Throwback Thursday - "Parlor Afternoon"

"Parlor Afternoon"
19" x 11" (image size)
(watercolor on paper)
$700

Click here to purchase.

I still really like this painting but it is need of a forever home.  It was completed in February of 2014 and is from a photograph I took at my friend's house.  It was a peaceful afternoon with beautiful sunlight that filled the room.  The rich tones of the wood floor and chair were fun to paint.  And I'm always happy to render the folds in fabric.

If you are interested in purchasing this painting -- it comes matted in a slight off-white mat - about 2 inches wide, and finished with a lovely wooden frame like the image shown.  This painting is on paper so it is matted and framed under glass.  A payment plan is available for this painting, just contact me for the terms.

Have a great night!

Parlor Afternoon

 "Parlor Afternoon"
19" x 11"
watercolor on paper

I've been staring at this painting for months now, wondering what my next move should be. Normally, I'd labor over the design on the red fabric on the quilt but decided that this painting is more about a sense of place and mood.  I like the quilt just the way it is and don't think this needs any more persnickety details. I did a little tweaking to the floor and some of the woodwork -- warming it up slightly and called it a day. I hope you like it. I may enter it in an upcoming show, so for now, I haven't put a price on it . . . I'm just going to stare at it a little longer.  :)  Thank you for stopping in.

Some More WIPs

Blueberry Redo

There's a little story behind the blueberries.  I was just about done with them last time I posted -- just wanted to do one more background wash to get rid of a light spot that was a little distracting.  Well, I thought I'd get all fancy and mask off the edges that I didn't want to disturb with my background wash and made a big ol' mess.  The wash seeped under the masking and just yucked everything all up.  HOWEVER -- I kind of felt the painting was a little muddy.  Not as fresh as I would have liked.  So I decided to start over.  I'm so glad I did.  I learned so much from the first run-through that the second time around took no time to get to this point and I think it's fresher than the original.  See . . . there are such things as "happy accidents."  God bless Bob Ross!  :)

The chair was started a while ago but I don't think I ever posted the first washes.  So this is where I'm at today.  I'm excited about this one.  

Thanks for coming by.  Happy Painting!

Happy Birthday America

"Jubilee"
5" x 5"

(what this painting could look like framed)

Click here to bid

I really do like painting on Ampersand's Aquabord.  This is another small painting done on the board and finished with a gloss acrylic sealer.

Below is an image of that larger piece I'm working on - it has progressed a little since the last time I posted it and thought you might like to see.  Until the next time I post -- I hope all you American's have a joyful Fourth of July!

One Down . . .

"Delicious Light"
11" x 14"

Just added the finishing touches on this little baby.  I'll be posting it over at Daily Paintworks, however it won't be up for sale just yet.  I'm intending on submitting it to a Spring juried show.  My fingers are crossed it gets in.  Happy painting.

Letting It Rest

"Untitled"
11" x 14"

I think I'm just about done with this one.  I'm going to let it rest for a little while and see what needs to be tweaked.  I know there are a couple areas that need a little more time.  But for the most part I think it's done.  Personally I like the way the sun bleaches out the bottom right, so hopefully it's not too disturbing to folks, however I promise I will do something with that pink "arrow" pointing to the bottom of the page.  YEOW!

I had intended to do my "quick" 1-hour painting today, but unfortunately one of the dogs got into a little bit of a mess today that required my immediate and prolonged attention . . . I will spare you the gross details.  Aaaahhh . . . gotta love `em!  :)

Mad Dash

Untitled work in progress
11" x 14"

Ok . . . I'm a little insane. Here's the beginning of another new painting. I'm starting to juggle. I still have some work left on the quilt with the chair and I have a barn painting going on too. (I don't think I've posted that one yet.) I'm also hot to start work on two others. I like having a few going. Keeps me from getting bored.  

This painting I started last week on Arches 300 lb. cold-press and was HATING it. I don't know what's wrong with me. I feel like I lose all luminosity on cold-press. I struggle with keeping the watercolor transparent anyway, and I'm just not able to keep it fresh it seems on cold-press. Isn't that nuts?  Anyway . . . I decided last night to trash the first one and begin again.  I'm so happy I did. This new one is on Fabriano soft-pressed paper. I'm not even sure what "soft-pressed" means . . . but I think it's somewhere in between hot and cold. I usually prefer hot-pressed surfaces, but thought I'd give this a whirl. This paper is a little more like velvet and lifts sooooo beautifully. And we all know how I like to scrub!  :) But layering washes is very tricky . . . almost impossible. So anyway that's where we are. Oh and I started an "hour painting" this morning but kept getting interrupted so I think I have a 1/2 hour left on it.  I'll try to finish the last 1/2 hour tomorrow morning. I wasn't able to do any other quick paintings besides the two I posted last week. Things got a little busy and so when I could I just worked on the larger paintings.

Ok . . . enough drivel.  Latah!

Trying a Still Life

"Cobalt Blues"
(approximately) 7.5" x 6.75"

So I thought I'd give a still life a whirl.  I went over an hour -- about 15 minutes.  All that pattern took a little while.  Below are two photos showing the progress on my larger painting.  Hmmm . . . we'll see how it goes.  

getting there . . . 

with even a little more done on the quilt and latch

Finally, since Teddy got a cameo in this blog last week, I thought I'd include a shot of Delilah.  She apparently put herself in "time out" yesterday (in my little garden) because Teddy was bugging her so much.  He won't jump the fence (of course she's not supposed to either!)  :)  Until I post again . . . have a glorious day!

