be like you were walking around in a post card.

All of the palette knife paintings that I've done so far have been 6" x 6" as is this one.  I am currently working on a 16" x 20" and it's really fun to be painting one so much larger.  I'm still using the same size palette knife which is only about an inch long.  I should probably switch to a larger on but I feel really comfortable with the small one therefore it's taking quite a long time to finish the painting.  It's also hard to get used to mixing so much paint.  It's amazing how much paint it takes when using the palette knife.

I've been thinking about cake a lot this week as I'm "frosting" my canvases.  I thought I'd gotten away from having that image in my head when I use the palette knife but it's returned with a vengeance this week.  I need to be sure that I'm not hungry when I'm painting or I might end up at the local bakery.

Mt. Fuji From the Golf Course
Image Size 6" x 6"
Oil
Unframed

Peter's Canyon - Silk Painting

I'm going to enter this silk painting in a local juried show in a couple of weeks.  If it gets selected, it will hang in Chemers Gallery in Tustin for two weeks.  If you are an artist living around Orange County, CA, you still have time to enter the competition.  Go to tustinart.blogspot.com to get the information and entry form.  The painting has to be a scene from Tustin, North Tustin or Peter's Canyon to be eligible.  The entry form and fees are due April 16th and the artwork is to be delivered between April 20th to 23rd for judging.  How it is framed is very important.  It needs to be a plain black or dark stained color frame.  If you have any doubts, take the frame into the gallery for an okay.

I have one more painting I want to do for this show so hopefully it will be done by next week.  It will probably be an oil painting but might be another silk painting.  I like to enter silks into this show because the judging is separated between amateur and professional rather than by medium.  Nobody ever knows into which category the silk paintings belong.  They usually get put into general (if there is that category) or mixed media ( which it's not).  To me, it seems like they belong in the watercolor/water media category because the dyes are water soluble but I've never had anyone agree with me on that.  What do you think?

Peter's Canyon

Image Size 21.5" x 31"

Silk dyes on silk

Galactic Litter Redone

This may look familiar to you.  Above is a re-worked painting that I originally painted about 6 months ago but there were parts of it that I didn't like - to the point that it almost made me shudder when I looked at it.  I loved the background but the shapes in the foreground looked like internal organs to me.  Yuck!!!
Below is the original:

The picture of the re-done painting (at the top of this post) is actually brighter but it isn't coming across very well on the computer.  I didn't change the background except to add a little bit of red to lead the viewer's eyes around.  While I like the colors better in the new version and the loss of the body parts, I miss the strong sense of depth that the painting had because now it no longer has the strong value contrast that I originally created.  It no longer looks like "Galactic Litter" to me.  Now it looks like an underwater scene.  Or maybe it's some of the litter that we've dumped in our oceans that's floating on top.  What do you think?  Do I need a new title?  Also, I would love comments (positive or negative) on what I've done.  If you like the original better, too bad!  It's gone forever. : )  I can sleep better now knowing that I won't ever have to look at those internal organs again.
One of the things that I really like about abstract paintings is how everyone sees something different in them but once I saw those original shapes as internal organs, I couldn't see them as anything else.

Delicate Ruffles - Watercolor

Back to my beloved watercolor.  This painting started out as a full sheet of watercolor paper (30" x 22") but has continued to shrink throughout the painting process.  After I painted the background, my starting point, I decided that there was too much background on the sides.  Hollyhocks are such a vertical flower, I really should have started with a longer, skinnier piece of paper.  I took a few inches off of one side, then a couple off of the other, then more off of the first side.  After that, I decided that there was too much stem on the bottom so off went more inches.  And finally, I took some off of the top to change the focal point of the painting.  I'm very happy with the final result even though the painting shrunk to 20.5" x 15.5".  Thank goodness that painting on paper gives the ability to change the composition after the fact.  Of course, if I were more careful with my initial composing, I wouldn't need to crop it later.

