The art of a sketchbook ...

I love sketchbooks.  Love them.  I don't care if they are big or small, thick or thin.  And I particularly love seeing other peoples sketchbooks.  Seeing another persons sketchbook is like peeking into what makes that sketcher person tick... their personal thoughts.  A mystery of sorts.  

A lot of people feel their sketchbooks are private and won't show them to others. Others only show off their 'very best' sketchbooks. The books that are perfect. Work that could be front and center at any art show.  But, the best to me are the ones that have a little of this, a little of that and a variety of subjects sketched, painted or pasted in them.

Here are a few of my sketchbooks. 

I still have my very first one, its the second spiral bound book from the  right.  In it I see notes and drawings (mostly pretty crude) of things that I felt, at the time, needed to be written down and sketched, sometimes just to see how well I could draw them.  Things that were important to me at a given moment.

I usually mix up the style of sketch I put in my sketchbooks.  Sometimes I do a contour drawing.  I'm sure I've mentioned before how much I love contour drawing.  Its never perfect but somehow the unrefined drawing takes on a life of its own and ends up looking pretty good without any formality.  I just love them.

Other times I do a little watercolor sketch in the sketchbook.  I have a couple of small watercolor travel palettes and I often bring along one of them with my sketchbook when we go someplace.

Still other times I am attempting to make a more accurate pencil drawing like the one above. 

In the last photo I've made a pencil sketch and written some information down like it was a personal journal, noting the time of day and the weather conditions.

Because I think most of us enjoy seeing other peoples sketchbooks I've decided to share some of my sketchbooks with you.  Baring no problems,  The Art of a Sketchbook will show up as a regular Friday blog post.

I hope you will enjoy viewing my sketchbooks as much as I enjoy sharing them with you.

Wiped away ...

Tulip field ~ cropped, Oil on canvas
©Nancy Van Blaricom

I hadn't planned on posting again today. I was just going to paint all day and show the fruits of my labor sometime next week. After working on a little 6" x 6" canvas panel for a couple of hours I could tell it just was not going to come together and I did what I'm suppose to do in that case ... wipe it off.  But, I decided to post this small portion of the canvas (the only part worth showing) as a sort of test. When I got up this morning I was surprised that my post about my sketchbooks had not been posted when I had scheduled it at 3 a.m. ( I wanted it to be delivered early so it would be there when you first checked your mail this morning).  Anyway, I hope that this will be sent out when I schedule it for 4 o'clock this afternoon ... as a test sort of.  If you receive this because you subscribe to my blog and did not receive the post about the sketchbooks please check out the blog post before this one.  Hopefully there was just a glitch because Blogger has been updating things.  Fingers are crossed.

Who I am Writing For ...

Recently I signed up for Blog Triage Class with Alyson Stanfield and Cynthia Morris.  I have Alyson's book I'd Rather be in the Studio and also follow her Art Biz Blog. And, although I've been blogging for quite awhile I know my blog needs some positive attention.  Expect some changes!

Lesson #1 asked us to write a blog post describing the type(s) of people I would like to visit and read my blog.

That person is you! My blog readers are someone who is a variety of ages and are interested in seeing my work evolve.  They enjoy my writing and probably live in the northwest or are interested in the northwest landscapes.  They look forward to my blog posts and will interact with me through email or comment on my blog when they want to say something about what they've seen or read.

Also, I'm to write about what I want to get from blogging:  My goal is to write more articulately about my work.  Share how and why I choose to paint what I do.  Also to build a larger audience who like my work.

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Now on to some more exciting news.  After I painted the two shells on the right (in the photo below), I decided to paint some other shells I found on the beach.  A muscle shell and an oyster shell.  All 4 of these shell paintings are small 3.5" x 3.5" x 1/2" and just perfect to set on small easels or hang as a grouping.  One of my collectors saw one of the original blog posts about the shell paintings and contacted me to purchase them.  Isn't the internet wonderful?  Thank you D.B. !  

When I originally painted them I had no thought of ever painting more shell paintings, but now after talking with my collector I think I may keep some of these in stock for people to purchase as a last minute as a low cost gift. A nice small original at an affordable price.  Everyone needs to own original art work don't you think?

Excuse the poor quality of this photo.  I think I'm in the need of a small photo booth.

