Just My Size

We don't actually have any pets so sometimes my aunt and uncle are kind enough to volunteer theirs so our kids can pretend for a bit. This is a quick sketch I did tonight of my daughter with their dog, Bodie. He's awesome. He is like a soft, walking stuffed animal that loves you. What's better than that, right? He's the first dog I've ever painted, and was surprisingly a lot of fun to do. That luxurious black fur was fun to splash around. I love how he's looking up at her, and smiling. Aaaah.

I did this painting for the DPW Painting Challenge this week.

My little towhead

The lighting in this reference photo of my 2nd oldest is amazing and the way she is looking up with such brilliantly, bright eyes and pure joy... just melts my heart.

However, the painting of her white-blonde hair is causing me some trouble, and I think her eyes ended up a touch too big. The funny thing is they were honestly just right when I drew them, but the color and darkness of the shadows make them loom larger in her pale little face. I do have to admit that I don't know what to do now (which is why I'm not painting right now). I feel like a kid caught with their hand in the cookie jar. I went ahead and started painting without planning ahead even though I know better! That was partially because I just wanted to play around with the colors and be all loose. But now there's the background to deal with and a couple of night's work to ruin if I make the wrong decision. Blast. I hate it when I do that. I think it needs to be dark, at least along the side of her face to give it definition. But she's so light, that I worry a little about doing that. Suggestions?

Holiday Sale #s 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

So it's been fun to look back on these older paintings and talk about them, but I'm actually a little eager to get back to posting about what I'm working on now (because it helps me stay motivated - I feel accountable to the blog!) so I thought I'd do one last holiday sale post, with basically all the rest of the paintings I have that aren't spoken for. (Each is $9.95 shipping.)

Reflecting Impression
11 x 15 Watercolor on watercolor paper
Buy Unframed for $195

Time Ripples On
15 x 11 Watercolor on watercolor paper
Buy Unframed for $195

Of Ruins and Shadows
11 x 15 Watercolor on watercolor paper
Buy Unframed for $195

Tulip Illumination
18 x 23 Watercolor on watercolor paper
Buy Unframed for $250

Red Velvet
15 x 11 Watercolor on watercolor paper
Buy Unframed for $195

Fiery Petals
15 x 11 Watercolor on watercolor paper
Buy Unframed for $195

Holiday Sale #6: Morning Solitude in Warsaw

This is a smaller version of a commission I painted for a friend and customer. I wanted to get warmed up and figure out the perspective (which wasn't a ton of fun - so much precision!) so I did it small first and then went a bit larger for her. I love the colors. And the peaceful feeling. I would love to sit down at that outdoor cafe and watch the street come alive. Or to wake up in one of those upper rooms and throw the windows open and look down at the charming cobblestone road below. One can dream, right? Isn't it great that art helps us do so?

Morning Solitude in Warsaw is a 15 x 11 watercolor on watercolor paper.

Buy it Unframed for $215 + $9.95 Shipping

or

Buy it Framed for $250 (20 x 16 Black wooden frame with red accents, single white mat and UV protective glass) for $ + $9.95 Shipping


--Now only available at The Dalles Art Center (http://www.thedallesartcenter.org/)--

Contact me with questions or leave a comment!

Holiday Sale #5: Italian Fruit Market

I've been excited to post about this one! I felt proud of the accomplishment of finishing this one honestly. There was just so much involved and it took quite awhile. Also, I felt like it turned out like I had thought it could when I stared and stared at the photo before finally jumping in. There was something about the photo that just kept making me pause. It was in a stack of photos of Italy, sandwiched in between these awesome buildings and Venetian reflections, which were more the things I was looking to paint. But this jumble of fruit just wanted to be painted too. It kinda proved to me that those magnificent scenes were beautiful, but so was this mismatch of produce. I love that beauty can be found everywhere, even in the ordinary! Thank goodness for that! Italian Fruit Market is a 15 x 20 watercolor on watercolor paper.

Purchase Unframed for $295 + $9.95 Shipping

or

Purchase Framed (Custom-made black metal frame, single white mat and UV protective glass) for $335 + $9.95 Shipping


--Now only available at The Dalles Art Center (http://www.thedallesartcenter.org/)--

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions!

