Grandmother's Porch

This is another poured painting.   I did this same painting years ago and wanted to try pouring it.

It takes some thinking to know which to pour first, what to cover up, etc. When I got ready to remove the miskit, the whole sheet was covered. 

It is a little larger than 1/2 sheet.  

Cement Man

We just got a new fence a couple weeks ago, and this is a painting of one of the men who poured the footing. He is a young man who had his really cute dog with him.  I ask him if i could take a photo, and he basically posed like he had done it a gillion times before!
This is poured using 6 colors on arches paper. it is 1/2 Sheet.
This was a lot of fun to do!

The Roswell Daily Record

 I entered the juried art show in Roswell, NM.
The Roswell Fine Arts League (RFAL)
They accepted three of my paintings.  Two Watercolors, and one of my collages.  The newspaper called and interviewed me about the old truck that I painted.  There were 2 other interviews in the paper from other artists



Last year at our art show, our rancher neighbor and friend came in to see the show, and I ask him if I could go out to his ranch and take photos of his horses and cows.  Of course he said yes, and I went out that afternoon, and when I drove up,
 this old  truck greeted me! I loved it, and took more pictures of it than I did of the cows!  I just love the old vehicles, and the way they look! They have such character. The opening reception is August 16th in Roswell, NM.

 

Ken's Flag

I was looking through some old photos, and stumbled across this close up of Kens flag painting.
I was teaching a class on negative painting, and used this for our class. I love to do this kind of painting.
Since it is still July, I thought I would just add it!

Blue Plate

I was going through some of my older work, and found this watercolor on Yupo paper.
I framed this to hang diagonally and it is square. The yupo paper is hard to keep smooth when you are painting, but fun to work with.
I set this up, with some new dishes we had, along with some spring tulips that I bought somewhere, and I love to paint stripes. I used to paint them a lot, but lately have been onto other things!

Red Tea Pot

I did this a few months ago, and haven't done anything but mat it. It was done with an under painting of flower shapes, then painted over, leaving some of the original color showing. It does have some gold metallic, but it doesn't show up very good here.

First Snow!

After months and months of no moisture we got a good snow! As farmers we are always so excited for any kind of rain, sleet, snow...whatever God wants to send us! So...Thank you God for the moisture for our land!
This was painted last year. All our tractors are 'green and yellow!'

Christmas Studio

This is one of the first things I have painted since I had my eye surgery. Was fun to do. I have missed painting a lot! Hopefully, I will be back at it full time again...soon. This one is called ' Christmas Studio' and can be personalized with any artist's name.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL...It is coming!

Old DeSoto

Old DeSoto

I have painted this more than once! I love this old car. I have such fun painting these old relics.

I wonder where all they have been, how many miles are on them. How many secrets they might know!

I wonder how much they cost 'back in their day'

Haul'n Hay

In July, I went out to our neighbors ranch, to take photos of his horse, saddles, etc, and when I drove up there was this wonderful OLD green truck!. Of course I had to photo it, inside and out. The photo of the inside really excited me so I painted it in with watercolor.  It has many many layers of paint to get the dark door.
I had such fun painting it.
(The photo is a little darker than real life, and the steering wheel shows up on the left better than it does in here)

Southwestern Watercolor Society Show

My Garden Chair was selected to be in the SWS show in September. The show will be in Plano, TX.
That means I will get my Signature Status. I am so excited. I have worked very hard for a lot of years, trying to get in.  I feel very blessed.
For those who don't know about signature status:  They are all different on the amount of paintings that have to be selected.  I got my signature status with Wyoming watercolor society a few years ago.  It means when I sign my painting I can put SWS by my signature , so now I can put WyWS and SWS both. There are 2 other societies I have been trying to get in, but it just takes a long time.

Texas Wild Flowers

Texas Wild Flowers

Since we haven't had ANY rain at all, I thought I would add these little wild flowers.  I took a picture of clumps of them, growing in the pastures just West of town several years ago.  They are so pretty when in full bloom. I don't know the real name for them, but they are beautiful growing in and out of the barbed wire.  Maybe we will have some blooming soon!

