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.