Going Around in Spirals

Techno? Not. Well apparently not techno enough. My frustration is escalating. Hence, 'spirals' instead of 'circles'.

I've been trying to sort out how to get Blogger and Feedburner to resume sending out email announcements to my blog subscribers. It stopped a couple of months ago. It's a long, boring story so I won't go in to it. Anyway, I hope to figure it out soon.

If you'd like to be on the subscriber list, send me an email and as soon as I get it sorted out you'll start receiving sporadic email from me.  Meanwhile you are welcome to visit the Blog at any time. You can access archives going back to 2013.

I like to show my watercolors and write about them on the blog. I started painting while I went
through chemotherapy in 2012. Painting has become my moving meditation practice. I love the entire process including preparing to paint and shopping for supplies.

No scrubbing!

#1

#2

I call it "scrubbing".  I think it's actually called that. It's when you paint over brush strokes, too impatient to wait until it dries. So you basically make mud and have to trash the piece because there are one or several areas on your paper that definitely don't look like they belong there or in any picture.

Tap on the pictures to enlarge.

#1 I was working on this piece in my painting group, but didn't finish. I wanted to add definition to the trees, and probably lighten up the background for more contrast.


#2 I softened the background a bit, but the trees did not stand out as I hoped they would.

#3

#3 Went overboard with the shadowing on the trees thinking if they were darker they would stand out more.. When you keep adding color when the paper is still wet you get mud.

#4

#4There was no going back, so I picked up the oil pastels to see if I could lighten up the trees by adding white. There was way too much dark paint on the paper and I was unable to get the effect I was after. Impatiently, I just colored in  everything. Oh well. Back to the drawing board.

Winter Haikus

Well, I can really get lost in a picture. I think it was actually finished maybe 3 or 4 times, but it was a new image for me and I'd never drawn or painted a birch tree before. This is about my zillionth try.

One has to know when to stop...

Winter Haikus

I'm home, it's winter

It's cold,  the wind is howling

Maybe it's nap time

Winter separates

Other seasons connect us

Can't wait for the spring

Dreamy Landescape

Don't know why I chose late summer for today's picture. Probably because the weather was so dreary and gray. I needed a little color pick-me-up. I can dream, can't I?

Challenge: Tropical Colors Part Three

Well this is a process...
I've been given a challenge of creating a painting for my sister using tropical colors. So how do I decide what to paint? How do I usually decide? I could use new materials, but I basically use watermedia; watercolors that come in cakes or pans, watercolor pencils, inks, and oil pastels. I like paper with a tooth, or texture, heavy enough to not buckle from the water. As for images, I've been discovering landscapes, using photos I take or find on the internet for reference, mostly of trees and dirt roads and autumn and all colors one finds in the north east. Something will spark my imagination like a shape, a perspective or a composition in a photo, but here we are starting with colors. Hmm.

The first thing I thought of was the beach. (see that post).. NG said my sister. Let's see what else you've got. OK so I started messing around with abstract images. NG I said, this time, (see last post), but there were parts of it that pleased me, so I decided to do another one. I like this one below, but then I wanted to continue exploring. I'm starting to really like the colors. So I thought some circles might be interesting.

Challenge-Tropical Colors-Part Two

The story so far:
My sister asked for a painting in colors that I rarely use. They are more likely to be seen in the Carribean than the Berkshires. Well, I did do a beach scene, (see last posting), but ahe wanted to see something else. Enjoying the challenge, I next thought decided on abstract shapes. I doodled and noodled and came up with this. My sister liked it, but I'd like to try it again. Next time, I'll plan it out better and make a sketch first. I'd like the shapes to be better drawn. I do like the colors. They're starting to grow on me.

Challenge: Tropical Colors

I asked my sister what she would like for her birthday and she requested a painting.  She wants colors that she's particularly fond of that are all rather tropical. Blues and greens and blue-greens like aqua and turquoise are what she likes best. These are colors that I hardly ever work with. I live inland, in the mountains, in the northeast. I like browns and rusts.

When I said as much to my sister, she said that it would be a good challenge for me to paint in these colors. OK. Well, she didn't like the first attempt. I admitted that it was the first thing I thought of when she described her colors. (See picture #1 of the beach). Well, back to the drawing board. More of the story will be revealed as it happens.