Art by Jane James

Mixed Media Workahop

2011-08-27T09:18:00.001-05:00

I do love these workshops! This time it was at our local art center and lasted 5 days. Several of the participants, as well as the teacher, are good friends which made it even more fun. What messes we made! And this time, for a first, I am happy with more of what I did than unhappy. And Rhonda, one of these is for you! A good number of these are old paintings which I no longer liked (if I ever did). What a great way to fix bombs. Not all of these are finished, but then, with this stuff when is it ever finished? And as usual, if you click on an image it will get much bigger.

Non-Objective

2011-06-25T12:46:00.000-05:00

I've been working non-objectively (abstractly) for a few months now. It's hard (has to come entirely out of my head and/or gut) but fun. Generally I do these with mixed media: collage, acrylic paint and inks, drawing, gesso . . . whatever seems to work. It's awfully difficult to know when one is finished, though. I usually paint (or glue or draw) then prop it up for a while until it tells me what to do next, fiddle, prop, etc.
Sometimes they feel finished but I'm never entirely sure. Anyway, here are three paintings in the prop phase waiting for inspiration. Critiques? Suggestions?

River Birch

2011-06-25T12:40:00.000-05:00

I think this is finished now, or at least I can't figure out where to go next. I'm not thrilled with the overall shape of the collaged parts but I love the texture! It will take a very deep frame.

Collage

2011-05-01T13:07:00.000-05:00

We have some birch trees just down the walk that have very peel-y bark. The other day I broke some of the peels off and brought them home to use as collage material. I soaked the bark in very dilute matte medium in hopes of sealing it so it won't deteriorate quickly, then I glued it to a half-sheet of paper onto which I'd spread some gesso and then a dilute wash of acrylic paint. I put the gesso on so it might suggest birch trees and I used colored pencils to bring those shapes up a bit. I also, obviously, stuck on a piece of paper which I'd painted for collage. I don't know whether it's finished or not and if not, where to go next. Suggestions?

Mining and Cropping

2011-04-22T09:38:00.000-05:00

Mining? That's when you take mat corners or a mat with a smaller hole than the original painting and move it around to find gems. Cropping is the actual cutting of the original for framing. At least that's the way I define those words. Anyway, I spent some time this morning mining the first painting I did last week at the mixed media workshop. The original is 18 x 24 and most of these minings would be framed so they show something like 4 x 6. I'm aware that some of these possibilities overlap so they couldn't all be framed as they look. That's the beauty of Photoshop! Do you have favorites?

Mixed Media

2011-04-15T10:28:00.000-05:00

I just spent 3 days at a mixed media workshop taught by my friend Nancy Barch. It was in Easton, MD, and the three of us from here who went as students stayed at some friends' house about an hour away from Easton. The workshop was a blast and so was the eating and visiting at Cheryl and Paul's house.

Here's what I did, in the order I did them (more or less). They're small images here but will get much bigger if you click on them. I invite critiques and suggestions.

This is full sheet size and will probably be cropped or mined for smaller paintings but I don't know how yet.

I've already cropped this but it may get some more. Collaging over and under the gold paint.

I don't like this one so it will get something done to it. It's mostly tissue paper glued to a half sheet then painted over. The darks are collaged over the tissue.

Most of the class was a bit lost doing the non-representational work the first day so Nancy did a demo of abstracted flowers. This has paint first, then collage and some pastel to make the checkerboard. Fun but a little too cute.

This is unfinished. I started with lots of texture on plain paper mostly made with white collage and heavy, textured gel medium, then slopped paint all over. There was such a deep puddle that I threw a length of waxed paper over it to take up some of the color. Waxed paper with color put on it like this makes wonderful collage paper. But with this one I liked the look of the waxed paper over it so I stopped there. I'll glue the waxed paper down around the edges and then see where I want to go next.

Nancy does wonderful monochromatic work so she did a demo of what she does to get the gray backgrounds. The woodcut-looking collage in the middle here is waxed paper again, this time laid over wet black gesso then picked up. It's been living in my collage box for ages waiting for the perfect spot. The hard part of these is the restraint it takes not to add a lot of color!

Several layers of collage over paper with a wash on it. On the top I printed the net-like look by painting some rug hooking scrim and using it like a stamp. There's more work to be done here.

For the texture on this one, I used gesso rather than the gel medium. Before it was completely dry I floated some black ink over the whole thing, mixing in a bit of blue. Then it looks like I used waxed paper again to pick up some of the ink that didn't soak into the gesso (after three days of this work it's hard to remember exactly what I did). My next step will be to blacken all around the shape and probably collage some more solid paper into the shape. Or not. Depends on what inspires me at the time.

Nancy has a friend who does incredible silk screening and he gives her test pieces. She uses, and shares, the test pieces of backgrounds. So that's what's the delicious gradation in the background. I threw on some collage pieces (painted tissue and waxed paper) then it was time to clean up and come home. I've given you two versions here. The first is the whole sheet and the second is cropped. Which one do you like and why?

Long time!

2011-03-04T10:33:00.002-05:00

Well, the move is essentially over. We've been in for 6 weeks. I still haven't found a home for all the framed paintings we moved, but other that that we're pretty well settled.

I have been painting, some, but just not posting. Here are some of the paintings I've done that I'm willing to own up to:

I bought some daffodils at Trader Joe's the other day and have painted them all sorts of different ways. I'm working on a collage that I hope will give the feel of daffodils without having to delineate them quite as much as these.

I found a piece of illustration board which I'd sprayed various textures on and decided that it was a perfect underpainting for a Tuscan scene. This painting with watercolor, conté crayon and pastel is loosely based on a photo taken in Siena.

Late afternoon one day after it had snowed, I looked out the sliders into our backyard and was taken by the abstract quality and glow of this (rather ugly) bush and the fence. This one is all watercolor.

I did most of this painting by masking the white and painting everywhere else, then masking the next lightest areas and painting everywhere else, etc, until the paper was almost completely covered with masking fluid and the buildup of paint layers made the very dark. I then used soft pastels to put detail in, especially in the eyes and noses. Amari on the left and Numa on the right.

This is soft pastel. I like it a lot although I think it needs a tweak or two.

Moving

2010-12-22T10:12:00.002-05:00

We're moving and I've started a moving blog http://janefran.blogspot.com/

long time!

2010-11-11T14:45:00.010-05:00

It's been way too long since I've posted. So Helen (who nags me every time I see her), here's some recent work.

The photo for this one was taken from a friend's deck a couple of weekends ago. We had spectacular sunsets, as you can see.

