Passion for Art Award

I received this award from one of my favolrite artists, Michelle Himes. I have known Michelle through an online art group started some years ago by Susie Short. I have not had computer access while traveling to our summer RV resort. Being that I have an addiction to the computer, I finally broke down and purchased a lap top as my contribution to stimulating the economy. Now that I finally have an opportunity to view and update my blog, Thank You Michelle.

I need to share 7 things I love and pass this award on to 7 artists.
The 7 things I love:

1. Family: husband - Bill, Children and their spouses, grandchildren, parents, siblings and Kung Foo our cat.

2. Friends - My friends who freely give their love and support.

3. Watercolor and Art

4. Travel

5. My computer - and to all the friendships from joining online art groups and blogs,

6. Freedom - Often taken for granted, the freedom to live my life to the fullest.

7. Not being a "shopaholic" - I love that I'd rather spend my time with the 6 above things I love rather than shopping ... unless it is for art and art supplies.

Coffee

"Coffee" is 14 x 15 acrylic on gessoed paper. This was a new experience for me. I am not a fan of acrylic and I don't think I will be in the future. I am not displeased with this painting, but knowing nothing about acrylic technique, I am at a loss to say whether it is good or bad. I will stick to watercolor.

Coconuts

"Coconuts" is an 8 x 8 watercolor. I have been playing with color, hoping to create more of a glow in my paintings, by surrounding pure colors with grayed color. This did not turn out as I had visioned it, which I think is usually the problem with most artists. What we visualize in our heads is not easily transferred to the paper.

Red Zinnia

"Red Zinnia" is a 10 x 20 watercolor painting. Painting reds in watercolor has continue to challenge me. Retaining the transparency while obtaining the deep brilliant color is difficult for me. I finally have the brilliancy of the reds, but sacrificed some of the transparency. I will continue to strife to obtain both in future paintings of red.

Sunflowers

Sunflowers is 10 x 17 and 11 x 15. My art critique group is painting from the same photo for our Feb. meeting. There are parts of this that I like. I tried to pay attention to the use of colors ... warm vs cool. complementary colors, grays, etc. I painted light to dark and had trouble painting the background, which I am not happy with. Maybe I will cut out the vase and flowers and collage it onto another painting. Hmm that is a thought. I painted this twice, once using the complements yellow and purple and again using visual complements, yellow and blue. Each painting creates a different mood.

Peony

This is a small 7 x 9 watercolor of a pink peony I did for my swap painting. This painting went to England. I belong to a group of international artists that swap a painting four times a year. It is such fun waiting to see where yours will be coming from. The names are secret until the painting arrives.

Dan and Amy's Wedding

"Dan and Amy's Wedding" is a 16 x 18 watercolor painted for my son's childhood friend Dan to give to his wife for Christmas. The octagon barn is at Old Word Wisconsin. Amy wanted a painting of them in front of the barn. I took them from her favorite photo of them and put them in front of the barn. Amy had asked me to do this painted about 8 months ago and I kept putting her off, saying I wasn't inspired to paint it, all the while thinking it would make a great Christmas present from Dan. When I finished it, I called him and he loved it. My son made the wonderful barn wood frame from wood Dan had given him. I hope Amy is pleased with the painting. If it shows a little blurry, I forgot to photo it before it was framed and they used non glare glass.

Kitty and Pupper

I painted this a few months ago and just recently got to take a photo of it. This is my daughters kitty who died of cancer after 18 years of a good life. He made friends with the family 'yorkie' named Pupper in her last months. This is an 8 x 10 watercolor.

Watercolor Wisconsin

The 2008 exhibit included 106 pieces by 93 artists chosen from 317 pieces submitted by 185 artists. I did not receive an award, but hey, I was amongst some of the NAMES in the watercolor scene. Peggy Flora Zalucha, Tamlyn Atkins, Jean Crane (Jean has her own recognizable style... while staying at one of the Royal Resorts in Cancun, each of the 500 units had two of her prints hanging in the livingroom), Helen Klebesadel, Lee Weiss, and some others.

What an honor to be among these famous artists. Now, I will have to try harder next year. Well, maybe not. If a painting happens, it happens. I remember years ago when I had a painting juried into the Georgia Watercolor Society show. After that, nothing I painted was good enough. That little guy sitting on my shoulder kept telling me give it up, you are not an artist. I listened and did not touch a brush for 5 years. I am determined that this will not happen again.

Anyway, I am extremely happy to have been a part of this show.

