That Certain Color Of Red

I've been painting with different groups of artists each day. Searching for communities of other artists I can paint & converse with about anything art. I'm meeting great people! Today was in a gallery in Montecito painting still lives. I was attracted to this still life for the simple reason that I LOVED the red of the pot. It's THAT perfect red!

Cracked Eggs & Ham

This silly painting was from the Daily Paintworks Challenge.The challenge this week? Painting a broken egg! When setting up this still life my original thought was "Green Eggs & Ham". However, after a few starts I discovered there is NO color green that makes an egg look appetizing.

 I also discovered that when working from real life props (like cracked, raw eggs) one should finish their painting in one sitting. Yuck! Now I'm off to Google the symptoms of Salmonella ;-)

Secret Recipe

Recipe for total bliss:

* pick or p/u fresh flowers
* arrange in a simple vase
* turn on classical music
* make a cup of tea
* lay out paint
* think less, listen more & let my brush dance

Dreaming of a Cool Day

My plan with this demo was to keep cool. The weather was supposed to be in the upper 80's and the since the building I was painting in has no AC I thought I would at least have a cool palette.

However,  I found these hollyhocks too complicated to demo a 2nd time as I needed to let the painting dry at different stages before continuing. I am going to try this process again (in my own studio) on other subjects as I liked the results. It's hard to see, but I got some of the texture in the background by laying in Asian papers as I painted, letting this dry and then collaging the pieces in place. 

Better than caffeine!

A demo from yesterday. I am enjoying sunflowers the past few days!

I'm getting more comfortable with painting in front of a crowd. A challenge has been switching from the right to left side of my brain as I paint, answer questions, then paint again. I'm learning to not elaborate or the painting dries to an awkward stage before I can get back to it.

Therapy or a Christmas card?

Yep, me painting textures with acrylic inks, watercolor crayons, candles(!), sandpaper, bamboo twigs for drawing, and loads of water. There are many ways to use these sheets of texture- for backgrounds, cards, etc. Personally I find the final product just an excuse as painting these are therapeutic and meditative. Well, maybe not in front of a State Fair crowd!

Another Day At The Fair

Day 5. I want to loosen up and have fun today. I slept better last night and that feels great!

Today's demos are about creating colorful 'starts' in watercolor and mixed media. I enjoy painting large sheets of color, designs & texture, then cutting these into smaller pieces to use as backgrounds for subsequent paintings. Occasionally a start sings by itself and becomes it's own painting.

Below are two practice 'starts' I painted earlier this week.