Experimenting

I was experimenting with fluid acrylics
and messed it up bad with the background
which is way too busy and the yellow
orange color was not what I intended.
As you can see some purple washes dried
before I could rinse it off. Will redo
this one and re-work the drawing. Always
learning from our mistakes. I did enjoy
getting the batik look in the washes when
you can rinse off the half dried paint.

The Eyes Have It

These are some of my sketches of eyes that I
did awhile ago. When painting portraits, the
eyes are usually the center of interest so it
is important to get them right. I need to
sketch everyday because I believe it will
improve your drawings and also your paintings
in how the paint is applied in your brushstrokes.

Nashville Tennessee Flood 2010

We were in Nashville back in Dec and stayed in a downtown
hotel for a few days. I walked the downtown area and it is
so amazing to see the under reported flooding that occurred
this spring and to see the damage to the places that we
visited like the Opryland Hotel, which was huge, the Grand
Old Opry, downtown at the famous Robert's Bar where we
listened to the local talent, and Opryland Mall. The people
of Nashville were friendly and loved people from Montana,
(we have real cowboys here!) Hope the people of Nashville
recover quickly! Yes Honey, all those guitars are ruined.

"Shades of Spring"

watercolor 7" x 9"

Those who won an award in the 2009
Montana Watercolor Society
were asked to paint a watercolor for the
2010 raffle book using the theme of "It's
Hard to be Green" or "Vision". I chose the
theme "vision" and painted this one of my
youngest daughter who was then in high school
at the time the photo was taken. The youth
see the world differently than us old folks
and she admitted the other day how immature
she and those that age were in high school.
The submitted paintings are made into two books
that will be raffled off to raise money for the
MTWS at the show banquet this fall.

Five Years

The picture above is a photoshoped picture of a
robins nest from the backyard, which I was planning
to paint. This symbolizes my life now that all the
kids are grown and gone, my husband and I are "empty
nesters" as they say.
Crstal Cook tagged me on her blog to answer the five
questions about ourselves. I'm a pretty private person,
but will be a good sport and reveal some things about myself.

What were you doing five years ago?

1-I sprained my ankle in the early spring and am still feeling
the aches and pains of cracked cartilage.
2-My youngest daughter is now a freshman in high school
so I had more time to devote to painting. (I home schooled
the two youngest so I only painted when I had time)
3-I started attending a weekly watercolor class.
4-Helping at church with my compassionate service calling.
I was helping organize ladies to do meals, cleaning, or
moving if a member in need needed it.
5-Traveling, & enjoying the family and friends

Where would you like to be five years from now?

1-Painting with more confidence and selling more artwork
2-Entering watercolor shows and receiving signature status.
(will get it with MTWS if accepted again this year)
3-Being recognized by an art magazine.
4-Enjoying being a grandma and kids with no problems!
5-Enjoying good health and traveling to fun places.

My to do list for the day was:

1-Went to help a lady who needed medical help early in
the morning.
2-Took a nice nap.
3-Sold our old computer desk to a nice kid who needed one.
(Thanks honey for hauling it for him to his place)
4-Potted and watered some flowers for Mother's Day presents.
5-Household chores and rearranging my art room now that I
have more room with the desk gone!

My favorite snacks:

1-All things sweet!
2-Chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate
3-But, I am cutting back, it will be nice at the
lake before we know it and I want to get into
my swimsuit!

What would I do if I was a billionaire?

I know money doesn't make you happy and can cause more
problems in the long run if you have no self control.
But....I would pay off the mortgage and my kids' mortgages.
I wouldn't donate to charities (except for disasters)
because I think other people misspend the money too much.
I would donate to our church perpetual education loan
program (students in poor countries are loaned money
interest free for an education and pay it back over time
when they have a job. I would set up my own perpetual loan
program, (people get too lazy when they get something for
nothing); start a lot of new businesses to employ people,
open about 20 watercolor galleries throughout the country
and invite other watercolorists to show their "best" paintings.
I'd buy some awesome paintings for the house.
And last, but not least, I'd have a large house in a warm and
sunny location! (Add in a sweet ride too.) Oh! and the hubby
could buy as many guitars as his heart desires.

