Magical Reflections Workshop

We painted reflections today! What FUN! Working in acrylics, from a photograph everyone chose a composition, created a value study and then a painting. Emphasis was put onto following the value study when painting. Since everyone's crop was different, everyone's painting turned out unique.
The BEAUTIFUL and ARTISTIC results are below.

Egret at Home

I've always wanted to paint an egret but they are elusive to photograph. Herons seem to be much more common. Anyway, I love the habitat of marsh with grasses and water and the birds look so cool dotted around, the tallest object around.

My first version of this egret is something I think I'm going to gesso over. It looked very forced to me and I wanted to do better. In this piece I really tried to be imaginative with the color and creative with the color tones of the bird. I tried to be sensitive to the lights, darks and midtones and divide the color spaces up creatively. I am very pleased. I used a lot of medium in my acrylic paints to keep the paint workable for a longer period of time so that my brush strokes were able to blend together in places.

Thanks to my brother, Joe, for the reference photo for this piece.

"Egret at Home" • Original Acrylic on 3/4" cradled gessoboard, sides stained cherry brown • ready to hang

If interested in purchasing this piece click HERE.

Teasel Heaven

I really like painting on the gessoboard panels. They are smooth and the paint really moves well on them. In this piece I really tried to use some descriptive brushwork and sagey green colors. I really like the greens and purples.

"Teasel Heaven" • Original acrylic on 1/4" gessoboard panel

If interested in purchasing this piece click HERE.

Apple Elegance

Someone in my class brought me an apple, all shiny and perfect! So perfect that I just HAD to paint it! I was really trying to be loose and use descriptive brush strokes. I really like the colors!

"Apple Elegance" • Original acrylic on 1/4" gessoboard

If interested in purchasing this piece click HERE.

Sunflower Solo

This piece began with mixed watercolor and acrylic ink. I've been looking at it for awhile now. I finally decided to create a sunflower. I outlined with tinted white acrylic ink.

"Sunflower Solo" • Original mixed watermedia on Arches 140# cold press paper • 5" x 7" • sized to fit into an 8" x 10" matte and frame

If interested in purchasing this piece click HERE.

Heron Close Up

I actually started this piece last week and decided I'm finished with it today. It was fun cropping the heron and working with the different grays both warm and cool. I did a little scraping with a palette knife for some of the feathers.

"Heron Close Up" • Original watercolor on Arches 140# cold press paper • 5" x 7" • sized to fit into a standard 8" x 10" matte and frame

If interested in purchasing this piece click HERE.

Heron Sparkle

Great Blue Herons are very AWESOME birds! They even stay still long enough to sketch and paint. I live close to a rookery and they recently landed in a group of about 15 on an island across the river.
This piece shows one of these birds in the fullness of plumage.

"Heron Sparkle" • Original acrylic on 1.5" gallery wrap canvas, ready to hand • 8" x 8"

If interested in purchasing this piece click HERE.

Banquet of Color

A small watercolor which begins with washes. It turned out similar to the river where I live. I really like to show the tall trees by the river. I scraped into the tree trunks with a palette knife which seems to work a lot better than a credit card, for me anyway.

"Banquet of Color" • Original watercolor on Arches 140# cold press paper • 7" x 5" • sized to fit into a standard 8" x 10" matte and frame.

If interested in purchasing this piece click HERE.

Country Dance

I've been trying to get to know my watercolors better by starting with washes of colors. I really like the color shapes that happened in this piece. I think the dancing bushes give context for the background which is pretty much the original wash. That's the magic of watercolor to me, when I can leave a lot of the original wash and the beautiful color mixes.

"Country Dance" • Original watercolor on Arches 140# cold press paper • 7" x 5" • sized to fit into a standard 8" x 10" matte and frame

If interested in purchasing this piece click HERE.

Slow Dance

My latest watercolor. I started with a wash of different colors. Then I scraped in the trees with a palette knife. I added details with a small brush and added a little spatter. I really like the atmospheric quality of the wash.

"Slow Dance" • Original watercolor on Arches 140# cold press paper • 7" x 5"

To purchase this piece click HERE.

Teasel Mood

I began this piece with a wash of different colors. I wanted to have warm and cool colors and interesting color spaces. When it dried I added the teasels with darker paint and tinted white acrylic ink. I really love the sense of distance and atmosphere in this piece.

"Teasel Mood" • original watercolor on Arches 140# cold press paper • 7" x 5" • sized to fit into a standard 8" x 10" matte and frame

 If interested in this piece click HERE.

New Art!

This is my newest piece. It's watercolor and Acrylic ink. The two mediums give this piece a very nice atmospheric quality!

"Woods of Dreams" • Original mixed watermedia on Arches 140# cold press paper • 11" x 15"

If interested in purchasing this piece click HERE.

Kitty Daydreaming

A kitty cat to enjoy! I enjoyed combining purples blues, reds and tinted whites in this piece.

"Kitty Daydreaming" • Original acrylic on 3/4" wrap around canvas, painting continues on sides, ready to hang * 8" x 8"

 If interested in purchasing this piece click HERE.

Magic of Winter

This is one of my mixed watermedia pieces. I used acrylic inks and watercolors and some iridescent ink. This started with sort of an idea but generally that idea has to be adjusted after the first layer of  watercolor and ink. It's very challenging to create an image working with the texture instead of trying to completely reform it. I'm really pleased with the result of this one. It makes me want to go there!

"Magic of Winter" • Original mixed watermedia on Arches 140# cold press paper • 15" x 11"

If interested in purchasing this piece click HERE.

Kitty Love

Another kitty painting. The pinks, peaches, yellows, purples and greens were really fun to work with. It was also interested to work with the different tints. I especially love the peach tint. This one really makes me smile. 

"Kitty Love" • original acrylic on wrap around canvas, painting continues on sides, ready to hang • 8" x 10"

If you're interested in purchasing this piece click HERE.