These two are 1/8th-sheet demos for my watercolor class. The woods was especially quick with no drawing except the too-dark paint outlines of the light tree trunks.

I started this one several weeks ago as a pastel but when I did the watercolor underpainting the paper buckled too much so I collaged, right over the sanded paper. I pulled it out today and tweaked it a lot with pastel over the collage. You might possibly perhaps recognize that it was done from the same reference photo as my previous post.

A pastel and underpainting

2010-10-14T18:43:00.008-05:00

I've been working in watercolor only for the last six weeks or so. Yesterday I took a photo on my way home from teaching my watercolor class that just called out for pastel, so that's what I did today. I started with a wild, watercolor underpainting which got almost completely covered with the pastel: probably a good thing! You probably won't believe that the underpainting provided a map for the pastel, but it did. It was fun to do this one. I don't think I'm quite finished (no pastel is totally finished until it's framed) and I invite critiques.

This is the day after the miners in Chile were successfully rescued from their mine. I'm proud to say that my oldest son works for the company that made the equipment that both drilled the small hole which found that the miners were alive, and that drilled the large hole through which they were rescued. He didn't go to Chile but they did send a service tech. Here's a link to our local Fox TV channel and their feature on Schramm, Inc.
http://www.myfoxphilly.com/dpp/news/local_news/west-chester-co.-aids-in-chilean-rescue

Back to Watercolor

2010-09-14T16:40:00.002-05:00

After a summer of mostly painting with pastels, I'm painting in watercolor again. I'll be teaching watercolor this fall; I needed to rewet my brushes. Then on Sunday I attended a fabulous demo, part of the Philadelphia Water Color Society's annual meeting. The artist is Sarah Yeoman. Here's her web site: http://www.sarahyeoman.com/. As a start, I've been working on eighth sheets, about 7" x 10". I would love to have critiques.

Sky

2010-09-02T13:45:00.003-05:00

I've been too close to this now so I need to let it be and look at it some other day with new eyes. The photo was taken as it was clearing after a 3-inches-per-hour storm that included a tornado warning. I was driving to the airport and took photos of the sky at stoplights with my iPhone through the windshield. No rain by then on my route. Comments and critiques invited.

Mixed Media Workshop

2010-08-21T15:35:00.004-05:00

It's that time of year again . . . the annual summer, weeklong, mixed media workshop. As usual it was intense and exhausting and loads and loads of fun. This time we learned image transfer in addition to renewing (or learning) so many other MM techniques. And I'm getting better! My composition skills are improving enough that I got a "well done" from the teacher. What a thrill! I've only taken this workshop probably eight or ten times.

Anyway, here's a link to a Picasa slide show:

I don't know how many of these will survive in their present state after they've been put away for a while then looked at anew. For that matter, I don't know how many will survive at all. So if you have critiques or suggestions, they're welcome.

If you want to see any larger, click on the little Picasa logo in the bottom right hand corner of the slide show, then on the name of the album, Mixed Media. From there you'll see all the images and a click on one of the thumbnails will get you a larger version.

Refreshing!

2010-08-01T13:18:00.007-05:00

My daughter-in-law took this photo of her niece, my granddaughter, and it just called out to be painted. I have been doing watercolor underpaintings on my pastel paper for a while now, usually very loose and not trying to get anything very clear. This time I did a much more detailed watercolor, with black ink loosely over the background, then added the pastel. Most of the background is the watermedia painting while the figure (and all those drops!) are pretty much covered with pastel. I keep seeing little tweaks calling me every time I walk by the painting . . . do you have any to suggest? Thank you, Lisa, for the reference.

Along the Dochart, take 2

2010-08-01T13:15:00.003-05:00

My thanks to all who made comments about this painting. I took in consideration what everyone said and tweaked a bit, making it a stronger painting, I think. Unless there's something glaring, I think it's done. Of course, you can see colors that are more true in the larger image you get when you click on this one.

Along the Dochart

2010-07-30T11:45:00.002-05:00

I don't think this is finished but it's time for input from others. The photo was taken in Killin, Scotland, when we were there a few years ago. The painting has an underpainting of watercolor with pastel over that.

Big Green Wave

2010-07-23T09:15:00.006-05:00

This pastel is from a photo that one of my watercolor students wants to paint. I'm not terribly experienced in painting waves and water, so I said we could each paint the painting together and learn together. So she emailed me her photo. I worked with the photo for a long time to get the wave in the water luminescent then spent yesterday painting it in pastels. I know, pastels go from dark to light and make this much easier to paint than the light to dark of watercolor. Maybe I started with pastels because I was too lazy to put them away and get out my watercolors. I plan to work on a series of small watercolors of this photo over the weekend in hopes of learning enough to be able to teach rather than experiment so much in class.
I started this painting with an underpainting which I managed to photograph this time, along with a couple of in-process steps. Unfortunately, I didn't realize that the focus on my camera had been switched to manual, so most of these are badly out of focus. Maybe you can get the idea of the earlier steps.

Finished???

2010-07-17T13:36:00.002-05:00

Do you think I'm finished? If not, why not?

Light on the Path

2010-07-16T09:23:00.007-05:00

This is from another photo I took at Cheryl's house in Maryland. When I was browsing my photos for a reference, this one jumped out at me because of the light. The three photos here are at different points in the process of painting from the general to the specific. What I didn't think to photo was the underpainting in purple. This time when I did the underpainting I tried to make it true to the values of the final painting, loosely, of course. I think I want to make the "sky holes" where the sky shows through the trees either white or a blue that looks white. Right now as I see the painting on my easel all the light is in the ground. Perhaps I want some dappled shadows in the ground, too. I'm always up for suggestions and critiques! Just in case it's hard to tell, the larger image here is the most recent and they're all the same size if you click for a larger version.

Great Blue

2010-07-16T09:20:00.003-05:00

This heron appeared while I was kayaking on our friend Cheryl's lake. I did an all-over underpainting in magenta.

