Mixed Media Workshop

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Peonies

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

Still working in pastel

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

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

Splash!

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?

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

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.