© 2012, Nancy Van Blaricom ~ 4 Small Shell Paintings~ oil on board3.5" x 3.5" x 1/2"

* SOLD *

Follow ups and my Art Talk Group Meetings

~Art Talk Group Meeting~

I have been involved with numerous art groups since I started my artistic journey and I always gain something from the involvement. During the last 3 years I've been involved in a small art group that is different from any I've joined before. We keep membership to 13 (one married couple), keeping it to one hosted meeting per member for the year. Our members are varied in interests and participation. We start our meeting with the host serving wine and appetizers then after a few minutes of chit chat we one by one start sharing what we've done since the last meeting. One member is a potter and wood turner, another a sewer, another a knitter, Sumi artist, watercolor artists, oil painter ... there are a few who are not artists at all but non-the-less interested in art and share art books they may have read or where a new show may be opening etc.  Some meetings, like the one above, someone shares crafted items they purchased on a recent trip. Occasionally we will forgo the sit down meeting for a class one of us will teach - no wine until after those meetings. Our meetings last about 2 hours and we always leave inspired by someone or something. It is truly the best art group I've ever been involved with. I always feel so motived when the meeting is over.

Follow-up:  Last Saturday I enjoyed teaching a watercolor workshop here on the island. I had 4 beginning students and all were enthusiastic and fun to have in my class.  I had every intention of taking some photos but the four hours were gone before I knew it.  I always love being involved with others at these community events, catching up with old friends and making new one.

Also: Do you remember the snow scene I painted a while back? Well I have been working on a larger version of the same scene, 24" x 36".  I'm really enjoying working this large for a change and so far I'm happy with it. I should be finished next week sometime and I'm anxious to share it with you.  

Stay tuned .....

Some days are not as inspiring than others

Last night on the news they showed how warm most of the country is.  

Uhhhh, not here in the Pacific Northwest ... just the opposite infact. 

This morning about 9 o'clock, heading into town, this is what we encountered.  Snow! 

About 20 miles from us they are expecting 6 inches of snow today!

We all have daffodils up and ready to show their bright sunny faces, but I think its going to be a little while longer before they open up.  Good thing I bought a couple of dozen cut one the other day.

I've made a decision ...

In my last blog post I asked for help in naming my painting of a barn.  I had painted the barn during a workshop in California last summer. Sylviane gave me what I thought was a great suggestion when she said "Sure,it's hard to name something after, but if you know where it was, you can give the place's name, for instance, or invente one?".  How simple is that?  Well, it sounded simple when I first thought about it.  I was at a workshop and we were painting from an old school yard in Douglas Flat.  That didn't sound too good to me.  "Douglas Flat Barn".  Kinda boring sounding to me, but then I decided that since my workshop was really in  Murphys I decided to title it "Murphys Barn".  That sounds pretty good doesn't it?  Thank you Sylviane that was a perfect solution and one I hope I will remember to use when needed.

~Click to enlarge ~

Other news I want to share with you is that this coming March 17th, (yes, thats St. Patrick's Day), I will be teaching a Watercolor Workshop here at Harstine Island.  The woman's club is offering 7 different classes to the public and I was fortunate to be asked to teach that day.  If you can join us make sure and call the phone number listed to reserve your spot.

Asking for help ...

I'm in the process of updating my files and organizing my database.  I'm not sure under what category I'll put this painting in but I would like to give it a title.  I should have named this when I was painting it but just couldn't think of anything but getting paint on canvas, and, now nothing comes to mind.  

So, will you help me and give me some suggestions, please?

Summer Heat and Dry Grasses

Summer Dry Grasses © 8" x 6" ~ oil

Gessoed primed canvas panel

Last summer, on our way to Murphys California for a workshop with Kathleen Dunphy, we encountered a lot of country that the grasses were parched by the sun and you'd feel like you were in an oven.  Once in awhile you'd find a gentle wind but more often than not there wasn't even a flutter of a breeze.

I used one, of many, of my photos as reference for this painting and it brought back a lot of memories of just how hot and dry it was.