Sunrise

2010-07-09T18:28:00.003-05:00

This is another, pastel over watercolor. The lake is mostly the watercolor as are the non-blue part of the sky and the far shore. Under the foreground I had red watercolor. It was pretty ugly as just a watercolor but got a whole lot better when I got the greens over the foreground. I guess I'm finished, unless someone sees something glaring about it.

pastel over watercolor

2010-06-28T09:10:00.003-05:00

We watched a DVD by Richard McKinley, pastel artist, the other day: Three Steps for Successful Pastel Painting. It was almost 2 hours long and could have had some of his commercials for his other DVD edited out, but it was really good and isn't so far from what I've been doing that it was hard to try the techniques. I found a couple of photos that I liked the feel of (read "colors in") but not the composition, so I spent some time doing thumbnails of various arrangement of the elements until I got a couple I liked. Then, to add to the mix, I experimented also with mounting a piece of Wallis paper to foam core. Acrylic mat medium may not be the best adhesive for this, but it worked well enough. Then I found the hardest pencil I could in my drawer (I prefer soft lead) and drew right on the sanded paper, a much more detailed drawing with values included than I usually do. The next step was the underpainting. I used watercolors and a hake brush about an inch wide. Last came the pastel. I didn't try to cover the underpainting but rather to enhance it liberally. I wish I'd taken more photos, but I just can't remember to stop when I'm all involved in a painting. I'm not done, but I'm waiting for the painting to tell me what's next and I'd love suggestions. Each image has a much larger version if you click on it.

An actual collage

2010-06-19T12:33:00.009-05:00

I made more collage papers the other day, then got inspired and sprayed backgrounds on pieces of illustration board which is nice to collage on. Then I took one of those pieces, about 10 x 14, and started a collage. Unfortunately, I didn't think to take a photo of just the background of that one. But here are the other backgrounds and the collage I've been working on. The first one of the backgrounds is the same size as the in-process collage, the other two are about twice as big. They have various things laid over them as sort of stencils to create interesting forms and texture. I put them on and took them off the piece I was working on at various times in the spraying process to vary their appearance. I've posted two versions of the collage and there will no doubt be more. I'm not even sure which side is up yet. I invite critiques of the collage.
I've been working with the receiver of entries for this year's Philadelphia Water Color Society's big show to get them to the juror in digital form. I found that the non-representational paintings that I liked most had a very limited palette. It wasn't until the last of the backgrounds that I remembered that and tried to do that for myself. I do love color!
Each of these is larger and more colorful if you click on them.

Maryland

2010-06-11T12:16:00.003-05:00

Yesterday our painting group of four met in Earleville, MD, where one member has a house which looks down on Pearce Creek which, at that point, is dammed and is really a lake. I did some charcoal sketches looking across their inlet, then a couple of color sketches, all in my wonderful Aquabee sketchbook. The sketchbook is 9" x 9", so you can tell these are pretty small. Of course I also took reference photos from the sketch location and other places around their property.

Collage Papers

2010-06-09T08:42:00.002-05:00

I've been experimenting/struggling with doing collage in a non-objective way. That is, with good values, eye travel, overall design but nothing you could identify. I've painted tissue paper with various colors and methods of application. Yesterday I made more collage papers using liquid watercolors and a mouth atomizer. [see http://www.ccpvideos.com/page/CCP/PROD/MM1d if you need more information.] I used ordinary tissue paper (not archival but sealed by acrylic matte medium which is) which I placed on a cut-open kitchen trash bag. I did this in the driveway because I didn't know how much overspray I would get so I wanted to be outside. It was a cool and dry day yesterday which helped motivate me. After a sheet of tissue was sprayed, I moved it on the plastic to the porch to dry which happened quickly so I could then reuse the plastic. The plastic keeps the tissue from falling apart when it's wet.

I sprayed a lot of papers and learned a lot. I could make paper of various shades just by spraying lighter in an area. I could mix colors directly on the tissue just by spraying a second color when the first was still wet. If I crumpled the paper then spread it out with the wrinkles still in and sprayed from a low angle, I could get interesting patterns. If I then turned the paper around and sprayed again with another color at a low angle I could get areas of the two colors intermixed. I found that many of the liquids could be sprayed right out of their little bottles or diluted in a small disposable cut. Others are kinda thick and needed diluting from the beginning. Acrylic inks would work well with this technique, too, although I guess I'd have to be more diligent in cleaning the sprayer and with the wc.s. Or I guess I could mix up a fairly strong mixture with tube paint and water and spray. Of course, I could have gone out and bought little spray bottles for each color but the atomizer is probably cheaper than a single bottle!

Here's a photo of a few of my dry tissue spread out on a white table. When I glue (using the acrylic matte medium) one color over another, they become quite transparent so I get a layering affect.

Now to get down to the business of creating these collages. That's the hard part for me, to do something with no reference but maybe a value sketch, but I find those hard to do for this, too. I'll keep you posted!

Something Different

2010-06-03T13:13:00.005-05:00

Last weekend I played in PhotoShop with photographs I have on my computer, photos I've taken in the woods and other places over the years. I layered two or three and fiddled with color. This is one of the resulting abstracts, along with a pastel I did from it. After I got the basic shapes in, I didn't much try to follow the photographic image but just went with the painting. As always, I invite critiques.

Tropical Hideaway

2010-05-29T15:32:00.003-05:00

ome weeks ago I started a painting in a very abstract way. When I came upon it recently I decided that rather than try to figure out what/where my reference was, I'd use it as a start for a collage. All the collage papers were colored by me, on some white rice and tissue papers. It's attached with a dilute acrylic medium with which I will coat the whole piece when it's done. Something like this could be a lifetime painting but I think I'm getting close. Suggestions?

Teaching! Watercolor and Pastel

2010-05-25T15:22:00.002-05:00

Darlington Arts Center, Garnet Valley, PA, (5 or 6 miles from my house) has asked me to teach both watercolor and pastel classes this summer. I'm excited! Two watercolor classes on Monday evenings and one pastel class on Thursday evenings. This feels like a big step in my life and one I'm ready for. So if you live anywhere near SE Pennsylvania or northern Delaware, come join the fun! Their phone is 610.358.3632.

Spring Sunshine I and II

2010-05-13T14:23:00.004-05:00

I tweaked some more on the pastel and then worked from the same photo in watercolor. With the latter, I wet all the paper but the tree trunks and the path, then dropped in various blues, yellow, and mixed greens. With the trunks dry, the paint didn't spread there but made a nice, soft image over the rest of the painting. When that was dry, I painted the trunks, the path, and played a lot more with the greens. I've discovered a new green mix: ultramarine blue and Quinachridone gold, a mix I've frequently used for evergreens, especially, plus a little prussian blue. That's a green that's a bit more blue and less dull. Even the darks of spring greens aren't dull! For some reason, I had a hard time photographing the watercolor so the yellows are more dull here.

Spring Sunshine

2010-05-12T10:54:00.002-05:00

This is a larger, and more recent, version of the pastel I did yesterday that's included in that slideshow. I'm still tweaking and invite critique. I'm pretty happy with it at this point, but with pastel is one ever finished?