More Updates

Oh my goodness, I feel like a painting/blogging machine these few days! :)  Obviously the painting in progress above is of the "chair with quilt" -- for lack of a better title at the moment.  So things are moving along with this one.  

Below, I've posted an image of the latch detail on the "Bittersweet Door" painting.  It was just too flat and bugging me, so I added a couple shadows to it and they made all the difference.  Now I'm happy with it.  So I wanted to share that with you. It's still up for auction over at DPW if you're interested.  I haven't changed that photo, so you can pretend it has the better latch now.

the improved latch detail on "Bittersweet Door"

click here to bid

Finally, I've attached the progress on my "Church Street Barn" painting.  It's coming along.  I'm doing a great deal of detail that I'm not sure will work or not.  We'll see.  I almost like going too far with areas of my paintings and then pulling back by washing out.  You can get an almost ghostlike quality that you can't get by painting directly onto the paper.  It's the same with highlights.  While sometimes reserving the whites are required, many times I prefer to pull out the color after the darks have been added.  It all depends on what suits the painting. Just something to think about.

"Church Street Barns"
12" x 12"

Ok enough of my lecturing . . . off to get my chores done!  :)

A Day Late . . .

"Old Fashioned" -- in progress
8" x 8"

Well, it's more like DAYS late.  I had originally started the painting above for the Daily Paintworks Challenge last week -- "Paint Your Breakfast." Unfortunately time just got away from me. It's close to being done, but not quite. Ugh.

As you may remember, I've been working on a commission, so I haven't spent much time on my watercolors.  However, I have managed to get in a little watercolor painting when I need to break away from the commission and let it set for later re-evaluation. You know how it goes. Anyway, hopefully I can finish this one up soon.

Below is another painting I've just begun.  Hopefully I can get it done for some of the Spring juried shows that are coming up. We'll see.

OH wait! . . . that's not the painting . . . it's an image of what happens when I try to snap a picture of a work in progress and the dogs are in. That's Teddy. He likes to poke up right in front of my camera and lick my face when I'm low to the ground. He looks cross-eyed when he's so close. He makes me laugh . . . what a goof!  :)  The next photo is the actual painting in progress.  It's a larger one for me:  15" x 19".

Ooh . . . this looks a little crooked.  I think it's from the rounded lens.  I try to fix that in photoshop, guess I didn't do such a good job.  Ok . . . so back to the drawing board . . . hopefully I can finish SOMETHING in the next few days!  

Last Bits of Summer

"Black-eyed Susans"
(image size:  4.5" x 6")
just an example of what this could look like framed
SOLD

$70 - Click here to bid

I changed the cropping on this and like it so much better.  The "virtual frame" above is just an example of what this could look like with a double mat and frame.  For a close-up of this painting you can click above to be taken to it's auction page over at the Daily Paintworks site.

Grandmother's Pillow

"Grandmother's Pillow"
10" x 12"
SOLD

example of possible framing

So I think I'm finished, but I'm going to let it set for a spell.  You never know what you might see after a day or two.  Overall though, I'm pleased and looking forward to sharing this with my grandmother.  I think she'll be tickled.  I'm not putting it up for sale yet as I want to get it over to my printer for giclee reproductions.  (But I'll post it again when it goes up for sale).  In the meantime I'll be working on some new paintings and finishing up the ones I posted yesterday.  I'll also be cleaning my studio (I've got the Backroads Studio Tour coming up -- yeeeow!) and this place is a disaster.  I need to get into my basement storage area too - horribly disorganized.  So if I don't post again by Tuesday, call in the National Guard, I may have been swallowed up by the mess!  Have a good weekend ya'll!  :)

Study and New Paintings

"Porch Pumpkins" (a study)
6" x 9.5"

"Black-eyed Susans" (in progress)
6" x 6"

"Grandmother's Pillow" (in progress)
10" x 12"

I really haven't been slacking all week, but have been working on a few paintings and sketches.  The first painting is a small study I did for a larger painting.  I've started the big one, but I'm HATING the paper.  A friend of mine gave me a couple sheets of Arches Rough that she had bought years ago.  I don't normally use rough, but I thought it would be good for the texture of the boards.  Well, I don't know if the paper is too old or maybe it's just one of the qualities of "rough" but it's not allowing for any lifting of color at all and it's doing some weird bleeding.  It's horrible.  The study was done on some illustration board I had . . . which was supposed to be cold pressed watercolor board, but apparently wasn't, and so it's not as sharp as I'd like it, but I worked out some things that I needed to anyway.  More importantly, here's the good news . . . my Jerry's Artarama order came in today with oodles of paper and boards that I ordered, so I'm looking forward to restarting "Porch Pumpkins" and lifting to my heart's content.  (Don't you just love when art supply orders come in?  It's like Christmas!)

And the other two paintings are just about done.  Just some more tweaking, nothing major.  The images here, aren't of great quality . . . I didn't fuss with the colors too much and it's dark and rainy here but they give you the idea.

Anyhow -- Happy Friday, Happy Painting and have a good weekend.

Old Painting, New Auction

"Homespun"

I just put this painting up for auction on the DPW site . . . click here if you're interested in bidding.  I look forward to posting some new paintings tomorrow!