more zoo

Zoo visit!

inked with micron 01

sketched at the zoo

watercolor added

Palm tree practice

 Mike likes the turtles ... I was ready to paint over them

Got lots of practice doing palm trees.

getting to know my brush

yesterday ...

Mike went running this morning and I had a play date with my painting.  I am happy with my brushstrokes ... gets easier every time I do it.

Cardboard from a box of cat food cans

paintbrush cleaning canvas ...
plus I blobbed the paint on for the
cat cardboard and got this lovely frame.

sending a palm tree
on all my mail tomorrow!

Another piece of mail waiting to go to the postoffice

Egg basket

In the style of Delaporte: challenge # 35

There is a photo posted there ( here ) from the master Henry Horace Roland Delaporte.

Artists from all over use it as a reference to practice their medium of choice.

Since I am taking a class in acrylics, that seemed like a good choice.

2nd class -- backgrounds

Well, the backgrounds are finished.

Can't wait till next week's class to see what we add to them!

(And Renate ... you are right, my favorite is still watercolor!)

My art room has been a guest room

My art has taken a back seat to family in the guest room --- an advantage of living in Florida while everyone else is up north. But yesterday I started an acrylic class with Meike Aton. You can see her work here ... 

Step one is to take a primed canvas and use gesso to create your background.  My tool was Meike's bent butter knife -- I have a feeling I will be raiding my silverware drawer!

 As we waited for the gesso to dry, we did color wheels with acrylic as watercolor , then a second color wheel where I gooped it on (is "gooped" a proper painting term?)

( Actually I am quite sure the gooping part was my own addition, but that paint just cries out for playing with the surface and texture. )


My purple did turn out a bit like a Michigan winter sky. Never quite gets dark at night, just growls.   Makes me happy once more to be in Florida!

Curiously, Meike suggests that we not wash our brushes between colors, but instead brush them off on a separate canvas which will at some point become a background for another painting. So far I am not seeing any form emerge, but it will be interesting to watch this process.

I see a trip to Michaels in my future as all my acrylic brushes and supplies are back in Michigan.  But joy of joy, the Walmart beachside carries painters canvas and gesso so I am good to start a couple more canvases.

But is it art?

Chinatown, Chicago

Photo enhanced

Photo enhanced

Central Park

Photo enhanced  Can you see the land of OZ here?

Taken from a speeding car

I took a class in iphonology ... how to use your iphone to create "art."  These were some of my creations.  I am still struggling to see them as art ...

Balloon Day, Midland MI

From a hotel in NYC

Christmas Chrysanthemums!

There are so many ways to do a Chinese Chrysanthemum brush painting.

 My teacher, Louise Chen, said you can paint it in color then outline, you can do the outline then paint it, you can just outline, or use just paint.

.... but my idea is to just make them all into Christmas cards which is what I intend to do!

Chinese Chrysanthemums

I just started a Chinese Brush painting class in chrysanthemums. 

Louise Chen does an incredible job of describing the culture and its relationship to art.  The chrysanthemum is the fall flower, when all the other wild bloomers have ended and there is a focus on wisdom and relaxation.  She likened it to people in their 60s. They have done what they had to do and now can reflect.

Hmm. Time for reflection!

This one is on double shuen rice paper

We practice on coffee filters to see how ink will run.

I need to work on my vases!

This is on double shuen rice paper.

More on rice paper.

Ok I really like this pot. Not terribly Chinese, but I like it!

Another one on a coffee filter.

I did some reading online and found that this flower is a good gift for an older person since it indicates strong life.  But another source said that in Belgium and Austria they are particularly associated with funerals.  I find it so interesting to see the meanings associated with this flower!  But I am spending too much time reading online, I should be practicing how to paint it!