AND THE WINNER IS...

The winner of my 6th bloggerversary give-way is:

Sadami!!!

Sadami sent me her mailing address in Australia, and has asked for Small Seas No. 2.  The painting, along with some surprises, will go out in the mail today. 

Congratulations, Sadami :)

I have to admit, I hadn't been painting much lately.  First, Sweetie went away to Bonaire for 10 days and I was a bachelorette again.  While he was gone, I was getting ready for the painting crew to come in - which meant taking everything off the walls, boxing up books and removing bookcases and small furniture in the living room and giving the baseboards and trim work a wash.  Then last Monday and Tuesday and painters were here.  Wednesday, Thursday, Friday it was all doing everything in reverse - putting furniture back, unboxing books, deciding what paintings and photos to go on the walls (we're being much more selective this time - quality, not quantity!).  And I've gotten into an exercise routine (which was necessary after living on McDonald's caramel frappes while Sweetie was gone! ha ha  So walking 1+ mile each day and then Pilates to stretch out so not so sore.  And cleaning for class members to come tomorrow (I may be getting another new student soon which means I'll have 5 students come to the house.)

Where does the time go?  I don't know how you who have to work a 9-5 job can get any time or energy for painting!  I so admire those who do and keep working and striving and growing.

Enough excuses, though.  I mean, one can always make excuses about why they can't paint, right?  I do it enough, especially in the winter months!

Yesterday evening I did pick up the acrylic ink painting done in class October 30th and added some more distinct red berries and vines.  I think it needs a few highlights on the berries and it's done. 

I also finished the Christopher Leeper landscape.  I will share that tomorrow (when I get another photo of the finished piece). 

I hope you all have a great week.  Sadami, look for your package to arrive in a week or two (I think it will take that long to arrive in Australia?).

DO YOU FEEL LUCKY?

Today I'm giving away a painting to celebrate 6 year's of blogging! 

All you have to do to have your name in the drawing is post a comment today. 

And I am giving you a choice of one of these four paintings. 




1.
The Saddest Jester
7 1/2" x 8"
A print using acrylic paint with extra touches of acrylic paint to highlight areas.















2.
Small Seas No. 2
5" x 8 1/4"
Watercolor









3.
Small Seas No. 1
5" x 8 1/4"
Watercolor









4.
Powder Blue
9 3/4" x 11"
Watercolor





The painting or print chosen will be mailed as is, unmatted and unframed, so you can choose how to display it. 


I will mail anywhere in the world.  Just post a comment and let me know you want to be in the drawing.  The drawing will we done using the Random.org site.  Comments will be counted until midnight tonight. 

The drawing will be held this weekend and winner announced on Monday.  If you are the lucky winner, I'll let you know via email (don't forget to give me your email if it's not connected to your blog/webpage/etc.; you can let me know which painting you want when I let you know you are the winner and ask for your snail mail address.

Simple and easy.  Good luck, and check back Monday to see who won.

BLOGGERVERSARY GIVE-AWAY

Monday, November 12th marked my 6th year of blogging!  I can't believe it's been 6 years and I still am learning and trying to grow and still have something to say (maybe that last part is debatable? ha ha).

Anyway, with the painters here this week (beginning Monday morning) and cancelling class Tuesday, I didn't forget about my bloggerversary BUT I didn't have time to get anything ready for a give-away.  After the painters were gone, it was time to get all the furniture back with 3 bookcases and boxes of books stored in other rooms; doing a little bit at a time so I don't ruin my back.

So...I'm going to post something on Friday (tomorrow) and hope you join in for a drawing for a painting.

All you have to do it leave a short comment on tomorrow's post and you'll be in the drawing.  And I promise it will be something nice :)  I may offer a choice of 3 paintings...but you'll have to return tomorrow to see!

