Monday, November 25, 2013

Buy Local, Paint Local!




I photograph and turn my paintings to black and white to see if the values work. Then I make any final changes if needed. This one is almost done.
17x29 inches watercolor

I also wanted to introduce my "Buy Local, Paint Local" series.
I have been visiting small local businesses, farms... and have met some hard working people with a strong sense of community. They run farms, cider presses, markets, raise chickens, bees, are yarn/weavers, bakers... I interview, photograph, sketch and paint what I find at each location. 
These paintings are about people, opportunity and community.

I will include a short story of each painting as I finish. 
I look forward to sharing this journey with you!




Thursday, October 3, 2013

More Demonstrations

Just a few demos that I did for some classes.





and this value butterfly.
I wish I got the name of the artist that inspired this project to share with you.
It was a good one for the adult class to do.




Friday, September 6, 2013

Route 65 from Bakersfield to Sequoia

   

A quick watercolor study of the landscape on the road from Bakersfield to see the big trees in Sequoia a few weeks ago. We took a short tour of Central California with the boys while visiting them for summer break. It was so dry and dusty, more that I remembered. And the light was so sharp and crisp.  I exaggerated the warmth/color of the grasses with the intent of balancing the deep shadows.  Too much? What do you think?

Back to art!


Sometimes I get busy with other stuff... Sometimes I just have nothing to say... Sometimes I need a break to redefine where I want to go with my art and blog.
So I am back today with a demonstration from one of my summer classes. This is a format that I would love to explore... possibly with my nighttime ideas. Stay tuned! Acrylic on 4 x 24 inch canvas board

Sunday, March 24, 2013

Tissue Paper Watercolor





I thought I would publish all of my tissue paper watercolor projects together to show you all the variations that my students have explored so far. The top one is industrial/architectual. 
I found a rooster calendar that served as inspiration for the second one. The students used different types of papers to layer and then use watercolor ground in the shape of the rooster and then watercolor over top the ground to get the vibrant colors.
The third one is the original sunflower exploring the shape of the sunflower from different angles. 
And the last one was from a children's class, just gaining experience with painting on texture. We used acrylic paint for this one.
The technique is described here 
http://mklart.blogspot.com/2012/10/tissue-paper-watercolor-texture.html

Ukrainian Easter Eggs


I usually make Ukrainian Easter Eggs every year to share with my family and as demonstrations for my classes. This year I found some wonderful blue and green eggs that came in wonderful sizes. Two of the eggs in the center are the natural color. The other two have the first layer of wax and are ready for their first dip in dye. The usual bright colors that I use just didn't feel right so I chose some off colors and am really happy with the natural color and look they have. Another batch below.