I watched the elephants for a long time at the St Louis zoo. This one was spraying dirt all over himself making quite a spectacular show! I had done some sketches from a photo, then a few direct paintings with no pre-drawing, and finally a painting of the elephant integrated into an exciting underpainting or color wash. In the watercolor workshop I attended recently I was intrigued with how Jean Haines would typically leave out at least half of the detail of her subject. Certainly adds to the mystery doesn't it?
Enjoyed painting with a group of painters yesterday, many of whom I have known since my early days in watercolor. It was an inspiring show and tell, with everyone sharing their recent art projects and activities. This was from a photo of a peach blossom, which I enjoyed painting from a starting point and using clean water to pull paint into other areas. I then created stems by negatively painting around them with turquoise blue. I added the touch of yellow at the end, which I am satisfied with, as it is not as strong in the actual painting as it is in this photo. 
British artist, Jean Haines, taught a workshop in west Texas last week, one of only 3 stops she made in the states. I spent most of the time watching her demonstrate her techniques, which was fascinating, and I will surely tell more about her unique style in future posts. I am having fun practicing what I learned and integrating some of her techniques into my painting style. Using my own reference photo of a rooster, I painted my "cockerel" onto a lively wash while in this class. 
On a springtime walk in the country near my home, I delighted in the discovery of these emerging white blossoms, enjoying the anticipation of dewberries to come and immersing myself in capturing their freshness in my painting. I enjoyed creating a balance of light and dark as well as a combination of lost and found edges. 
and the use of Photoshop software for design purposes. Most importantly, our class of 22 was challenged and inspired to experiment and create art in new and personal ways. This painting is one I created in the workshop, with use of acrylic watercolor and techniques to create the atmosphere of water surrounding the subject.
She is not only his special lady, but one of my biggest art enthusiasts. How could I say no? After a trial run with a smaller group of friends, then an inspired day of analyzing my own painting process and simplifying and outlining the steps involved, I came up with an easy step-by-step process. With the key steps painted and described on an illustration board, I led the group through creating their own painting of vases with light shining through. The first step involved making a wet-on-wet underpainting. Then when the underpainting was dry, the image of vases was added by transferring a tracing onto the underpainting using graphite paper. And finally, the space around the vases was painted a darker color, causing the lighter colors to appear to shine through the vases. Voila! We had quite a few masterpieces and lots of laughter and fun, not to mention, wine, food, and birthday festivities interspersed in between! 
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