New Work and Art Show News

colored pencil, watercolor, oil pastels
5x7 on Fabriano Artistico Hot Press

I began this painting last night from a photo I took a few summers ago. I finished it up this evening. I keep wondering what would happen if I concentrated on just one medium or combination of media. All my life through this artistic journey I have continually returned to watercolor and colored pencil either alone or in combination. I tend to combine watercolor with something else to give it more solidity - it seems too vague and watery without something to anchor it down with detail and line. I like using acrylic on canvas, but my small space makes that difficult and I love the portability of watercolor and drawing media on the small size papers or in sketchbooks.


This afternoon I attended the reception for the Mount Airy Art League's (http://www.ma-artleague.org/) Annual Art Show. Pictured below are Donna Jackson, The Gallery Group (http://gallerygroup.biz/) Director, and Jan Lucas, Mount Airy Art League Coordinator.



Below are my two paintings (top and bottom) hanging on the panel. The bottom painting "Morning Joy" won Third Place in Mixed Media! Juror for this year's show is Dr. Leslye Bloom (http://www.leslyebloom.com/).







Below is the beautiful refreshment table with one of three flower arrangements by Art League Member Judy Gammons http://gallerygroup.biz/judygammonsbio.html and picked from her own garden.

An Update at Last

I've been going through a bit of a transition/down-time with my art and blogging. Maybe it's the arrival of spring. I spent one weekend organizing my art supplies and cleaning out a closet to store seldom used supplies so that my kitchen/studio would be less cluttered. I've been feeling wonderful and able to stay busy, which has kept me off the computer. The migraines have all but stopped thanks to a new doctor and new medicine. I am so very thankful! I have my life back!

I spent this Friday night and yesterday entertaining my twin nieces, who will turn 7 in July.

Saturday their cousin joined them. He will turn 7 in October.

They pretended I was their teacher and called me Miss Deborah. We had a day of art, playing, and learning.

They were amazing students and were completely enraptured by art for most of the day. They created masterpieces on every white piece of cardstock I had in the house!

I did the little sketch below in my Aquabee one month ago today. I sketched it in sepia colored pencil and added watercolor with touches of white gouache. It's such a simple sketch of the corner of my bookcase done while watching TV in the living room with my husband.

This sketch started me in a whole new direction. I am growing tired of collage and feel the need to simplify and go back to my first love - watercolor and colored pencil, or watercolor and pen sketches. Simplify... which is one of the reasons for cleaning out and organizing the studio a bit.

This is a sketchbook I started a couple of years ago on trees. I collaged the leaves on Saturday. In this photo they are just randomly laying on top.

Tonight I did something I haven't done in a very long time. I packed my Yarka watercolor palette and my colored pencils and went driving on the backroads, pulled over and sketched this. I realized how very out of practice I am. I felt hesitant and nervous when I began. But the end result was that it was relaxing, exhilirating and so therapeutic.

It's as if I'm caught between two styles and I can't decide which to claim as my own; which to concentrate on. I think they're both me. But entirely and completely different. The drawing below is the result I get when I have no model and I'm just drawing from my imagination. I love both styles and can't imagine leaving one for the other, so there you go...

On PITT Big Brush Pens - a wonderful new discovery

Barb Hartsook (http://paintedgenerations.com/blog/) asked about the PITT Big Brush pens. They are wonderful additions to Faber-Castells line of PITT pens. They are available from my favorite art supplier at http://www.dickblick.com/products/faber-castell-pitt-big-brush-artist-pens/

I only have purchased the black ones, but Laura Frankstone (http://laurelines.typepad.com) uses other colors in her amazing sketches! See her post Cooking with Gas! at http://laurelines.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/02/cooking-with-gas.html

I think I've decided how I want to spend the afternoon - sketching and watercoloring, what else! Maybe I'll have some postings after a bit.

Wishing you all a wonderful Sunday afternoon...

Faber-Castell Pitt Big Brush Pen sketches

Fun sketching one evening after work.

