Two Juried Art Shows

 'Just Horse'n Around'

got into the Richardson, TX 48th Annual juried show.  Xiang Zhang was the juror. He is an awesome western art-artist.  The show is May 1-27th.

 

'Road Trip'

 got in the Lubbock Arts Festival, April 11-13th.

The juror for this one was Mondel Rogers

Demo in Portales, NM

We lucked out last night and had half way decent weather to drive to Portales.  It is 100 miles.  We saw a fire on the way, just inside NM. I didn't get a very good photo, but you can see what could burn! Most of the ranchers have sold their cattle, it is so dry here..heading into a 4 year drought.

The demo went ok I guess. There is no way you can do a collage in 30-45 mins. but you can explain how you work, etc.  This demo was taking failed watercolors and collaging them.  The music scene on the bottom corner was one of those. as well as the white flower I worked on. The music is below. It was just so blah and there didn't seem to be much I could do with it.  I think the collaged one worked out much better. Has more excitement.  I left some of the watercolor showing.  The bottom right is all watercolor, and some of the piano keys are left.

 

 

The Purple top left corner was collage/watercolor and one of the ladies bought it for her Granddaughter.  We had a fun night. Great Mexican food with a good friend then an hour of art!

Underpaintings in Class

In our monthly watercolor class, we have been doing under paintings.  Last month we did a background under painting, then painted the pears. Then this month we did a complete under painting, then figured out where to put the bike and painted over the under painting. This is a lot of fun, but takes some planning and thinking.

 

 

 

 

This was the under painting that we did first. I find flower designs, and just use that for my designs.

Scrapbook paper works great for ideas.   It has to be painted lightly.  I had them try to mix their watery color about like iced tea...that transparent. It is just for interest, etc.

 Then with the bike drawn off on tracing paper so we could see through it, we put the bike on the under painting where we wanted it to work best, and then drew it off.  I had the basket come out by the center yellow flowers and used them as part of the painting. Everything else was painted over. I did use some gouache in a few places.

 

The Red Bike was what I worked up, then I did the blue one in class.  I have started giving away my demos because they stack up, and Faye picked out the red one!

 

 

 

 

 

This is an example of some under paintings.  Just experiment and you would be surprised at what you end up with!

Pears Re-Worked

 I started out with an under painting, trying to come up with a lesson for my watercolor class.  We have been working on some under paintings, and as I got into this drawing with the pears, it just wasn't working for me. So...like I have done in the past, I just collaged it.  Even though it is on watercolor paper it still works out ok. I have done several like this.  I am working on a demo for Portales NM, and this one will work for what I am planning.  I am also having a workshop March 28-29, and there is still room for more if you are interested.

Time to Party!

The summer that Keri and I got hung up in Memphis due to a weather delay, we went down to Beale Street.  We had Bar-b-q on the patio...THEN, we were scared to death by a zombie march! We had never seen anything like it! What a shock to be eating and all this start marching by. We went into some little shops and I found this wall hanging and took a photo of it.

I painted it a while ago and didn't like it so In preparation for a demo, I got it out, and collaged part of it.  I left the bottom below the instruments just watercolor and some of the piano keys. It will have to be framed because it is on watercolor paper. I will go ahead and put it under plexi too. 

I am doing a demo in Portales NM Monday the 17th. If you are close, come for a visit!
I am teaching a 2 day workshop here in Plains March 28-29, if interested email me.

New Chaps

This is a couple of years old, but fits in with what I am doing right now.  I took this photo at the cowboy symposium in Lubbock, TX.  The cowboy was showing tricks, working cattle, etc.

Lester

A couple of years ago, my son called and told me Lester  was coming to shoe his horses and mules, if I wanted pictures. So I grabbed my camera and took off. He is about 30 minutes away. When I got there he was already through and loaded up, and I was so disappointed, so he got his tools out, and posed for me! I took quite a few photos. I have known Lester for a long time, so he didn't seem to mind to help me out!
This is done on 300 pound hot press watercolor paper, using transparent watercolors as well as some gouache.  It will be 18x24 framed.