My Imperfections

watercolor 12" x 13"

I have been going through my older paintings
deciding on finishing, tossing, or framing it.
Decided to finish this one and set it aside
to contemplate if I should frame it or store
it away. This painting is about our perception
of the "beautiful people" that they are perfect
in every way. We constantly judge other people,
especially those more beautiful than us. Everyone
has imperfections, visual or not. Stop judging
and concentrate on what we have in common.

Dusk

pastel on wallis paper 5" x 7"


I haven't done a pastel painting in a long time and
decided to take out the pastels and play around with
different color combinations. Tried to stay away from
natural color of the subject, this one is from my
imagination about an hour from the start of my doodling
around with color combinations. I will do more soon as
this was a good exercise learning about color and just
going with your instincts.

The Red Head

9" x 12" on gesso hardboard

My third attempt at painting a portrait in oil.
I am learning about the different mediums that are
used with oils and the canvases vs hardboards. Had
some issues with this one, but I am learning from
my mistakes.

Water-based oils

8" x 10" oil (NFS)

I bought some water based oils since my art
supplies were packed away during our move and
did a practice painting of Tidor's Nagley painting
to see how the water based oils worked and study
Nagley's style. They clean up nice with just water,
but they do not have the nice buttery feel while
painting. For sketching or plein air painting,
they would work well. Drying time is about the
same as regular oils.

Sea Stack

11 x 14 oil
Been busy with family and moving to another state.
Finally settled and now I have time to paint again.
This is an oil painting of the sea stack at the
local beach here in Port Angeles, WA

This is a collage that my daughter,
Alyssa Liles, has been working on and
finished recently for her class at MCAD.
It is titled "Self Glorification". Visit
her blog and check it out!

Old Woman

I haven't painted a portrait for months, so this is the
second try on this one. This is from a photo taken by
Kaiwalya Rangari, a graphic and website designer
who lives in India that gave me permission
to paint his wonderful photo of an old woman he
took on one of his recent trips. I may paint a few
more paintings of this photo and try to leave out
more of the details of this photo.

Peachy Keen

BUY NOW

oil on hardboard 6" x 6"

Still practicing my oil painting. Pleased with
this one as I was inspired by the juicy colors
of this pitted peach slice. Nothing better than
a ripe juicy peach full of peachy flavor.

Forever In Bloom

oil on hardboard 6" x 6"

Haven't painted much this summer, but
did this small one while sitting outside
enjoying a wonderful day.

On the Beach

6" x 10"

This is a 40's photo that I transferred to
watercolor paper and then painted with fluid
acrylic paints. Love these old classic photos
of the past.

Help Japan Challenge- SOLD

oil on hardboard 9" by 12"

I am donating a painting to be auctioned off
to help raise funds for the Japanese Relief
Fund on the Dailypaintworks website.
If you are interested in this painting or any of
the others posted on their website, click on the
above link to bid. The sale of this painting will
be donated to the Japanese Red Cross Society.

Burnt Out

oil on hardboard 6" x 6"

I haven't done an oil painting for quite awhile
and did this one as a daily painters challenge
of zippo lighters. The only colors we could use
was ultramarine blue, burnt sienna, and white.
The hardest part was painting in those air vent
in the lighter, had to redo them three times
before I was ok with it.
Also working on two watercolors when I have time.

Daily Crossing

nfs watercolor

A painting I did way back in 1997 which was
to hang in a restaurant in town with a group
of local artists. I was actually in the
process of painting it as I received a call
to see if I had the painting ready to hang in
three days,...I work better under pressure,
just glad I didn't mess it up really bad. I
have since learned not to put a date on the
front of your paintings. My youngest daughter
called dibs on this one.

Reflecting

pastel 13" x 19"

My latest "fix it" after the painting stayed
packed away for several years. It was way too
dark on the left which made the painting seem
heavy on that side. I lightened that area and
evened out the colors more and it is much better
now. Will probably work on it a little more.
This is a painting of Rattlesnake Creek in the
early fall. Now on to other things.

Flower Box

pastel 11.5 x 15

Been thinking lately about doing more pastels
and went through my old pastel paintings to
try and rescue some of the bad ones. One was
beyond rescue and I ripped it up, another one
still needs work. Funny how you can put a painting
away for months or a year, pull it out and
know exactly what's wrong with the composition
or colors used and can then fix it if it's
not that bad. The painting above is one that
needed a little adjusting and one I did to
learn how to work in pastel.

Bathing In The Moonlight

watercolor 12" x 16"

Back to getting some painting time in
after weeks of getting other things done.
Did this last night for a challenge to get
back up to speed with painting skin and
decided to do a nude. Painted this on
Fabriano 140# soft press and was not happy
with the washes and edge control. This
paper works great for fluid acrylics though.
This painting is NFS, just a study.

Website

Finally finished my website that I put
together myself! My daughter offered to do
it for me, but I knew she was busy with school
and I needed to learn to do this myself to
develop more computer skills. I will be adding
paintings as they come along and improving the
website.

Susan Liles

http://susanliles.com/

I also would like to wish everyone a Happy
New Year and thank those who have visited
my blog and left encouraging comments. May
my fellow artists have more time to paint and
reach our goals we have set for ourselves to
develop our talents even more.

Sold

This is the painting that was sold and was
a Christmas present for a lady whose maiden
name was also Susan Liles. She has a nice brother
who bought the painting because the family is
in the electrical and power business.
Had a wonderful Christmas with family and
now spending time with my daughter who is
home for her winter break from school. Hoping
to have more time by the end of January to
paint more when I pass off some of my responsi-
bilities to others. Yeah!!!

Signature Status-MTWS

Received my certificate this week stating
that I have attained the distinction of
Signature Membership in the Montana
Watercolor Society!
Now I just need to get busy and paint
more paintings and enter other watercolor
society competitions. Also sold a painting
this week!

Top Watercolor Blogs

OnlineGraphicDesignDegree.com

I received the news that my blog was listed
as one of the "Top Watercolor Painting Blogs"
presented by Online Graphic Design Degree.
Thanks Online Graphic Design for listing my
blog and giving me the encouragement to coninue
painting and posting my work.
Here is the link to see the list of other
watercolor blogs:
Top Watercolor Painting Blogs