These artists are tagged for the challenge to
answer the same questions:

Jane Minter

Jeanette Jobson

Katherine Cartwright

Blog Cartoon

Saw this and had to post it. Tried to describe
blogging to my Mom who is now 81 yrs old and it
was hard for her to comprehend. Today's kids are
almost born with computer skills, amazes me how
fast they learn the computer. Yesterday I sent
my grandkids a link of a web cam of a bald eagle's
nest to watch the development of the eggs and
growth of the eagle chicks. One had already
hatched and the grandkids were squealing about the new
baby chick they could see and later of one of the
parents ripping apart a fish and feeding it to the
chick. So cool for the kids! Amazing technology
that we have today, if only it was used for good
all the time.

Our Addictions -- Hillarious Sony Vaio Commercial

Many of my fellow art bloggers have gone over to
facebook to network and meet new artists, which
may have evolved into an addiction with how many
friends some "facers" can acquire. Must admit it was an
addiction at first, but have learned ya can't
get much done if ya have to see what's new with everyone
all the time. I know the artists on facebook are talkative
and fun with an occassional polictical issue thrown
in to fan some flames. Promised myself to never twitter!
The electricity went off today (yes I paid the bill)
and couldn't paint without the lights, too cold out-
side, so worked on matting and framing some paintings,
which is the reason I paint--NOT!!!
Is facebook an addiction for you?
What's your addiction? (Keep it clean)

Last Thaw

Sold

watercolor 12 x 14.5

It snowed last week and decided to paint
a winter scene. Hope we don't see snow for a
long time. Spring is now here and trees just
starting to shoot out leaves. Spring is my
favorite season and I have all summer to
look forward to.

Warped View

watercolor 14 1/2 x 18"

Usually don't like painting buildings, but this
reflection in a paned glass building downtown was
intriguing. It had a lot of symbolism to it for me,
the warped view of a building that looked like a
bank, the warped telephone pole and wires. Do we have
a warped view of the world or are we given a warped
view of the world?
Could have gotten a better photo from the upstairs
window of the Macy's store, but it had closed down
due to the economy. The next day they tore down the
glass paned building since it was old and not being used.
Had to combine a few of the photos for this painting.

Happy Easter!

To all bloggers and friends, wishing
you a Happy Easter!

Useful Tools

Some useful tools that I use once in a while. The kistka
wax writing tool on the left is what I use to mask out fine
lines, hair or whiskers on a face. This tool can be found at
Michaels craft stores at Easter time. The masking fluid
has to be diluted with water to thin it. Watercolor paint
can also be used in this for a fine line. The kistka comes
in fine, medium or heavy openings.

The middle microbrushes are great for lifting a splatter
drop in the wrong spot or applying masking in tight areas.
A few portraits were saved by lifting with this brush.

The last is a gum brush that can be found in the dental
aisle of a drugstore which is great for lifting or softening
a color that has dried without ripping the paper. The bristles
are soft and can get in tight areas.
















This painting is of a Roland Roycraft study I did 15 yrs
ago trying out his technique. The small blades of grass
in the lower right corner were masked out using a kistka
writing tool. It's too hard to achieve this small of a
line with a brush. The other masking was done with a
brush which was too large for some of the reflections
in the water.