ONE WORD WEDNESDAY

Biplane

Photo by R.H. Carpenter

COPY TO LEARN

After a workshop, you often mean to try all the things you've been shown, but you go right back to your same routine.  (Some people do this right in the workshop, continuing to paint "their way" without trying the instructor's way at all!)  I had some landscape photos, taken by Sweetie.  But none of them moved me to paint them.  So, I just printed off the photos that Chris Leeper did in our workshop and am trying to copy them as a way of learning his style and technique.  Putting down those warms (Chris calls them Sun Colors) first and then letting them peak through the cooler colors you put down later. 

This is a direct copy of the first painting/demo he did for us.

First washes are all warm.

I'm trying to keep from comparing my efforts with Chris' painting because I already see so much wrong with it - like, no sky holes in the trees!

Telling myself it's all about learning the style/technique and not getting something perfect this first time.  All about learning learning learning!

SUSAN'S OPEN HOUSE/ART SHOW

It was a gorgeous fall day to drive over to Susan's and see her paintings for sale.  She had out a lot of goodies to munch on, drinks, and was her usual lovely self.  She had her paintings hanging on the walls throughout her home and then had many that were matted and wrapped to look through, too.  I found two immediately and had to decide which one I would love for years - and chose this one.  Beautiful!!!  I also picked up 2 sets of Christmas cards.

I hope she had a great 2-days and sold lots of paintings! 

I don't think I'll be doing much painting this week.  We have a painting crew coming this morning to start taking down a wallpaper border and then patching holes (from all the photographs and paintings hanging on the walls) and painting the living room, hall, entry, etc.  One guy is here now removing the paper while another is at the Sherwin Williams store picking up the paint for the job.  They estimated a 3-day job so I'll be sitting and reading and watching and practicing my Spanish :)

LOCAL ART SHOW

My friend and fellow artist, Susan Grogan, is having an art show and sale at her home in Cincinnati on Saturday and Sunday.  She will show many of her framed works as well as unframed/matted works - all for sale. 

Susan is a lovely person and a wonderful artist,  I've never seen anything she painted that I didn't like.  I'm going over to support her and hope to pick up something beautiful - perhaps an early Christmas present to myself.

If you're in the area and are interested in seeing some beautiful watercolors, go to her site here.

Ordered some new paints - the ones Christopher Leeper uses that I didn't have in my palette:
Manganese Blue Hue, Permanent Alizarin Crimson and Permanent Brown - all by Daniel Smith.

Also ordered some of the brushes he recommended:
Silver Black Velvet brushes, all rounds and one script liner (like a rigger but a bit more brush in the ferrule).  They are soft and smooshy and hold lots of water - I think I'm going to like them.

Waiting for my Arches 300# rough paper to arrive and then I should be able to paint just like Chris - right?  ha ha ha  Yeah, right! ha ha  But I won't have an excuse not to practice and try to incorporate his color sense and style in my landscapes.

Until then, I did start a little painting.  Unfortunately, I am using the Multimedia Art Board I got from Cheap Joe's a while back.  I think this would work as a surface for the acrylic inks or fluid acrylics but not watercolor, which seems to sit there and dull almost immediately.  Or maybe I just don't know the trick to working on this surface with watercolor? 

Anyway, here is the 1st and 2nd stage and it's UGLY :(



It seems like the color won't lift at all - it has set into the surface (which is actually slick - but not like YUPO slick).  At this point, the only way to save it is to go over it with gouache or acrylics.  UGH!

Maybe I'll try some little studies until the 300# rough sheets arrive...


Hope you have a good weekend.  We are having frosty, chilly mornings and then up to 65F during the day = SWEET

WATERCOLOR PROGRAM WITH TAYLOR BUSH

Yesterday, at the monthly meeting of the Greater Cincinnati Watercolor Society (GCWS), our guest artist/speaker was Taylor Bush.  Taylor is a member and everyone who has ever seen her lovely, lyrical portraits of young women has been enchanted.  She talked and demonstrated how she gets that look with her portraits and the pigments she uses (many staining and all transparent pigments).  It was a wonderful demo and Taylor had worked hard to give us a step-by-step of her process, drawing and painting (in various stages) several versions of her portait for the day! 

