Autumn Harvest

My husband and I decided to celebrate our wedding anniversary this year by picking a spot in Kentucky we wanted to go see. We chose to go visit a covered bridge. On the way there, my husband saw a sign for an orchard. I was reluctant to stop since it wasn't on our "itinerary", but in the spirit of the day, I agreed. The orchard was on a long road off the main highway and I was beginning to doubt we would find it. We did, and it was this little white garage-like building. The garage door was open, but nobody was there. All around us were baskets and baskets of apples. I spied a sign to ring the doorbell for service. Eventually an older gentleman came out and helped us. Bill picked the fruit and I took photos of the baskets of apples. When we came home, I reviewed the photos from the trip and realized the best ones of the day were from the orchard, though there are many to choose from the different towns we visited that day. I was glad that I had been flexible enough to change our "itinerary" since it ultimately yielded a painting that otherwise never would have been.

Dewees Island Boardwalk

This is the first woods sceen I tried based on a technique I learned from a book by Nita Engle. I really debated about posting this one because I am not completely satisfied with it. I struggled with certain portions of the painting and used a Fritch scrubber for the first time to redo some areas only to find out that a Fritch scrubber peels the paper! I was pretty horrified, but still determined to finish the painting. So here it is with its good parts and bad.

Palm on Dewees Island

I took this photo on Dewees Island, South Carolina and always wanted to paint it but just didn't feel I had the skills. Then I saw in one of my watercolor how-to books a painting of a palm close-up like this one, so I tried it and it worked out first try!

On the Battery

This painting is from a photo I took while on the battery of Charleston, South Carolina. It's just another example of paintings I did while in South Carolina in the summer.

South Beach

When my husband and I went to South Beach, Florida, a few years ago, I enjoyed the art decco architecture there. In an art gallery there, I discovered an artist by the name of Mark Rutkowski, who had done many watercolor paintings of the art decco architecture from South Beach. In many of his pieces, he featured not only a historic building, but a historic car. This painting is a copy of a postcard I bought while in South Beach, but not until I bought the book of Mark Rutkowski's work did I even consider doing such a painting.

House by the Sea

I started this painting in the summer of 2007 when I was reading Nita Engle's book, "How to Make a Watercolor Painting Paint Itself". The house is from Sullivan's Island, South Carolina, and all the rest is made up.

Sunporch

This is a scene of the screened-in porch of the beach house we stay at in Charleston, South Carolina. Every afternoon I was attracted to the shadows on the furniture.

I decided to put the shadows in first using a mixture of ultramarine blue and violet, which worked well for this composition.

Peony

I started this painting last year from a photo of a peony in our garden. I found this composition difficult because of all the petals. Midway through the process of creating the painting, it just looked like a bunch of pink blobs to me, but eventually it took shape. I have been reading Susan Harrison-Tustain's "Glorious Garden Flowers in Watercolor" to do the leaves, but in this case I did the dark leaves by lifting them out of the dark background. It isn't what I intended. When I put the dark background in without leaves that appeared to be in the shadows, the flower seemed like it was floating and disconnected from the earth. I put in a stem where there wasn't one in the photo and some leaves in the shadows. I like Susan's dewdrops, so I put in a couple of those, too. Despite the difficulty, I will probably do more peonies since I have so many photos of them.

Dunyavi Choreography

Margaritaville

With preparing for dance performances, recovering from dance performances and gardening three days a week, I decided that a new painting for April just wasn't going to happen. So I pulled out an oldie but goodie.

This is from a Plow and Hearth catalog from a few years ago. I was fascinated by the colors in the photograph of the pitcher and wondered if I could represent it in watercolor.

I was worried about accidentally making the color of the margarita mix too strong so I painted thin layers of lime or yellow color over the drink mix over and over till I was satisfied. I tend to be timid in my colors and often layer because of this fear, but in this case it worked well and gave the liquid mixture in the pitcher the depth it needed.

