I worked a bit more on it and am happy now.  The colors of the photo are still much brighter than the painting is in person. 

Arrangement in Red is my latest acrylic.  It is 40" x 30" on a gallery wrapped canvas.  I enjoyed working with all those colors, but the photo seems brighter than the painting actually is in person.  Painting shapes inside shapes is especially fun and intriguing for me.  I am ready to start a new one!!!

This acrylic painting has no glare problem!  Yeah!!!  It should because it has some nice gold shiny paint on it.  Even with that is is a nice subtle painting that I like very much.  I call it Mountain Streams and Broken Dreams.  It is 24 x 30. 

Another acrylic poppy painting with some glare on it.  It is 30 x 40 and has a lot of fun color.  This one is not quite finished, but I like where it is going so I thought I would show it.  It is very close.

I am working on this large (36 x 36) acrylic painting of poppies.  It is all about color and pattern, but the photo is giving it a little more color than is has.  It is good though, because I was thinking about glazing some of that gold in, but wanted to see it first.  There is also a glare, making it hard to see the colors as they really are.  Oh well, it is good to take photos of the process as it helps me see more objectively.  I think a good title for this one is Poppy Patterns.

My Mother's Hollyhocks is a transparent watercolor that I just completed.  My mom no longer has hollyhocks, but when she lived in Amarillo she had a lovely bush in her yard.  I always think of her when I see a beautiful hollyhock.  I still love the white of the paper!

Solitaire was a preliminary study that I did to get ready for my demo.  I didn't like the way it was going, so I reworked it and got back to my original intention, a loose figure study using guoache and watercolor on paper.  I love the feel now and the nice opacity of the paint. 

The Music is Good is the title of this painting that I worked on as a demonstration for the Williamson County Art Guild on Tuesday.  I was happy that I got to see and visit with many friends and meet new people too.  I am glad that I chose this pose to work on.  I completed a painting a while back and used it as inspiration because I just love the feeling of the model.  She is so relaxed and regal at the same time.  I like that it as full of color and energy and am glad that time ran out so I had to stop. 

I am excited about my show at Stinger Studio/Hill Design Gallery this Saturday!  This is a small acrylic that will be there.  It is 12" x 12" and so bright a cheery.  I have titled it Knockout, after all the showy red roses that I love.  I hope you like it!

This was lots of fun.  I was inspired by Betsy Dillard Stroud's yellow line drawing painting exercise.  I did my own contour drawing from my still life set up using yellow watercolor.  It was fun deciding how to break up the spaces by overlapping objects.  Then came interesting color.  It is an interesting technique and I recommend her book, painting from the inside out.  19 projects to free your creative spirit. 

 

  I am working on a new floral painting and like the abstraction so far.  I haven't decided how much I want to abstract the flowers.  It has a little shine to it because of a watercolor medium that I found.  I like to experiment.  This one is all about gray tones, so a little shine is nice I think. 

There is so much to say about such a cloudy sky.  I painted this with acrylics, and it took many layers for me to be happy with the look.  Not too gray and depressing, not too blue or puffy.  The colors of the photo are not as subtle as the actual painting.  I hope you like it.  We have gotten a little rain today and it has cooled everything off so nicely that I thought I would go ahead and post this one.  I will title it Expectations.

Poppies Revisited is my newest poppy painting.  It is a watercolor and it will be in my solo show at Stinger Studio/Hill Design Gallery in July.  The reception will be on July 19th.  It will be a good way to enjoy a hot Saturday afternoon so I hope to see a lot of friends! 

April Treasures is a watercolor painting that I just completed that is now living at Stinger Studio Gallery until someone buys it to give it a real home.  I call it April Treasures because it is a treasure hunt to find the poppies that bloom in April in Georgetown for the festival.  They can be hard to find, but what a joy it is to come across a vibrant patch.  This one is 30" x 22". 

Roots to Grow and Wings to Fly.  I hope you enjoy my watercolor full of symbolism.  I know it is sweet, but I am happy with the softness and the message.  It is my wish for my children and grandchildren. 