This painting was done first with transparent watercolor, then I painted over it with gouache leaving a little bit of the paint showing.  For those of you who don't know what gouache is...pronounced gwash...it is watercolor but it is opaque. It has a chalky appearance.

Quick Watercolor Study

tr

 'Quick Watercolor Study'

6x9

I had a piece of paper that had a weird under-painting on it, so I just drew off this little set up, and painted the painting in less than an hour. working as quickly as possible.leaving some of the under-painting showing thru.
I tried to put the subject where the white would work best, like the icing on the cupcake, the highlight on the egg.
(which looks like potatoes!)  The main thing was it was fun, and quick. I  have been doing so many of the collages, I have missed the watercolors, but I think it has helped me be a little faster and not so detailed.

The Fisherman finished

I started this at Ceta Canyon Art Retreat, and finally finished him. I added some color to the background,

and some color on his shirt, plus some little detail stuff to his face, hair, etc.

I am having problems getting a good photo, it is either dark, or bright...This one is just straight from the camera, without changing anything. It looks a little dull compared to the real painting.

This man was fishing on the beach in Florida.  He was using a net, and throwing it out, and each time he caught something! I had never seen anybody fish like that before, and he let me take his photo

The dolphins were swimming out past him, you could see their fins. A sight we don't see here!

I decided to leave his hat and shirt white, instead of the colors he had on to make his face more important.

It is 16x20 with a mat on it.

Bike Shop

Bike Shop

This is another painting I did at the retreat.  It is half sheet, and it had gesso on it.and was painted with watercolor.  I love to paint on gesso paper, with all the textures it makes. It is not this dull in real life, but for some reason, I am not having good luck getting a photo. I saw this bike hanging off a big building in Boston down by the river front. I have taken pictures of bikes for years. I love them like I do old vehicles.  I am wondering if I need to punch up the red with some gouache after seeing it here, and how dark it looks. I might!  I wanted the bottom corner left with no paint.

Daisy De Soto & Little Daisy

'Little Daisy'
10x10
Torn Paper Collage

'Daisy DeSoto'
sold
Transparent Watercolor

Daisy DeSoto is a watercolor I did, and the first show it was in, sold.
and I always liked it, and would love to do another one, but probably wouldn't
be like the first one. I have been thinking of doing a 30x40 torn paper ...old vehicle,
so I thought I would experiment with a 10"x10" and see if I was brave enough to try
the BIG canvas. So, I printed out a copy of my original in B/W, and did the small one..'Little Daisy ' It definitely wouldn't let me be picky with the details! I think I will do a big old pick-up
on the large canvas. Am thinking a red one. ...but I will have to figure that out when I
get ready to do it.

I am excited..I have sold 6 paintings in the last 2 weeks! 5 of them collages.
May not happen again for a long time, but am going to enjoy it while I can!

Watercolor Variations

House Collage

Watercolor Variations

Last year I took a workshop from Judi Betts, and she had us do 6x9 blocks,
with a triad. I normally choose the transparent triad which is cobalt blue, Permanent Rose, and Auerolin Yellow. They are springy, summery looking to me. The large painting was the one I did in her class. She gave everybody a photo of a house, and we had to do our own thing with it, after doing an under-painting with our triad. The House Collage are 6x9 paintings that I did this week, Using the same photo, just different ideas. I stayed with just those three colors as long as I could. At the end, I added a few others for dark's, and the Red Roof.
The small studies are fun, and fast to do.

Bicycle Paintings

I love Bicycles, and have painted them off and on for a few years. I took a picture of our neighbors 'retired' blue bike that she had flowers planted in the basket, one summer day.
It has been an inspiration to me, and have done it in a few different ways, starting with a value study, then watercolor. I have done 3-4 Christmas bikes, and recently collaged over 2 watercolors that I had started. They are fun, and maybe being in the mood for spring and summer has made me want to do them again.
Three of these paintings are for sale. The two collages, and the first watercolor.

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.

Three Wise Men

The Wise Men
In my bible, Matthew 2: 1-2 it says:
"After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, "Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews: We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him."
May we remember the real reason we celebrate Christmas. May God Bless you and your families, and may we truly worship him this special holiday season.


This painting is watercolor but I put gesso on it first. I really enjoy painting on the texture of the gesso, and how the paint settles into the textured paper.