A Sunday Kind of Love

Favorite thing to do?…………filling my pockets with found beach rocks.  Another favorite……playing with watercolor on YUPO.  So naturally I come to these very small paintings of beach rocks. 

3x3(ish) on YUPO matted to 6x6

More YUPO

These colors speak summer to me.  

Lavender Moors

10 x 10 inches watercolor on YUPO

“You give but little when you give of your possessions.
It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.” 

-Khalil Gibran 

I recently attended a watercolor workshop and can say it was amazing on so many levels.  Our amazing, generous, kind, hard-working and talented artist/instructor was Joyce Hicks.  I was grateful to have been able to join the Walloon Lake Art Group, so friendly, funny, welcoming, very inspiring and they too were amazing.  And if you have never been to northern Michigan.........you can't know how truly amazing and beautiful it is.  

Joyce demonstrated every morning and after lunch spent one on one time with as many as she could editing photos we brought to the workshop.  This is from one of my photos.

 Joyce has a book recently released called Painting Beautiful Watercolor Landscapes-Transform Ordinary Places into Extraordinary Scenes.  Great information and so pretty to look at.  These are a few pictures from our workshop.

    It begins..........                                                  

 we take a break........

almost finished.............

Finished! 

ON THE EDGE

16 x 20 watercolor, spray webbing on 400lb cold press

 

 

" ......and I make so many beginnings there will never be an end. (Jo March)". Little Women
                                                                                             -Louisa May Alcott

Two beginnings.......I poured indigo, fr. ultramarine, burnt and raw sienna.  Then I sprayed with webbing.  Stay tuned, I don't know where they are headed.

"If you were born without wings, do nothing to prevent them from growing."  -Coco Chanel

                                                                            Daily Show (sold)
                                                20 x 16 watercolor on 300lb watercolor paper

This one was finished just in time to hang it in my exhibit at Glen Vista Gallery, Kalamazoo Nature Center.  I am the solo artist and the show runs through September.  I am honored and thrilled and can't believe it.  Seems surreal to walk into a gallery and see my paintings. 

"Art doesn't have to match the couch"       -unknown

Long Beach

Watercolor on YUPO

30in x 8in

What can I say, I have been consumed with planning a road trip that has been the dream stage for over ten years.  And, in the midst of that was offered the opportunity to have a two month exhibit of my paintings-most of which were not framed.  I have framed about 2 dozen so far and have kept them all a simple white mat with brushed gold frame to give the show a very cohesive feeling.  Pictures of that in the future.  For now, look for hubby and me in our aqua Thunderbird on Rte. 66 the whole month of June.  And if that seems interesting to you, please check our blog www.66sunsets.blogspot.com that chronicles our adventure beginning June 2.  

Everybody is a genius, but if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.....Albert Einstein  

Maybe we can all just encourage each other in whatever it is we do best. 

This is what I am doing on these frigid winter days.......first applied random lines of masking fluid then washed over with shades of blues (the winter snow influencing me)  When it dried I saw the twigs of the bush right outside my window which are dotted with the tiniest purple berries.  

  

I am finding the green sprigs and painting small branches.  The berries will be next. 

KEEP WARM AND KEEP MAKING ART.

“Anyone can slay a dragon ...but try waking up every morning and loving the world all over again. That's what takes a real hero.” ― Brian Andreas

A new year......another kind of beginning.....and I will try to post more but lately I simply have not put brush to paper often and I miss it. This is a small piece I did in the quiet following the holidays.

"There's no place like home" -Dorothy

Been gone a long time from this blog and from home a bit with three totally different "adventures"
I attended  a watercolor workshop on beautiful Mackinaw Island the first part of this month.

Victorian homes adorn the bluffs and I look forward to trying to paint this in the future.

If you look very closely and use your imagination, you can see the Mackinac Bridge on the right.

