Colorful 2011

May your New Year be filled with color and creativity! Happy happy...be safe and enjoy...Thanks to everyone for following my blog, leaving me comments and emailing me your thoughts!

Go figure

I'm looking forward to a new figure session to start in 2011...I want to paint bigger and more detailed, really get comfortable with the measuring and proportions...I think patience will have to factor in to that!

Critter Christmas

Feliz Navidad Feliz Navidad....

"Iguana" wish you a Merry Christmas, from the bottom of my heart!

This was my holiday card image this year...how's that for a different critter! Enjoy.. and I might be posting a bit haphazardly during the next week...Thanks to all my followers and subscribers, all your comments and words of encouragement throughout this past year!

Out and about

This guy is stepping out for the day...like I'm sure many of you are doing to get some shopping or other errands done! Don't forget to spend some quiet time sketching or painting or simply writing down your thoughts or wishes for 2011...whether artistically or anything else!

Say what?

Oh...crow up! Puffed out chest and something to say...well you better listen! I'm glad there isn't a rooster living next door ready to wake me up with his morning song! I guess I'd get used to it...maybe, eventually... I know I'd probably make him my muse and paint him all the time!

From the coop

Captured this colorful bird stepping out from the coop..pausing in mid step to see what might be waiting for it outside...well that was me with my camera! This was done on a scrap of 90 lb. watercolor paper and boy does that buckle...you forget how good materials make painting a bit easier than when you struggle with your supplies.

Winter birches

This is the scene all around me now...snow, snow and more snow. It's pretty, but shoveling is not pretty! Maybe I'll just try to paint it instead! The snow is sticking to all the trees and the birds look so nice perched on the branches..but try as I might it's hard to capture those chickadees with my camera before they scurry off!

Fancy Bird

It's a staredown contest...this guy is giving you the inquisitive eyeball! I'm getting my summer pictures ready for the long winter here in Vermont...I have a bunch of new rooster and chicken images that I'll try to tackle soon. I think the key to the rooster paintings is to keep the colors clean...I also apply that to my floral work.

Wake up

Wake up everyone! This guy has something to say...it's like he's singing an aria from the opera...but maybe the ladies are the only ones who can sing arias...I like the white highlighted feathers...I try to randomly scratch them back with a knife, while the paint is damp. This is a tricky touch...because if you do it too early the paint just pools back...too late and you won't get the crisp highlight.

Pink peony

I'd like to thank everyone for their comments and emailed notes! It's always nice to hear from you all...This little pink peony was done this summer when the peonies were all blooming two weeks early! Everything was two weeks early..except the snow, which finally arrived, then got washed away yesterday and then fell again last night and hopefully will stick around!

more than one

Multiple figures dancing across the page...it's hard to overlap the figures..I tend to want to give each drawing it's own space. After several years of going to the figure sesssions...it's getting a little easier, but the proportions still remain tough to master!

bare scene

This was painted with a limited palette...I guess it was limited, because the landscape was lacking in colors... the only pop of purer color is in the sky. It looks like fall/early winter, but was actually early spring...I'm going to try for some more winter scenes this year...or at least take photographs to work from...water in freezing temperatures doesn't do so well...and neither do I...so plein air work will have to be done inside!

greens and reds

"tis the season..to paint with green and red...and some brown...and some orange...okay maybe some teal, a little pink...you get the drift...'tis the season for just about anything! Another one of my abstract ventures. This is on a full sheet of paper 22"x30"...that's part of the fun..letting loose and using big brushes! Give it a try.

hollyhocks

To continue on the "unfinished" theme...here's one from this summer...but never saw the stamp of "done" approval...there's hope still. Didn't find as many blooming hollyhocks to photograph this year...bummer...I hear they self sow like crazy once they are established.

organic abstract

I finally got around to photographing some work in the studio...phew! So this week will feature some of those. I've been into "playing" with my palette...just coming up with some organic, abstract shapes...just using the paint and splooshing it around...yup that's a technical term...splooshing!

go figure

Another study done during the figure session...but before the model got started...so I sketched the facilitator. I also put some new supplies is my art bag to take to the sessions... watersoluble graphite, charcoal pencils, carpenter's pencil and a big sharpie marker. They all react differently to the watercolors and ofcourse make completely different marks!

brew ha ha

A quick sketch of what was in front of me last summer...a local beer and a snack of cheese and crackers. You always turn somewhat into a side show for people around you wanting to check out what you are doing... Performance art!

Mohawk

When the pose of the model is less than inspiring...you start to look around at fellow artists and decide they might make a good subject! That was the case here. I really like his beard shadow, just some straight graphite lines.