The Subjects We Paint

This is a drawing by pastel landscape painter
Richard McKinley who discusses the need to
paint or draw all three of the subjects for practice:
still life, landscape and portraits to keep our artistic
skills at their best. Here is part of his
article:
"In becoming a well-trained painter, each of these
subject areas—still life, portrait, and landscape—
provides a lesson and should not be overlooked due
to a lack of motivation. You may not be attracted to
the still life, uninterested in the portrait, or feel
dispassionate about the landscape, but by practicing
them you will polish technical skills that make you
a more confident painter. A painting is a configuration
of accurate shapes, a representation of lights
influences, and a sensitive arrangement of colors.
These exist in every representational painting, and
for that matter every abstract painting. Individual
subject matter is all composed of them. In that regard,
everything we paint is all the same. Each subject does
provide a heightened lesson, though. The still life
teaches the importance of value. Within the confines
of a relatively small distance, the influence of light
and the manipulation of edge create form. The portrait
teaches accurate drawing. The human likeness allows for
no error. The landscape teaches color harmony. Natural
light and its influence across nature’s palette help us
to understand the relationship all colors have to one
another. A wise instructor passed this thought on to
me many years ago: “To learn value relationships, it’s
the still life; to draw, it’s the portrait; and to become
sensitive to color, it’s the landscape. Each has something
to offer. Practice them often and then paint your passions!”

[pictured above] A portrait drawing demonstration of mine;
just to prove that I still do my homework.

Sunshine Award

This award is given to bloggers for sharing their
creativity and positive attitude. It was given to
me by Srishti Art and Jane Minter.Vist both blogs
to see their work.

My list of bloggers I want to spotlight are ones who are old
favorites, new ones just discovered or those just getting started:

Robert Burridge mixed media, a great teacher.

Liz Hill mixed media in figures

Thomas W Schaller award winning watercolorist.

Lisa Walsh self taught artist who is in a mid-life crisis
with a sassy attitude!

Crystal Cook a stay at home mom
who specializes in children's portraits who just started a blog.
Check out her blog!

David Boyd self taught artist who has a nice style.

Matthew Innis what's new in the art scene in general
with some of Matthew's art.

Cheryl Devoto a talented new blogger.

Julie Hill Discovered she has a talent for art, self taught.

Donna Watson workshop instructor specializing in collage
and mixed media

Jose Luis Corella Is it a photograph or painting?

Alicia Sotherland pastel artist specializing in portraits

Fluid Acrylic fun

Experimenting with my fluid acrylics on some
scraps of watercolor paper. Achieved some batik
effects!

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day to family
and friends!

Portrait challenge of Karin Jurick

I was asked if I wanted to participate in the
"Thank You" project to Karen Jurick who does the
Different Strokes from Different Folks to thank
her for all the work she put in to make this
blog work. 118 artists worked from the same
reference photo of Karen Jurick which are now
printed in a book and mailed off to Karen.
Jill Polsby organized the project and
worked on getting all the paintings put
together. All 118 paintings are on Jill's blog.

A Little Skeptical

watercolor

Photographed this man a few years ago
and finally got around to doing a painting
of him. You don't have to paint what's
there in a photo, as you can see from the
photo of him below that I changed the smile
and drew in a different expression. Glad
that it worked out well.

Joanne Thompson

Decided I better give some recognition to
the other side of the family for their art
talent. My aunt, Joanne Thompson, (1923-2002)
was asked to feature her art work in one of the
Walter T. Foster drawing booklet in the 1960's.
She loved to draw family members in charcoal
and painted many portraits in oil. These are
some examples of the drawings in the booklet.
In my younger years I tried to draw some of
her drawings free hand with little success.
Always shyed away from portraits, but now
love to paint portraits and figures.

Sophie Mitchell's paintings

A few examples of my Grt. Grandmother's paintings,
as from the post below. These were painted between
1882-1883 in Napa Valley, Ca. These are from the
note cards and much larger paintings are in pocession
of various relatives.

It's a Small World

I came across some old note cards with paintings of
my Grt. Grandmother, Sohpie Alstrom Mitchell's watercolor
floral paintings while straightening up a room and decide
to see if they were still available through the Napa Valley Museum.
Googled her name and found her on Allan Stellar's blog that writes
about his hikes everyday. He took a picture of the old house and
discovered that a plaque was placed on the property. His article
dated Dec 26, 2009:

"I drove down to the Napa Valley yesterday. Worked today.
After work, I headed down to St. Helena in order to walk
the White Sulphur Springs road. I was looking for an uphill
walk. I was delighted to discover that this walk, that I
had remembered to be uphill, was actually quite easy for
me to negotiate. Even with my backpack on (loaded with
thirty pounds of books), this road was not as much uphill
as I remembered. Good news.

