June 28, 2012 June 28, 2012

I am so proud and fired up this morning! I just found out I was lucky enough to have one of my paintings accepted for the Hoosier Salon’s annual juried show. For me, this is a really big deal since it gives me the right to be a gallery artist with work routinely hanging in their galleries. It also confirms for me that the success I had last year was not a fluke. Too often it seems that we create our most powerful work during periods of extreme emotion and then can not reproduce that intensity.  I hope I have truly found a way to communicate many different thoughts and emotions. The painting that was accepted is Stages 3. It is on Arches watercolor board – a half sheet torn the long way.

Stages 3

Thank you to all my blogging friends for your continual support and encouragement.

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June 18, 2012 June 22, 2012

As I mentioned I attended a Warren Taylor Workshop a week or so ago and the subject was working with water soluble crayons and pencils. To take the white off the paper, he brought several “quick starts” that we could buy to get a quick start…hmmm, quess I’m redundant! These were on half sheet Arches 140# paper. Warren used one of his own photographs to make the drawing and the only limitation he placed on their use was a prohibition on their use in competitions. I selected a large tulip that was beyond its prime (sort of like the artist). This was my first effort and has muliple layers of permanent colored pencil (used too much!), watercolor pencils and watercolor crayon. I struggled with this and finsihed it off/quieted it down/smoothed it out with regular watercolor. I added the lower leaves to the design at the last minute and I don’t think they added anything. Obviously not competition material but it was a valuable experience and I continue to learn. Onward and upward!!!!

Warren Taylor Workshop Ex 1

 

June 13, 2012 June 14, 2012

Do you ever question the way you use your time? I struggled and struggled to try to make something from a bad start. This is one of the messes I made in my Warren Taylor workshop.  I spend hours changing, overpainting…whine, whine, whine…anyway this is where I decided to end it. Its as good as I can get it. I will say that I learned a lot about using watercolor crayons and pencils but I had definitely hit the point of diminishing returns. It was time to move on.

Workshop 1

To be fair to Warren I must tell you that multiple artists achieved stunning finished paintings in his workshop. That was not my mind set and I went in with a different purpose. I wanted to play and to learn about the materials and that I did do!

PS I’m working on my second “mess” and I’m not out of ideas yet!

June 8, 2012 June 8, 2012

What a GREAT three days I’ve had. I attended a workshop offered by the Watercolor Society of Indiana and the instructor was Warren Taylor. He recently retired as a professor of oil and watercolor painting from Midland College in Texas. He made his reputation painting tight works of creativity, deep introspection, and whimsy. He is very intuitive and supportive when dealing with adult students and his critiques (walk arounds) were informational and positive. The workshop discussed how to work with water soluble media such as watercolor crayons and pencils. It was an opportunity for me to play and have fun and I created three messes and one possible painting. In my perverse way, I am trying to “save” one of the messes. Here is additional information on Warren: http://warrentaylor-aws.com/articles/view/about-warren-taylor

I was lucky enough to be able to buy one of his paintings. This one has several collage elements. I love the use of postage stamps from his travels. Enjoy!

May 31, 2012 June 1, 2012

I have set aside my Yupo for the moment. I stumbled on a photograph of a man with the biggest smile I ever saw. It was enchanting. As many of you know I am fascinated by faces and frequently do rough sketches from magazines and then make them my own. I usually am intrigued by one facial feature that catches my eye. In this case it was the crinkly, laughing eyes. I started thinking about what could make him laugh – he’s having fun – why? – he’s at a festival – what’s happening? – fireworks – shazam! I can use my abstract palette of pthalo blue, quin magenta and cad yellow to make it took like he’s watching fireworks. What fun!!!!!! Are YOU smiling?

Laughing man