Holiday Sale #4: The Soft Touch

So I missed a day while I enjoyed celebrating Thanksgiving with lots of family that I love and delicious food to eat! I'm grateful for both! What a wonderful, fantastic holiday. But back to "work." Like the last painting, this is one of my early florals in watercolor. I had finished my first red rose previously but I really wasn't happy with it, and just felt I had to revisit the subject. When I took the photo of this beauty in my mother-in-law's garden, I was excited by the sunlight's "soft touch" on the petals, which brought great contrast and additional color. I was much happier with the result this time. It turned out, in my opinion, lovely and cheery and interesting. Hope you agree!

Buy Unframed for $195 + $9.95 Shipping

Or 

Buy Framed (20 x 16 Dark wood frame with double white mat and UV protective glass) for $225 + $9.95 Shipping


--Now only available at The Dalles Art Center (http://www.thedallesartcenter.org/)--

Holiday Sale #3: The Garden's Joy

This one was my favorite floral for a long time. I loved the colors. I loved the ruffly edges. Didn't I say that about yesterday's painting? Turns out I like imperfectly unique petals. They're so much more interesting! And this lily, like most of it's kind, just looked so wonderfully confident as it opened up towards the sun. The Garden's Joy is a 14 x 11 watercolor on watercolor paper.

Purchase Unframed for $195 + $9.95 Shipping
or 

Framed (20 x 16 Dark wood frame with double white mat and UV protective glass) for $225 + $9.95 Shipping

--Now only available at The Dalles Art Center (http://www.thedallesartcenter.org/)--

Holiday Sale #2: Sunlit Poppies

These poppies were out in front of my in-laws house, and when we pulled up to visit one day the sun was shining right through them and I was enchanted. Painting those gorgeous, light-as-air petals was a true joy. I loved that although they were a brilliant solid red, the sunshine made them appear to be a smooth spectrum of yellows, oranges, and reds. It was perfect for watercolor! Painting in the greenery was slightly less thrilling, but it actually went quicker than I expected because I was motivated by living up to the blossoms (my husband confessed he thought I never would finish them). I think I must've been more patient back then, because I can't imagine sitting down to do all those stems now! But I did and it worked (in my opinion at least). This is an original 9 x 12 watercolor and gouache on watercolor paper.

Buy it Unframed for $175 + $9.95 Shipping
or

Framed (Black 14 x 18 frame, white mat, and UV protective glass) for $215 + $9.95 Shipping


--Now only available at The Dalles Art Center (http://www.thedallesartcenter.org/)--

Holiday Sale: Rose I

After picking up some pieces from the Lawrence gallery in an effort to rotate inventory a bit, I looked at some of my older paintings and decided to do a little holiday sale! I just don't have room to keep them all in my little house, even if some of them, like the one below, hold a little sentimental place in my painting heart, so I'd love for them to find a nice home for the holidays! So every day I'll post a different one for sale at a reduced price - be sure to come back and take a look. This is my Rose I and was one of, if not the first flower I ever painted in watercolor. I was so happy with it as it came along, which is a little unusual since I usually like my paintings at the beginning and end and feel like they go through a number of stages of ugly in the middle. But this one was exciting to paint in all stages as the colors seemed to explode out of the middle on their own. I also loved the ruffly, wrinkly, interesting edges of the petals. The painting is watercolor on watercolor paper, and is 11 x 14.

On to Attempt #2

So I am hesitant to even post tonight because I am just not confident about this yet, but that is kinda missing the point of why I started this blog. I wanted to show the process of painting and learning and figuring things out but it certainly feels a little like being naked in a public place. Or at least what I imagine that would feel like, because I never have been, except perhaps in the occasional nightmare. Anyway, so here's me not hiding with what I was working on tonight:

The one above is what I started on after being very unsatisfied with what I had going below. I think the proportions of her body and arm are much better. It also feels softer. A little more like perfect baby skin that is so soft and smells so good. A slightly concerning thing is that the two don't look like the same baby at all, despite being painted from the same photo. Granted, getting to the darker hair and finishing the lips and all will probably help, but I just really hope it looks like her. You just can't always tell from a photo. Like this one time, I painted this temple that my roommate was getting married in as her present, and when I met her there to give it to her, realized that the roof was slate gray, not brown like it had looked in the photo and thus, like I had painted it. Whoops. A face is so much easier to mess up, and if I can do that to a whole building ... but enough of that defeatist attitude. I think it's going better and am rather loathe to put down my brush and go to bed while it's working, but alas, moms don't get to sleep in so I better sleep now!

