Dennis

'Dennis'

Viet Nam 1968-69

20x20 torn paper collage

 

Unfinished portrait of Dennis with Photo

Dennis, a very good friend of ours, emailed me and ask me if I would do his portrait from Viet Nam for his wife for Christmas, and it not only scared me to death, but also honor that he would trust me with it.

I told him I would try but no promises.  When he sent his pictures they made me cry, at the thought of what he and his wife and family went through knowing he was in such danger. Every picture he sent me had a special story about it.  I printed out some some of his writing, and put it on the edges of the canvas. I printed his photos out, and made them in a gray color, and put them in it too.Their daughter was born while he was gone so her birth date is on it.

There is a lot of history , sadness, courage, honor, bravery and love in his story.  I was surprised at some of the words I was able to find to go on it, that was just the right thing.

He decided to give it to his wife on Veterans day instead of waiting for Christmas. We are very fortunate to have men and women who will go and serve and defend our wonderful country., no matter what their part was.   I am married to one myself.

And I want to say Thank you to Dennis for sharing this time of his life with all of us.  It has been a long time coming. I am very honored to have gotten to do this for him and his family.

In Honor of Veterans Day

For Veterans Day

I hope we stop and remember those who have served our country for whatever reason. War or Peace, and think of those who have given the ultimate...their life. There are many men and women who are away from home for months, years at a time. Thanks to them! Thanks to my family members who served. Ken was in the Navy for 4  years.....Thanks for our  friends who served. 

So I am posting this little flag in their honor! along with the steps I took to paint it.

I did this painting a while back, took photos of the steps,and thought I would show how I work with watercolor.

  STEP #1

I do a drawing the size that I want with pencil, then I go over it with a sharpie or black pen, and use my light box to transfer onto 140 lb arches cold press or WN rough watercolor paper. Keeping your pencil lines light,  using a vinyl eraser if you have to correct.

STEP #2

 I use Manganese blue mixed with Permanent Rose,a little ultramarine blue, and sometimes some turquoise to paint in the shadows, and I use this technique all the time. Sometimes I add a tiny bit of orange.

When you paint over it, it shows through as a shadow, and You can always add local color to it as you go. I try to paint the shadow about 40% if possible.

STEP#3

For some reason, this photo is much lighter, but you can see where I stared in adding the flag color.

I love to use a lot of reds.  I use Alizarin Crimson for my darkest red, and I LOVE Bright Red for the sunlit areas of the flag. I use dark blues along with ultramarine blue for the blue leaving the stars white. I normally dont mask them.If I need more shadow on the flag I use ultramarine blue. It will really pop a shadow when you use it last.

STEP #4

I just continue on adding the leaves, stems, and flowers. Using the dark and light red where it is in sun or in shadow. I love thalo yellow green, and I put that with yellow down first on the leaves, along with some burnt orange, and some reds that are in the flowers. I used Burnt orange and oranges for the clay pot, using some kosher salt for texture.

STEP #5

  This is the finished piece. I painted the background with some blues,leaving some white showing through,

and finished the big metal pot it was sitting in.

Just Graz'n

Just Graz'n was painted a while back, but decided to post it for my friend Lola Douglas who loves horses so much. Wish our pasture looked like this one...ours is pretty dry!

Halloween Challenge

'SPOOKTACULAR COWGIRL'

I was invited to do a painting for a 'Halloween Challenge' by Chris Beck, along with  Pablo Villicana Lara. 

At first I was a little hesitant, since I am not real crazy about Halloween, but I do love to see the cute kids in their costumes, etc. so I agreed, then I had problems trying to decide what to do!

When Keri and I went to the Ft.Worth Stockyards, I saw the cutest skeleton decoration.  She had a green feather boa, and orange flip flops, and a witch hat, so I turned her into a Texas Cowgirl Skeleton!  A friend said she could have a western hat, and at the same time we both said AND BOOTS! so wa-la! Here she is, in all her black and orange with her best friend 'Midnight' the Black Cat at her side.
She could be called 'October Cowgirl' or 'Texas Halloween'...

There were several ideas on that, but Spooktacular Cowgirl won out.

This is Torn Paper Collage using magazines for my 'paint.' This art from is pretty addictive, and so much fun!

Below is a list of artists who were in the challenge. The top two were the organizers.

Please go to the top two websites to see everybody's work together, and then you can go to each separately if you want to. These are all wonderful artists, and I am honored to have been ask to join them! Please leave them a comment after you view their work.

Challenge organizers:

Chris Beck:  http://chrisbeckstudio.blogspot.com/

Pablo Villicana Lara:  http://www.mylittlepaintbox.blogspot.com/


List of Participants
Janet Belich:  http://janetbelich.blogspot.com/

Debbie Cannatella:  http://www.dcannatella.blogspot.com/

R. Garriott:  http://www.rgarriott.blogspot.com/

Jeanette Jobson:  http://illustratedlife.blogspot.com/

Ron Morrison:  http://watercolourproductions.blogspot.com/

Diahn Ott:  http://artbydiahn.blogspot.com/

Suzy Pal Powell:  http://www.suzypal.blogspot.com/

Terry Rafferty:  http://terryrafferty.blogspot.com/

Kay Smith:  http://kaysmithbrushworks.blogspot.com/

Deb Ward:  http://debwardart.blogspot.com/

Brenda York:  http://brendayork.blogspot.com/ 

Collage Workshop

 Wadonna Davis, Somita Fekete, Alice Hahn, Jena Jones, Beverly Ellis, Jan Wilson & June Carruth

We had our collage workshop this week end in Plains, and had such fun! Every body did a great job.
We had a geologist from Midland, 2 art teachers from Lubbock, a retired teacher from Hobbs, NM, a teacher from Eunice NM  and two from Plains.
We had such fun, with lots of laughs.The students are what make a successful workshop! Thanks you'll!

Midland Juried Art Show

Lets Dance!

I am honored that this torn paper piece was accepted into theMidland Art Association/Midland College 34th Annual Fall Juried Art Show. The show will be open from October 14 through November 11 at the McCormick Gallery, Allison Fine Arts Building in Midland.  I was told that there were a lot of entries, and they could only take a certain amount due to space.

This was done with magazine pages, and I used an acrylic wash on the background.

Demo in Midland, TX

Today I was honored to do a torn paper demo in Midland, TX..  My sister went with me and we had a great time. Haven't seen each other in about a year. (ridiculous) As I drove up, Barbara read the sign, and I got so excited, and told her we had to get a photo!

There was a big crowd, and they were so gracious, and interested, and excited to see how the torn paper was done.  I am doing a workshop there in March, and they told me today that the workshop was full. I put the bottom picture so you could see the cowboy I was working on. Of course I didn't even get through. I sold 2 pieces! Yeah! One of the boots and an old pick-up.

It was a lot of fun, but boy I am beat. Got up at 4:30 this a.m. to get there in time! What we will do for art!