Of course, this is the walk that passes through the grounds
of what some call a "white collar cult". White Sulphur Springs
is amongst one of the oldest resorts in California. In it's
heyday, beginning in 1852, 1,000 wealthy San Franciscans would
stay at the resort. Now it is home to what EST has evolved into:
"The Hoffman Process". Six thousand bucks for a five day seminar
promises to heal all your suburban angst.

Sophie Alstrom Mitchell lived at this resort in a simple house
from 1862-1882. She was a watercolor artist regionally known
for her paintings of local flowers. An interesting lady, when
her first husband died in 1882, she took up with a local
Presbyterian Minister--seventeen years her junior. Sophie's
artwork is on permanent display at the Napa County Museum."

Sophie painted in what we think is gouache, selling some of
her florals to a buyer in New York. Some of her collection
of paintings were found in an attic in New York and sent
back to California and placed in the Napa Valley Museum
and note cards made of the paintings.

She took botany at college and also had a talent for art.
Her husband would drive his horse and buggy throughout the
Napa valley and pick wildflowers on the way home for Sophie to
paint. Some paintings are of flowers that are now extinct,
which have a very exotic look.

Experimenting with fluid acrylics

fluid acrylics 17" x 25"


Been working on this painting of leaves
and pine needles on a pond for sometime
and finally am close to finishing it.
The leaves seem to appear to "float"
a little in the air and will see if I
can remedy that. Been experimenting
with the fluid acrylics, trying to get
accustomed to the colors and how they
react in a pour without making mud in
the various layers.

Different Strokes Blog Challenge

watercolor 11 x 15


This is my finished portrait of the Different Strokes
challenge. Each artist sent in a photograph
of themselves and then receive a photograph
of another participating artist to paint.

Discovered I painted the portrait of
John Vander Stelt
who painted me which is posted on his blog.
This is my second attempt on the portrait,
this one giving me a hard time with the
darks which wanted to lift with each new
layer.

On a trip

Will be on a trip this week back east, so
it may be a week or so before I post. Been
working on a very detailed painting and may
have messed it up with a second bad wash.
Well, live and learn, that's what happens
when we experiment with new things. Just
need to keep at it! Looking forward to
taking new reference photos and seeing a
new state.

Patience

The painting I'm working on is very detailed,
to where I need to stay focused and at the
task, so I am listening to Pandora Internet Radio
as I work. Thanks to my daughter, who loves good music,
turned me on to this website. You sign in, type in a few
musical artist or songs that you like and the radio
will bring up other similar bands, some you never
heard of before. You can thumbs up or down the song
and enjoy good music with very little interruption.
Hope this painting turns out!

The Night Before Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!
A time to be thankful
and remember all of our
blessings.

Portrait Basics

Organized my "books of knowledge" that I have
put together over the years and came across
this page on basic portrait proportions and how
the structures on the face line up with other
parts of the face. I took a picture out of a
magazine and drew lines through it to remember
how the basic structures of the face line up
with each other and the measurements of one
as compared to another. The first picture helps
me remember the three dimensional curve of the
face. Sure, not everyone has a perfect face,
but this is the basics and adjustments are
always made for age, nationality, and angle
of the face.
Points to remember:
-The outside corners of the mouth lines up with
the inside of the eye. (Except big smile).
-The widest part of the nose lines up with the
inside corner of the eye.
-The length of the ear equals the bottom of the
nose to the chin.
-Eyes are at the center of the head (top of head
to the chin).
-When drawing/painting the face, always add the
sparkle of light in the eyes, top of nose or lips.
This adds "life" to the portrait.

