One thing I love about winter is staying inside and painting. 

This happy little snowman is a tiny painting, 5″ x 7″, done as a demo at my Monday classes at Mulberry Art Studio in Lancaster.

Snow helps simplify shapes and colors, so that the shading is easier to see and understand.  (For more painting tips, be sure and sign up for my monthly newsletter.)

First 2010 Exhibit

My first show for the New Year will be at the Sally Danyo Gallery at the York Art Association, 220 South Marshall Street, York, PA, February 14 – April 11.

Do You Need Backup?

Another new 2010 thing is learning how to back up my web site.  (Yikes!)  It is a pain, but not as bad as losing the whole thing.  Check out Kelly’s (my daughter and owner of One Woman Marketing) article “Eight Things I Learned When My Website Got Hacked.”

“It’s Always Trash Day Somewhere”  Original Watercolor 2009  10 x 14″  $600 framed

I actually changed this watercolor painting a bit on my daughter, Kelly’s advice.  (She always gives me excellent advice.) I added a face to the garbage man (peeking out from his hood) and a little dog following the guy across the street.  I’ll show the redone picture when it gets back from a show. 

It’s usually trash day when I go out to take photos, so I decided to embrace it for the original watercolor painting above and put in the whole truck.  Below, I started a new series in my Small Town America landscapes, of back alleys with an alley cat in each one.  Here’s the first.  Can you find the cat? 

 Alley Cat Series #1  Original Watercolor 2009  12 x 8″  $450 framed

The Race – Original Watercolor 10.5 x 14″

I can’t believe I’ve been a professional watercolor artist for ten years now.  Not only have I had an exciting time learning about the watercolor art world, I’ve also discovered a lot about myself as an artist.

2010—Getting Focused On Watercolor

Next year, I’ll be working on a series of watercolor landscapes and figurative scenes from my world.  I was thinking of calling it faces and places, but that’s kind of trite.   I enjoy painting blue collar America - where their lives happen and who they are – (which is my kind of people.)  It isn’t usually as pretty as the scenes most watercolor artists paint, but it’s real.  And it’s interesting. 

What about YOUR art?

What are your plans and goals for 2010?  Comment and let me know.  I think everyone should set goals – it’ll help you improve as an artist and figure out who you are.  And if you think of a better name for my series, please shout it out.  I always need help with names.

Original watercolor painting: “Forgotten Places.” 21 x 29

This painting won the watercolor award the York Art Associations’ Juried Art Exhibit!

It really is an honor. If you see the quality of work in this show, you’ll understand why.

The awards and reception is Sunday, Oct. 11 from 2 – 4 p.m., and I’ll be there to get my award!

This scene is from beside the new convenience store on N. Hills Rd in York, PA, where I got my feet really muddy while taking reference photos.

The painting on the right is 4″ x 10,” done as a demo while I was artist in residence at Willow Valley, PA.  I have submitted this to the Allied Artists of America (New York) for their next juried exhibit.

My summer was so busy. The people at Cheap Joe’s, where I taught a week-long watercolor, workshop were wonderful and treated me like a queen.  (My hotel suite had my own jacuzzi and fireplace!)

My students gave me an A++ as a teacher!  Even the ones who were teachers themselves said they learned a lot, and we had fun.

Dean Mitchell’s gallery talk (at New York’s Adirondacks National Juried Exhibit) affirmed everything I believe about art. Dean said that painting is more than just staying in the lines.  He said if students would let go of trying to make their painting look like something specific and just play with their colors, they would learn more about creating art.

“Bubbles” (left) sold at the Adirondacks show and is going to the beautiful Cotswolds in Glouchestershire, England!  My first international sale — how exciting.

Judging York Plein Aire Festival – On Sunday I judged the first ever York Fair’s Festival.  Click on this video to see the painters and thanks Bill Erwin for all your work.

Upcoming Shows:

Juried exhibitions – I had paintings accepted in the Keystone National Juried Exhibit,  Pittsburgh Watercolor Society, Kentucky Watercolor Society, Kansas Watercolor Society, North East Watercolor Society and two pieces in the juried Women’s Perspective Exhibition in Philadelphia.