All Paint from the Same Photo

2010-05-11T14:24:00.003-05:00

Our painting studio group did something different today and all painted from the same photo. It's one I took recently while I was walking the dogs in the woods and I printed a copy for each person. As you can see, the interpretations varied but everyone got the same general composition. It was fun to see them as we did our critiqué. Many people kept working . . . tweaking or ditzing, depending on your point of view . . . after I took these photos with my trusty iPhone.

Trout Lily

2010-05-04T17:03:00.002-05:00

I grew up calling these flowers "dog-tooth violets" but somewhere along the way their name was changed; more accurate, I suppose. They also grow wild in our local woods and I took this photo a couple of weeks ago when the dogs and I were walking there.

Wild Dogwood

2010-05-04T17:00:00.003-05:00

I actually painted this version of the woods and creek before the watercolor one below. I was particularly taken by the shadows on the water. Dogwoods actually do grow wild in our woods.

"tetrad" paintings

2010-05-04T16:53:00.002-05:00

These were each done with four colors only. A different combination for each painting. The tree was done with sienna, turquoise, cobalt blue and magenta. The landscape was painted with a bright yellow, turquoise, magenta and a mixed purple. It's an interesting challenge to use just a few colors and I must say, I liked the landscape combination much better. I missed yellow in the other.

White Roses

2010-04-14T12:02:00.003-05:00

My sweet brother gave me white roses for my birthday last weekend. I took them to our art studio yesterday to share with the other artists. I've never been able to paint roses without them looking just like big blobs, so I spent some time drawing individual flowers. Then there was only a short time until our lunch break and critique time. Every now an then when I have that sort of short time I just do a quick sketch and loosely apply color and something amazing happens. I'm not sure this pastel is amazing, but it's loose and different from my usual. I used a charcoal stick and drew three blossoms from my sketches, then put the color on with the sides of my pastels (the equivalent of using a big brush with watercolor). I probably used too much pink to have the blossoms look white; I only had a limited number of pastel sticks with me and a short time. As always, I invite critiques and remind you that you'll get more true colors if you click on the image for the larger version.

North Shore

2010-04-01T12:49:00.002-05:00

I took this photo maybe 30 years ago in Hawaii. I'm looking for critiques.

2010-03-31T08:40:00.002-05:00

I think this is done now. I worked on lights and shadows, moved the person with the dog and made them a bit bigger. I'm always open for comments and critiques and nothing is really finished until it's signed and framed.

Bridge

2010-03-24T12:07:00.002-05:00

I worked on this yesterday. It's not finished and I'm hoping others' eyes will see the little things that still need doing. It's pastel, 14 x 20", more or less. I know the figure is too small, if you can see it at all.

Nova Scotia

2010-03-18T13:39:00.002-05:00

We went to Nova Scotia twice to paint, years ago. I took a gazillion photos and every now and then one inspires me to paint. Or pastel, as the case may be. In Blue Rocks there were a wide variety of these fishing shacks with their reflections. This is pastel on a 7" x 10" scrap of Wallis paper. I find it harder to use pastels on such a small size; it's hard to aim them to exactly the right spot.

2010-03-18T13:32:00.003-05:00

Obviously it's been a while since I posted. The top of these three is the finished version of my abstract already posted. Then come versions 2 and 3 from a photo of a barn in Birchrunville, PA, where I used to live. I guess I didn't take a photo of version 1 which is fine; I got better as I practiced. The barns are pastel with the lavender the underpainting done with liquid watercolors.

watercolor and collage

2010-02-24T09:33:00.008-05:00

I worked on this yesterday with our studio group. I'm not a fan of crucifixes and it came out a bit too much like that for my taste, so this morning I played more in Photoshop. Of course, I can never duplicate what I do in Photoshop with paint and brushes, but it can give me a direction without changing the painting itself. I'm soliciting any and all critiques.

I applied paint, collaged various white papers, added more paint, etc. It's fun to do a painting this way.

Tulips

2010-02-19T12:56:00.003-05:00

I'm really sick of snow and was delighted when another member of my painting group brought in some red tulips. That inspired me. This is all done with liquid watercolors which create wonderful, bright colors. First I scattered some masking fluid over my paper, hence the white spots. Snow?

Here's also a photo of our snow.

Snowy Village

2010-01-12T16:58:00.003-05:00

Once upon a time I lived in the white house in this painting. Across the road was the general store and post office. It was a great place to live, to develop community and to raise kids.

new inspiration

2009-12-30T12:00:00.003-05:00

A friend sent me this web site: http://www.acquerello-aia.it/home/ for the Italian watercolor society and I've been studying the paintings posted there. Lots of paintings, wonderful loose styles. It's inspired me to fool around with painting as loosely as I can and leave as much white of the paper as possible while still telling my story. It's been fun and the painting goes quickly. For the tree trunk, I used only three colors: ultramarine blue, gold and magenta. They're not the standard red/yellow/blue primary colors but they are a good triad for landscapes. As usual, they paintings will look better if you click on them to see the larger version, and as usual, I always welcome critiques.

I gave Bruce, my son whose license plate is a couple of posts earlier, a print of that painting for Christmas. He laughed, then hung it on the wall. He told me that he's saved that plate.

Drifter

2009-11-30T10:18:00.002-05:00

One of the neat things about working with pastels, especially on sanded paper that takes lots of layers, is that I can work and work and work. One of the difficult things about working with pastels is that there's no obvious stopping point. I've been working on this painting for days and days. The water was hard enough to get like water, but the leaf was even harder. I must have wiped off and redone the leaf eight or ten times. I still think it looks like a flower, but I've decided to put the glassine over this for storage and tape it down so I don't keep looking and twiddling and smearing pastel all over my hands and clothes. I have no idea where I took the photo of the water; the leaf was done with a couple of real maple leaves that escaped the raking. As usual, this will look better if you click on the picture for the larger and brighter version.

"Oops"

2009-11-19T11:13:00.002-05:00

Browsing through some photos the other day, I was struck with the composition of this. Never mind that it's the bumper of my son's truck after an inattentive driver plowed into it, or that I was driving, or that he was on his honeymoon. No damage to me but the truck was totaled. It's all watercolor and a big change from the autumn woods I've been painting . . . and painting . . . and painting.

