The Wheel of Color

The color wheel is so valuable to painters. It is the building

block of understanding color and their relationship to one

another. We worked alot on color composition in my workshop

and I hope most everyone has made their own form of the color

wheel at some stage in their art life. I will take a short break from

my daily blog, so more next week (after vacation!)

Beneath the Sun

"Beneath the Sun"

I guess irises are on the brain since we've been

painting them in my workshop. I have quite a

large group of painters in the class and they are

all working hard! Today we'll focus on another

exercise to get the brain thinking of composition

and variation. Maybe tulips today!

Intense Iris Hue

"Intense Iris Hue"

Today my class begins and I found some wonderful

irises yesterday, along with tulips, daffodils, purple

stock and some delphiniums. So we should be able

to use quite a few of our colors on our palettes.

The day will be the nicest so far this spring, but we'll

be inside. Oh well, at least we can eat lunch outside.

Color Craze workshop prep

"Color Craze" 15" x 22"

Tomorrow is the first day of my watercolor workshop

at the Helen Day Art Center. We will focus on florals and

still life. I will venture out today to gather up some bouquets

of daffodils and tulips and whatever else is out there that

looks good enough to paint (or eat)!

Clouds over Lake Champlain

I did this painting quite some years ago...but wanted

to post some other work for a change. Yesterday the

clouds across the Champlain Valley looked like this. Bright

cerulean blue skies and titanium white clouds. How's

that for some paint color references?

Rays of Sun

"Rays of Sun"

Another look at the world of licensing.

This painting was used by the Antioch Company

to make bookmarks. Check out the link to have a look.

It's almost time to start planting seeds. Sunflowers

are the ones that take so long to reach for the sky

and show off all that hard work in September!

Dinner display

I hope you are enjoying my lunch and dinner choices.

This was last night's prep for bok choy on the cutting

board. Like I said yesterday, sometimes a still life is

sitting right in front of you and you just have to grab a

brush and paint. A sketch journal is also a great place

to give yourself permission to experiment and play with

different media or techniques, nobody has to see them...

unless you post them on a blog! :)

Orange slices

This is a sketchbook entry from yesterday. I have been trying to

sketch or paint in my journal every day. It's not an easy task...

I get caught up in the decision making process of what should I

paint and how do I set it up? I think the key to actually doing is just

that, sit down and do. Look around and grab a pencil, pen or brush

and put it on paper. What is it "they" say about practice...oh yeah

something about perfection, right?

Burst of Blooms

"Burst of Blooms" 7.5" x 7.5"

This seems to be the direction my paintings are going lately. Overlapping shapes and the perspective being slightly askew. Makes for unique negative spaces and pushes me to use my imagination a little more and work on the composition and layout. I've also found fun fabric patterns to use in my still lifes, sometimes the bold and beautiful ones are napkins from a kitchen store.

Spring Fling

"Spring Fling"

Half the fun of painting flowers is deciding which ones to focus on.

Sometimes a whole painting can be accomplished with just one bloom

in hand and designing a pleasing composition. Or you just have to

go to the source, set up shop and zoom in on them in their natural habitat.

Blue bottle blog frequency

"Blue bottle"

Another start of a week and it is finally beautiful here in the Northeast. Sun, warmer temperatures and some hint of greening and budding up. Since blogging is fairly new to me I do seem to be getting into a pattern of postings. I don't post on weekends and post five days a week starting on Monday. Hope that helps explain it for any of you who are questioning the frequency of receiving emails. I have signed up for other artist's blogs and that seems to be the general "norm" for this kind of format. If it is still too much for you, you might want to unsubscribe and just check out the blog page whenever you feel like it.

Big Red

"Big Red" 22" x 10"

It was time to post a different image, something that evokes

a summer feeling. I love painting poppies and their bright

red blooms really "pop". This happens to be a single blossom, but

I usually group them together all nice and cozy.

sampling oranges

"Orange and Stars"

This is a piece I did last summer during a demonstration at Frog Hollow
in Manchester. As I was painting, this lady came by to chit chat.
She then walked off in the direction of my still life and on her way out

helped herself to a little slice of orange! Pretty funny.

Speckled Splendor

"speckled splendor"
I thought it was time for another rooster painting.

This image was made into outdoor decorative flags. Here is the

link for the flag company so you can have a look.
It's really fun to see my paintings on these different items.