Paradise Glow wins First Place!

Paradise Glow Framed watercolor $450

I am absolutely thrilled to announce that Paradise Glow, my painting of the desert red bird of paradise plant, won First Place in the NM Watercolor Society’s Southern Chapter juried exhibit! Thank you to the exhibit judge Robert Dozal for choosing my piece. This is a first for me to win an award in an NMWS show!

Jeweled Crown Framed watercolor $450

I have a second piece juried into the exhibit called Jeweled Crown. Thank you to juror Linda Doll for picking both of my paintings to be in the exhibit.

You can view the entire show here: https://tinyurl.com/SC-2020-NMWS The show is a really nice one with artist’s comments under each image and also comments from Robert on the show and the prizewinners. The exhibit is online only because of the pandemic, but we were scheduled to be at the Branigan Museum in Las Cruces and hopefully will be there in another year. They are super to work with. So please sit back and enjoy the exhibit: Rough and Tumble: Life in a Desert Town.

On the Easel

Hello everyone!  It’s been a productive week so far including doing several value sketches, finishing Cactus Queen and hopefully finishing this piece to submit both to a show this weekend!  We shall see…

I wanted to share the progress on this piece including my set up.  I paint exclusively now standing up at my easel for the most part with the painting almost vertical.  If I need to I can quickly level the painting to not have the paint puddle. So on the left I have several reference photos, not working completely and specifically from any of them, but largely using the value sketch to guide me.

And I’m happy to announce that pendants made from prints of my watercolors are now available at Dorsey’s Cards, 6101 Dew Dr, on El Paso’s Westside, along with greeting cards.  Stop by and say hello to Andrea Dorsey and her staff!

My prints, cards, and magnets are available at the Marketplace @ Placita Santa Fe, 5034 Doniphan inside the Magic Bistro!

Paradise in Yellow

Throughout the week I kept adding blooms and pod stalks to the practice piece and it looks pretty good cropped to this size, so I’m calling it done!  It’s an 8″ x 10″ painting which would mat to an 11″ x 14″ frame.  The price for it matted but not framed is $95.

Why is it called Paradise in Yellow?  Because the flower is a desert shrub known as Yellow Bird of Paradise.  Thanks for stopping by, and as always, I’d love to hear your comments.

First Day of School

And that means back to painting for me!  Getting back to a regular schedule just feels so good.   I spent a couple of hours in the studio yesterday painting yellow Bird of Paradise blossoms on scrap paper in preparation for working on the larger painting I blogged about the other day. 

I was really happy with the bloom on the left but then I used too heavy a hand on the delicate red stamens that are so distinctive. On the right blossom I used a smaller brush, less paint and tried to do each in one “take”.  I  painted the stamens first, let them dry and then painted the bloom.

These blooms were done without drawing first.  I wanted to use the paintbrush as the drawing tool and focus on the shapes, curves and 3D effect of the petals and using warm and cool yellows to achieve it.  I enjoyed the practice session a lot!

Getting Back into the Groove

Yellow bird of paradise in progress

I’ve had some time off from painting because summer with teens is busy and I’ve had knee surgery and other stresses.  But now I’m on the mend, and school starts soon, but when will painting start?  HMMMMM…. that is the big question I’ve been asking myself for a week now, as I find time to mop the kitchen floor, organize cabinets, etc.

Does any of this sound familiar? I bet I’m not the only artist to feel like this.

In the organization, I found a handwritten note that I had made and then lost, and I want to share it with you.  It’s tips on how to get back into the groove,  Here are three that  I got by  listening to this art motivational podcast by Alyson Stanfield:  https://www.artbizblog.com/reboot-podcast/

1. Show UP! Physically get into the studio, wet your paints, plan your colors, and just PAINT!
2. Have low expectations…. be your own best friend to whom you would say, of course you won’t do well right out of the gate…you have to warm up.
3. Remember your “learning edge” or what excites you to learn.  work on that, as if you are painting for the bin or garbage can.

So how did this work for me?  I showed up today, I worked on a piece that I was already not happy with and had put masa paper on top to have a fresh start with background colors coming through, and I remembered to squint to see values.  I’m excited by delicate flowers, especially desert ones, so this project worked to get me rebooted today.  I like how the masa paper which is a Japanese thin paper that puts a texture down helps the delicate blossom effect.  And what I found is that I LOVE putting paint on paper.  that’s the thing I need to remember when I get out of the groove again.

I also used to paint from computer screens thinking that it’s better to be able to zoom in, but I’ve found that I prefer painting by referring to a printed photo.

So, what works to get you back into the groove?  any tips you can share? I’d love to hear some…thank you for stopping by today!