Painting People

I've been putting off, for too long several painting ideas floating around in my head (& in my photo collection), so this week, because of another artist's challenge I decided to just set aside my in-progress paintings and just DO IT! Here is the first painting. I'm hoping to start a 2nd later this week.


This shows the initial pastel pencil drawing on a reclaimed canvas & a couple of close-ups of the drawing. The previous plein air painting still shows through the drawing, but will be covered by pastel eventually, with maybe bits showing through for textural effects. (right clicking on the image, then clicking "open link in new window" or "open link in new tab" will make the image larger if you want to see it closer...)

After the first layer of pastel:


I then sprayed the canvas with diluted pva size to "glue" the pastel on. I like to take a photo before spraying, paranoid the spray will ruin the painting! Luckily, that didn't happen - although since the spray hadn't been used for a while, it was clogged and needed to be changed. Meanwhile I used a different spray bottle which didn't cover as well and spit large drops! I've since corrected these issues...

Here a photo showing the 2nd layer of pastel---


I'm very grateful to my friends that helped make this painting possible: letting me take the reference photo with such a lovely model in this beautiful setting! I'm hoping this will be the first of many people paintings, and more models (hint, hint) will step forward to be included in this series! Thanks m'dears!!

Off I go to paint some more - hoping to finish this one this weekend!

Spring Roll "class" 101

A week ago, we had friends over for a Thai dinner. Along with Massaman curry we also made spring rolls. Here are pics of the process!











Ok, now I'm hungry...

The Visitor

This week we had a visitor to our back yard. 

She was collecting fluff from the leftover centers of our Japanese Anemones. 

I think spring is on it's way! 

Latest paintings

After experimenting with watercolor on small prepared canvases, I've decided to take the leap and move from 4x4" & smaller to 12x12" & 16x20" with my 2 latest paintings. Yesterday I took a couple of drawings I made several years ago and then with the use of an opaque projector, blew them up then drew them onto the 2 larger canvases. Finishing that, I headed upstairs to my watercolor studio where I refined the pencil drawing & started in painting the backgrounds.

Here they are, first coat of paint on the background areas:



My studio buddy is helping to show the size of the canvases (& totally ignoring me):


For those studio junkies out there (like me) here's a close up of my watercolor palette, and a shot of my dormer watercolor studio at the top of our stairs.



And lastly, a shot of my preliminary drawings on the canvases.




After playing with pastels for years, it's fun to switch it up and bring out the paints & brushes once more. Stay tuned for more updates - hopefully sooner than later!!

Happy New Year!

Just a quick post to wish everyone a terrific, loving, happy 2010! Here are some pics from the wonder-filled New Years Eve party we were so happy to be invited to! Sweet, sweet friends, live music, beautiful surroundings, warm light, dancing = Magic!




Cheers!!

Henna!

On Sunday, my daughter and I played with some more henna we purchased premixed and frozen in an application cone. Once it was thawed we snipped off the tiniest bit of the tip of the cone, after reinforcing the wrapped cone with more tape (our previous cone burst towards the end of its use...) and started drawing on each other! Here are the results:




The photos above, show the design I drew on my daughter's shoulder. Below is the design she drew on my hand.








Some close-up photos of her shoulder:




Here is my hand the morning after leaving the henna on overnight, shortly after I picked it off.





These last photos were taken today, showing how henna will continue darkening, up to 48 hours after being applied. Notice too how it darkens more on my fingers than the back of my hand. If you missed it, you can see the post I wrote earlier about henna here. Do I really need another new artistic distraction? Or maybe the question is, is it possible to have too many artistic distractions? My guess is they all work together, adding to an artists repertoire. Growth is good!

Miniature paintings

My latest paintings have been watercolors on canvas - mini canvas! Most have been on 4x4 inch canvases with 1 1/2 inch wide sides which I've painted, continuing the watercolor image around on the edges. I also have been painting tiny canvases, little 2x2 inch and 2x4 inch with a 3/8 inch painted edge. I'm experimenting with a finish that will be waterproof and tough. First one I ended up sanding back off, it was just too foggy and unacceptable (to me at least...). I'm in the process of repainting that one (also an experiment - can it be saved?!)

Here they are--I've included my hand holding them to show a size comparison:

This first one might look familiar.



This is my second home grown tomato painting---you can see the first here:



Some holly from the field next door:



And last, but not least, a satsuma - yes, it's satsuma season! A favorite!




Next up, sealing these gems without destroying the colors. More experimentation... wish me luck!