So Proud

"all together now . . ."  

Well, tonight was the last night of my watercolor workshop.  I am sooo proud of my "On the Vine" students and happy to share their paintings with you.  Look at how well they turned out.  While they are all the same subject, each one has its own style and personality.  And pretty much these are all from first time painters!  I'm so proud of "my ladies'" patience and commitment.  I mean, look at the depth on some of these tomatoes!  :)  What a great class -- thank you so much Donna, Jacqui, Joanne and June.  

Donna

Jacqui

Joanne

June

Late Post

I forgot to post the progress my students from my "On The Vine" workshop, made last week. So here are 3 -- at various stages. All my students have taken their paintings home to work on them, and unfortunately I only took photos of three of the paintings -- I missed the fourth!  Sorry! I'm really excited to see what they come back with next Monday . . . they are all doing terrific work and I think are having a good time. I'll be sure to post some shots after that class.

As for my work . . . I'm working on a large commission, but have started a small watercolor and will post my progress in the next few days.  In the meantime -- Happy Painting!  :)

The Daily Paintworks Challenge

"On The Vine"
6" x  4.5"
click here to bid

This week's Daily Paintworks Challenge is one of mine.  I hope you'll all give it a whirl!  (And many thanks to Carol Marine for the DPW site and her encouragement.)

The idea: This week’s challenge is to create a dynamic composition - really think outside the box - and pay particular attention to your design. I’ve listed a few of my favorite “rules to a good composition” that I use to help guide my students (and me!) to dynamic arrangements of space that will draw people into the painting. Feel free to use some of them, all of them, none of them . . . whatever helps you:

- create depth through foreground, midground and background & overlap shapes
- use diagonals (oh so much more interesting than horizontals!)
- use "run-off" (have objects run off the page on all four sides – but be sure to avoid having them just "touch" the edges)
- employ the rule of thirds (divide your paper into thirds rather than halves – horizon lines and focal points should all fall on these lines - stay away from centering - create INFORMAL BALANCE
- create “shards” of negative space (maintain interest through contrasting sizes and shapes of negative shapes)
- keep 80-90 percent of your space positive (enlarge your image to fit your space, no one wants to look at a page of empty space)
- use contrast (create apparent differences in size, shape and value)
- stagger objects (avoid lining objects up)

Have fun designing!

"On The Vine" and July Workshop

"On The Vine"
6.5" x 4"

Click here to bid

This painting is the subject of my next 5-week workshop beginning July 1st here at my studio. You can read about it above, by clicking on "workshops." I hope you can join us! 

Now back to my other paintings.  Happy painting!

Fiddling and Winners!

"One the Vine" (wip)
4.5" x 6"

I fiddled with this little one over the weekend and will finish it up today. Then it's back to my nantucket basket!  

In other news . . . I finally decided on a name for my bowl painting (below). I want to thank everyone who wrote in with their suggestions, both here and on my Facebook. I really appreciate your input not to mention your taking the time to respond. I decided on Shelley Warburton Siegel's "Morning Blues" -- I think it brings a story to the painting. I love the word play but also the lingering question. So thank you so much Shelley, for your clever title!  I'll be sending her a little prize in the mail. In addition, I've put all your names in a hat and picked another winner who will also be getting a little something . . . and that person is Crystal Cook! Crystal posted a lovely and thoughtful suggestion here on my blog. So thanks again and keep your thinking caps on, because I'm sure I'll be back for more help. 

"Morning Blues"
12" x 16"

Have a great day and thank you for stopping in.