The Last Party of the Season

Well, summer has hit us with some heat finally and it was so nice to be able to set up in the cool basement for the last Watercolour Painting Party of the season.

I only had five participants this weekend so it made everything go very smoothly. Another advantage was that they all had some experience with watercolours.

Here are the photos of the work created:

Heather and her Derelict Boat

Closeup of Heather's painting

Eileen's Lighthouse

closeup of the Lighthouse

Jane with her Summer Veranda

closeup of Jane's painting

Mike and Rhonda with their paintings

Rhonda's Flower Garden

Mike's Rickety Old Barn

Everyone was very happy with their finished paintings and I think some of them will be back in the fall for another Painting Party.

This, That and the Other

Instead of sketching in the evenings lately, for a change of pace I have been doing some more quilling and adding the finished pieces to cards.

Quilled Rooster Card

I find most quilling to be relaxing and often do it while watching TV. Sometimes though, I pick a subject that is a bit tougher to do and it needs more control and concentration.

Filigree Hummingbird Card

This little hummingbird and flower seemed to take forever to do as I could only do a bit at a time while I waited for the glue to dry.

I have also been spending time figuring out my display for the up-coming Trade Show at our local rec centre. I mostly want to promote my Watercolour Painting Parties and my 20th "Anniversary as an Artist" Clearance Sale but I hope to make my display inclusive of all my work - thus the figuring.

This year I will be offering some new scenes for the Painting Parties. I am going to add 'A Building in Fog' as well as the 'Vignettes' and the 'Little Guys' parties.

Little Guys selection - paint two 5 x 7 pieces

Vignettes selection - paint one 10 x 14 scene

I don't have most of the scenes for the 'Building in the Fog' series ready yet but here is a sample;

#550 - Abandoned 

These scenes will be 10 x 14 and participants also get a 16 x 20 mat and a clearbag to protect their paintings.

I do have 'other' things happening but I think this blog is long enough, so I will leave the rest for an 'other' day - lol.

I invite readers to 'follow' my blog and leave a comment - let me know how I'm doing!

30/30 January Challenge #22

I am on a roll! The weather has been such that I just wanted to stay home which gave me a lot of time for painting and that means I am ahead of the game.

#999 - Autumn's End - 5 x 9 watercolour

The painting was roughly based on a piece in "Perspective Secrets" by Phil Metzger, one of the Watercolor Basics series. I have given a number of lessons on perspective using this book as my reference so I am usually pretty good at it. However, I like to paint old buildings, so if I goof I can always say that the building is old and falling down - lol.

I am very happy with this piece, although the colour in the original is more vibrant than the photo so the purple really pops. I also like the looks of the leaves scattered on the ground which was achieved by rolling a #6 round brush lightly over the paper using a number of different colours.

Now, I just have to add this to Leslie's 30/30 page and then I have to go out and - you guessed it! - shovel more snow!

Teach and Learn

I have often found that each time I teach a class or workshop that I learn something too. Yesterday's Watercolour Painting Party had seven complete beginners so everything was completely new and frightening. Do you remember the first time you sat in front of a blank sheet of paper or canvas? Do you remember how you hesitated to add any colour? I still have trouble sometimes when confronted by a large canvas and acrylics or oils but not with watercolour so I was a bit surprised by the hesitation most of the group exhibited.

Dora, Karen and Judy

Karen's Victorian Garden

Dora's Weathered Sheds

Judy's Soft Sunrise

 I also learned that when teaching raw beginners that seven is really too many. I found that I was not able to give everyone the individual attention that they needed. I often felt that I rushed through explanations so I could move on the the next person. Luckily no one held it against me and they all seemed to have a good time.

Veronica, Edith, Ingrid and Lee

Veronica's Fantasy Garden

Ingrid's Shipwreck

Edith's Barn on the Hill

Lee's Barn in Autumn

In spite of the fact that they were beginners I think they all did a wonderful job with their paintings. Once they got going they didn't seem to be afraid of the colour any more and they also learned that they could do a lot with just water.

This was the last Watercolour Painting Party until September when I will be doing two more with the vignettes for those who weren't able to attend in June. I will also be offering some parties where participants will get to do 2 small paintings that will be matted to 8 x 10's.

I hope I can take what I have learned and make my next Painting Parties even better than the ones I already done!

So Much Fun!

We had so much fun at Saturday's Watercolour Painting Party and all of the paintings were wonderful (I think).

Carrie, Lynne and Vicki

Eleanor, Ed and Cheryl

Although most of this week's participants had some painting experience, the style of the paintings or the medium was new to them so they were challenged. One of my biggest concerns is people who are unhappy because their painting doesn't look like mine. I try to remind them that each of us sees things differently and paints differently AND if you don't normally paint this way you can't expect perfection the first time. Actually, you should never expect perfection because often it is the 'mistakes' that make paintings live.

