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.

First Watercolor Artists Retreat

 Located on the shores of Lake Charlevoix in northern Michigan, I conducted a lovely retreat for watercolor artists. It was a great get-away. If you ever consider a vacation, northern Michigan is beautiful. I recommend it highly.

It was so successful that plans are made to repeat the retreat same time next year.

Here are some of the things that were painted.

As seen in Watercolor Artist Magazine

 The Splash series advertising for next year's competition, choose my painting, "Soft Landing" to advertise on the back cover of Watercolor Artist Magazine. This has been an interesting year for me with getting my artwork published and winning awards. For all you watercolor enthusiasts, "Watercolor Artists Magazine" is a great magazine to subscribe to. 

Certificate & Awards- Women in Watercolor

It was today that I received my award certificate! I would encourage all women artists to enter into this competition for next year. They do a beautiful job of promoting your artwork on their website. Here are the award winners for the Raymar Merchandise Awards given out in several categories.

To see all the entries that made it into the competition, go to: www.WomenInWatercolor.com .

 

Next Bit of News! Won Raymar Merchandise Award in the Women in Watercolor Exhibition

 "Aphrodisiac" was accepted into the Women In Watercolor Exhibition and won the Raymar Merchandise Award in the still life/floral category! This has been a good year for me. It is so nice to get recognition for the work that you perfect over the years. According to the information on the site: https://womeninwatercolor.com/  , they had 1615 submissions from 56 countries. They selected 220 paintings for acceptance. So just making it into the show is an honor. To be selected for an award is very special! I will be eager to try out the products that Raymar produces. Please do go to their website and check out their watercolor boards and other products.