She had a number of handouts for us, giving us information about the colors she uses and the mixes she uses to get her "shadow colors", which she uses to structure the face while looking at black and white photos of her subjects.

It was obvious, while watching her, that Taylor has spent many years perfecting her technique and knows a lot about facial structure.  She shared so much good information with us and it was a pleasure to watch her work.

She even talked about how she lights her subjects, taking many photographs to get the ones she wants to use for a portrait.  So much good information on photographing portrait subjects that I will have to ask her to return to give a program on lighting and photographing our subjects!

Taylor paints in a pale, high key style and glazes a lot of shadow colors for the "bones" of the portrait before she ever does a first "skin wash" that brings the portrait alive before you eyes!  Truly an exceptional artist who has a signature style that is very appealing, Taylor is now doing portraits amid flowers and art deco style shapes that knocked our socks off when she brought them for critique at a meeting this year.



If you are interested in painting portraits, you should add Taylor's DVDs to your library.  She sells through Amazon and here is the link to view and purchase one (or more) of her DVDs:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dmovies-tv&field-keywords=Taylor+Bush+Portraits
Or you can search Amazon.com for Taylor Bush Portraits and they will come up.

ONE WORD WEDNESDAY

Weathered

Photo by Jerry H. Carpenter

ACRYLIC INK PAINTINGS

In yesterday's post, I shared my first try at acrylic ink on watercolor canvas.  Today, I'm sharing work from two of my beginner students.  They had a great time and have some great starts here.  The cobwebbing and leaves are still on, but you get the idea of the colors they used and how they applied the paint - all without brushes except a few touches of red in Nancy's to bring out the shapes.

Nancy's painting (with the cobwebbing and leaves still on) looks like mine in color and tone.

Linda's painting, done with a very light touch and just with the cobwebbing on the canvas, is more abstracted and pale.  By the time she was going to press in leaves, the paint was dried, so she left it like this.  We all like it and can't wait to see if she removes the cobwebbing or leaves it on and spray seals it as it is.




While waiting for our large canvases to dry, we did a couple of smaller ones on smaller pieces of watercolor board or paper, to see what we could do differently.

This one is mine.  I poured the ink on and then sprayed it to get the organic drizzle look at the top, then used bubble wrap to press into the red/orange color.

This one is Nancy's.  She got really bold with the color on this one!

Linda decided to go much darker with the inks in this one and use bolder colors, too.  This one was done on watercolor paper.

Linda did a 2nd small one, using a stencil (from my selection of stencils from Mary Beth Shaw's StencilGirl company) of rocks to press into the bottom.  Then she decided to make it a rock garden with flowers blooming - very creative!




If you haven't tried acrylic inks, you might want to order a few small bottles and try them.  The color is vibrant and they go on like watercolors but dry permanently. 

DID YOU VOTE TODAY?

CLASS WORK IN ACRYLIC INKS

In September, 3 of my 4 beginner students came to the watercolor society meeting to see the program given by Trish McKinney.  Trish works abstractly, using acrylic inks on watercolor canvas.  My students liked it so much, they wanted to try it.  So I purchased the canvas and inks and planned a lesson around using them.  I used folding chairs and had a lot of plastic down since my classes are in the kitchen and I didn't want us staining the floor or chairs.  It worked out fine and I found that Clorox wipes would take up any drops on the floor that weren't noticed immediately.  And we all enjoyed trying some of the techniques Trish shared that she learned from Mary Ann Beckwith.

The first painting (mine) had Halloween cobweb stuff pulled across the canvas and around the edges to start.  Then acrylic inks were drizzled on the canvas from a condiment bottle or the dropper from the smaller acrylic ink jars.  Leaves were chosen and pushed into the ink and everything was wrapped in plastic wrap to dry, pushing down the plastic wrap to create even more texture. 

When I removed the plastic wrap, everything was pretty dry so I removed the leaves and the cobwebbing.  This is where it stood and I wanted to let it sit before making any changes, if any.