I still love to paint portraits, especially of children.  I love the softness of youth and painting this way forces me to remember that "less is more" in watercolor. 

Yeah Poppy Festival in Georgetown, Texas.  It is coming up this weekend and I painted these poppies for the occasion (along with several others.  I love poppies).  This is a large acrylic ( 30" x 40") that just has happy written all over it.  Hope you like it.  I will title it A Walk Through Old Town.

Happy Easter!  Here comes Peter Cottontail...  My watercolor class had fun with textures yesterday and with lots of splash and splatter and scratching created this cute, furry critter.  I have been working with a variety of techniques lately, just having fun.  Happy Spring.

Good Stuff and Antiques is my new acrylic.  It is a large landscape that was inspired by a photo that I took while driving through Oklahoma and Texas years ago.  It was a fun trip with my Mother and daughter.  We had been to a family reunion.  There was a lot of driving, but we took our time and stopped when there was something that inspired me.  I was able to take lots of photos that I have been using for years!   

After I completed this painting, that I began in class as a demonstration, I decided that it would be a good one to record to show my step by step process.  It is done using so much negative painting that it is best to see the process from beginning to end. What follows is that process, but it is shown backwards.  Painting flowers is fun and a good way to improve skills.  I hope you like it.

I have added more flowers and completely covered the background with washy color.  I know that if I want the light flowers to be the most important element, I have to get rid of the white in the background.  I am at a stopping place.  I will study the painting for awhile to decide how much detail I want in the secondary, background shapes of the leaves.  I like the back runs that create movement in the background.  The colors are looking pretty sweet to me at this point, so I will take that into consideration as I complete the painting. 

I added more light flowers and continued to push them forward with the blue, thinking all the time about making the composition interesting.  I also refine any shapes that don't look right to me.  It is easy to do at this stage when everything is so light.  I little water on a soft brush is often all that is needed to take out shapes or lines that don't feel right.

This is the beginning.  I want to illustrate my process for anyone who may be interested.  It is good for me to keep a record as I paint because it helps me teach, so here goes.  I picked three petunias out of a pot that contained dozens and I painted them with no lines on the paper.  I spent time trying to get good shapes with good placement on the 15" x 11" sheet of watercolor paper.  I used blue to push the light flowers forward.

Thinking of spring brings about positive thoughts and negative painting.  I wanted to paint a close up of shrubbery and get interesting colors and shapes.  My favorite way to work, this takes some practice if I haven't done it in awhile.  This one got me going and I had fun pushing the values.  Positively Springtime is 15" x 22". 

Waiting For the Blooming Vines.  Here is the"after" photo.  I just added more vines and negative shapes.  I hope you like it. 

Getting there.  I worked on this one more time after I took this photo, but I thought I would post the before first and then the after.  I hope I haven't ruined it...but I am always pushing the envelope and sometimes I just have to suffer the consequences.  This painting is acrylic on paper.  I am working with fluid acrylics because they can create such strong, beautiful colors and you only need a few to mix a wide variety of hues.  I love working with them!  The paper is hot press watercolor with gesso applied to it.  It makes a strong surface to work on.  I began the painting with watercolors, but the acrylics took over.  I guess I am Waiting for the Blooming Vines.

I have been painting a series based on the trumpet vine that I planted in my yard a few years ago.  I don't have a green thumb, so I am always happy when I find a plant that will survive the elements and my lack of gardening skills.  The vine needs the trellis and I enjoy the the straight lines that contrast the organic shapes in this subject.  I will be posting the series as it unfolds.

Just having a little fun with watercolor.  I love this medium!  Wet and wild or prim and proper; so many ways to apply the paint.  The challenge here was to paint the subject without any drawing on the paper.  I also wanted to use lots of water to get those runs and let the paint mix and mingle.  I had fun with the colors too.  I think I will call this one, It's Five O'clock Somewhere.  Not original, but fun. 

