Wild Dogwood

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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"

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

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.