Sunday, February 2, 2014

Well here we are Groundhog Day and Wiarton Willy of Ontario, Canada and Punxitawney Phil  of Pennsylvania USA both saw their shadows, so we have at least 6 more weeks til spring.  Thank goodness and here`s hoping, as we had 11 more centimeters of snow last night.  At least the temp is a little better -3celsius,  although they say by Tuesday we`ll be back to colder temps again.  Enough about the weather...

These are two that I did for the Weekend Drawing event of January 24th hosted by Donna -  this measures 6`x6 and was done with watercolors

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Mangoes In A Basket

and the next one was done with Conte pencils in various shades of sepia, sanguine and three Conte pastels, ochre, med. yellow and white.

Starfish in A Basket

Well that's it for another week, please feel free to comment, remarks are much appreciated.

Sunday, January 26, 2014

My goodness, the last Sunday in January 2014 - now where did that month go?  All month long we have all been waiting for this 'Polar Vortex' to end, now it appears that we have a new cold I front from 'Siberia' and the meteorologists are forecasting this to happen right into the first week of February and maybe longer.  We'll just have to make light of it - such as a marquee posted in front of a church stated  "For all of those people praying for snow - please stop!"

This past week I did  two small paintings for +Crispur's Jan 17th WDE (Weekend Drawing Event, Wet Canvas) - the first "Parrot Fish" measures 4-1/4in. x  4-1/4in. using both interference and iridescent watercolors and the second "Sea Turtle" is 6in. x 9in.  using both alcohol and salt for the water as well as iridescent watercolor for the turtle's shell. The sad thing is that the beauty of  iridescent paints are not picked up on computer screens.  Again I have used virtual frames to finish the pieces, as in all artwork framing is important.

PARROT FISH

SEA TURTLE

Well that's all for this week,  please stay safe and especially if you have to drive.

Sunday, January 19, 2014

Here we are again, the third Sunday to mark off the calendar month of January.  We are in what the meteorologists term a "Polar Vortex", again, - cold brrr, BAH!  Did another painting from +Crispur's  Weekend Drawing Event on Wet Canvas and titled it  *Let me be your..."Teddy Bear"*.  It is 7" x 9" and is done with watercolor pencil. This time I put it in a virtual frame from the internet. 

Sunday, January 12th, 2014

Wow, can't believe that another week in the New Year has gone by and this is my post.  The Weekend Drawing Event at Wet Canvas was hosted by +Maureen Whittaker who put up some lovely ref photos and I chose to paint "The Snowshill Manor", Gloucestershire, U.K.   I received a lot of wonderful comments.  http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1339997

 The manor was owned by Charles Paget Wade who was an architect, craftsman, collector and poet and was also heir to his family's fortune.  In the large part of the manor he stored all his collections and antiquities and he chose to live in a small cottage on the property -link http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/snowshill-manor/?p=1356315274329 

 My painting measures  7" x 9".

January 5, 2014

Well looks like the weather is pumping up in temp today , supposed to be -31 celsius with the wind chill factor, but icier conditions are coming making this the second, what my Mother always termed as a "silver thaw" and she said that there are only 3 in a winter - oh boy that would mean, one more to go! Why is it that so many Canadians hate Winter - any that I know lol!

 In the last week I  have painted two and the first is 8-1/2 x 11 in.on Mi Teintes paper with Pan Pastels.

"Barn and Blackeyed Susans"

and the second is of a darling little grandson of +Sue Roberts+ (a Wet Canvas buddy) who had such an intent look on his face watching a Model Train system.  It is 6" x 6" on 200lb. cold press watercolors paper.

 "Captivated"

Another Wet Canvas buddy +Noula+ commented "a little cherubim".

Also I would like to re-add one that I had posted on the 3rd and wasn't happy with, so I worked on the shadows a bit more and I am now satisfied.

"A Delightfully Decorated Hat"

Well folks if you wish to comment, please do, as I love to have feedback on my work (nourishment for the ego lol). Thaz it for now!

THE NEW YEAR 2014 Jan 03

I am going to try to blog more often.   These are two paintings that I did on Boxing day from a WDE of Dec. 20, 2013 of refs from the host a gal named JustJean in Timmins, Ontario.  The first was a ref of her sister and friend sitting at her kitchen table with dog's heads and drinking Tim's coffee. What a hoot!  This is called "Top Dogs" which measures 8 x 10" in DaVinci watercolors.

 From Ref Photo

and the second painting  I did because I was challenging myself to make the ribbon look as much like organza or tulle as I possibly could and I call it "A Delightfully Decorated Hat" and this measures 8" x 9" and painted with Yarka semi-

moist transparent watercolors.

From Ref Photo

 If anyone wishes to comment, I would appreciate hearing from you. 

The Fruit Of One’s Labour

Awakened this morning to better temps 4 degrees today.  Did this painting in watercolor for WDE(Weekend Drawing Event) at Wet Canvas yesterday in 2 hrs. I called this "The Fruit of One's Labor".  This was done from a ref photo by Bobbie Wong and supplied by Joel Loren of the Philippines.  They are all  having such a tough time of it over there.