Taos September is my painting of memories of walking in Taos last fall.  The weather was super and the flowers were in bloom.  I love to work from the heart and that is what this represents.  It makes me happy.  It is acrylic on canvas. 

I still need to crop this one!  This is what happens when I am in a hurry.  I actually have worked on this over a period of time and wanted to look at it on my blog.  It has textures that are created using tissue paper collage and painting over the new surface.  It is mixed media because not only did I use the tissue paper, but I worked with both acrylic and watercolor.  Whatever it takes is my thinking.  American Rural Textures is the title of this painting. 

I lived in Arizona long enough that I am comfortable with the shapes that define the southwest.  The large saguaro reminds of the landscapes that I grew to love.  Now in Texas, I enjoy the beautiful old live oaks and the many varieties of wildflowers.  Looking at this painting brings back happy memories.  I hope you like it. 

A Space for Poppies because it is all about those pesky negative spaces for me.  They have to be just right in value and color so that the piece is balanced and yet allows the eye to move around.  I have worked on this one for awhile now and have just put it in a frame.  It is going to Hill Design Gallery for the Stinger Studio Show in February. 

This is a group of paintings that are showing at the Credit Union in Round Rock.  They are some of my new abstracts on watercolor paper.  The theme of these paintings is Rock Collector because that is what I was thinking about as I designed them.  I enjoyed the process of glazing with Golden Fluid Acrylics and I look forward to continuing to work this way.  The address is 120 Palm Valley Cove (Hwy 79) in Round Rock if you'd like to take a look. 
Thank you to my friend, Vicki Brevell for inviting me to show and for hanging the pieces for me. 

Bottles Galore!  But no, I am calling this one Winter Fruits, for the pears.  Again, pears for Christmas.  They are more fun to paint than to eat, and eating them is fun too.  I have been working with pears in my classes this week and even though I did this one a few weeks ago, I am just getting around to getting a photo of it.  It is a bundle of analogous color fun!  Just looking at it makes me want to grab my paint brushes.  It is 22" x 30", acrylic on paper.

Rural American Sunset is my newest landscape in watercolor.  I have started teaching watercolor again and last week's lesson involved a barn in a landscape.  I wanted to teach the importance of creating a plane change with value and using color to create depth in a landscape.  After the lesson my intention was to paint an abstract, but the lesson came through as often happens these days.  The great thing about working this way is that the abstract composition underneath is still there, so the painting is stronger. 
This painting is 20" x 28". 

This is an acrylic painting that is part of the series of Texas inspired landscapes that is hanging in Round Rock.  It is large and colorful and I am hoping for poppies in April as I look at this.  We celebrate poppies here in Georgetown even though we don't have many growing wild.  People do plant them and have yards full of the beautiful color in March and April.  I know where to find them.  But when I paint them, I transplant them in my mind so that they are out there for everyone to see. 

Fleeting Images is an abstracted landscape, one of a series of paintings that I have done using the Texas landscape as inspiration.  This one is watercolor and it is 22" x 30."  I am showing it along with five other large landscapes in the City of Round Rock City Hall for the next three months.  I also have three small abstracts in the Credit Union there.  I will include some others that are hanging there in future blogs.  I took them off my walls so I kind of miss them, but bare walls inspire me, so look for some new pieces too. 

This is another watercolor that looks like Happy New Year wishes.  I call it Celebrations in the Garden.  I don't know what kind of flowers they are, but they look like fireworks to me, so they are great for either the Fourth of July or New Years.  They were a lot of fun to paint. 

Happy New Year!  I hope 2014 is a wonderful and prosperous year for everyone.  I have a few resolutions and one of them is to blog more regularly.  Now that I have put that out there for all to see, I have to stick to it.  I do love to blog, but I love to paint more, so it is just a matter of prioritizing. 

The painting above is not new, but it is bright and happy, so I thought I would post it along with my happy new year wishes.  It is crocus and those always make me think of a very early spring.  Growing up in Amarillo, the winters could be bitter, but lovely little crocus would would peek through the snow and I knew that spring was on the way.  That is why I call this watercolor Dreaming of Springtime,