A Study for a larger painting

Almost Home ~ oil 9" x 12" 

I'm calling this one done, I'm also calling this one a 'study'.  I've been wanting to paint this snow scene  for a while now but on a larger format perhaps a 24" x 36" canvas. This one is 9" x 12" and large for me considering most of my oils have been 8" x 10" or smaller. I started out by doing a few value studies (below), just thinking of where I wanted to go with this one.  I know it helped to do the studies in marker and the Bic pen because I was mentally prepared going in and now I think I will feel much more confident going into the large painting.

Value studies from my sketch book.  On the left I used a sepia Bic pen and on the right a black Sharpie and a cool grey Prismacolor marker.

Below a little collection of heart shaped rocks I've collected, to tell you Happy Valentines day.... Yeah I know I'm early, but I'm going to spend my Valentines day getting my teeth cleaned and saying hello to my dentist.

Sea Shell Study #2

Since I have few more of these little wood blocks I thought I'd do another Sea Shell Study.  Again it's on a 3.5" x 3.5" x 3/4" block.

I used basically the same color palette, although in this one I saw that while looking at the shell there was a tad bit of green on the upper right hand part of the shell.  I thought of it as a little prize when I found it.  An unexpected surprise.

Each shell, even though they may look the same at first glance, has something a little different than the other.  I also liked this one to use as a prop because of the small chip in its other wise beautiful shell.

Sea Shell Study #2 - oil on wood 3.5" x 3.5" wood block

         

                                                              

And then there were two.

I really like these small paintings displayed on the small wood easels.  A great way to show them off.  I was so excited to paint another shell study that I completely neglected to do some thumbnails before I started painting.  I think it really pays off for me to sketch before I start painting.

Sea Shell Study

This painting is pretty small, only 3.5" x 3.5" on wood, approximately 3/4" thick.  I purposely left them sort of rough to give them more character.  I have a number of these small blocks that I gessoed a while back.  I love how they really showcase a single object like the sea shell below and how they look on a small easel.  I think these would make a great small item to give as a gift.

Sea Shell Study 3.5" x 3.5" oil

The photo above shows the depth of the painting on the easel. 

This photo gives you an idea of size. 

Here you can see some of the sketches I did prior to working in oils.

Re-works

I decided to work on some paintings that I didn't think were painted as well as I had hoped.  The first one  I had started a long, long, time ago, back in 2007 (make sure and read both the blog post from the 24th and the 26th ... funny thing happened... has that ever happened to you?)
I worked on it a little yesterday and just couldn't seem to get the sky and the trail into the dense wooded area to look right, so I eliminated that darn awkward fence that was in the middle of the painting and just made a path and more brush.

  
8" x 10" oil

I like the bottom one - the after one -best, but I'm still not sure this is what I was hoping for when I started it back in June 2007.

6" x 8" Potted Primrose - oil

Also, I thought my primrose painting looked awkward with the blossoms and the leaves in the back upper left sticking up... even though this is what the plant looked like with I started painting.  I painted over what I didn't like and reworked a couple of flowers.  What do you think?  Maybe now its too perfect?

So what about you:

• Do you always let your painting set for a week or more to see how they read to you before you post them either on your blog or web-site?
• So you ever re-work a painting that is from a couple of years ago?
• Do you just put the paintings you don't like into the garbage or do you save them and try to do something with them at a later date?

The latest goings-on

Surrounded by Vines 7" x 14" oil on gallery wrapped canvas

This is a painting I just completed.  I took the reference photo a few years ago while we were boating up in British Columbia.  The original photo shows a lot of water below, but this was what I was thinking when I took the photo.  All that green with the bright white of the house in the sun just spoke to me.

I love the size of this one.  I had bought a couple of these to try awhile back.  I think I'll be buying a few more to have on hand when the right scene comes along.

     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cherries from Chauvet's Orchard

by Ruth Phillips

Recently while reading an art blog (I can't remember who's blog it was now) I read about a book they were in the middle of reading.  This is a book written by the wife of Julian Merro-Smith of the Postcard from Provence blog, Ruth Phillips.  

After reading an excerpt of the book on Amazon I decided to purchase it. As soon as it arrived I found I could hardly put it down.  She is an excellent writer.  If you are looking for a new book to read I recommend this one. I know I will re-read this one a few times.

This is the book description from Amazon:

This is When an English painter moves to Provence in search of the muse, he is looking not only for artistic fulfillment but also for love, family and community. This funny and touching memoir chronicles his unconventional route towards almost everything he desires, whilst painting a vivid picture of how hard it can be for one man to face a blank canvas - even in paradise.