Bulerias Performance April 7, 2008

Dancers: Brenna Warnock-O'Hara, Lupita Espinosa, Peggy Bishop, Jenn Benites, Chandra Nair and Jennifer Laughlin

Sevillanas Performance

OK, this isn't watercolor, but it is art! Sevillanas are a folk dance from Southern Spain. They are taught as part of flamenco now, though their origin is not the same as flamenco. In Spain they have Sevillanas parties where people of all ages attend. It is a way you can flirt with someone of the opposite sex. So for young people, they are often eager to learn these dances so they can show off to a boy or girl they like.

This particular dance is just one of a thousand variations, though the basic structure is the same. There are 4 coplas, or sections, and each section is comprised of three parts. Each part is joined by what is called the "pasada sevillana" step. This is the first Sevillana I have learned and of course my first Sevillana performance. It's quite fun to dance with a partner because you really interact and the audience can see this, which makes the dance more interesting. I'm a student dancing with three teachers. I hope you like it!

Les Contamines

Les Contamines is in the French Alps. I visited my French cousins in February 2004 and took a photo of this scene while skiing down the slopes. I didn't take the photo while actually in the act of skiing, but while taking a break from skiing. I hadn't skied in 16 years(!) and so it took a long time for me to get down a slope that would take an experienced skier 10-15 minutes. However, each time I took a break, (or fell), I was able to take in the beauty of the Alps and take a photo. I was lucky I didn't smash my camera during my tumbles or break my leg for that matter. After skiing down this long slope, I went back up the mountain to visit with my cousins during lunch. Afterwards, I stayed at the lodge, which was just a large deck outdoors, and painted a small water color of the mountains. The temperature was about 25 degrees F that day, but with the cloudless sky, there was enough sun to paint and not form ice crystals till about 3:15 when the sun was starting to dip. That painting was very simple, but a French lady saw it and asked to buy it. So I sold it for 25 Euros!

Owen and Marlo

This portait was done on commission. I was nervous about it because I wasn't sure I could make them look blond and get enough contrast. I wanted the hair of the children to sort of glow. I think the children's hair color turned out well, though I didn't achieve as much of a glowing effect as I had envisioned. This painting was done in October of 2006, before I started reading art books. I worked very hard on this painting, too hard, and I can see it. The art books are helping me work a little less hard with decent results.

Winter Sunset

This painting was a candidate for a Christmas card. I used a technique I read about in a book by Nita Engle, "How to Make a Watercolor Paint Itself". Her book inspired me to experiment and that has helped me loosen up a bit and not worry if my painting is "good".

I ended up not using this painting for a Christmas card because I had another painting I liked better. Maybe I'll use this one next Christmas!

The Scarf

This painting must be 10 years old or older, but when I look at it now I feel satisfied with it. It is watercolor with colored pencil. I was fascinated with the woman's hair and that was what inspired me to do the piece.

Crab Attack

Here's a painting from last summer's vacation on Sullivan's Island, South Carolina. I'm endlessly fascinated with repeating shapes and have taken many photographs of the porch on which this painting is based. When I took the photo, my feet were in the picture and that seemed like a different kind of painting, but the idea of putting the crab in the composition came as a flash. I didn't think, "Oh, what else can I put in this painting?" The crab just popped into my head.

"Crab Attack" Transparent Watercolor on 140# CP Arches, 12 X16"

Ready to Serve

This is the first painting of 2008. I have always wanted to paint china and crystal, and after reading "Stunning Crystal & Glass" by Joyce Roletto Faulknor, I decided to give it a shot. The teapot is based on an antique I inherited from my maternal grandmother and the china teacups were a find in New London, Connecticut, some 16 years ago. The flowers were just Kroger flowers that I bought instead of a poinsettia, for something different this past holiday season. I normally paint very tight and precise. For me this is a loose painting, kind of an experiment.

"READY TO SERVE" Transparent Watercolor on 140# CP Arches, 12 X16"