Linda and Nancy both tried this.  Joan continued with her pepper paintings, doing one wet-in-wet and one with the glazing technique and she's doing very well.  Joy is travelling so didn't get to play that day.

Linda and Nancy will do "the big reveal" next lesson, having left their wet canvases at my house until then.  When you do this, you don't really know what you're going to get until you unwrap everything and take the extra stuff off the canvas, leaving it to then add or subtract (using white gesso) areas.  I'm thinking I may leave mine as is except for shaping those red berries a bit more.  It was fun, but messy, with a lot of extra coverings for everything so we'll return to our watercolors next time.

REMEMBER TO VOTE TOMORROW! 

SUNDAY SHARING

It's been a while, but I see that I have a few new followers so it's time to have a Sunday Sharing day!  If you don't know what that means, it means I look at the artwork on the blogs of those new followers and say a few words about them and suggest that others visit and view the different works.  You never know when a new blogger may become a favorite! 

I do appreciate my followers, each and every one.  If you have a blog, but it's not listed readily when I click on your face in the icon, just let me know, and I'll feature you, too.

So, we have 3 new followers who have blogs and here they are:

1.  The Dreaming Palette: Painting and Portals is just one of the many blogs by artist and mystical magical Canadian artist, Victoria Pettella.  She features lovely, mystical women and earth spirits on her blog - perhaps they are all a type of self-portrait?  Anyway, do visit and see what she has to offer.  Take some time; and if you like what you see, you may want to visit her other blogs!

2.  The Colors of the Day/Los Colores Del Dia, is the blog of Sonia Aguiar of Mallorca, Spain.  You will fall in love with her light touch with watercolors.  Go there and see what I mean!

3.  Ngeun Sysengthong's self-titled blog is full of fun colors and shapes that seem to come from his love of lithops.  What are lithops?  Well, after viewing his two blogs, it seems they are succulent plants and cacti.  Very interesting and fun with lots of variety.  Ngeun is working on capturing his natural subjects of cacti, succulents, rocks, leaves - anything natural in our world.  Visit his work and see what you think.  I think he's doing a good job and enjoy any work that features organic, natural things.

Have a lovely Sunday, everyone!

TRYING TO PAINT LANDSCAPES

After 3 days in the Christopher Leeper workshop, I had a few exercises on 1/8 sheet watercolor 140# to share (see previous posts for them).  They are not very good at all, but maybe they have some promise.  Afterall, it's a process of learning and also of painting - the more I do it, the better I will get.  At least, that's what I'm telling myself! ha ha



Here is a small painting I tried, on 1/4 sheet Arches 140# hotpress paper - yep, hotpress!  When I challenge myself, I really go all out!  The result is not good.  I overworked so much.  If I had quit on this about 1/2 hour before I stopped, it might have been good.  But again, a learning experience.

After seeing how muddy this one became, I did a few color studies, using the primary palette Chris used for his snow scene:  Hansa Yellow Light, Cobalt Blue, Quinacridone Red with a touch of Quinacridone Rose.  Chris can make some beautiful browns with just these colors.

I have some Arches 140# rough paper ordered, a few Daniel Smith colors used by Chris (Manganese Blue, Permanent Brown), and some of the Silver Brush Black Velvet round brushes Chris used (get them from Cheap Joes, not Daniel Smith, if you want a better bargain).  So - with all that, and a few pieces of Arches 300# rough paper to practice on, I should be painting like Chris in no time - right? ha ha ha ha ha

A FEW MORE PAINTINGS FROM THE CHRISTOPHER LEEPER WORKSHOP

I didn't take my camera the first day (I knew I'd forget something!), but Susan Grogan, my painting buddy who sat next to me, sent me photos she took from the first demo/painting Chris did.  Thanks, Susan!

Look how Chris lays down those warm colors throughout the painting as a base for everything else.  Those warms them peek through or shine through in places, even if he puts a lot of cools in later.





All of these photos
by Susan Grogan

The colors in the "white" house are so lovely.

20 students taking it all in!