Potted Primrose

Potted Primrose 6" x 8" canvas 

I bought these primroses day before yesterday, when I was at the grocery store, for $1.50 apiece.  I only bought one ... now I wish I would have bought a yellow and a blue one also to use as a prop.  Wouldn't that be a nice to have all three framed on a wall?  I like how I can see some of the toned canvas here and there through out the painting.  Dang, I may need to go back to the store for the other two colors ....

Hang it, Dang it!

Click image to enlarge ~ Arakawa wall hanging system

My husband has always wanted me to hang more of my work in our home, but I just didn't want nail holes all over the place. I have one large painting in the living room, a group of 3 small ones in a guest bedroom and thats it. This year, for Christmas, we bought a wall hanging system to hang my work from and I love it. I can change my paintings as often as I want with out worry of damaging the walls.

When we lived in Oregon, the local Columbia Center was where the local art guild had all of our art shows.  The Center researched hanging systems and found Arakawa, in Portland Oregon to purchase a wall hanging system. We could have monthly shows with out hurting any of the walls.  Because I knew the quality of the product, when we were ready to purchase a hanging system I thought of Arakawa.   The rail is hung high on the wall, wires are slid into the rail and placed anywhere you want.  You can use as many wires as you need to hang your work from.  Its a great quality hanging system and if you are in the market for such a thing I highly recommend them.  I'm thrilled with it.

Wishing you the very best for 2012.

Back Yard Snow ...

Back Yard Snow 8" x 6" Oil

With only a few days left until 2011 comes to an end I wanted to paint one last painting before the new year, something wintery.  Looking through a stack of old photos I found a view of our back yard in a house we lived in before we moved here, a winter scene filled with snow.  Our back yard (at the time) butted up to a 20 acre forest and a trail from our back yard ran through the forest and led to a creek then on back home.  In the summer time the forest was a cool place to hike when it was hot outside.  This view is just to the left of the trail.

All comments and critique are welcome.

Before the end of the year...

I'm pretty happy with myself in the fact that during this busy time of year I have not used that as an excuse not to paint.   I am still going forward and working toward becoming a better oil painter.  During this last week ... well, since I completed the red ornament painting, I now have another finished oil to add to the first.

Reflections of Silver ~ 5" x 7" ~ oil

After I completed the red ornament painting I thought I should start another one right away so that what new skills I had used wouldn't be forgotten.  Again, I'm happy with what I've produced.  Although the painting I did with the red was nice, I think I'm liking this one better.  Maybe its the warm browns and blue combination.  Then again maybe its because I had so much fun seeing shapes and painting what I saw.

I think I may try one more holiday painting before the end of the year ..... but not until after some gifts are wrapped.

On another note, one of  the blogs I frequent is by a wonderful Oregon artist named Marla Baggetta, her work is beautiful and I love the way she writes.  In this post I really felt she was talking to me ....

Being Kind to Yourself

We beat ourselves up most of the time. If only we viewed ourselves like we view our own friends, we'd be better off. Quieting our voice of judgment and giving ourselves credit for what is working in our work and building on that. We are quick to find what is "wrong" and then discount the whole. We are fast at niggling away at those areas in our work and in life that aren't perfect. Well, perfection is a state of balance that to me, simply does not exist... Be nice to yourself, be slow to find error and quick to find the good. Be as patient with yourself as you would be to a good friend. You are your own best friend. Then, remember to paint, paint some more and then after that, paint!!!

Do you think she was singling me out?

I'm happy ...

Reflections ~ 5"x7"~ oil

I've painted a holiday painting and I'm happy with it.  Two amazing things when you think about it.

I have two of these small inexpensive panels measuring 5" x 7".  I thought it would be nice to use them both for ornament paintings.

Its amazing all the reflections you can see in a round object.  It really makes you focus your attention on shapes, not named objects.  I really enjoyed painting this one.  I'm happy .....

Reflecting ...

