Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Buddha in primary colors

This painting had a different process than I usually do. The portrait was  inspired by a quick ball point pen sketch of a water fountain that I had done several months ago in a notebook.  Later, as I was going through the notebook, I thought that it might make an interesting painting, so I enlarged the sketch,  originally only 2" high.  The fountain was a blueish-grey color, which worked well for the ball point drawing, but I thought I would add some color to the painting.  So I worked with a limited palette of red, blue, and yellow to create " Buddha in Primary Colors".

Forest stream...photo progression

I've been a little slow creating this month, but here is a painting that was inspired by a demonstration by Juan Pena at the Sacramento Fine Arts Center. He makes it so easy, and although a lot of his work is plein air, he did this one from memory.  I love his bold colors and the loose, flowing style that he calls "representational watercolor". Here is my attempt at imitating his style.

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Angel of light and love

My Artists Way group gets together once a month to be creative in some way or another, as well as getting us out of our comfort zones sometimes. This month we worked on collaborative projects to be donated to Collage for a Cure. It is a fun process working on a painting with another artist, bouncing creativity off each other yet practicing having no attachment.  I worked with fellow artist Teresa Rodriguez on this piece, using acrylic on watercolor paper. Acrylic is still not my favorite  medium,  but it sure made the process different  as we built up layers of paint, very unlike watercolor.
I also have to give credit to Tina Greene for coordinating the donation process, and helping with the framing!