The Buffet

While we were in Cabo, I saw a lot of chefs cooking, and took a lot of photos.  This was one morning at the breakfast buffet. It was out side which made it even more fun. This is watercolor but it is painted on watercolor paper coated with gesso first. I don't think I got a true color on their faces. They aren't really this dark red. This is not my normal way of painting but is fun, and I always enjoy doing something different. It is 11x15. It will be framed to 16x20.

Montage Restaurant

 15x22 unframed

I did some more work on the Chef, added some more blue to the right side, and added to the menu. I don't have a clue where this restaurant is!  I found some copied menus in my stash of paper, and this was in it...so that is why the name.  As far as I know right now, I am calling him finished! He was fun to do! It is mixed media because of the phone book pages, that were glued down first with matte medium.  The Background is Matisse Acrylic.
The rest is gouache and collage.

Chef -Work in Progress

 Mixed Media

15x22

hot press paper, with gouache, and phone book pages

glued on first.

I still have a little bit yet to do on this.I took a picture of this chef statue in PA a couple of years ago, and I intended to put all of him in the painting but by the time I started drawing him on, there was no room left for his legs!

I haven't named it yet either, which is very unusual for me.Normally I have my paintings named way before the end. I think I need to add some blue writing on the right side in the background, but can't figure out exactly what I want yet.

This is the technique I learned from Kay Smith.  You glue phone book pages down, leave them for 10 minutes and then pull off what you can.  I am not crazy about the preparation of the paper, but the painting part is fun! I love gouache.  You draw your subject with vine charcoal, then use the gouache to paint, then collage parts of the painting, leaving some of the charcoal.  I like to use my torn paper technique on it.  His scarf, apron and buttons, are done that way.  The menu was a piece of scrapbook paper that I had, and I added stuff to that.

Big Spring TX workshop

 Kay Smith in her Studio, working on her Chef

 Kay Smith invited me to come to her studio in Big Spring, TX and do a torn paper workshop.
It was great, we had 9 sign up, and one had to miss. We had a lot of fun. They did different things.
But there was lots of silence with the sound of tearing paper!  It is so funny, in every workshop I have done, people say, well! I will NEVER look at a magazine the same again. How true that is!

watercolor and torn paper collage

These are just 9x12, and they were watercolor studies done in a workshop last year. I thought I would experiment and see how it looked w/ both, trying to incorporate my watercolors with the collage. The chef's cheeks are too dark. I may try to fix it, even though it has been varnished.
The Bike was fun to do. This one is different than the chef. On him, I did the back ground and his face. On the bike i left the background and just collaged the subject. I will be experimenting on more of some old watercolors that I don't want to frame.