Too much emotion to paint

So I've been avoiding painting the last few days. I was way excited to finish the bridge painting, but then was way, way too intimidated by the emotion involved with my next painting to get started. Feeling totally heartbroken for our friends that lost their baby a few weeks ago, I volunteered to paint her portrait for them. She took me up on it, wanting to give it to her husband (so if you happen to know who I'm talking about, please don't tell). She sent me a bunch of photos and I've been looking at them daily, feeling a tremendous amount of self-inflicted pressure to do an amazing job. The biggest problem being I start crying every time I look at the photos of this little angel. Other problem being, I have very little experience painting portraits, and a baby seems especially challenging to me, particularly with pretty muted lighting. Anyway, I finally got myself to try a sketch as a first attempt the other night:

And then tonight I got started on a painting. So here's a start. I really want to do a good job here for them. I've always felt it's important to use our talents to bless other people's lives and this is the first time I feel like it really could. To any of you fabulous portraitists, any advice? Please.

The Naming Game

Aside from a few, very minor touch-ups, it is finished! Sure, it took a little extra time thanks to my stupidity, but I was able to get myself out of the way in the end and to even paint a few straight lines (and a few not-so-straight ones) with my shaky hand. Just looking for a title now. Something about going through the tunnel ahead, but much cooler sounding. Something about the man-made beauty amidst the God-made beauty. Or something about it being a one-way road. Maybe Going My Way. The Narrow and Straight. Passing Through. Suspension. Any ideas? What does it make you think or feel like? As soon as I've got this whole title thing figured out, I'll send it in to this month's Virtual Paintout challenge(And how cool is this, the month's not even half over yet?!), centered in Arles, France.

Frustrating reflections

So it was rather slow going tonight. In fact, there's so little progress that I wasn't going to post at all. But then I thought I might end up just repeating my mistake unless I wrote it down. So here goes. To my future self: If I am going to be painting a reflection of lots of different shades and tints of green, paint the reflection at the same time. You know, when you still know how you made the color! Or even better, when you still have that exact color on your palette. Because as hard as mirroring shapes is, duplicating all those exact colors is much, much worse. Wouldn't it have been nice if I had thought ahead and saved myself the unnecessary stress? It's like how I always start painting in the bottom right and then have nowhere to rest my hand without messing it up. Honestly, sometimes I think I'm not smart enough to paint.

All thanks to a pop-up card

So here is the new painting as it stood last night. It is an entry for this month's Virtual Paintout. I had a hard time finding anything I liked because it was winter when the google car went there, so it was pretty devoid of all the lovely greenery I am drawn to. Then, as I was giving up, I stumbled on this image and I was, as they say, back in the game. The drawing was a bit tortuous because of the perspective and the painting of it made me wish I'd given up. I tried to liven it up with some fun stonework, but that only made it look like a cheap carnival. Honestly, it reminded me of this painting I'd tried to do a few years ago of my daughter and her friends playing ring-around-the-rosies:

 

I had tried something totally different, way out of my comfort zone but really fun. The idea was there, and I totally enjoyed doing it but in the end it just didn't work and I didn't have a clue what to do about it. So it has sat in my portfolio ever since. I pull it out occasionally and look at it, then put it back in with a sigh. And this one was looking like it was destined to join it. Apparently I can't do fun. But this morning was a new day, and I started by regaining a bit of confidence when I helped my daughter create a pop-up birthday card and she thought I was a genius. I love how easy it is to amaze them at this age (Please don't grow up and realize I'm not cool after all)! But anyway, on a bit of a high, I snatched a few minutes to paint and it started to look like we could be friends again, the painting and I. And I think it kept going well tonight. I really like the trees and bushes on the right. The sky, the trees, the road and stone might actually fit and belong in the same painting. What do you think? Any suggestions?