Amari under a white blanket

2009-11-07T17:05:00.002-05:00

I think this pastel is finished. Amari is our female American Eskimo dog and loves to be under things. I managed to snap a photo some time ago. I love the way the blanket swirls around her. As always, it will look better if you click on the photo here to see the larger, and brighter, version.

color wheel

2009-10-21T09:22:00.002-05:00

I've been asked to teach a watercolor class in the winter term at our local art center. I'm a bit adamant about learning to mix colors, maybe because I don't want to spend the money on heaps of tubes of different colors. So yesterday I worked on creating a color wheel using only three colors: rose, cobalt blue and yellow. I used the complementary color (the color opposite on the color wheel) for the shadows on and of the balls. I may do this again, varying the red, blue and yellow, to see which combination I like best.

Dune Fence

2009-10-21T09:15:00.003-05:00

We spent last week at the New Jersey shore with friends. For four days we watched 2 nor'easters pounding at the wonderful, huge windows at the place we were staying. We could see lots of huge waves in the distance. There were a couple of nice days when I got out to walk . . . with my camera, of course. Yesterday in my studio group I painted this watercolor from one of my photos.

Here's a photo from the house and my painting:

More autumn in the woods

2009-10-08T18:29:00.004-05:00

Back to pastels again. It's easier to carry watercolor supplies to the art center for our Tuesday painting group and easier not to put all the pastels away at home for any other painting, so I may just do watercolors on Tuesdays. Today we had our small painting group here. As I was looking for reference photos, I came upon this one and knew immediately that's what I wanted to paint. It was the purple in the foreground that drew me, and all those red leaves. It wasn't clear in the photo, but I must have been standing on a bridge spanning a creek because it sure looks like water in the left foreground. As usual, any of these have better color if you click on the picture to get the larger size.

water and rocks

2009-10-06T19:03:00.002-05:00

I went back to watercolor today, to paint for a project on rocks and woods for the online watercolor group I help moderate. It was fun and I'm reasonably happy with the painting which is a combination of a photograph I took in Scotland several years ago (the top), and a creek mostly from my head. I like rocks and water almost as much as I love woods and have painted them enough that I don't need much of a reference. There are a couple of tweaks to be done but basically it's finished, I think.

more little pastels

2009-10-06T18:59:00.002-05:00

I painted these last Thursday when our little painting group met at our house. I love being in the woods where the dogs can run free, without leashes, and I can walk the trails without holding leashes. I love the woods. And so I love to paint woods.

Red Leaves

2009-09-30T17:22:00.003-05:00

This is a fairly small (for me) pastel, about 9" x 7". Am I finished? If not, why not? It's also the first thing I've done is a long while that I've not wanted to wash off immediately. We're trying to eliminate stuff in the house and that's been using my energy.

Woodland Stream

2009-08-25T13:08:00.003-05:00

After that mixed media workshop, I found myself looking at photos this morning with a much more keen eye for composition. I printed out a bunch about 1 1/2" x 2" so I would not be seduced by the details. I could feel that my touch with the pastels was different today, maybe lighter, putting them down more transparently. As a challenge, I kept my green pastels out of sight and mixed the greens with various blues and yellows. Right now, having just finished this, I'm really pleased with it. We'll see how it ages.

Mixed Media Workshop

2009-08-22T11:47:00.002-05:00

I've just been to a 5-day, mixed media workshop at our local art center. It's something I've taken many times before and I always learn a lot. The last two workshops, I've finally felt that I am "getting" it. Anything that be painted, smeared, glued to paper or board is grist for the mill. Basically it's non-objective work which is fun but much harder for me because I have to dig deep and listen carefully for what to do next.

Here's a slideshow of everything I did, in the order it was done.

Long Beach Island

2009-07-17T14:02:00.003-05:00

So many photos, so little time! I have no idea when I took this photo but the light on the fence just begged me to paint it yesterday. It's a good way to remember many wonderful weekends spent there with our group of Quaker women.

Woods' Light

2009-07-17T13:55:00.003-05:00

I love the woods. We have a couple of places nearby that are township parks and are woods with trails. I take the dogs there sometimes because we can get away with dogs off-leash. Needless to say, they love the woods, too, and the creeks or streams therein and come home tired, wet, muddy and happy. (Fortunately they have the sort of fur that sheds the wet and mud when it dries.) Sometimes I go and just tramp and look. Sometimes I take my camera and come home with gazillions of photos. So I paint woods fairly often. This painting was done from a photo that I must have taken at a county park, because the road is paved. I chose it because of the light. Since it's pastel, and since it's still sitting on my painting table, I have made some minor changes since this photo was taken, but not so's anyone but me would notice.

Late Day Light - finished

2009-07-14T13:57:00.003-05:00

You may have seen the work in process version here; now I think it's finished. I didn't do much, just some tweaking where folks suggested. It's probably much brighter in the larger version you get if you click on the picture.

Stuck with Pastels

2009-07-13T11:45:00.003-05:00

A couple more pastels. The flower arrangement was brought to our painting group after the bridal shower for the daughter of one of our members. The background is the color of the Wallis paper. The garden, done on an underpainting of dark, dark green, is from a photo I took at a garden where we were painting last summer.

Keeping Cool

2009-07-07T16:49:00.004-05:00

I painted this with pastels from a photo I took while we were in Jamaica a year ago January. It might be finished and I invite critiques.

Pennsylvania Watercolor Society

2009-06-30T07:54:00.005-05:00

This painting was accepted into the Pennsylvania Watercolor Society's annual juried exhibition which this year will be in Reading, PA. This is my second acceptance which means I'll be a signature member of PWS and can append those initials when I sign a painting. It's painted with watercolor on illustration board coated with gesso and it's of Amari, our female dog. I call it "Rub My Tummy."

Vera's Barns

2009-06-16T19:14:00.003-05:00

I used to live close to this particular landscape. This is a painting that just sort of "fell" off my hands (pastels?) and was finished in a short time. Those are often ones that endure in my favorites category. It's a painting from one of the thousands of slides I've scanned . . . more to come. As usual, clicking on the picture here will give you a larger one more true to the original color.

2009-06-08T17:24:00.001-05:00

Peonies

2009-06-04T15:04:00.002-05:00

What's working in this painting? Is it finished? If it's not finished, why not?

Still working in pastel

2009-06-02T18:15:00.006-05:00

I keep being drawn to working in pastel. It's such fun! The flowers may not be done because my painting and critique group thought I should have more defined stems. I'm still thinking on that. Thoughts?

I once lived with the view that's the landscape. I've been scanning old slides and found the reference photo there. It's 14" x 20" and I started with an underpainting of orange under the lower part and light blue under the sky. I deliberately painted it with saturated colors, my favorites, and if you click on the photo here to see the larger view you'll see how saturated the colors really are. I thought it would take a long time to paint, but it went very quickly. Critiques, please!