Reflect :   Verb  

1.  The snow reflects light ... (send back).

2.  Their expressions reflected their feelings .... (indicate).

3.  He reflected on his responsibilities ... (think about).

Lately, I'm sure it's because of the holidays, I keep seeing more and more artists painting reflected surfaces in their work.  Bright, shiny objects. Pretty sparkling reflections in shiny objects.  Being new to oil painting I thought I'd better do some practicing before I attempt to paint a reflection on canvas so I decided to do the 10 minute exercise to get me use to painting reflections.  

oil on paper

In the first group of painting exercises I didn't even start out top to bottom or left to right.  I had this lone red ornament sitting on a white paper towel.   Looking back on these now I see my number #1 wasn't as bad as I originally thought and my number #4 wasn't as good as I thought.  I like the reflection in  number #1 best I think.  "Reflecting" on it now, seeing the results, I'm more confident in giving this another try.  Maybe on canvas this time.

oil on paper

Hmmm, what can I say about this second group of reflected surface exercises?  When I showed this to my husband he said he was glad I told him what it was because he didn't recognize it as our sterling silver pepper shaker.  I had placed a piece of cardboard behind the pepper shaker and it was sitting on a paper towel.  Remember that in these exercises you are allowed 10 minutes and no pre drawing, so that is my excuse for having them look like they were bent and broken.  Needless to say, #4 was no better than number #1.  I'm gunna leave these out of my painting.  If you own it and you still don't recognize the object after it's painted ... its best to move on.

Counting our blessings

Happy Thanksgiving to you all.

This time of year I need to reflect and ask myself some questions.  Do you take the time to feel gratitude through-out the year, not just on Thanksgiving?  When a friend calls, a loved one drops by, or when you are able to share a meal with others.  The list goes on and on.  I am so grateful for you all ... that you come back time and again and show interest in my life.  Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Art ... under your feet

Have you noticed, I've been away.  Not doing any art, but instead I've been taking a lot of inspiring photo's.  I thought these three were worth sharing with you all.  Can you imagine living with this beautiful tile work beneath your feet as you go about your business during the day? Even on a rainy day they make life look brighter.

Now I'm back to the real world where my calendar tells me that our local holiday bazaar is this next week-end and I still need to prepare some things for that, orders are coming in for Christmas cards using the note cards from the house portraits that I sold during the local art show earlier this year and I still have a list of works I can't wait to oil paint.  Can you tell I'm going to be busy, busy, busy?

A book that inspires .....

Winston S. Chruchill's book

PAINTING as a Pastime  (click to enlarge)

Do you have a book that speaks to you ... one that gets you excited to paint when you read it?  That makes you want to do as it says?  I do.  Its Winston Churchill's small book titled Painting as a Pastime.  The first time I read it I couldn't believe how he described painting in oils. Although I had been using watercolors exclusively, his words made me want to rush out and buy oils and canvas.

He writes:  "I write not word in disparagement of water-colours.  But there really is nothing like oils.  You have a medium at your disposal which offers real power, if you only can find out how to use it.  Moreover, it is easier to get a certain distance along the road by its means than by water-colour."  "One sweep of the palette-knife 'lifts' the blood and tears of the morning from the canvas and enables a fresh start to be made." "Lastly, the pigment itself is such a nice stuff to handle (if it dos not retaliate.")

This book is so small ... just 32 pages of written text, that you wouldn't think the words written in it could mean so much to someone reading it, but, each time I read it I can't wait to start painting in oils again.

If you are thinking of painting in oils or do already paint in oils, I think this book is one you'd like to be on your book shelf.

Do you have a book that inspires you to paint, draw or sculpt?  I'd love to hear about it.

Overwhelming ...

8" x 6" oil - unnamed 

On the third day of Kathleen Dunphy's workshop we were to paint water. I ended up focusing on the greens of the trees and I became so confused.  All the greens seemed to run together.  Now in the studio with my reference photo, which was a poor photo, I find its still too confusing to me. And working on the painting today is not improving it.   I think I need to pick a bush or two, but not a whole forest yet ... 

Time to move on to another painting.

A bit of humor for you: 

While we gone the last five weeks we stopped at both Yosemite National Park and Crater Lake National Park.  Both parks ask you to store your food in bear safe containers.  At Crater Lake National Part this is a sign we saw as we entered the campground ... Someone had a great sense of humor and put a stuffed bear on the sign. 

Correcting a few problems ?