Veronica

I painted this 13 x 15 watercolor of my artist friend, Veronica, using the modern split primary plus burnt sienna from Nita Leland's newest book, "Confident Color". I like it enough to give another painting a try using these seven colors. I think the colors stayed clear with no mud.

Nap Time

"Nap Time" is a 19 x 20 watercolor painting of my grand daughter and husband. I have had a photo in black and white framed for several years. I loved it and thought I would give it a try. I only had the black and white photo to work from, so the challenge was inventing the colors. I like the texture I achieved on the fuzzy socks and the carpet. I wish I could have achieved some of that texture on Kaytie's outfit. Bill's hair got a little to dark, or else I am seeing his hair now with more gray than dark dark brown.
I believe I did achieve a likeness. Now to paint the other two grands, I did Andrew awhile back. I like to capture them in scenes that tell a story rather than just a portrait.

Thru the Woods

"Thru the Woods" is a 15 x 22 watercolor painting. I was inspired to paint this when I saw a Photo by Peter J. Markham, Loretto, MN. I obtained his permission to use the sleigh and horse from his photo. I then used trees and snow from photos of my yard and some photos I had taken from roadsides in my neighborhood to create the environment. I am happy with this painting. I use a variety of blacks mixed from my palette to get contrasts. Thank you Peter for the use of your photo.

Painting accepted in juried show

"Skip Gets the Coconuts" is a 22 x 30 transparent watercolor painted (with permission) from a photo by Jane James has been accepted into the 42nd Annual Watercolor Wisconsin juried show sponsored by the Racine Art Museum in Racine, WI. The awards ceremony and reception is Dec. 7. Even if I don't win an award, this is an honor to have my painting accepted. Watercolor Wisconsin is 'the' watercolor competition is Wisconsin.

I had also entered this painting in the Wisconsin Regional Artist Association show in September. This is a non perfessional artist organization with over 600 membeers. The juried show had 150 paintings selected with over $4,000+ awards given. I received an award on this painting. You can see the winners at www.wraawrap.com.

I knew when I saw that Jane had posted this photo from her trip to Jamaica that it was begging to be painted. Thank You, Jane for giving me permission.

Girl

"Girl" is 22 x 28 watercolor. I am still contemplating the background. I also need a title. I took this photo at Wisconsin Dells and cropped out one of the girls. There were 5 girls waiting to get on one of the rides at Family Land. They were enjoying the day at the waterpark/amusement park. They would go on this ride, get off and get right back on. Oh, to be young again. I may eventually do the whole scene, but then again who knows. I paint what inspires me at the time.

Geraniums

Geranium 1 and Geranium 2 are both transparent watercolors, 8 x 10. I painted this drawing twice. I am getting ready for a sale in November. With the economy the way it is, I thought I would paint some smaller paintings, with the hope of some sales.

Langdon St., UW-Madison

Another small transparent watercolor, 8 x 10 of Langdon St. UW-Madison campus. I took this photo a couple of months ago.

Farmer's Market

Finally a painting. 'Farmer's Market' is an 8 x 10 transparent watercolor. I challenged myself to paint a busy scene, by simplifying it so it would not be busy. I think I achieved this.

I attended a week long workshop with Tony Couch in early August. As is always the case with me, when I attend a workshop, I don't paint for awhile. We have also been taking several local vacations in our travel trailer. Now that fall is here, my favorite time of year, I hope to get back to painting daily.

My grandaughters and I will be doing an art show for March and April. I thought it would be fun to include them and let them feel the art scene at an early age. I wish I had been exposed to art earlier than I was. They are each going to do 4 drawings or paintings and offer them for sale. Alyssa, the 6 year old thinks this is great. Kaytie, the 9 year old is not so sure about selling her work. She loves everything she does.

sketches

Some sketches I did while camping. I am trying to work on figures, which are harder for me. For many years, I painted nothing but flowers. In the last couple of years, I have been branching out more and trying other subjects. People are a challenge that I enjoy. I still do not have them as I want, but I figure it is a start. If I don't keep at it, I will never get better. The figures were from photos and the daffodils from memory. usually can draw from memory after I have drawn the subject many times. Over the years, I think I have drawn and painted 10 to 12 paintings of daffodils as the subject.

Clowns

The theme for our 4th of July Parade was Clowns. The man in the middle front row is Cousin Otto, everyone's favorite relative, and the Grand Marshall. The men in the back row are Saw Dust's family. My sister-in-law and I drew and painted the six foot tall clown cutouts to have on our Nifty Ladies Red Hat float in celebration of Whitewater's clowns. We presented them as a gift to Cousin Otto and Saw Dust's family.


