8 x 8" Watercolors

 Because of an upcoming exhibition coming soon, I have created several 8" x 8" watercolor paintings. I am not sure which one I should submit, but I will be creating a page on my website just for these small paintings. I would like to offer small prints of these and hope to source them soon. Here they are:

If one catches your eye, please let me know.

4TH Annual Women in Watercolor International Juried Competition

 I am pleased to have received the following message:

Dear Artist,

We are pleased to inform you that your paintings "Reaching Out" and "Monpazier" have been accepted into the 4th Annual Women in Watercolor International Juried Competition. Congratulations!

Your paintings were two of 216 accepted entries this year out of over 1800 entries from over 60 countries, from the best of the best women watercolor artists; so you should be very proud!

And I am very proud! Here are the paintings:

New 8" x 8" April Dawn

I am working up a few watercolors in an 8"x8" format. I will reveal at a later time why. I intend to do a series which I will post on my blog. Here, I have recorded in a few steps how it looked leading to the final at the bottom. It depicts a dalia blossom which caught my eye and thought it would make for an interesting watercolor subject. To enhance the composition, I put in a lacy pattern in a strip in the background. (I discovered that "Washi Tape" used in the first image makes for a crisp edge and paint does not seep underneath.)

 

Painting Finished

 I started this painting back during covid. I put it away for awhile and made some revisions to it. Slight ones. I now feel it is ready. When an artist works on something for a period of time, it is good to stop looking at it only to come back to it with a fresh eye. I generally look at it this way and see things that can be improved upon. Maybe some little things that were not part of the reference or composition. "Low Tide at Mont St. Michel" is now complete.

Zen Redux

Sometimes as an artist, you have the desire or affliction to not be satisfied with your work. and sometimes you take a painting and mess about with it. That is the case with my painting "Zen". Here is how it has been re-worked. Still not happy with it and desire to let this one go and start fresh with something else. Sometimes you just cannot make it happen. Any thoughts on the two versions would appreciated. You can email me or write a comment.

 

Stolen Painting!

 

Some international intrigue! One of the paintings in the Detroit Institute of Arts Van Gogh in America Exhibit was reported to be stolen by a Brazilian art collector. He claims to have paid 3.7m for it. The case is currently in the courts. He attests that a third party stole it. He saw the media about the show in Detroit and immediately notified the DIA.

Van Gogh in America

 Along with my own artwork, I would like for my blog to be about art and artists. I had the privilege of attending the most significant exhibition of Van Gogh outside of Europe here in America. The exhibition was highlighting 100 years of the Detroit Institute of Arts acquiring the first Van Gogh painting ever to be bought in  the USA. There was controversy at the time even though his paintings were gaining much exposure in Europe. The museums at the time in America thought it was a foolish move. Ha! It was the smartest move ever. Even though I only found one in the collection that was done with watercolors and mixed media, I still think that my followers will be interested  in this. Here are some painting from the collection.

Artistic Excellence Award

Circle Foundation for the Arts puts out a Circle Quarterly Art Review Magazine Contest. The magazine goes out to galleries I believe around the world. I received this certificate from them for my entry Commedia Dell' Arte! That about finishes up this incredible year of getting much recognition for my art.

 

Zen Complete (At least for now)

 Reached the final stages. I completed the intricate pattern of the blooms and the leaves. I need to stop working now and look at it later with a fresh eye. I might make a change but can't see what I might want to change later on.  Then again, it might just be complete as it is right now.  Hopefully you can see my thought process as I have shown step-by-step how I approached this subject. Appreciate any feedback from my followers. Thank you for watching!

Step III

 Here is step III! Now I am developing the leaves and tropical floral around the statue of Buddha. Still using Daniel Smith colors of Serpentine Green, Zolsite Genuine and Winsor & Newton Sap 

Green for the leaves.

Daniel Smith Opera Pink, Organic Vermilion and Hansa Yellow for flowers and stems of tropical plant.

A little bit of Brown Umber mix for shadows.

Here is a close-up of the stone texture:

Progression

After putting down the initial pour, I developed the statue. Using Daniel Smith colors of Black Tourmaline, and Serpentine Genuine, I created the effect of stone. The underlying colors of the pour show through as highlights on the statue. Opera Pink was used for the delicate flower placed in the folded hands to give a sharp contrast. Stay tuned for the next step!

 

Start of a new painting

 I would like to post a painting that I am working on in progression. This is the first time that I am using the pouring technique so I will show how I started this painting and maybe if you have never tried it out yet, you can experiment with me.  I love paintings that incorporate this technique and I want to get out of my comfort zone of painting so tightly. Here is how it looked after my first pour:

I used an interesting combination of Hansa Yellow Medium, Moonglow and German Greenish Raw Umber colors from Daniel Smith. For my particular subject matter, which you will see as I go along, are the colors that I am happy with. I masked out some key areas that I want to "pop" against the background.