Three Birds

I finished another unfinished project this week. I started this one in March and was very frustrated with it because it is painted with acrylics and I was really fighting with them. I put the painting aside and planned to finish it with oils but hesitated to admit defeat with the acrylics. I'm becoming much more comfortable with acrylics now and this was almost a joy to work on this week. Will this medium become my favorite? It probably won't but it does have it's place in my arsenal.

Three Birds
Image size 24" x 24"
Acrylics
Unframed, gallery wrapped canvas, no framed needed
Sold

Magnolia Duo

I decided to push my frustration level this week and finish this painting that I started about 5 years ago and which, after much cursing, I had put into my unfinished pile. It is small, 5" x 7" and is painted on clay board. That surface is very unforgiving and working on it is so different than the way I like to work. I worked more loosely (which is a good thing) and actually enjoyed it. Will I buy more clayboard in the future? I probably won't but I do have some aqua board, also made by Ampersand that I'm excited to try. I does feel good to finish another old project.

Magnolia Duo
Image Size 5" x 7"
Watercolor on Clayboard
Unframed
$50.00

Belfast Shoreline

This is my first attempt at painting from Google's "street view" maps. I am submitting it to Bill Guffy's Virtual Paintout. The first day of each month, a new location is posted and artists are able to 'stroll' through the streets of the chosen city from home and choose a scene to paint. This painting took me out of my comfort level for a few reasons. This felt almost like painting a plein air painting which I don't really do. It's hard for me to edit things out of a scene. I also have never painted a figure or animal so I'm afraid these look pretty amateurish. I tried to make the man hunched over against the cold with his hands in the pockets of his jacket. I also tried to capture the feeling of a cold, dreary day by using muted colors, definitely not my favorite palette of colors. And finally, I painted this in oils, a medium I'm not completely familiar with yet. I think it's good to push out of our comfort level and try new things so even though I wouldn't count this as one of my best paintings, I am happy that I did it and plan to participate in the virtual paintout challenge each month.

Belfast Shoreline

Image Size 12" x 16"

Oil on canvas panel

unframed

$95.00

Rice Paper Koi

I started this painting about 2 years ago and I'm not sure why I didn't finish it before now. This is 150# Arches cold press paper with a piece of rice paper attached over the top by using a 50/50 mixture of matt medium and water. It gives such a great texture and surface on which to work. The matt medium seals the paper and the paint sits on the surface a bit which makes it easy to move the paint around but unlike some other surfaces where the paint doesn't get absorbed, it is easy to build up dark values with this surface.

This koi design may look familiar to you if you've looked at my silk painting catagory on my website. I used the same drawing for both mediums. My plan was to paint the same design in each medium in which I work but I think this is as far as it's going to go. On to new things!

Rice Paper Koi

Image Size 21" x 28.5"

Watercolor on rice paper/watercolor paper

Unframed

$575.00

National Watercolor Society Exhibit

The National Watercolor Society exhibit is open now. I said I would post it when it opened and I forgot. It opened last weekend and will be open through Dec. 10th. As usual, it is an inspiring show and if you are in the southern California area, I highly recommend seeing it.

Here is the link for info:

http://www.cityofbrea.net/article.cfm?id=2182

Paradise Lost V

Finally, the last painting in my Paradise Lost series is finished. This painting is a re-do of the very first painting that started this series in 1995. I wanted to show how the beautiful orange groves have become 'groves' of houses. I painted smog on this one as I did in Paradise Lost III. I can't believe I finally finished what I started 14 years ago. I'm sure my friends and family that think I never finish anything are shocked! After the first 3, I admit I started losing steam, especially since the last 2 paintings in the series used ideas that were not new and fresh, but I knew that if I took a break to paint other subjects, I would probably never finish the last two paintings for this series. I must say that I'm really tired of painting oranges, leaves and houses. The original painting that I painted in 1995 is shown below.

Paradise Lost V
Image Size 22" x 30"
Watercolor
Unframed

This is the painting that started it all in 1995.

Paradise Lost IV

This is the fourth painting in the Paradise Lost series and is a re-do of one of the paintings that I did in 1995 when I first thought of this idea. The original painting is shown below. My idea was to show how Orange County's original crop and namesake has changed and now we have a new 'crop'. In the painting that shows the oranges growing on the tree, I used pure, clean colors to show nature's beauty and in the painting with the houses 'growing' I used a more muddied palette to give a sense of a less clean, more man-made environment.

Paradise Lost IV

Image Size 11" x 11" each

Watercolor

Unframed

The above painting is the original 1995 painting.

Paradise Lost III

They are getting weirder! This is the third painting in the Paradise Lost series and it's a bit strange but I think its message is maybe clearer than in the first two paintings. Of course there is still plenty of room for interpretation. I would love to hear what this painting says to you. I had a lot of fun with this one. I don't know if my smog shows in the photo but I'm pretty happy with how that turned out and how it changed the painting.

Paradise Lost III
Image Size 30" x 14.5"
Watercolor
Unframed

Paradise Lost II

Here is the second painting in my Paradise Lost series. Can you tell what is in the background (the brown part of the painting)? Only about half of the people I ask get what I was trying to portray. Of course, it seems really obvious to me but that's because I painted it. I would love to hear your feedback on this one.

Paradise Lost II

Image Size 22" x 30"

Watercolor

Framed

Paradise Lost I

I am one very excited artist right now. Last night was the reception for the 41st Watercolor West exhibition and I was awarded 3rd place for this painting! Watercolor West is one of the major international juried watercolor shows. This year they got almost 700 entries and from those, about 100 paintings were juried into the show. Getting a painting juried into this competition has been a goal of mine for a long time. I was so thrilled when I found out that my painting got into the show back in July. I didn't post that news then because this painting is the first in a series that I'm doing and I was going to wait and post all of them once the series was finished. But since I received 3rd place I can't wait any longer! The second painting in this series is finished and #3 and #4 are being worked on concurrently so I am going to post one each week.

This series is my statement about how Orange County has changed in the 25 years that I've lived here. Even though this is a rather negative view, I really love Orange County. I just hate how every square inch is being covered with houses. When I went driving around to take reference pictures of orange trees, I drove all around OC where I knew orange groves were before but they have all been destroyed. I finally found a small grove in a person's yard so I went up to their door and asked permission to take pictures of their trees. They probably thought I was nuts!

I actually started this series back in 1995 while we were living in Anaheim Hills. I was very affected by seeing the smog as I would drive over the hill and into AH. I painted 2 paintings back then and I'm repainting them now as part of this series. As I post the new ones, I'll post the original ones also so you can see the difference. Those will be #4 and #5. I know 14 years is a long time to take to finish a series but I wasn't painting very much back then and so my motivation disappeared. Now that I'm doing a painting each week, my motivation seems constant and I get excited about new painting ideas almost daily.

Here is the information in case you are interested in seeing the exhibition. If you are in the So Cal area and love watercolor paintings, I highly recommend seeing the show. We are very fortunate to have 2 of the major watercolor shows in our area each year. The other one is the National Watercolor Society exhibit and when that opens I'll give you that info.

Watercolor West

EXHIBIT DATES: September 12th - October 24th

Riverside Art Museum

3425 Mission Inn Avenue

Riverside, CA 92501

(951) 684-7111

Paradise Lost I

Image size 22" x 22"

Watercolor

Framed