And here is a recent one where I just felt like playing: "The Tropics" - still in the white Ibis mood!!
Painted this year on clayboard. The greens are not phthalo in case that is what shows on your monitor!!! Marsh Grasses is a soft green painting - partially real and partially my creation.
At Solivita Artisan Guild, I took a class from Larry Outlaw on drawing portraits. Next I took a workshop from my friend, Bob Hague. Next I had a burning desire and fear to try my hand at portraits -- you know real portraits, not just paintings of people. It sort of stopped there because I haven't put in the time to learn, but am going slowly at it. Don't want to feel failure too soon in the game!! This is my granddaughter. We were rolling her around Walmart one day and she wanted to try on the hats: "Nessa in Cheap Hat"
This is my Granddaughter riding a bike. It is another study of portraits. Maybe I can make an art career just painting her??!!! They say to paint what you love.
After I tried my hand at painting my nephew, I received a commission to paint "Sydney". It was SO scary for me that my hands actually shook and my palms got all sweaty wondering if I could convince the viewer she was wearing a crocheted hat. We won't even discuss the dress!! LOL. This was before digital photography, so quality is not so good, but I and the parents were very pleased.
Way back when my nephew was very little, I painted him and called it "Discovering Spring". Today he is busy discovering adulthood!! Man how time flies. Those were the pthalo green days as you can see - I still like pthalo, but not as much as when beginning watercolor.
My good friend, Amelia Jordan, got together on the lanai one day just playing with watercolor and different ideas. I didn't expect much, but really liked what came out. "At Winters Edge:
This was a second result of our "playdate" on the lanai: "Fall in Florida".
This is a friend's Chinese Bridge at Hendersonville, NC. I would change some of the landscaping effort if redone, but not the trees. When I painted them, I felt I had painted like that all my life. Weird some of the feelings I get when in the studio.
Fun paintings are great exercizes. My little elf is so cute and dear to my heart that I will never sell him.
We went to Cancun with our close friends and in traveling the countryside, we saw this old building. Thought it was perfect for a quick, happy painting!! Plus it was a good reminder of our trip.
This is my self-portrait. It is called "Southern Comfort." As you can see I was a bit wary as a babe, still am!! Mary was my "nanny" and I still remember loving it when she took me to the park to swing.
Every once in a while, I get in the mood to make a statement about our society with a painting. I consider it my rebel art! This is a pepsi graveyard we passed somewhere in Virginia. The painting is called "Pepsi Generation." I received permission to paint and name it that. I was struck with the proof of our throw-away society.
Cape Hatteras Lighthouse was a commission. I still have prints of it if anyone is interested. The quality of the photo here is not very good - colors are nicer in real life.
This York, Pa horse farm was a commission. I got to tour the house and barn which is used as a horse hospital. Let me tell you it was really, really nice inside. Lucky horses!
-- we both knew the symbolism...
Tai Chi was an important part of my life for ten years, which happened to also be when I was studying watercolor. "Sefu" (teacher) is one of the results. Nathan was the most excellent instructor and no two classes were ever the same. This was my attempt at painting fire and portraying the force of Taiji .
"Harpist", framed 24 1/2" x 18", is one of those paintings that turned out totally different than I had planned. I guess she is happy sitting there for all eternity playing beautiful music for us. I thought the lace would be hard, but was actually easy to paint. Enjoy her music. Photo taken before digital so quality is off.
Are you tired of my life on the Rail Trails yet? Here is another one from the day we biked the Jim Thorpe area. We stopped to picnic on the rocks and watched a dad helping his daughters. "Help Me, Dad," 3/4 sheet.
"Peggy's Cove", 21"x28", was fun to paint as I really do like texture as well as the play on transparency and light. This vertical/horizontal composition works well for this lighthouse painting. Photographed in glass frame and the light circle is not actually there.
The Camel Race was a fun challenge from some of my artist friends. It is not my creation (I have never seen a camel race), but I entered the painting challenge just to prove to myself that I could still paint loosely...
The next three paintings, I just have saved on a shelf because they did not turn out good enough for me. I realize now it was simply lack of experience, but I wanted to show the failures in my blog also. They also meant a lot to me because they were a result of our biking days: We stopped to help a fellow near Maryland here. He was doing OK without us so we lent lots of "Moral Support".
I about killed myself getting the shot for this painting. They passed me going really fast and I just had to photograph it so I took off trying to catch them for approval. Finally did, but it took some time to breathe afterwards!! They actually laughed at my near death experience!!
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