Solo Show: I will be exhibiting original artwork at the Hanover Area Arts Guild at 32 Carlisle Street  Hanover PA 17331 (717-632-2521) from October 1st through the 23rd.  The opening reception will be Saturday, October 3 from 2 to 4 p.m.

Backyard Bunny is an original watercolor painting I finished yesterday.  Image size is 12″ x 18″.  I saw the bunny while walking, but didn’t have my camera.  I went back with my camera the next morning and took reference photos to recreate the scene I missed.

I wanted to do this watercolor painting as a video demonstration, but it didn’t work out, so I’m putting it in as a step-by-step lesson.  Let me know if you think it’s understandable.

This is my drawing.  The grey is Pebeo masking fluid and I applied it on the beach with a toothbrush, trying for a random pattern.   (I got the shadow of my head in the middle, but the rest of the photos I did right…..)

Okay, it seems like I did a lot, but it’s really just a first watercolor wash.  Using a big brush, I did a wash of cobalt blue and  burnt sienna to the sky and the water.

I used cobalt, sienna, quinacridone red and aureolin yellow on the beach, and spattered it with water while it was wet, to make the blotches.  When it was completely dry, I spattered the beach again with  a toothbrush and misket.

I painted the rocks and the beach again, using the same colors, but I added some ultramarine blue to go a little darker, and switched from aureolin yellow to quinacridone gold to jazz it up, spattering the golds into the purpley mix I had going.  I added salt while the watercolor was still wet for more texture.  Now I’ll take off the masking…

Now I start adjusting values.  I put in some dark values in the hair and blue jeans, and a dark shadow on the lower left.  I softened up some the white edges and smudged up some of the far-away rocks.  I start painting the seaweed, or whatever it is, with the quinacridone gold, burnt sienna and other colors.  I lifted out the hard line between the shore and the water.

I decided the rock on the right of the couple was too distracting, so I lifted most of that up, kept softening edges and painting seaweed.

I keep painting the detail.  I am using a smaller brush now.  I think the sky is boring, so I add a wimpy looking storm on the left and put some soft streaks in the water.  I put slightly darker streaks in the water and lift out a few lighter streaks.

Here is the finished painting.  I put some greys in the wave and shadows under the wave.  I added a faraway land on the right and felt that improved the painting’s composition.  I added some crashing waves to the rocks in the left of the ocean, so your eye has a lot to look at.

This is a watercolor painting I’m looking for feedback on.  The thing that’s bothering me is the area above the little girl’s head.  I keep changing it and nothing has suited me.

What do you think?

This is a detail from a watercolor painting I’m currently working on.  The white ice box has had four coats of paint so far, and I’m not done yet.

I usually paint dark areas in one intense watercolor wash, but I carefully inch up on the white areas.  I make puddles of aureolin yellow, quinacridone red and cobalt blue with just the barest hint of color in the water.

I put each color on my paper separately, but let the colors touch one another.  Then I tilt the paper so the colors flow together on the paper and blend a bit.  Hints of warm and cool in your whites will make them come alive  … or turn them into a dingy ice machine on a cold winter day.

“Fry Guy” — New Original Watercolor Painting

I took a workshop with Mary Whyte at Springmaid Water Media in Myrtle Beach, SC, last year and loved her watercolor paintings with steam rising.  Here’s my version.

“Fry Guy” is from the Pennsylvania State Farm Show in Harrisburg, PA.  I used the cadmium red light (as suggested by an artist in an early blog post) with cobalt blue, raw sienna and perylene green for a dark.  I don’t usually use opaque colors, but I liked the red!

I just entered Fry Guy in the Berks Art Alliance Juried Art Exhibit.  The lady who was supposed to be checking the frames for damage said, “Wow!” when I took it out and spent a long time looking at the painting instead of the frame…  Now that’s a compliment!

Hope the judges feel the same way, but I won’t be upset if it’s declined.  There is such a variety of good art work at these juried art exhibits, the artists who win one year are often declined the next!

My First Art Museum Exhibit!

After meeting with director Stella at the Ratner Museum in Bethesda, MD, I have an exhibit booked for 2013!  The Ratner is a small museum and it is a group showing, but I’m still thrilled.  And believe it or not, they don’t take any commission.