Anticipating Adulthood

2009-05-05T15:47:00.001-05:00

I made some revisions on this today and I think I'm done now. One of my painting friends suggested the title.

Splash!

2009-05-05T15:36:00.003-05:00

Here's that same cute, blond son again, a bit older here. Pastel again. Am I finished? If not, what's to be done?

What's In Here?

2009-05-04T13:02:00.003-05:00

Inspired by a photo I took of my youngest son in 1973. It's pastel and I don't know whether it's finished . . . critiques invited. As usual, the colors are brighter if you click on the one here to see the larger version.

Spring Fields

2009-04-23T12:47:00.003-05:00

A pastel from a slide taken somewhere in England in 1984. If this was the US, these fields would probably be growing houses now, 25 years later. I got to use some of the pastels I'd ordered which came today. New colors and new pastels are so exciting! This painting is 14" x 20" or thereabout.

Azaleas

2009-04-21T13:30:00.002-05:00

. . . or are they rhododendrons? I took the photo inspiration for this pastel at a Philadelphia-area arboretum a couple of years ago at a paint-out. It's pastel. Complicated and large (14" x 20") and less than half way through I wondered if I was crazy even to try it. I don't know how to do a very specific drawing on sanded, pastel paper, so I kept getting lost in all the petals. I invite critiques. As usual, you can see a larger, more vibrant version by clicking on the one here.

Philadelphia Water Color Society Members' Exhibition

2009-04-17T13:40:00.004-05:00

Each of the last few years PWCS has had a members' show in addition to the large, prestigious, hard-to-get-into Anniversary Exhibition. The members' show is juried from the painting itself rather than from slides (or digital starting this year) so only those close enough to the venue are able to enter. Nevertheless, this year the members' show had almost 120 entries of which only slightly more than half could fit in the gallery where it's being shown. AND I GOT IN. As always with PWCS, the show is "works on paper" which includes all watermedia, collage (with some restrictions) and pastel. I entered this collage, made of paper I made myself from shredded paper waiting to be recycled. When I first did the collage, I used string, which you see here, but later I made more paper and rolled it to be the "string" because one of the collage restrictions is that all elements must be of paper. The collage itself is 22" x 30"; a full sheet of watercolor paper. Now, if only I could get into the Anniversary Exhibition! It's coming up this summer.

Daffodils . . . again

2009-04-09T17:06:00.003-05:00

As I painted the pastel version, I wanted to do the blossoms large, so this is on a half sheet, rather than the quarter sheet sizes of the other versions. I painted the background blue with watercolors, then did the flowers over the blue, so maybe this is technically a mixed media painting. I think the center of the bottom trumpet needs to be a bit darker. This is the last pastel for a while because I started a watercolor today.

Spring

2009-04-06T10:01:00.004-05:00

After those snowy paintings, I decided it was time for spring to arrive, so I dug out a photo of daffodils for inspiration. The daffodils in my garden are not quite blooming. I did it first in watercolor and then pastel. making no attempt to make the drawings identical to each other or the photo. As I worked on the watercolor version, I kept thinking of an AAMilne poem from When We Were Very Young entitled Daffydowndilly. So you don't have to look it up, here it is:
She wore her yellow sun-bonnet,
She wore her greenest gown;
She turned to the south wind
And curtsied up and down.
She turned to the sunlight
And shook her yellow head,
And whispered to her neighbor:
"Winter is dead."
As always, I invite critiques . . . and you can see better versions by clicking on the small ones here.

Front Gate

2009-03-24T18:51:00.002-05:00

Or "Winter Series No. 2." Another pastel I did today. I had the same sort of underpainting as the one yesterday. It's fun to see the whole mood and temperature shift as I apply the pastel over the hot oranges and reds. There is a point, however, where the underpainting is distracting and I have to hurry to at least block in the colors I want.

Morning Walk

2009-03-23T14:05:00.004-05:00

We have crocuses and early daffodils blooming and I decided to paint winter today. Go figure; usually I want to anticipate a season. I needed to do something entirely different after all my versions of Nonna, so I got out my pastels and printed a photo I'd taken one snowy morning this winter while I was walking the dogs. I love my new iPhone, with its included camera! Before I put on pastels, I did an underpainting on the Wallis, sanded paper with liquid watercolors. I love the way underpaintings sneak a bit of themselves through the pastel and enliven the final painting.

Nonna

2009-03-21T15:17:00.004-05:00

Well, obviously I didn't finish writing about the Don Anderson workshop, and I won't now.

A few years ago, I painted this grandmother whose photo I'd taken at the Saturday market in Buonconvento, Tuscany. It was bought by a man who wanted to know how I'd known his mother to paint her picture. It isn't his mother. For the workshop, I went through old photos looking for ones with high contrast and connected darks. I painted her in the workshop but there were too many things wrong with the paint application, mostly caused by time pressure and not letting layers, especially the dark ones, dry long enough (or at all!). After the workshop, I painted her again, a half-sheet (14" x 20") and liked it much better. Then I decided that I would try painting it a full sheet: it seems like it might make it into some juried show and full sheets are more arresting, at least for the viewers if not for the juror. This is the full sheet version. It took a long time to paint, both because of the drying time and because for the darkest portions I had to work up my nerve. The darks have a lot of odd areas to cover and keep from dripping.

Don Andrews Workshop, day 2

2009-02-24T16:47:00.005-05:00

I did this barn today, from a photo I took at Winterthur Gardens last summer. The critique suggested that I darken the top of the lefthand tree, somehow connect the window on the front of the barn with the shadow, and one other thing that I've forgotten but have written down in my sketchbook which is at the art center. Don talked today about making these juicy, multicolored washes, about making good neutrals (gray: ultramarine blue and burnt siena, for one), and making mud. We all thought we could teach the last subject! I'm a bit pooped, but this is lots of fun. Do click on the smaller version here to see the larger, more colorful one.

Don Andrews Workshop, day 1

2009-02-23T16:48:00.007-05:00

Our local art center is sponsoring a 5-day workshop with Don Andrews. Even after only one day . . . a long one . . . I can recommend him as a teacher.