Hollyhocks seem to be one of my favorite flowers to paint.  With this painting, I feel like I've finally captured their delicate beauty.

Delicate Ruffles
Image Size 20.5" x 15.5"
Watercolor
Unframed

Missing Mexico

This is another departure from a typical painting of mine.  We just got home from Mexico and that is still in my head.  I love everything about Mexico; the people, the colors, the weather and good friends.  I wanted this week's painting to have the bright colors that are so prevalent there and a feeling of happiness.  This was painted with a palette knife so it was hard to control the edges of the flowers because I had already painted the background so as I was doing the petals, the paint was lifting but I'm really happy with the way it turned out.  The petals remind me of the palm fronds on a palapa (where's my margarita?) and the colors represent the happiness of Mexico to me.

On another note, today I was able to go see an exhibit of Joseph Raffael's watercolor paintings at Soka University.  I feel so fortunate to have been able to see his paintings in person.  You really can't get the feeling of the paintings from the website.  They are HUGE!  Most of them are in the 5' x 8' range.  The show closes April 15th, but if you are in the So Cal area and have some time, going to the show would be a very inspiring way to spend it.

Missing Mexico
Image Size 6" x 6"
Oil

Home Sweet Home

This week's painting is a portrait.  Okay, not one in the typical sense of the word but a home portrait.  Our friends just bought this house and I think it has such a beautiful entrance, I wanted to try to capture it on paper.  I love the door and that tree looks so sculptural and it creates a nice balance for my composition.  I'd like to say that I created the composition but it really looks like this.  There are actually still a few colored leaves on the tree (only in California does fall last until March) but I wanted it to look completely skeletal so I left them off.  Artistic license again...I'm feeling the power!

This photo doesn't really show the colors very well.  The painting is more colorful.

Home Sweet Home
Image Size 16" x 12"
Watercolor
Unframed

A Different Kind Of Apple

I know this subject has been painted by so many artists that it's become banal but I wanted to paint it anyway.  This is on a small piece of Ampersand's Aquabord.  I don't know why I don't use this more often.  It's a really fun surface on which to paint.  Also, it keeps me from blending everything to death (which is my normal inclination) because it's almost impossible to get a smooth wash on this surface.  The paint lifts very easily which made this subject fun.  I painted everything and then used the stem of a q-tip dipped in water to lift the spots on the cactus and apples.  The spikes were scraped out with a mat knife.  I would have had better control with an exacto knife but I was too lazy to go get it and the mat knife was right there begging to be used.

A Different Kind Of Apple

Image Size 6" x 6"

Watercolor

Floating Flower

Here is my second oil pastel.  It's a little bigger than the first one.  I like the first one better because it has a better sense of light and shadow.  The support I used for this was a blue archival mat board.  You can see bits of the blue peaking through in the leaves.  The color of the ground made it very hard to get the white to not look muddy.

I've decided I need a larger collection of colors.  What I have is very limited and there are no neutrals.  I know I should be able to mix them but I don't seem to have that ability yet.

I had fun playing with the textures on this one.  I did a scribbly sort of figure 8 pattern on a lot of it.

Floating Flower
Image Size 6.5" x 9.5"
Oil Pastel
Unframed

Romania

The location for Virtual Paintout this month is Romania.  What a beautiful country!  I think the Google truck must have been there in the spring because everything looked so fresh.  I spent a couple of hours looking through the country roads.  I wanted to stop but I had to see what was around the next curve, and the next, and the next.  Well you get the picture.  Finally, I got hungry and that was the end of the search online and the beginning of the new search for something good to eat.

This one is done with soft pastels.  I wanted to work with the oil pastels again but thought this scene would look better in the soft pastels.  After I finished this, I did do an oil pastel painting which I was going to post but after I took the photo of it, I noticed that I need to add some more darks.  It's funny how a painting looks done but a photo of it show it's flaws so clearly.

Romania
Image Size 7" x 10"
Pastels