Here are some close-ups of this week's paintings:

Carrie's Path to the Lighthouse

Vicki's Bright Sky

Lynne's Rocky Shore

Eleanor's Autumn Tones

Ed's Old Barn

Cheryl's Pastel Gardens

I did take a few photos of the party goers at work but when I picked up the camera they all pretty much just stared at me - they weren't going to let anyone know that they had been laughing just minutes before. So, I decided not to share those photos lest people call me a liar when I say we had so much fun!

Success! - Mostly

My first Watercolour Painting Party was today and I think it went rather well. There were a few minor problems; the weather was cold and wet so we set up in the basement, and I forgot to charge the battery in the camera and it died on me before I finished taking photos.

There were seven party goers, all seniors except for a 12 year old boy who really likes art. His mother is a friend and she booked the space for him when I offered it to her.

My husband took some photos from the stairway so the angle was wrong to get a shot of everyone. This is Grietja holding Spence's painting so he could see it from a distance,

It is too bad that the lamp is blocking Donna but here you see Spencer sharing his painting with the rest of the group.

Barb, Jim, Donna and Grietja with their paintings. It is so interesting that people can paint the same scene and end up with very different paintings. Most of the 'students' were new to painting although Barb took a few lessons years ago and Grietja has painted a bit in acrylic.

This is were my camera was dying. I couldn't see what I was doing and managed to cut off heads and pretty much all of Lesley's painting - grrr! Anyway, this is Spencer, Gay and Lesley. It is a good thing that I am an artist because I sure ain’t a photographer - lol!

Everyone seemed to have a great time and I have hopes that they will come back in the fall for another Watercolour Painting Party.

More than I can chew!

For the last two days I had a display at the local Trade Show, sharing a booth with a friend who is starting a new business. For both of us the idea was to promote our businesses.

Over the Valley and Mellowood Studio display

I had a number of pieces to show the variety of art that I do but my primary focus was promoting the "Watercolour Painting Parties". I am very pleased with the response as I ended up with about 33 names on the sign-up sheets. I am beginning to wonder if I have bitten off more than I can chew - lol

Although the chances that a number of those who signed up will drop out are pretty strong, I am going to assume that won't happen. So, I have to plan more parties: instead of 2 dates I will be offering 5 - 3 in June and 2 in September. I am going with 5 dates because I feel that a maximum of 8 people works well for instruction purposes and once I post on FB I might get more people interested in participating.

#948 Derelict #1

#949 Derelict #2

#947 Lakeside Living

#911 The Old Red Barn (sold)

#946 A Veranda for Summer

#950 Flowers by the Sea

#951 Beached

As I really don't like classes where everyone paints the same thing, I have a number of scenes prepared and everyone can pick the one they prefer. AND, they will have the option to choose their own colour scheme too. Participants will take home an 11 x 14 painting with a 16 x 20 mat and a clear bag to protect their work. I think we will have a blast!

September Challenge Day 19

Today's card proves that I have to be in the right mood to do pen & ink!

Old Milk Can

I started this piece with high hopes but the more I worked on it the less I liked it. Finally, I quickly added a bit of background without using much care and called it 'done'. You might notice that I didn't sign it as I think this one will go in the trash.

September Challenge Day 14

It is back to simplicity again today as I still don't feel well. Just a little winter scene today, nothing very complicated but I hope you enjoy it!

Winter Snow

September Challenge Day 11

Today was the first day of the Creston Art Club's Annual Fall Show & Sale and I missed it because I got sick - bummer! Fortunately, my husband, Bob, was kind enough to take my art in and a few of my friends set up the display for him (and me). Good friends (and husband too) are wonderful!

It was good that I had done a few cards in advance as I certainly didn't feel like doing art today.

Falling Apart card

Now back to bed for me!

September Challenge Day 6

After my last post where the photo of my card was grey instead of white, a Google+ friend, Sheila Delgado, offered to help me by removing the grey for me. (see Sheila's blog here - http://www.sheiladelgado.com/2015/09/day-6-30-in-30/

When I take photos and look at them on the computer, except for cropping, fixing perspective and maybe increasing the size, I pretty much leave them alone. If the color is off I just shrug because I really don't understand how to do anything else. My husband bought me "the Book of Gimp" to go with the computer program but 95% of the book is gibberish to me.

However, I decided to try to fix my card photos myself - figuring I can always call on Sheila if it doesn't work.

Here is today's card - ta da! no grey!

The Lantern card

Unfortunately, I seem to have deleted most of the edges of the card. I am finding it difficult to take a photo that doesn't have any shadows and getting rid of the shadows requires too much brightening. Oh well, maybe the next photo will work better.

Here is yesterday's card with the grey removed:

Okay, it is still a bit grey but making it white removed all the edges and it no longer looked like a card - what a conundrum.

I guess I need to work on this a bit more.