Pitt Big Brush pen and watercolor.

This pitcher sits on the top of my cabinets in my kitchen/studio. I drew this in the studio with my PITT Big Brush Pen - I was holding my sketchbook and so the lines are a little wobbly, but I like how it turned out. See photograph of pitcher below. I used gouache for the blue and then the white flowers are done with white Prismacolor pencil. The gouache gave a nice ground that held the pencil well. The watercolor background and table are done with Prismacolor watercolor (which is now Grumbacher) in Naples Yellow (table) and Sap Green mixed with Naples Yellow for the green. I love these colors - they're two I've never used before in this combination. The flowers on the table are done with, I think, a Nectar Prismacolor pencil.

A stamp --- Celery of all things!

A friend at work brought me the end of a celery bunch with all the individual stalks cut away, and suggested I use it as a stamp with fingerpaint for my students at work. I had seen this just recently on a Quilting Arts episode - an artist used all kinds of fruits and vegetables as stamps in her quilts. They were beautiful! These pages were some that I had already started by glueing the words from a devotion. It needed texture and lots of color, so I used acrylic paint and stamped with the celery with no particular pattern in mind - just to see what it would do.

The yellow is acrylic paint mixed with Liquitex Gloss Medium and Varnish for a beautiful transparent glaze. I had never tried this and I couldn't believe how it made cadmium yellow light so completely transparent!

The page on the right was very plain and needed something. So I used oil pastels to draw the seagull, which I think truly illustrates freedom.

I realized after doing these pages that the shape of the stamp was very clearly a flower or rose. So next I stamped out these pages, which again already had the text in place.

I used the acrylic mixed with gloss medium and varnish again on this page. I love both the gloss and the transparency of this! The flowers are quinacridone magenta. I adore this color!

I stamped the left page at the same time, but didn't do anything else to it. I was really just using leftover color on the celery so as not to waste it. I did these in my office at lunch so I was running out of time. Later that night in my studio at home I finished the left side with watercolor. SO MUCH FUN!!

I am so honored that Clare http://www.mummaclare.blogspot.com/ chose my blog to receive a reward! Thank you Clare!!!
Proximidade is described as follows:This blog invests and believes in PROXIMITY - nearness in space, time and relationships. These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes for self-aggrandizement!Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers!'

The rules are: This blog award should be sent to your favorite eight bloggers and they, in turn should forward to eight of their favorites. You should include the text for Proximidade (above) in your announcement blog. I wish to forward this honour to eight of my favorites.

http://laurelines.typepad.com/
http://jenniferlawson.blogspot.com/
http://www.michellechappellphotography.blogspot.com/ (my awesome friend, an awesome photographer, and an awesome mom)
http://ninajohansson.blogspot.com/
http://kathrynestelle.blogspot.com/
http://winnasworld.blogspot.com/
http://artbyanita.blogspot.com/
http://andreajoseph24.blogspot.com/

I love this inspiring blog world of ours!!

thanking you again Clare...

Extreme Art Makeover

This is the same journal page that appeared in the previous post http://daloweartist.blogspot.com/2009/01/my-friend-kim-gave-me-gift-certificate.html

and I added acrylic paint to it. It literally came to LIFE! The page jumps and dances now. So much fun!

Finished acrylic paintings

These paintings are the finished product from a previous blog entry http://daloweartist.blogspot.com/2008/11/saturday-after-thanksgiving.html. I finished them this weekend. I am so pleased with how these turned out!

They are a gift and I sure hope she enjoys them!

To thine own self be true.

More sketches from January 4. The first I did very detailed and in pencil. The second I loosened up and began to PLAY. I drew it quickly with a Faber Castell Big Brush pen. Love those things!
The quote is from Shakespeare's Hamlet - "To thine own self be true." Above all! Indeed!

Elephant

Last week's "inspire me thursday" http://www.inspiremethursday.com/ challenge was "elephant" I began this on January 4, 2009, but finished it tonight with acrylic, watercolor and white gel pen. Ooooohhhh! fun!