Thursday, April 18, 2013

Seeing Red

6 x 6 inches
Oil on Wood Panel

Love the vibrancy of red tulips.   It's been a long winter and we're probably a good two weeks behind schedule with patches of snow still lingering.  How lucky are we artists to be able to immerse ourselves in color on even the dreariest of days.  
The part I like best about this painting is the lower left corner (funny enough)
simply because in the pursuit of training myself to loosen up, I return to bad habits so easily like puttering with small brushes.  The very qualities I admire in other paintings are the loose, energetic brush strokes.  Simply changing to a much larger brush gave me that energy I was looking for.






Tuesday, April 09, 2013

Me on Pinterest




It is so neat to find myself on Pinterest!  Every so often, I check to see who has pinned one of my paintings and I came across this.  It's for one of my fabric designs of Lillies of the Valley, one of my favorite flowers, and it makes
me feel all warm and fuzzy to know it is on someone's wish list.

Tuesday, April 02, 2013

Another View

6" x 6"
Oil on wood panel
Brass Scissors on Patchwork II

Here is the other version of the brass scissors painted in oils completed about ten days ago.  I was encouraged by the gray version and decided to paint them again.  

Monday, April 01, 2013

When not to listen to myself...

Scissors on Patchwork
Watercolor on
8" x 8" Clayboard

Repeating this one in watercolor so soon after painting it in oils left me unimpressed.  It's hard to compete with the richness of color of the oils.  But I did have this sample of Clayboard by Ampersand that I wanted to try and do find it interesting.  For example it is easy to wipe back to pick out highlights that were lost.  But that does make it a bit tricky to keep it from getting muddy.  But all the while my conscious brain is saying I'm not enthralled my
subconscious is saying "I wonder if I have more of these boards to keep playing?".
I haven't priced this one simply because I'm not sure what my framing options will be.  For example, I've read about varnished watercolors but I haven't explored this possibility and now would be the time to try it since it's on clayboard.  This means framing without glass which is another benefit.  If anyone has experience with varnishing watercolors, I'd love to hear about it.