A new iris has blossomed.......

With the summer art festival season rapidly approaching, I have been working hard to complete as many smaller sized paintings as I can. Paintings that are more of an impulse purchase.....something that someone might see that they know would be a great gift for someone.

I recently completed the single iris painting on the left. I took the photo a while back, and I just love the colors here. The top petals are a pale, bluish white, while the lower petals and center are a gorgeous yellow, coppery, coral. This was a lot of fun to do.

When I do larger paintings, I cut the paper down to fit onto the plexiglass I use as my backing. I save every last scrap of my watercolor paper (I use Windsor Newton paper exclusively). These smaller leftover pieces are what I most often use for my little paintings. Love to use every last piece!! For the blue, I used light washes of Cobalt Blue, with some Windsor and a little French Ultramarine. For the coral color, I did a wash of Lemon Yellow over all the coral sections, let that dry, then washed over with some Vermillion (discontinued.....waaaa!!!), some Dragon's Blood, and maybe a touch of Alizarin Crimson. For the leaf and stem I used mostly Maimerblu's Sap Green with some Windsor Blue and some Lemon Yellow.

One thing I always have trouble with, with these little paintings. They often sell quickly, so I don't get to have them very long! I actually miss them!

The beach at Poipu, Kauai......

The calendar says March, already. Yikes!! Where has the time gone?!
With the summer art festival dates coming up sooner than I'd like, I realized I needed to paint some smaller sized paintings. I had a lot of fun going through all my photo references, and I finally settled on an image I took from our trip to Hawaii in December.
I drove into Poipu all by myself on one of our last days there. I was very familiar with the area, as we stayed there for 2 weeks on our first trip a few years back. This is part of the beach front at the Sheraton Kauai. Very beautiful. I love the dark lava rock jutting out into the ocean, and the gorgeous palm trees along the grassy bank. I did a quick drawing right on the watercolor paper, and then began putting down washes of color. I did the sky very quickly, and except for a few little additions of color, left it alone.
The water is very dark here, and I used French Ultramarine, with some turquoise added for that tropical water feel. The lava rocks I used Payne's Gray, some Sepia, and some other lighter touches of Burnt Umber for contrast. The palm trees I used a lot of Sap Green with Windsor Lemon and some Burnt Sienna. The trunks of the trees I used various browns and blues to give them some contrast. One of the worst things one can do is to use the same color for every tree trunk...same as for every rock or every leaf. Nature is more colorful than we think....and if you really look closely you can see so many color variations everywhere.
Back to work!!

Pit Stop

Wow.......so glad to have finally finished my latest motorcycle painting! And I'm quite happy with how it turned out. Since my last post, I concentrated on refining the piece. I added some detailing to the leather motorcycle jacket, plus deepening the shadows in the folds. The engine of the bike required lots of fine detail work, and believe me, a biker will notice if I make any mistakes! So I work really hard to do the best job I can to get it "just right."

I like my bikers, too, off in the distance. I imagine they're discussing their ride, and planning out their next trip.

Now, with the weather finally breaking, I'm sure I'll see motorcycles on the road again. It's been a long winter!!

A motorcycle nearly completed.....

It has been way to long since I posted an update on my painting! This flu season has sure slowed me down! Hopefully the Kleenexes have all been put away, and I can get back to some long days spent in the studio.....where every artist longs to be!

I have been able to get a lot done on the bikes, as one can see in the photo on the right. The leather jacket has been a lot of fun to do. I was sure that wasn't going to be the case, initially! It's coming out looking like a well worn and well loved leather jacket....I'm so pleased! As all watercolor artists know, watercolor has a mind of it's own, and it can do things you cannot plan or predict. In this case, the watercolor gods were with me!

Much more still needs to be done here. Several sections of the bike need to be filled in, and I need to deepen many of the dark areas with more layers of color....mostly Payne's Gray. Shadows will need to be placed under the people and the smaller bikes in the background, or else they will look like they're pasted on, or just floating in space.

More work to be done, but the end is in sight!

A new year, a new motorcycle painting......

Another motorcycle painting in progress! I took the reference photo of this bike at the Jim Kelly motorcycle run for Hunter's Hope several years ago.

Before the start of the run, bikers gather at a local plaza to check-in, fill out paperwork, get the route map, and just hang out until the official start. I always bring my camera to these gatherings- there is always a great assortment of bikes. Several members of the Buffalo Bills always participate, and Jim usually has a few celebrity friends along as well.

I always liked the photo that I took of this bike, with the leather jacket hanging off the handlebar and the helmet balancing on top. I hesitated to paint it initially......painting chrome is hard enough, especially in watercolor, but painting a leather jacket, too? I wanted to convincingly capture the chrome and metal effects of the bike, but at the same time paint the leather jacket and have it look so much like leather that you want to reach out and touch it. Using a different dark mixture for the leather than I use for the chrome proved to be the answer. I love how the leather is looking "worn"- just the effect I wanted.

The actual painting looks a lot darker than the photo. It's quite overcast today, and I really had to use a flash. Next time I'll use natural lighting.

Back to work!

Waimea Canyon....

More photos from one of the most beautiful places on Earth. On my last free day on Kauai, I awoke to clear blue skies. This would be the perfect day to visit Waimea Canyon. Some visitors to Kauai never get to see the canyon without clouds partly or completely obscuring the magnificent view. Luckily I had gotten to tour it once before in all its glory, but I could not resist taking it all in again.

So I began my ascent. Above is a view from one of the pull-over spots heading up the canyon.

The view on the right is from a lookout point higher up. The colors are spectacular. The Kauai red soil is so clearly evident all over the island, and the canyon is no exception. What a view! No clouds, so the clear blue sky so beautifully contrasts with the red soil, the various greys and browns of the canyon walls, and the deep greens of the trees and brush scattered throughout.

I like the photo on the right, below, in that it gives a real sense of the vastness of Waimea Canyon. So lucky to be there without any clouds! To get to see the vastness in all its glory.

I hope that I can capture this beautiful place in a painting that will do it justice.

Kauai on a motorcycle.......

More on our Kauai trip. On the right is a photo I took while riding on the back of a motorcycle.....something I NEVER thought I would ever do! On Bob's one day off, we met up with a former co-worker of Bob's who lives permanently on the island. Howard and his wife, Sue, so graciously spent the entire day with us and gave us a tour around the entire island. We borrowed a motorcycle from another co-worker of Bob's....and off we went. Helmet laws don't exist on Kauai, however, I was determined we were going to wear them! When the only available helmets to wear are so small that our huge heads won't fit in them, the choice becomes either go helmet-less or don't go at all. We took the risk. People don't ride fast on Kauai- there is simply too much to see, and Hawaii is not a "hurry up" place to be.

I was amazed at how well the photos turned out! I love the image above. We were on the north side of the island- the rainiest side, and it is often cloudy and rainy here. We barely got sprinkled on, fortunately. I love the image here, with the lush trees and and misty mountains in the background. Of course, I love Bob's grey hair in the photo, too!

The photo on the left is another I actually took while we were riding along the road. It came out so well! It was so much fun to be riding along and have these gorgeous views just pop out at you! I never thought they would come out so clear taken from the back of a moving vehicle!

More to come....