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.

The Best of Watercolor: Special Issue, Winners of the Splash 23 Art Competition

I am pleased to announce that my painting "Soft Landing" received an Honorable Mention in the Best of Watercolor Magazine! This special issue shows winners of the Splash 23 Art Competition! Page 21 is where you will find my painting. One Hundred paintings from around the world are highlighted. This was presented by Artist's Magazine & American Artist. The competition was juried by acclaimed artist, Mary Whyte.

So if you are in need of inspiration, do pick up the publication as you will see some really great paintings!

Award of Excellence!

 I was pleased to have received during the "Our Town Art Exhibit" located in Birmingham, Michigan an Award of Excellence for my painting titled "Pearl River Mart." I received this award from Liz DuMouchelle who is a huge benefactor for the arts in the Detroit area. My painting was inspired from an Asian store in NYC. It had all kinds of colors, shapes, activity going on and I thought it would make for an interesting watercolor. The event took place at the Community House, Birmingham, MI on 3/31/22.