If you want to view more of Christopher Leeper's work and get on his mailing list for a monthly newsletter, just go here.

It's November already!!!  Where did the autumn go?

ONE WORD WEDNESDAY

Spooky!

Photo by Jerry H. Carpenter

FINAL DAY - CHRISTOPHER LEEPER WORKSHOP

We gave Chris a challenge for the final day's painting/demo - a snow scene.  Not that he couldn't do it and had several beautiful snow scenes to show us.  But he challenged himself even more by painting it on Arches 140# hotpress paper and using a photograph that had no lights in it!

Once again, Chris began with the warms, putting in the beautiful main tree with a variety of browns using ONLY:
Cobalt Blue
Hansa Yellow Light
Quinacridone Red with a touch of Quinacridone Rose mixed in

And yes, he made some great browns and ochres using just those colors with a touch of Ultramarine Blue in later so he could get more darks (Cobalt Blue won't go really dark when mixed with the other colors).

Leaving the snow for last, Chris put in the middle ground trees, the background indication of trees and foliage (pushing it back with some blues and violets and warm pinks), and the dark stream.  If you click on the painting, you will see the gorgeous way watercolor blends and flows in the hands of someone who truly knows what he's doing!!











Chris works with his board at a slight slant so the water and pigment can flow and run and he prefers working on Arches 300# rough because the 140# rough now doesn't have the texture he likes for landscapes and that sparkle of white as the brush skips over the paper, leaving whites. 

He never uses masking fluid, hating the hard lines it creates, and he doesn't use many earth tone colors, preferring to mix his own from a wide variety of primary colors in warm and cool temperatures.






Again, I highly recommend taking a workshop or studio lessons from Christopher Leeper - you will learn a lot about landscapes and color and value and how to make a beautiful painting without using 15 colors from the tube :)
Get on his mailing list and he'll send you his newsletter, once a month, full of great paintings and tips and instruction!


Sorry I didn't get this posted yesterday - the day got away with me and had to do errands with Mom (doctor appointment, pick up meds and some groceries), and then clean the house for today's beginner class.  I'll have a few more photos and things from the Leeper Workshop to finish up.  I really wish the workshop could be 2 weekends with a bit of a rest in between = 3 days with time to incorporate and play with the ideas during the weekdays and then another 3 days to continue!   But maybe I'm just being greedy?!? ha ha

DAY 2 RECAP OF THE CHRISTOPHER LEEPER WORKSHOP

My 3-day workshop with Christopher Leeper has ended.  I am tired, but happy.  I feel I learned a lot and what I learned I can incorporate into things I paint plus I can expand into more landscapes with the knowledge.  At least, I hope that is what happens!  If I don't do it, it won't be the fault of Chris, who shared so much good information with us all.  And while we were learning, we were having fun with lots of stories and laughs shared throughout the workshop days.  I gained 4 pounds - how did that happen?? - so now it's back to the regular routine to get those pounds back off.  Hey, when you have donuts and pastries each morning with your coffee and pizza for lunch, what are you gonna do? ha ha

Chris did this demo for us the 2nd day, creating a beautiful glowing autumn forest scene.

Again, he began by laying down lots of warm yellows and golds before putting other colors in. 

One thing I learned about painting all the foliage and trees = if your trees are going to be darker than the foliage around them, just go ahead and run the first colors over the tree trunks - no need to cut around them and it ties the painting together better than cutting around things.  Chris said, "Don't think in words.  Words like Tree, Rock, Stream, Building.  Think in shapes and values and tie those shapes and values together cohesively to have a better painting."  Excellent advice and it ties in with the loose way you put the paint down when you begin your painting.



After the warms are in, then put in your cooler colors over them.  Remember - blue and yellow make green so use lots of blues, not just one or two.

Chris likes to start with "bold, obnoxious phthalo blues and greens" and then knock them back by adding other colors to them - he never uses a color straight out of the tube without adding another color to it. 



Creating the glow in the woods is about color, yes, but it's mostly about value.  Chris described himself as a value painter, not a colorist.