His painting style is not mine, at all, but it's interesting to try his method. He paints in lots of layers, but I wouldn't call it glazing. He starts with the lightest value (leaving some white of the paper) and works toward the darkest, not necessarily waiting for things to dry but using the same color(s) over each other to build up the value. I tend to be a direct, slap-it-on painter so this takes some restraint on my part. On the other hand, he uses lots of colors, often letting them mingle on the paper which is on an easel set quite steeply. He also talks a lot about various elements of composition such as value, hue, value, placement of elements, value, focal area, etc. So this is what I did today (at the bottom). It's from my head and I see I have a nice, dark worm moving through the middle ground, not an unusual occurrence for me when I make something up. Basically I'm happy with what I did.

Here are a couple of photos I took during Don's demo. The right one is when he has put on a couple of layers of light value and the left is where the painting was when we left today. I assume it's finished, but only he knows.

Rub My Tummy

2009-02-17T14:58:00.004-05:00

This was painted on gesso-coated board with the lighter tones lifted. It's Amari in a very familiar position. The title says it all!

figures

2009-02-03T16:11:00.013-05:00

I didn't feel too inspired to paint today in our painting studio. I had a bunch of photos of people and my sketchbook, watercolors and Caran d'Ache crayons. I sketched the other three there (snowing today, we we are the intrepid ones) in charcoal in my sketchbook first. There was no effort to make these portraits, just to make them look like people, lol. I also transferred a pencil sketch I'd done previously onto wc paper. For that one, I used the two liquid watercolors I'd taken, an orange and a turquoise and some charcoal. On another paper, I pencilled in the others, washed in some wc paint in a pattern I liked with little reference to the sketch, then used a single crayon to draw the people. Finally, I loosely painted the shapes of the figures in two photos, then used crayons to draw in, or accent, the figure. My goal here was to get the gesture. I could correct a bit with the crayon, too, since the painting was done without lines and loosely. I need to put more obvious wheels on the skateboard. With the kid on the wave board (I don't know the name of this, but it's used at the beach where the water is only a few inches deep), I did the drawing first with orange crayon and it wasn't right, so I just did the drawing again with blue.

Mixed Media Workshop

2009-01-28T11:20:00.004-05:00

Last week I took a 3-day, mixed media workshop at our local art center. I've taken these regularly over the last several years and this time something suddenly clicked and I got paintings that I like, or can at least look at for a while. Usually I either make mud or an all-over pattern with no center of interest and no place for the eye to travel. Rather than put all that I did, and have continued to do this week, I'll offer you a slideshow. You can see larger versions by clicking on the little Picasa icon at the bottom right of the slideshow. Any of these paintings is subject to change!

Purple Sky

2009-01-12T15:06:00.002-05:00

Done with pastels on black paper. It may or may not be finished, depending on what feedback I get (hint!). It's from an ordinary photo I took, then changed the colors in Photoshop.

Storm Passing

2009-01-06T14:48:00.003-05:00

One day in the fall, late in the day, I looked out the window to see the western sun shining on the trees across the cul-de-sac, with the day's storm clouds moving off to the east. I used that light as inspiration for this pastel. The light on the trees is the only resemblance to what I see out the window! It's good to be back making art. As always, this version of this picture next to the words you're reading is muted; you'll get a better idea of the painting if you click on the picture and see the larger version.

Mad Dogs and Englishmen

2009-01-06T14:41:00.004-05:00

Who wrote "only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the noonday sun"? Anyway, that's what came to me as I did this painting. It's taken me weeks to do; these holidays sure do mess up our schedules, don't they? The photo was taken somewhere in Germany, I think, by my father in 1964. I love the light and the angle until, that is, I tried to draw it. I see a couple of things to finish, but basically it's done.

Feeding Grandpa

2008-12-02T14:37:00.004-05:00

I finished this one today, after it has sat around with the drawing done for many days. It's from the same photo as a previous painting, only this one is a half-sheet and cropped while the other was a quarter-sheet and full length. It was a bit scary to start with the paint, but I'm happy with it now. I love Grandpa's hand in this one: it looks just like my father's hand (Grandpa is my father's father). I think this is finished, but as always, I invite critiques. And as always, you'll see better colors and more detail if you click on the picture for the larger version.

Sky

2008-11-30T11:13:00.004-05:00

This little landscape was done for a monthly project of an email watercolor group to which I belong. It was inspired by a photo taken by Marci, also a member of the group, although it doesn't much resemble the photo. It's somewhat smaller than a quarter sheet.

Autumn Road

2008-11-25T14:33:00.007-05:00

Another pastel. This is the same photograph that I used for the previous, blurry painting. The orange and lavender in the sunlight is really what attracted me to this photo. As usual, you'll see the colors better if you click on the picture here to see the larger version.

Two pastels

2008-11-18T13:34:00.005-05:00

To make up for that leaf painting that took weeks, I did two pastels this morning. Both are from slides that my father took and that I have been scanning (all 6700 of them!). The autumn scene was done on a piece of red, flocked paper that another person in the studio had found in her old art supplies. If it looks out of focus that's because that's how it looks in person. The paper would only take the softest pastels and sharp lines were out of the question. It was fun to do, but the two of us who tried it recommended that no one buy more.

Catching Up

2008-11-13T18:16:00.002-05:00

Well you haven't missed many paintings in the 6 weeks or so since I posted. About a month ago, Fran tripped over one of our dogs and broke her shoulder. As a result, she spent almost 2 weeks in the hospital and had a partial shoulder replacement (the knob on the top of the arm bone). We discovered that the closest hospital to us has improved greatly over the last dozen years or so and Fran got excellent care there, as well as from the ambulance guys who got her there! That means I've taken over all the cooking, as well as the other household tasks Fran usually does, and I haven't gotten much painting done.

I did paint this dogwood tree that grows on our back hill, and these canna leaves from a photo I took at Chanticleer, a local-ish garden where we were taking a plein air class. The leaves took me weeks . . . not my usual finish-in-one-sitting style of painting.

Whte Abstract

2008-09-30T18:05:00.004-05:00

This is the same painting as August 23 and September 23! After living with it for a week, I decided to revise it yet again. This time I put white gesso over most of it, using a scrap of foam core for a spreader . . . sort of like icing a cake but messier and not nearly as sweet. I added some things, took away some things, threw some paint and generally made a mess and had fun. As always, critiques welcomed.

Birches

2008-09-26T11:20:00.002-05:00

I started this pastel yesterday, too, and I'm really excited about it. It has an energy that I like. This needs more work yet than the low country painting, but I'm going to try my best to maintain the energy.