I'm not really sure I've improved much on the painting, but I did eliminate "trying to capture sunlight hitting the metal roof".  I added a little bit of color to the edge closest to the trees, yes, I was nervous trying anything, but like Celeste said "go on to the next Plein Air painting".  Think thats what I'll do.

The above photo is the corrected version.  (I can never get two photo's to look the same as far as brightness, color saturation... neither one looks 'just' like the painting.

8' x 6" oil, unnamed

This was my painting from the first day of Kathleen's 3 day workshop.  Well, actually I forgot to take a photo of what it looked like after my first day, but take my word for it, it looked nothing like this, just some strange blocked in shapes. This is the painting now after I worked on it a couple of days after I got home.  Just in case you can't tell what it is,  (ahem, lie to me please, tell me you knew what it was, ok?)  it is a barn... with two roofs.  

One of Kathleen's suggestions was that after we have worked on a painting and you think it is going south, ask your self some questions like:  Is it the design? Is it the drawing?  How are your values? etc.  When I question this painting I find that the sunlight that is suppose to be on the barn, that lighter line going from left to right about in the middle of the painting, really doesn't look like sunlight on the metal roof.  I have since attempted to correct that, but it still doesn't look like light hitting the metal roof. Also, in the upper right hand corner when I used a color isolator the afternoon of the workshop I found that the hill side really WAS that value and color, but I'm not sure I've depicted what that is in the painting.  What do you think?

Even though the painting has a number of issues I don't find the whole painting bad ...some things that I do like are my trees, how the light is seen around the edges .. back lit.  .  Also I think I conveyed that it was a bright sunny day. 

What do you think, I'd love to hear your thoughts ... How would you suggest I 'fix' this painting?  Do you see some issues that I didn't?

Learning the hard way ...

I think most of the time, good, really good lessons are learned the hard way.  Such as me leaving my paint box palette filled with paint to harden ... for one week.

See the dried up mess on my almost new Guerrilla paintbox palette below?  Ouch, what a mess.

Next photo you see a paper towel with paint scrapings from the above palette. I ended up using a palette knife, odorless turp and a retractable razor trying to remove the dried on paint.  Some big globs, some small smearings of paint.  All very hard to remove from the wood palette.

After working on this for quite awhile I've finally removed all the paint and I've learned my lesson to never leave the paint on my palette this long again.

In Kathleen Dunphy's workshop her palette was a beautiful grey that had accumulated from wiping up the oils.  After time it had turned a beautiful hard smooth surface.  I think I'll try this next time before my paint dries too hard.  I chalk it up to being new at oils, what do you think?  Have any of you learned this lesson the hard way?

My workshop with Kathleen Dunphy

6" x 8" oil

Whew, just arrived home from a three day workshop with Kathleen Dunphy in Murphys California.  Each of the three days was filled with Kathleen's generous knowledge of oils and plein air painting.  

On our first day we started out with a three hour lecture followed by mixing our paints, then after lunch we went out to paint in the warm afternoon, or should I say I attempted to paint.  Geesh, I was feeling so confident when I arrived and yet I froze with I got out in the field trying to put paint to canvas.  Okay, my first day was less than I had wanted for myself but after I gave myself a little pep talk that evening the next day was much better.  We all met at a local winery at nine the next morning and because it was pretty hot after a demo by Kathleen, I chose to set up my easel in the shade of a beautiful grape arbor facing the front of the wine tasting building.  As I started painting Kathleen came by to see how I was progressing and was pleased with how I had started and her words were just what I needed to continue and not freeze like I had the day before.  The above painting was the results of the day.  I still may do a few more things to my painting, but for the most part I was very happy with the light I caught and the shaded of the front porch.  I am thinking that now I may be able to pull the other two out of the ditch and make them better. 

I was more than happy with my three days at the workshop ...  and I think it was just what I needed to more forward with my goal of painting en plein air in oils as well as studio work using oils.  Right now my head is reeling with all the information I received.  

I hope to share more tid-bits of my trip as the week rolls along.

House portraits - done.

Click photo to enlarge

Here's a collage of house portraits I've completed.  I also finished two others but they are meant to be surprise gifts so it wouldn't be a good idea to show them yet on the blog.  You can see one person wanted hers to be more of an illustrated holiday theme so she could use the cards as Christmas card.  This helped break up the routine of the same-ness of this project.