 

 Our instructor was Helga Flower, not only a talented artist, but a beautiful  and generous person.  I am blesssed beyond words to know her.  While on the Island, we stay at the Murray Hotel, owned and run by Pat Pulte, an artist in his own right.  Helga's style is very loose and she loves to experiment with whatever is around her....she is not afraid of anything!  I, on the other hand, am comfortable to keep dipping my brushes in my watercolor palette and leave the rest of that "stuff" alone.  But she pushed my to try new things.  We took out old paintings and scissors and created what we call fractured paintings.  

 I wish I had taken pictures of some of the other artists, they were so very different, every one of them.

A week on the Island and then a 4 day trip to DesMoines, Iowa with my best friend since 45 years ago!  We visited with her parents and helped go through a lifetime of "stuff" 
Then, back to Kalamazoo to pick up my brand new granddaughter, Harper, her brother Harry and my daughter, Kate to drive to Kentucky to visit my other daughter's family. 

Home now and could hardly wait to get back to my paints.  Here is what I matted today.

I promise, not so many words next time......just paintings.

I have been dabbling at this painting for a few days now.....I could have stopped earlier but I was still enjoying it!  So, maybe a bit overworked but the feeling of these lacy flowers comes through for me. 

 

6x9inches

Watercolor on YUPO

Sumac Saturday

10.5 x 8.5 watercolor on 300lb

The many colors of fall are a great inspirtation to me and yet I only used three colors here.  Alizarin crimson, olive green and quin. gold. 

“You can’t reach for anything new if your hands are still full of yesterday’s junk.”        

                                                                                                      -Louise Smith

Working (or playing) on YUPO has become an addiction for me. I really enjoy pouring on the colors in whatever way I can think and then watch what "grows" from the paper. The mixing and mingling are in themselves works of art and I can barely bring myself to touch them sometimes so I have many (many, many) unfinished pieces to study and play with. These colors just demanded that I paint poppies. Since I cannot seem to grow them in my garden, this is a next best thing. Just beginning to find the flowers here. 

WIP  Poppies

Watercolor on YUPO

Overwork in Progress!



Iris in Progress

11 X 14 watercolor on YUPO

Finding dark shapes to define the flower and I know I will overdo it.  I am having too much fun with this one so I might never stop.

All YUPO these days

Stones I
11 X 8 Watercolor on YUPO

Teal
14 X 10 Watercolor on YUPU

I have taken a break from blogging and been spending time just playing with paint and paper.  Many pieces sit around for weeks as I just look at them to decide what direction to go.  I hope to post more finished works soon.  

I am back to what I like best.....negative spaces. Sometimes it is nice to go back to the familiar,  I am comfortable doing this.  I did this wash several months ago (when it was still autumn) and have been looking at it for that long.  Now I am "finding" all the leaves hanging on.  I have more to do.

 
This is 8 x 10 on 300lb. coldpress watercolor

7X7 watercolor on YUPO

This photographed a bit dark on the right but I am pleased with these colors in life and the glow I got in the sky. 

Winter came down to our home one night
Quietly pirouetting in on silvery-toed slippers of snow,
And we were children once again.
~Bill Morgan, Jr.

We have had 12 inches of snow in a day and a half....it is beautiful.  I say this even after shoveling twice and getting out the blower 2 times as well. 

Initial wash of indigo and burnt sienna (my very favorite mix) with touches of yellow ochre, raw sienna, and cerulean.

                                                                                                    SKI IN, SKI OUT

                                                                                                      6 x 14 watercolor on 300lb

To the beach!

I had workers coming today and because of a miscommunitcation we are rescheduled for tomorrow so a totally free day.  Yippee!

I went to the studio and started throwing paint around (literally) and have these three beginnings outside drying.  They are definitely calling me to the beach even tho it is January in Michigan (and everywhere else, I know).  Still, we are driving over to Lake Michigan so I can walk the beach with BIL (boy i love) and take pictures of rocks.  The sun is playing hide and seek, hope it is shining when we get there.

Can you see it?

To be clear....I don't paint animals.  But it is clear that my subconscious does.  I have been thinking that I would love a four legged friend and finding excuses not to head straight over to the shelter. Last night after cleaning my studio and cleaning and refilling my paint wells I threw some paint on paper.  This dog just appeared.  Can you see it (even before I put in the ears?)