The first photo is of the float. It does not show where the clowns were. We also did a lion cutout painting and two elephant heads that were attached to a sawhorse and our grandchildren were the lion tamer and the girls on the elephants. Some of the Nifty Ladies Red Hats were the clowns. We won $200 Best overall theme float and $125 2nd place in Neighborhood category.

Now it is time to get back to watercolor painting. The summer has been slow painting for me. I have been traveling more with Bill and spending time with children and grandchildren. I have done some sketching and will post those after I get them scanned.

The Wedding

"The Wedding" is 16 x 28 transparent watercolor. I have known the bride, Jill since her birth. She is the daughter of our good friends, Kathy and Jim. Her new husband, Kevin has one daughter and Jill has the other three children. They are such beautiful children. The wedding was in June in Daytona, FL. I couldn't resist giving this a try. I worked from 5 different photos.

Paintings by my grand kids

Follow Mama is a colored pencil by Alyssa who is 6 years old. She is very good at drawing and is very creative. She can spend hours with paper and pencil. This is her version of a Mallard duck from a photo in a magazine. The babies were her own addition.

Mr. McCaw painted with watercolor by Kaytie who is 8 years old. She has painted several watercolor paintings that are very good. She is very good at drawing and painting the shapes. She has a good eye for colors and is now learning the mixing and mingling of the watercolors.

Fuschia

Fuschia
An 8 x 10 watercolor painting. While visiting Janka Blooms, a local greenhouse, I took photos of some of the lovely flowers that were available for purchase. This is one of my favorite flowers and I can not keep them growing. This one was huge and the only coral and white that they had. Lucky for me one of my friends purchased it and I can get more photos if I am inspired to paint a larger painting. I think a 22 x 30 might be lurking, waiting to be paintied.

On the Beach

An 8 x 10 watercolor. Water has often escaped my technical abilities. Of course in a small painting, I did not have room for a lot of detail. I am happy with this one, but may, as an artist friend suggested, darken the shadow more.

Hollyhocks

An 8 x 10 watercolor of hollyhocks. I love the glow and the colors.

Tally Me Banana

"Tally Me Banana" is 14 x 20. The drum is a handmade drum that is often used when playing calypso music. The man is from a photo on Wet Canvas. The banana backgund is from my photo. Lot of variety in the greens. I suceeded in creating depth.

Painting with grandkids

This has been my distraction from watercolor for the past couple of weeks. I am painting with my grandkids on their bathroom walls. We are not finished yet, but what a lot of fun. The giraffe will be coming up from behind the toilet. The plan is to have the tree with the parrot go up over the window with more leaves, a butterfly and small bird. I think this will be a project they will remember for a long time. Both of them are good artists for their age. They are 6 and 9.

Coconut Tree Finished

I finally have this finished. It is 22 x 30, watercolor on Arches 140# CP paper. I had a few distractions during the past couple of weeks. I have been painting, but on walls. I also have another of the Tropical series started. I have been working on skin tones. I have not painted many people in my paintings. Since visiting Myrna Wacknov's blog, I have been inspired to give this a try. So far, I have thrown away 6 starts, trying to get a skin tone I like. I think I finally have it. I will post that one later. Please feel free to comment on this painting. It was one of the most difficult I have done in a while.

Coconut Tree WIP5

I finally got around to working some on this. It is just about finished. I still need to glaze in some daarks and some more shadows.

Coconut Tree WIP 4

Stopping for a while to figure out what I need to texturize that big brown spot with. I am not usually a gimmick user, but I have thought about cheese cloth. I am going to think about it for a bit, before I decide.

Coconut Tree WIP 3

Slowly progressing on this painting. I was a little unhappy with it until I took the photo and saw it on the computer screen. This happens to me quite often. My husband says I always say I don't like this. But I then figure well, what do I have to lose...if I don't like it now, then just keep going and if it ends in the throw away pile, what have I lost. Usually they are OK when I get finished. I think this happens to most artists. We have a vision in our head of how we think it will look and often the brush has a mind of it's own. I often ask, now why did I do that? I paint instinctfully. By this I mean I just pick a color and put it here or there, without a lot of thinking about it. This usually works for me. I changed the colors on my palette for this painting. The colors I am using are all transparent or semi transparent. All my browns and are mixed.