It has been such a fun project and one I'd recommend to any artist.  Each portrait is 5" x 7".  I matted each one with white matt and also gave a 6 pack of cards with each portrait that they may reorder at any time for the regular price of $12.00.  I packaged the portrait and the cards in a cellophane bag and tied them with a raffia bow.

Watercolor house portraits ...

Two finished house portraits

I've been busy working on the house portraits that were commissioned during the Art Show and Sales event that took place on the 9th of July.  Above are two of the house portraits I photographed this afternoon.   I finished and delivered another but forgot to photograph it.    

I like the presentation package I came up with.  Each 5" x 7" painting is matted with a 8" x 10" white matt and foam core backing and encased in a clear envelope.  The package of 6 note cards is in a clear package and attached to the front of the painting with a small piece of double stick tape.  Both are then placed in a larger clear envelope and a bow of raffia encloses the whole package of note cards and painting together.  A nice presentation for the owner of the house.

This is the first time I've really done house portraits. Do you have experience with this type of commission?  Would you consider doing house portraits?  

Saturday's Art Show and Sales

7" x 5" watercolor sketch, matted to  10" x 8" with matching note cards

Remember me telling you about the Art Show and Sale ?  Well Saturday was the day and the weather was perfect for such an event.  It was well attended and a huge hit with both the vendors (aprox. 20) and attendees.  

Lunch could be purchased for a $5.00 donation, proceeds going to a local school.  The menu consisted of a glass of wine, sandwich wrap, 2 salads, 2 asparagus spears, and a huge strawberry,  all served on a small clear plastic plate with a paper doily.  It was a masterpiece in its self .  Attendees could help themselves to dessert of either a lemon bar or brownie or both.  As you can imagine the food was a huge hit.  

I usually try to come up with something new for each of these shows and this year I offered a 5" x 7"  watercolor portrait of the purchasers home, matted to 8" x 10" and a free pack of 6 matching note cards.  I felt I could only offer it to 5  buyers because my schedule from August through November is very full and wouldn't have time to finish them after August.  I sold out with-in the first hour.   And, it was so fun to offer something that so many people were interested in.  I even took two more orders from people who swore they didn't need the portrait until after the first of 2012.   

The show was well advertised and it showed that those in charge had worked hard to make it the great event it was.  

Now time for me to get back to work and get some painting done ....

Is my face red?

How embarrassing ... Last night as I was cleaning up my studio I found step #4 of Franks Serrano's Step by Step under some paperwork on my desk. I didn't remember seeing it before.  I was happy to see it yet since I had already posted the photo of what I thought was finished I was a little embarrassed.  Oh well, what to do but attempt to make it more finished.

I stayed up and worked a little more on it as well as some this morning, but, I'm stopping now.  Too much sticky paint.

I wish it would have been my photo reference so I'd 'know' what I was looking at in Franks demo.  Even though I am not sure of all the detail I do think it looks better since I worked on it more.

8" x 8" on paper

This photo of Franks finished work shows what the painting was suppose to look like.

Another Frank Serrano Step by Step

I should have been working on Exercise #17 of Charles Sovek's book Oil Painting Develop Your Natural Ability today, especially since we are finished with the house painting, but in #17 he wants you to have a person pose for you while you paint the person sitting and the shadow predominates so only a third of the figure is in light.  So, maybe in a day or so when we have sun and I can get the poser to nap sit for me while I paint.

Meanwhile, I remembered I still had one more Frank Serrano Step by Step I had saved. (I think I found these on American Artist web-site some time ago)

You can see the first Frank Serrano step by step I did here.

Oil on paper ~ aprox. 8" x 8"

I would rather have painted a scene of the Northwest, but it was still nice to get my brush in the oils again an try to think shapes as I attempted to read what he suggested in steps 1, 2 and 3.  

As I was painting I was thinking it didn't have enough detail, but now that I'm finished I think it has just the right amount of detail, especially since the title of his lessons were How to Paint en Plein Air: Beginner Landscape Oil Painting.

The top photograph is my take on Frank's Lesson 2:  Conveying Time of Day.  The second is the photo of his finished lesson.

Can you tell what time of day it is suppose to be?  You may find it easier to guess by looking at Frank's finished painting, but it was tough for me to tell.  All in all I'm happy with this one.  Not perfect, but still pretty good.   What do you think?