Hidden Gems

So yesterday we ventured out into the fog, (which sadly kept me from getting the photos I wanted of all the brilliant colors!!) and went to the Maryhill Museum. If you ever happen to be here in the Columbia Gorge, I totally recommend it! What an amazing little hidden gem. It's basically in the middle of nowhere, and yet it's this fantastic museum with gorgeous grounds, and some serious expansion about to get underway. Queen Marie of Romania apparently dedicated it (fascinating history about and displayed in this place), and there was this really great Rodin exhibit downstairs of miniature studies and sketches he did in preparation along with one big piece and an educational display that showed the steps of bronze casting. Surprisingly, as I explained this to my eldest, she was really interested. I love it! I know it's kinda odd that I bring my very young children to galleries and art museums any chance I get, and I always worry that they're too loud but they just don't get it in school anymore. It's awful!

 I wasn't the biggest fan of art history as I got my degree (ok so I slept through most of it and crammed for the tests), but ever since my husband and I dressed up as Van Gogh and his Starry Night painting-in-progress respectively, for Halloween a few years ago and were shocked and appalled that the majority of adults couldn't identify us (come on people!!), I've tried to introduce art history to my kids and their classes whenever I volunteer in the schools any chance I get. And this time, apart from some squawking protests from our little man, who wanted to touch everything he saw and couldn't, the kids ate it up.

My girls actually brought legal pads of paper and plopped down in the middle of each room to write about their favorite artworks! All on their own! And then there was this kids room where they got to make Rodin-inspired sculptures out of tin foil and draw portraits that they could tape up on the wall for all to see. It was awesome. They loved it. Basically they thought I was a great mom for bringing them, which means I win.

 To finish it off, we went to the gigantic Stonehenge World War I memorial down the road and ran out any leftover pent-up energy among the largest set of stacked rocks we'd ever seen. Again, in the middle of nowhere. Isn't it great to find little hidden gems nearby? The day was only slightly tarnished by discovering a LIVE MOUSE in my kitchen later that night. Seriously. You read that right. Naturally I then worked my tail off cleaning the house from top to bottom into the wee hours of the morning instead of painting. Stupid mouse.

*I have actually started a new painting but don't feel it's presentable yet, meaning I hate it. Should be looking better and ready to post tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

Reaching for the Sun

So a little over a week ago, on the last day of my class I challenged them to next paint a lily on a larger piece of paper than they'd been using. The large petals of the lily, especially on a larger paper, call for very different strokes than say the small petals of a zinnia. They kind of force you to loosen up as you make strokes with a bigger brush by bending and extending you arm at the elbow instead of at the wrist or just the fingertips. It's fun! So here's my quick explanation as promised: I tend to fill in the petals working wet on dry, with my brush loaded up with paint and water. Doing it wet on dry as opposed to wet on wet (the way I start my flowers usually) keeps some of the lines from the brush strokes there instead of smoothing them out, which I feel works better for lilies. Just my preference really. Then I use lots of color (no surprises there), and take care to not let shadows on yellow areas turn muddy. Have them glow instead if possible, which isn't really happening in this painting yet but it's not done and the composition is fun and I think it's off to an interesting start. Here's a couple of images you could choose from if you don't have any photos of lilies (click on them to make them bigger, or if you'd like, ask me to email them to you as an attachment):

I didn't include the one I'm painting from because it has terrible coloring and is all washed out. I'm just kind of making it more colorful like it should've been if it'd actually been a good photo. Have fun!