Low Country

2008-09-26T11:16:00.002-05:00

I did this pastel yesterday from a photo I took in South Carolina. The marshes of the low country are beautiful with different colors practically every time I see them. I'm probably going to do a bit of this and that before I call it done, but it's close

New Work on Old Work

2008-09-23T17:59:00.007-05:00

Today I worked on two paintings from my mixed media workshop in August (see the entry for August 23). If you go back and look, you can see what I did with the blue, gold and white painting. It really needed some darker values and to have some more solid places. The second one here, which I'm calling The Strip for now, was so bad that I only posted a teeny section of it in August. After I cut that section off, I had an almost square, very busy painting left. I covered large sections with black, letting the original mess show through where you see the color. Then I adjusted and added a bit, mostly the touches of blue.
I don't know if either is finished; who can know, when they're so abstact. Click on larger versions for the brighter colors and send me any critiques you feel like.
By the way, both of these paintings are the same height, I just can't get them to look that way here. 14" high

Catching Up

2008-09-10T11:21:00.013-05:00

My goodness but it's been a long time since I posted. Not that I haven't been painting. I guess Life has just gotten in the way. I worked on this start from my mixed media workshop and I like it better, probably because it now has all three primary colors.

I also revisited the photo of the pastel, "Cheryl's Lake" that I posted on July 22. I did two more versions, one with acrylic paints and the other collaged with colored tissue paper. Neither is a masterpiece, but its a good exercise, I think, and makes me realize that the pastel is pretty dull looking. I'll work on that one the next time I put away the paints and get out the pastels. Here are the other 2. As usual, these will look brighter if you click on them for the larger versions.

Finally, I did these two which are called "Dreams" and "Dog Dreams." They were done as the result of a challenge to a small group I'm in. The challenge was to pick 2 colors which are complements to each other (opposite sides of the color wheel), add an earth tone, and paint anything using only those three colors. The colors I picked are a coral and peacock blue for the complements, and a gold for the earth tone. The image slowly formed in my head but it wasn't until I had it, as well as I could, on paper and looked at it for a while that I knew how to do it better. The first one has acrylic mat medium blotched on the paper before any paint . . . which didn't cover the medium. For the second, I used gesso for the texture. That takes watercolor, although differently from plain paper. I also planned the values better with a pencil value sketch.

Mixed Media Workshop

2008-08-22T16:41:00.007-05:00

I just finished a week-long, mixed media workshop at our local art center. There were 6 of us the first 3 days and then only three of us the last two, plus the teacher (Nancy Barch), of course. Most of us had taken MM workshops from Nancy before and we had a great, if exhausting, time. Nancy did demos and critiques. We each had mounds and mounds of stuff . . . watercolors, acrylics, collage materials, pastels, various drawing implements, glue, scissors, thread, gesso, stuff to make texture such as bubble wrap, meshes, etc. Nancy scheduled this week just at the end of the art center's summer season so we had a room where we could each have a large table and could leave all our stuff spread out and ready to work. I have a few pieces which aren't anywhere near finished, but many that are close enough to share. The paintings are roughly in chronological order, although I often worked on 2 or 3 at a time so they had time to dry.

As usual, these are brighter if you click on a picture for the larger version. And also as usual, comments and critiques are invited.

Most of the paintings are on half sheets (about 14" x 20"). The more square painting is a small part of a larger, definitely unsuccessful, painting and is probably more or less 8" square. The final one, with the dog pictures collaged on, was originally painted on a full sheet but is cropped all around.

Peonies

2008-08-12T14:25:00.002-05:00

I love the red stems 'n stuff on these white peonies. The painting is a combination of two photos.

waterfall

2008-08-11T12:24:00.005-05:00

I have had a photo cropped from a larger one which is of one of the creeks that abound in our area. This crop just shows the water falling over a rock, making a "waterfall" perhaps a foot high. This makes a good abstract shape and I've been working on painting it over the last week. Here's the photo:

First, I painted the picture in watercolor, quickly so as to stay loose. I knew watercolor wasn't the best medium for this project, and I tried anyway. I was right. I don't much like this painting, although when I just looked at it small (it's 10" x 14," a quarter sheet) it didn't seem so bad.

Today I did what I've wanted to do all along, and painted it in pastels. A much better medium for painting the value shifts and blends that are in this photo, and I didn't have to save any whites. I've changed it from the photo, something easier to do with pastels because when I don't like something I can go back and change it easily.

So here's my final waterfall painting, the same size as the watercolor version.

Demo slideshow

2008-08-02T10:18:00.004-05:00

I did my demo and I think it went well. Here's a slideshow of some of the photos Fran took. The captions are long, so you may want to go through one photo at a time. You get to the controls by pointing your mouse at the bottom of the pictures. You can also see much bigger pictures on Picassa: http://picasaweb.google.com/janefranphoto/DemoAtMedfordLeas.

Demo of pears

2008-07-30T08:15:00.001-05:00

I've had a show hanging at a retirement community in NJ for the last couple of months (Medford Leas in Medford). A couple of weeks ago, they asked me to do a demo for their studio art group when I pick up the paintings. Gulp. I've done one demo in my entire life and that was for a class in which I was a student. So I'm going to do pears, my fall-back subject when I don't feel inspired by anything else. I've done pears in many ways and like the distinctiveness and simplicity of their shape.

So this time, as I stewed over this (no pun intended), I decided to buy pears and see what I could do to arrange them in some pleasing way. Yesterday I set out a large piece of foam core for its whiteness and arranged and rearranged the pears in what I hoped would be a good composition. Then I added a deep cobalt blue glass and a pottery bowl. I moved around the grouping, working on the shadows and the travel of the eye. I took them outside in the sun. I tweaked and fussed, all the time snapping photos from various heights (don't y'all just love digital cameras?). Finally, probably 40 or 50 photos later, I had something I liked. I printed it. I drew it. I did a sketch with charcoal pencil to check the values. I drew in onto a half sheet (14" x 20"). The size of the paper was part of my stewing because I wanted it big enough so people could see, but I didn't want gigundous pears. I like my paintings to fit in the standard frames I keep on hand.

So here's the charcoal sketch which is a little bigger than 5" x 7". The demo isn't until Friday, so you (and I) will have to wait for the actual painting, although I may do a smaller version today, being the impatient sort who hates to have a paper with a drawing and no paint hanging around.

I guess the amount of my preparation indicates my anxiety over how this will go. They've only seen my good paintings, not any of my screw-ups. Oh well.

lilies

2008-07-30T08:14:00.004-05:00

ne of our painting friends brought lilies from her garden with her the other day. We've both painted them, she in acrylics and me in wc. It took a lot of glazing on the flowers but I think I'm done with this. Comments and critiques invited. Quarter sheet.

Please click on this small version to see the larger one which isn't all grayed.