Good News on the Homefront!

work-in-progress (2)
6" x 6"
watercolor on aquabord

In personal news, my dad was released from rehab on Saturday!!  WooHoo!  So he is now staying with Dan, Teddy, Dee-Dee and me.  We're so glad to have him here.  He made wonderful progress while at HealthSouth in Ludlow, MA.  It is a tremendous facility, staffed with wonderful, caring people.  And I can't say enough good things about his team - so responsive, proactive, knowledgeable, diligent and compassionate.  A HUGE thank you to everyone who cared for my dad during his stroke recovery, from the bottom of my heart.

work-in-progress (1)
6" x 6"
watercolor on aquabord

On the artistic front: 

I've been working on some commissions as you know.  I finished one on Friday, but because it's not going to its recipient until the end of July, I can't publish it yet, but I will as soon as I can.

I've started another couple commissions over the weekend and will share some sneak peeks soon.  I also snuck in a little work on the orange wedge. 

Wishing you a delightful start to your week!

Internships

Work In Progress
6" x 6"
(watercolor on aquabord)

Last summer I had the good fortune of working with a lovely young lady headed into her senior year of high school.  Her family summers at the lake in the town where I live and because she is very interested in Art and becoming an Art Teacher she contacted me to see if I'd be interested in taking on an intern.  How lucky was I?   

"Crayola Rowboat"
notecard
painting by Elanna  G. Honan

Click here to purchase notecards.

Ellie is a wonderful person, talented artist and is a fantastic worker.  In fact you can visit her new website here where she has her fine art notecards for sale with a portion of the proceeds going to Charity Water, a non-profit organization that has a goal to bring clean drinking water to every person on the planet.  She recently graduated from high school and is headed to college where she will focus her studies on Art.  

Because I had such a wonderful experience with Ellie, I decided to take on another intern.  So this year I've once again been blessed with a super high school student to help me out one afternoon each week.  Because these are non-paying internships, I trade lessons and whatever I can, to compensate my helpers.  My latest intern, after tackling many boring tasks, has started to try her hand at watercolor on aquabord.  So my painting above is the beginning of my demonstration.  I've painted this subject before but on paper and a different size.  Hopefully I'll be able to finish this little ditty up, in between my commissions.  

Have a great week . . . I look forward to sharing with you the first painting in a series of commissions, sometime this week.  Thanks for coming by.

Orange Wedge With Blueberries II

"Orange Wedge With Blueberries II"
8.25" x 10.75"
watercolor on paper

Click here to bid.  Starting bid:  $70

I am hopefully going to turn these fruit paintings into much larger ones -- full sheets.  I love the impact of VERY larger than life images. These little paintings are serving as practice. So far I've done three -- I think they would make a lovely collection in someone's kitchen, don't you?  The images below serve as examples of what these paintings could look like framed.

Thank you for viewing my work.

"Orange Wedge With Blueberries"

"Birdseye Blueberries"

"Orange Wedge With Blueberries II"

Future Tutorial?

So it hasn't been the most productive week for painting.  BUT I did get some work in.  I went through my paintbox and discovered some colors that I've never tried, so I worked on a color chart.  I did some color charts a long time ago, but haven't since I've been painting regularly.  I discovered some new things about some of the colors I've been using.  I'm a slow-learner.  :)

I also began a tutorial of a new fruit study.  A long-distance friend of mine is going to paint along side of me while I do this next painting.  So I thought I'd experiment with doing a tutorial.  So far I've done still shots and short videos and have emailed her their instructions.  If all goes well and I can get it together, I may turn it into a DPW art byte.  

While I haven't included the instructions here, I posted a few of the first pictures below.  Pay no mind to the dirty thumb nail (real thumb nail, not drawing "thumbnail"), I'd been gardening.  :)

sketch - working out my palette

first shadow wash

dirty fingernail with orange wedge

all wet and juicy

oh boy . . . so far so good

Oh Boy

step 5

Oh boy.  I thought I would have had this painting done last week, but I got all distracted and started working on some home-improvement projects this week, including organizing and spring-cleaning my studio.  I did however, manage a little more work on this painting. It's almost done.  I only have a few things to fix.  Hopefully it doesn't look too crazy on your monitor -- I can't seem to get the colors to accurately reflect what they're like in real life.  Too many slight variations. In any event -- have a great weekend!  

step 4