I HAVE HAD IT!!!

Just need to release some steam from my teapot today,
I have just had enough! It's 6:00am and can't sleep.
Well if you are an artsy-fartsy type that loves the
government, warning- don't read any further. If
your feelings are hurt- well, go look at someone else's art.














Bambi's Bridge
My teapot reached it boiling point today after
driving up Hwy 93 to see our $1.8 million dollar
animal overpass for all the Bambis, skunks, bears,
and coyotes so they won't get hit by a car. All the
other ranchers in the area have big culverts that
run under the roads for their cows and horses to
go from one field to another. But no, the State
Hwy Dept. has to have this touchy-feely overpass for
the animals, they even put up hand rails for Bambi.
Wonder how many decaying bridges could have been
repaired or potholes filled in. Yes, I like animals,
but our priorities are a little out of whack. Alot of
people treat their dogs better than their own
kids. Dogs are animals! They lick and eat off
the floor and wipe their butts on your carpet
when you're not looking. I'm sick of the waste
of our tax dollars and all the million dollar
studies for round-abouts, bull-outs and five foot
wide bike lanes. Sick of the corrupt politicians,
and that includes you, John Murtha of PA.
I can't stand the Republican Party!
I can't stand the Democrate Party!
I can't stand the Socialists, Marxists,
Nazis, or Skin Heads.
I love Americans that still have some common
sense. Can't watch my favorite TV show anymore,
Al Gore's global warming propaganda has infiltrated
"The Office". Oh, darn, I'll have to quite watching
TV and paint more. Sick of all the save Mother Earth, global
warming crap. Just get over it! Mother Earth has been
around for millions of years and still going strong. She's like
an old lady wearing Combat Boots, just watch George Carlin
on Youtube; (warning-foul language included).
Sick of people saying we're gonna run out of resources;
the only lack of resources is the empty space that's between
the politicians heads in the District of Criminals. Quit with
the fear of us all dying from the Swine Flu and no I'm not
getting the Swine Flu vaccine-if I do died from it, I had
a good life, kids will say "she was a good Mom" and just
have to fight over the inheritance- a few paint brushes and
the paintings. Big Pharma has enough money from everybody
getting hooked on Big Pharma's medicine cabinets.
Well, I Warned You! Don't lecture me. I don't want to
hear it, this is my blog!

NOW, BACK TO SOME PAINTING!

Bad Week

This past week has been frustrating to say the least.
Had a drawing on the paper, just needed to put on the
masking to save the whites, grabbed the bottle of
masking and started to apply it. Seems with every
brushstroke it glopped up more and more. Removed the
dried masking to discover it stained the white paper
and the paper was damaged as I removed the masking.
Discovered I grabbed my old bottle of masking; now I
know that this is the reason for the staining of the
paper. Will mark the newly bought bottles with the
dates I purchased. Spent more time redrawing the
picture on new paper only to mess up the painting
with bad washes. I could submit it to the
Museum of Bad Art. I check this site out for a
good laugh once in a while, haven't seen my stuff on there yet!

Waterlilies

19" x 24" Fabriano soft press

Finally done! Was surprised at the
ease of removing some of the paint
on this kind of paper to correct certain
areas of the painting. I think I
squelched my desires to paint lilypads
with this "attempt". I do like the paper
I used and want to try fluid acrylics
on my next project using this paper.

Part 4

Now that I have the lilypads painted
in, I will concentrate on the water.
I will need to remember to leave in
soft edges around some of the lilypads
and add some different colors to the
water for interest. I will add more
color to the lilypads after the
water is painted in and adjust the
values at the end. The flowers will
be painted in last to save the whites
should I drip any paint.

Part 3

Here's the painting with the background
done. I am working on Fabriano soft press,
which takes the paint well and able to
lift the pigments if needed.

New painting-part 2

The next step in the painting process is to
paint in the water of the background scene.
I removed the masking after it dried and
decided to finish the background first after
starting with the foreground.

