SUMMER BEES

Finished the watercolor and collage piece on gold gessoed paper.



Summer Bees

11.5 x 15

A TASTE OF HONEY

A Taste of Honey

11.5 x 15 watercolor on gold gessoed paper

A watercolor and collage piece started on
gold gessoed paper.

BIG BLUE

Using my favorite colors (blues) on one of my very favorite birds (crows).

Another in the Things with Wings series for 
#WorldWatercolorMonth

The month is coming to a close and I didn't get a painting done every day but did quite a few.

BEE COLLAGE FINISHED

Just a few tweaks to the beekeeper section and the painting (full sheet), 
Bee Collage, is finished.


Now thinking about number 4 in the series.  For the next one, I want to work on a full sheet with rice paper and textured pieces (and probably a mix of mediums).


I have to correct a mistake:  This painting is not a full sheet but is a half sheet (I guess it's been a while since I did a full sheet painting).  Thinking about number 4 in the series...finding some textured papers, etc. and gesso and...who knows!  Might just really play with the next one...could even put beeswax on it? Hmmm...

THINGS WITH WINGS

More Things with Wings 
for #WorldWatercolorMonth 
and their Facebook page.  

Am finishing up the Bee Collage painting and will share it soon.

Shadow Cardinal  


Have a great and safe weekend (more storms coming through here knocked down some small trees but nothing serious).

IT'S ALL ABOUT THAT BEAK

#WorldWatercolorMonth 
painting for July 8, 
or as I like to call it, 
It's all About that Beak. 

Looks like I will be trying to paint one for each day in July, but not painting one every day in July - so some catch-up time when I'm painting 2 or 3 a day.  No worries.  Life gets in the way at times.  I know I don't have to do this but it is a fun project.

Here is the one for July 9.  I am going back in with ink and making this more vibrant...will show that version next and then need to paint 2 more.

These are all small paintings - no larger than fourth sheets (11 x 15 inches) and some are on scrap pieces I have lying around from other work.

BEE COLLAGE COMING TOGETHER SLOWLY

As I continue to do small paintings for 
#WorldWatercolorMonth, 
I am also slowly working on my bee series paintings.  
The third painting in the series, 
titled Bee Collage, 
is slowly coming together.

MORE WORLD WATERCOLOR PAINTINGS

Just a few more small ones.  I am trying to keep up!

Used a scrap of paper for this little one.  





#WorldWatercolorMonth

WORLD WATERCOLOR MONTH PAINTINGS

Small paintings for World Watercolor Month.  If you haven't joined it, do it!  Just one small painting a day throughout the month of July - not hard at all and it might get you back painting after a time off, or begin your painting journey!

You didn't think I was only going to paint insects, did you? ha ha

BEES AND BEES AND OTHER THINGS

Working on this full sheet painting as if it were a collage piece.  Will be adding words to help educate viewers on what bees pollinate and how we can help them survive (and help ourselves in the process).


Calling this full sheet painting
Bee Cycle

A few bits close up to show the detail a bit more.

Have a bit of acrylic texture medium/paste in the hive part and on the fuzzy top parts of the bees to add dimension.

WORLD WATERCOLOR PAINTINGS

Beginning of World Watercolor Month and am doing small paintings of Things with Wings for now. 

Happy Canada Day weekend to my Canadian friends and blogger buddies.  
And Happy Fourth of July weekend to the Americans. 

WORLD WATERCOLOR MONTH = JULY

The watercolor sketcher and art blogger, Charlie O'Shield, has announced that July is World Watercolor Month.  His enthusiasm and excitement is catching - so join in = Paint, Post, Share!


Here is the link to Charlie's site and how you can get more involved during the month of July.  


Now get out those watercolors, brushes, and paper and join in for the whole month of July!  


(A small painting a day doesn't have to take that much time, you know - tiny things can be jewels in a little watercolor sketchbook or maybe even post cards painted to send off to your friends?)  I am going to try - a little painting a day - we'll see how far I get :)

THE LAST ONE WITH A BIT MORE WORK DONE

Added a bit more oomph to the lines with fluid acrylic in gold and cropped the bottom a bit (sorry Elizabeth and Deb, but there is still enough space there, I think).



In the crop, I hope you can see the gold fluid acrylic and other things (sepia, white gel pen) I added around the little bee - hope it is not the last one!

Funny how dark it looks when you just zoom in on the little bee.


Currently working on a half sheet - working on it like a collage piece.  May incorporate words into this one as I've been researching a bit those things bees pollinate and how we can help them.  Stay tuned for more little bees buzzing your way!

THE LAST ONE?

Started another bee painting.  

Not sure it's finished.

I tossed everything at it = gold fluid acrylic, sepia watercolor marker, white gelli pen, and the usual watercolor and stamping.

I think I still need to show those lines coming from outside to the center more - perhaps with a darker color or maybe the gold fluid acrylic.  And I probably will crop off some of the bottom.

While at Shaker Village, we got some great photos of a beekeeping session going on so have some hives, some combs and the beekeeper, too - you know those will end up in another painting.

This is one sign you probably should obey!

GOING GOING GONE!

Well, this was a very successful and happy watercolor society show for me.  Not only did my painting, Plant Series: Morning Light, win First Place in the show, but I had a very nice couple contact me to buy the painting!  YAY!  
They even said it was First Place in their minds, too :)  


And no impulse buy, either.  They came to the show yesterday, took a photo of it, measured it, went home and made sure it would fit and look good in their home where they wanted to place it.