Deserted Splendor

Finished! I had to finish it by today to submit it to this competition I wanted to enter, and just barely made it. Like finally finished painting, photographed it, burned the CD, and dropped it off at the post office 5 minutes before they closed. Haha! I win. Although that did mean I missed and (even worse!) made my wonderfully supportive, loving, fantastic husband miss pretty much the whole 2nd half of the University of Oregon's football game (and that was the only good half). Thanks love! But I finished it. Even after I ruined it last night. I'm not even kidding. I decided that to suggest the rocks above the cliff and below it, I should try splattering a variety of colors. And after convincing my other, more reasonable and conservative side to just go for it, I did ... and it stunk! It looked awful. Dreadful. Wretched. It ruined the whole darn thing. Didn't match the style AT ALL. I was bouncing all around, looking at it from all angles, trying to see a way in which it wasn't a disaster. There was none. So I tried to wash it off. And you could still totally see it. And then my eyes fell upon my old, hardly-used tube of white gouache (more opaque than watercolor). And I used it to save the painting. More than that even because combined with a couple of other colors, it created a much better, stronger sandy color that I am a big fan of. In fact, I think it makes for a stronger painting. How often does a bad, rash decision turn out so well?! Haha! I also made a few other, smarter changes like lightening the purple mountains and darkening or intensifying the trees so they stood out more instead of getting lost in the mountain. And I think it's fun, even if I did possibly overuse my new leaf green color (bright, light, yellow green). What do you think?
*This painting was done for this month's Virtual Paintout challenge (It should show up on the site soon). I've wanted to do it for months but have never got around to it. I finally did, with 2 whole days to spare in the month!

Progress Report

So I was feeling like I hadn't made much progress and then I went to blog and saw where I was last night, and suddenly I'm feeling much better about things. I like my purple mountains majesty. I just plopped those in there, not wanting a solid wall of trees. I thought it would be nicer to simplify, and air things out a bit. And to add mountains. Purple ones. And I like the spiky little plant just left of center. Not so happy about the whiter one that snuck right into dead center. What is it thinking committing that compositional faux pas? Dumb little plant. Other than that, the painting excites me. I looked at it longingly many times today when I had to do laundry instead. My little painting station shouldn't be so near the washer and dryer. It could explain why the laundry has been piling up so ridiculously. Let's just say I don't think it's a coincidence.

Being sick stinks

Hurrah for an awesome tree (in the middle)! If nothing else comes of it, I love that tree. And that kept me painting tonight even though I'm sicker than a dog. But I must give in now and go put myself to sleep because moms are not allowed to stay in bed sick in the morning.Which is very sad. But I'm thankful for my three little people who'll need me in the morning all the same. And for their sake, I now sleep and hopefully dream of how to make the rest of the painting as cool as that tree.

A new beginning

Getting started on a new, fun landscape. All I can really say so far is it's going to take awhile! I spend a lot of time staring at it trying to figure out how to paint distinct, understandable patches of colors instead of blending it all gradually and nicely and comfortably. Trying to let the details of reality go, and paint in this shape-driven style that I've been yearning to develop more. My favorite paintings of the last year were done this way, like my Lazy Afternoon in the Gorge. I get really, really excited about it. I just don't exactly know how to do it. Haha! The only answer is to keep plugging away though. And to spend less time staring and more time painting!

Background Check

Hmm ... is it done? I was planning on doing a dark, dramatic background, partially because it actually is dark in the photo and it sets it off really nicely. However, the real dark is shadow from another row of tulips that I eliminated from the painting for the sake of the composition. To keep it clean. So I started to feel worried that the dark background wouldn't fit, especially because it wouldn't make sense (how would the light be coming from behind if behind is black?) and I wanted it to stay light and airy. Not heavy. I kept pacing, trying to decide what to do, really wishing I had Photoshop and could've tried out a few different background colors without messing with the painting itself. Someday! Then I figured, hey, why not paint a light blue background and if I'm not happy with it, I can always add to it to make it as dark as I want. I added a little salt for interest in the blue (salt dropped on the wet areas makes those crazy little snowflake-type variations), which I think is nice. I like how fresh and happy it feels. I worry a little that the blue is too expected and thus, boring, but I don't know. Time to sleep on it. What do you think? Leave it as is?
Oh and here's the reference photo (As I mentioned, I changed a bit for the sake of a clean, interesting composition. Mother Nature is awesome, but often tends to clutter things a bit):