Start of a new painting

This will be a painting of the lily pads on
Seeley Lake. Masked out the waterlilies and
the reeds so I can paint in the water without
changing the color for the reeds. Will see how
it goes and try to post the steps as I go along.
Almost a full sheet of Fabriano soft press.

New Granddaughter

My new granddaughter Olivia Marie entered
the world on Sept 30th, 7 lb 8 oz. My son
and his wife are enjoying her at home now.
She looks alot like her Dad, only cuter!
Will be out of town next week to go and
see her.

Naked

oil 8" x 10"

An oil painting I've been working on since
this past spring. Still need to tweak some
areas of the painting. This painting was
inspired by those dreams of being naked
and in the "spotlight" and being exposed
and feeling very vulnerable.

My Little Cupcakes

watercolor 11" x 14" SOLD

My version of the current painting challenge
over at Different Strokes. Had fun painting
this one with all the different colors. Though it
looks like a simple painting, I learned things, like
make shadows interesting with colors you don't see
in the photo.

Italian Model

watercolor 12" x 16" Not for Sale

She looks alot like Selma Hayek, but is
a photo of an Italian fashion model that
Micky Modo took and gave me permission
to paint if I agreed not to sell the painting.

Finished the main part of the house painting
and just need to do some windows and doors!
Will be able to post some new paintings
soon.

The Yellow Dress

Not for Sale watercolor

This painting was done about three years
ago. I was trying to paint skin tones
that looked realistic and learning how
to paint the folds in clothing. I had
to mask over the painted skin to
protect it so I could paint the darker
background. As I removed the masking,
the painted in skin was not harmed.

Sweet to the Taste

An older painting that I did of an African
American trying to make the skin tones realistic
and added color to the skin to give skin tones
interest. I was happy with the soft and
hard edges in the painting to make the viewers eye
move through the painting, which also make it
not look pasted on to the paper.

Still working on painting the house, will be
able to use the spray painter sometime this
week!

Woman of Tibet

This was painted a few years ago with
permission of the photographer, Wendy O.
The Tibetan people have a very reddish
tone to their skin with jet black hair.
Painting the dark hair and coat was
difficult; thinking it would over take
the colors in the face and act as a
"black hole".

Salty Memories

watercolor

I'm posting a few of my older paintings
since I'm in the process of painting our
house. Winter will be here before I know
it and we have to get it done this year.

This painting was done during a Ted Nuttall
workshop a few years ago. It was his workshop
that really sparked my interest in portraits.

Little Big Horn Historian

Finished this painting finally, been
busy with framing and preparing the
house to paint. My reference picture
was taken of the man right at high
noon which is why the shadow on his
shoulders is so circular.

Gig Harbor Art Festival

Browsed the Gig Harbor Art Festival last week.
There were many artist and craftsman with displays
the length of the street. Many talented artists.
















My sister-in-laws' granddaughter
holding a pet wallaby that was owned
by another little girl. It cost the
Mom $2500 to buy! Too cute!

Cavalry at the Little Big Horn

watercolor

Visited the Little Big Horn
Battlefield the third week of
June and we talked to this man
from Missouri who said he had
studied the events that happen at
the Little Big Horn Battlefield(25th
of June 1876) for a number of years
right down to the measurements of certain
events. Liked his "cavalry hat" that he wore
and he let me photograph him. Will finish
this painting after I return from the Puget
Sound area next week.

Transformers

watercolor 14 x 14

Still considering a name for this
painting. This is my second painting
of power poles, this one having
transformers on them. Working on
a portrait next.

Watercolor Show

This painting, "Cattails" was accepted
into the Montana Watercolor Society show
that will be at the Hockaday Museum of
Art in Kalispell, Mt, Sept. 22 - Oct 16th.

Happy Birthday America!!!

We've survived for 233 yrs!!!
With God's blessings may our
"Republic" continue to survive!