"Wistful" Painting

"Wistful"

Acrylic on paper

9 x 12 inches

2010

I did this one on a primed piece of heavy acrylic paper so I'd have one someone could hang on the wall.  I had it on the easel when my daughter got home and she stopped in front of it and dropped her book bag and let her jaw hang open for a while.  Yeah.... she's a little drama queenish.   

Thanks for looking!

"Yellow Rose" Practice piece

"Yellow Rose"

Acrylic on paper

10 x 12 inches

2010

First attempt at doing the flowers (besides the mural).  Bob walked up and pointed out three mistakes right off the bat.  *chuckle*  Yeah... I'd already seen them, but thanks hon.  It's on one of my "practice boards".  A nice thing to call a piece of corrugated cardboard.  It gives me a way to practice strokes and paintings without using my HDF or canvas.  Once I'd primed it with several coats of gesso, it works fine though.

I'll keep this painting for a while then gesso over it and use the board again.  Of course my kids freak out every time I talk about painting over my practice boards. 

It's not for sale because it would only last five or six years.. and well.. there are the errors and all. *wink*  Still I love the colors so I'll be doing this one again.

Thanks for looking!

Traditional Flower Study

"Untitled"

Acrylic on paper

5 inches square

2010

Ok, I have a confession to make.... *looks around to see if anyone is eavesdropping, then leans closer to you and whispers*   I'm not a flower person.  I think I've told you this before. I've only painted a couple of flowers before.  Still I needed to do 'em for the mural.  So I played around with traditional style painting... layering of colors and washes and stuff.  It works... and here's my proof that I did try it.  I even sketched an outline to give me an idea of where I was putting the flowers.

Well that was too much for me.  Too slow, too... controlled.  So when I got out there I just loaded multiple colors on the brush and put it on the wall in flowerish shapes.  It worked and I liked that a LOT better!  Oh yeah and it was fun!!  I looked it up and someone has a name for what I'm doing and it's called One Stroke painting.  Huh... there goes my million dollar idea... turns out someone else had it first.

Anyway... I'll share some of my one stroke attempts with you in the next few weeks, if you promise not to laugh!  Well, ok,  you can laugh if you want to.

Thanks for looking!

Sweet Light

"Sweet Light"
Watercolor on archival hot press
8 x 10 inches
2010
 

I'm playing around with watercolor too.  Robert spoiled me some time ago with a Cotman half pan field box.  It's amazing and I just love this paint.  There's just something about watercolor.... I can get light into my paintings that I have not been able to do with acrylic.  This image glows and it pleases me to no end.

I saw something like this in a book at Costco this weekend and pulled out my paint as soon as I got home.  I was reading online that a lot of people work from photos like I did with the birds.  I usually don't but am going to start giving that a serious try.  Bob takes amazing nature photography and I'm going to start doing images from his birds, landscapes and seascapes.  Wish me luck!

Thanks for looking!

"African Gray" Painting

"African Gray"

Acrylic on Canvas

5 x 7 inches

1988

This is the third and final bird that I did in 1988.  (It was November and a lot of things changed shortly after that)  This guy just looks ready to step off onto my hand.

Don't let the small size fool you... this painting will draw people from across a room!  I've seen it happen.

Thanks for looking!

"Green Parrot" Painting

"Green Parrot"

Acrylic on Canvas

9 x 12 inches

1988

This was the second bird painted on that cold November day.  In another issue of Bird Talk they had a painting of a bird.  This is my rendition of that painting and I wish I could find the original to show you... even my ex says it looked just like this... even down to the feet being placed oddly.

Thanks for looking!

"Sun Conure" Painting

"Sun Conure"

Acrylic on Canvas

9 x 12 inches

1988

My first attempt at painting birds.  I loved his eye so much that I went on to paint three more that day.  Here's a close up of the eye so you can see it.  Now, I'm sure this type of bird has a name besides "rainbow parrot" but I don't know what it is!  LOL

Update:   My very good friend tells me this is a Sun Conure, which is a smaller parrot with a great personality!  Thanks for the info dear!

This is from a photo in an issue of Bird Talk magazine.  He had such bright colors that I just had to see if I could paint him.  They had him on a perch in a store, but through the magic of painting we were able to change that setting. Plus I wanted to do a black background like my Sister does on some of her paintings.

 

Thanks for looking!

Mural Project Finished

We had a final day of painting out at Melissa's house.  The mural is finished and wouldn't you know it... I forgot my camera.  I snapped these with my phone so I'd have something to show you.

There are five lady bugs hidden in the foliage and several butterflies that are a little easier to find.  Eva asked how I was making the small yellow flowers on the left side and didn't really believe me when I told her. So when I did the blue flowers, I showed her how you load the brush with lots of paint and color to create the flower petals.

Melissa and her family are simply delightful!  Her baby was born in December and I got to meet her on this last trip out.  A beautiful, healthy girl!  I'm ever so grateful to all of them for letting me splash, sponge, finger paint, dab, smoosh, roll and brush paint on their walls.

Melissa said she'd take photo's and email them to me... or I'll take better shots when I go back out to do her older daughter's room.  That one is going to be a LOT of fun, but I'm only going to give you one hint on the subject:  Think baby sea turtles!