We met this afternoon when the gallery opened and they purchased it and seemed very happy.  We talked a bit about inspiration and I was so pleased - it seems Morning Light is going to a very good home.

I won't share their names - privacy issues, but aren't they a good-looking (and obviously quite discerning) couple? :)


Thanks so much!  
I hope to see you both at future shows.




Overall, 4 paintings sold during the show's run = congratulations to all the winners (see a previous post for their names and photos of their paintings), and congratulations to those who sold something this time!

And now, back to reality and my bee series...buzz buzz buzzzzzzz.

SHAKER VILLAGE

Just returned from a few days away at Shaker Village in Pleasant Hill, KY (southwest of Lexington).  The Shakers had a community there in the 1800's that died out (one of their religious tenets was celibacy - d'uh!) and finally it became an historic site.  Many many buildings still stand but have been converted for overnight guests.  Sparse but pretty and clean.  Delicious food at the Trustee's Table restaurant on site and acres of land to walk, investigating inside the buildings, the farm, the stables, hiking trails, etc.  

Many of the buildings have two front doors - one side for the men, one side for the women.  The church is the same with nothing but hard wooden benches inside and one side was for the women, one for the men, and never the twain shall meet, except during dances, where the parishioners would "shake out their sins" in vigorous dances and singing.

One of my favorite rooms in the Family Building was where they demoed the spinning and weaving.  Here, you see the dyed yard (all dyed from natural materials like coffee, rose madder root, indigo, etc.)

Jars of natural things used to dye the yard = cochineal beetles made a dark or light red, osage orange made a buttery yellow orange, celery dyed yard a pale pretty green.

Everywhere you looked, there were stone fences, placed by hand.  Also stone buildings as well as brick buildings. 

The Farm Deacon's Shop, my favorite building.  Love that white fence going around the front and sides.

If you aren't into the architecture and simple beauty of the buildings inside and out, there is always the farm buildings and the chickens, cows, sheep, horses, and some little piggies to see.  The place is farmed organically and a lot of what you'll eat at the Trustee's Table comes from the farm itself.

A lot of the cows, including the little calves, had eye patches on - no, it's not that they want to be pirates, they apparently were to protect their eyes from the flies - and one pretty little calf had pinkeye so maybe was spreading that.  We saw him being treated after he was separated from his mama (and she was NOT happy about that, making her displeasure known with vigorous moos until he was returned to her side).

In case you were thinking, "Why would I go somewhere that's so primitive?" don't worry - they still had little Keurig coffee-makers in the room as well as indoor baths for the guests :)

The white rooms with the reddish railing is typical of their style, as is the plain rocking chairs.  The railings have pegs to hang your clothing (no closets that I saw anywhere).  All wooden floors but Tempurpedic beds which are necessary after a long day walking and walking and walking.

Interesting steps placed into the stone walls - one on each side so you just stepped up and over the other side if there was no opening close.

If you go, know that on Monday only it's a "quiet day" which means NONE of the buildings are open for viewing inside.  That was a bit of a surprise because I thought it meant there were no programs given that day, but that the buildings would be open.  Somehow, we found plenty to do without going inside the buildings on Monday, and took more photos than we'll ever use for anything, but that's what a mini-vacation is all about.  
Oh, this is the West Family Wash House (close to the horse stables and several triails for hiking and riding) - so wash up before supper and let's call it a day!

RUNNING OUT OF TIME - FROM FIRST THOUGHTS TO FINISHED PAINTING

This is going to be a new series for me.  Finding (and bringing home) the honeycomb from a nature walk last month, I've thought about bees.  How they are floundering with colony collapse and what that might mean to us humans for our food sources in the future.  We need bees, we need all pollinators.  So...thinking about that and using what I have, I am going to be doing a few paintings on the theme of honeybees, honeycombs, and numbers.

I began with the honeycomb itself - one that was abandoned in a fallen tree. 



Then took a lot of reference photos. 

I created a stamp of my own (top right of the photo) and used 2 small stencils I bought in the past (who knew then how these would be used?).

I put down the Quinacridone Gold using the stencils and my own stamp, covering the paper with the drawing of the heart-shaped honeycomb and the honeycomb patterns and numbers.

Then it was time to think about the bees and where to place them.  So I drew three on a piece of tracing paper, intending to trace them onto the honeycomb in a pleasing composition.  However, the bees would not trace over the honeycomb (because of the paint already there?).  

So I just redrew them onto the honeycomb, using the traced paper bees to help in placement.  

Drew and painted the bees on.  Darkened around the honeycomb and reiterated some of the numbers there outside and darkened some of the comb inside around the bees. 


Finished.


This one is called
Running Out of Time






And when you get a good series in mind, it's easy to go on to the next one - which I have begun.

GCWS SUMMER SHOW - I WON!

Got an email from Deb Ward, who was at the Greater Cincinnati Watercolor Society artist reception Sunday afternoon (I was not there).  She told me I was the big winner = First Place in the show!!  I am thrilled.  

Sweetie and I went over to  the gallery Tuesday afternoon to see the show/take some photos.  Here they are:

First Place - R.H. Carpenter
Plant Series: Morning Leaves

Second Place - Lois Schaich
Big Wheel

Third Place - Venetia Wang
Tindar














Two Honorable Mentions = 

Marilyn Bishop
Rooftops - Cos Cob Art Colony

Kathy Lawrence
Golden Gourds














Congratulations to the winners and to all the members who entered for such a nice show!