When painting a landscape, try for asymmetry and establish your big planes/shapes right away.  Make as many connections as you can that aren't necessarily related by subject = if you see shadow shapes moving across tree trunks, grasses, etc., then paint them that way without thinking, tree trunk, grass, etc.


Chris puts in his "sun colors" early on but not with a complete wash over the whole paper.

Here are some more 1/8 sheet exercises done - with no drawing, just using the brush to draw the shapes.  I'm not going to criticise these - they are what they are!

More to come tomorrow to finish up.

TAKE THE LEEP!!

Day One of the Christopher Leeper workshop  went well and there was a lot of really good information for us.  We listened to Chris give us some "rules" about working with watercolor and he gave us a nice handout (in case we weren't taking notes or wouldn't remember later).  Then we got to watch him demo. 

The most amazing thing I found was that Chris starts with warm colors - lots of yellows and oranges or pinks before he puts any greens or tree trunks or anything else down.  He wants to play on the transparency of watercolor to let the glow show through.  Now, he doesn't just wash a yellow wash over the whole paper, but looks at his reference and tries to find where the glow of warm colors will help the painting glow overall. 

Unfortunately, I thought of everything but my camera the first day.  But I did take a photo today of the painting Chris completed yesterday.  Look closely and see where he lets the warm colors shine through.  He said you start with warm colors because, if you want to cool something later, you can go over the warms - if you start with cool colors, you can't warm them up well without getting muddy colors.

I really want to learn how to do this and start paintings with warms, then add in the cooler colors.  This painting is just stunning and the variety of colors throughout is a treat to someone who loves color.  Chris is not a purist - he uses more opaque pigments here and there to give some dance to the spattered light of a forest floor or to just add in some jewel tones here and there in more opaque colors.  It works when you don't have a heavy hand with them.

The first assignment for us was to take an 1/8 sheet of watercolor paper and, using a photo reference or sketch, paint without drawing on the paper.  Just paint - using a brush a little larger than we felt comfortable with - putting in the warms and seeing the whites, middle values and darks.  It was NOT easy!!  But I felt like it was teaching me to see and get those big shapes in with color and value before trying to fiddle with the smaller shapes and details. 

Painting without drawing makes for a very loose way of painting (which I liked - but which did stress me a bit).  I am showing my efforts - but understand, they are just efforts to learn and incorporate what Chris was talking about and teaching.  None of these are going to be pretty paintings! ha ha




If you want to see pretty paintings - and beautiful landscapes, you'll have to view a few more paintings from Chris (see below for the painting Chris did the first day + 2 beautiful snow scenes).




Oh, and in case you can't tell - I highly recommend Christopher Leeper.  If you can take a workshop with him, do it!!!  You will learn a lot and you will have fun and laugh and enjoy it and the time will go by so quickly - two days gone and only one more to go and I feel like I could spend a week, at least, getting the hang of this.

I'll post more tomorrow.

CHRISTOPHER LEEPER WORKSHOP

The Greater Cincinnati Watercolor Society (GCWS) is hosting the Christopher Leeper watercolor workshop this coming Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  I'll be learning from Chris, along with 19 other members, each day.  He's a wonderful landscape artist and I hope to learn some good things to help me with watercolor landscapes.  Since it's not my area at all, I hope to soak up as much as I can.

As the Program Chair for the GCWS, I contacted Chris and then made all the arrangements for the workshop (a big job for a first time workshop organizer).  I'm hoping it's a great learning experience for the 20 members who are in the workshop this weekend.  The workshop is filled but Chris has agreed to return in April for an encore workshop.  GCWS members get first choice to be in that one, but then we'll open it to the public (if there is room).

 
I'll take photos each day and should have some to share.  I have a lot more to do to get ready, including buying the coffee, filters, cups, etc. and stopping to buy pastries each morning.  I hope the group appreciates the work done to make this happen. 

This is the first workshop the GCWS has hosted in its 10-year history. 



Painting = Bridge Shadows by Christopher Leeper