Hot off the Presses!

Colorful Connections by Studio Favorites | Make Your Own Book

Today I've got a short but exciting post. I finally had some extra time this week and finished my little art portfolio book on Blurb. The book is a collection of my favorite paintings (many of which I've posted here) from the past decade or so.

As many of you know, it's both odd and exciting to review a collection of your creative efforts "living" all in one place. It's also a bit like having that "one woman show" I've always dreamed but on paper. I can't wait to receive it in the mail in the next few days.

What's great about Blurb is that it's so relatively affordable that I can always make some small changes and/or additions after I see the book. But I also like the idea that moving forward in my art life, I'll be working toward filling the pages of the sequel! I did make the books (which are a little longer than the preview above) available for purchase if anyone wants one--they are about $20 on Blurb with the "fancier" paper.

Quick reminder that I have space available for the rest of September and October for our Monday open studio painting group at the Curtice Street Studio in downtown Littleton so please email me if you are interested in joining us. All levels and painting media welcome!

Passport to Pink

 "Passport to Pink" 

24 x 24

Mixed Media Collage on Panel

Price: $495 Framed

Hope everyone is enjoying a great summer weekend. I'm getting ready this morning to drop off my very rosy mixed media collage to Core New Art Space (a great contemporary co-op gallery located in the Art District on Santa Fe here in Denver) for their PINK show which starts on September 9 where a portion of the proceeds will go our local Susan G. Komen For the Cure chapter.  Inspired by passports and travel, this particular piece includes old text (both Western & Eastern), stamps (both postage and painted), and words in French and English.    

Core New Art Space holds a special place in my heart because it was one of my first major sales and I've also won an award there as well. So if you are in the Denver metro area, and especially if you like pink and want to support a wonderful non-profit please be sure to check out the show. I'm really looking forward myself to seeing how other artists interpret the pink theme.

This week I've also been working on a larger piece (about 3ft x 4ft) on an older stretched canvas I came across at a local tag sale. As much as I love painting small daily studies, working on a more expansive scale can be very rewarding and has really inspired me to continue paint some larger pieces in late summer/early fall. So be looking for those...

Finally, quick kudos to all my ongoing students this season for all your hard work! I do have a few slots open for fall students so please drop me a note if you want to join the Monday painting group in Littleton or take a private/semi-private session in Denver. My fall class special is 20% discount for any new students who sign up for a minimum of 4 sessions.

What's the temperature?

For those of you with an iPhone, don't you love happy yellow sun weather app? For some reason, I love to look at the weather all over the world and compare it to chez moi. Today, I'm happy to report my iPhone says i's a beautiful spring day in Denver and so I'm going to try to paint without a quin pigment on my palette...LOL. No, that's not going to happen. Sorry some weak art humor for April Fool's...

But it is Thursday, often my watercolor day, so I decided to do a quick pair of paintings. A warm and cool watercolor roughly the same subject matter for fun. I recalled I'd seen an exercise like this in artist Mark Mehaffey's book Creative Watercolor Workshop and so that's where this particular painting comes from.

For the first higher key warmer version here I used a primary triad of Cobalt-Quin Rose-and maybe Gamboge? (Normally, of course, I'd know what I'm using but I say maybe because I'm using a very nice, but "inherited" Pike palette from another artist.) Just as Mark suggests in his book, I started the painting by with a warm "wet in wet" wash, let that dry and then directly painted over that using a variety of flats and rounds. Speaking of flats, I love the short handled red synthetic Cosmotop Spin DaVinci flats--these are some of my all time favorite watercolor brushes. It always amazes me how much variation you can get in watercolor with just three pigments like this. Also this was painted on a CP Quiller block.  

In the darker and cooler painting, I had as you can quite likely see a bit of an "uh oh" moment when I applied too much yellow and even worse an more staining cool Hansa Lemon instead of the Gamboge...Oh well, this happens in watercolor especially when you've got some nice jazz on and are painting away. The brush has a mind of it's own. To get to the darker values you see, I added Thalo Blue and very small amount of Permanent Green (I think) to the same Cobalt, Rose, and Mystery Yellow palette. This was painted on a CP Arches block.

I tried every trick in the book to soften this yellow streak (it looks worse in the photo, but I still don't like it).  At some point, I may just take this painting even darker and see where that leads but for now I'll let it dry completely and sleep on it. That's sometimes best when you want to "fix" or should I say "creatively adjust" a painting.

Before I go, quick shout out to my new student Ruth from Wyoming--have fun exploring liquid acrylics! I can't wait to see where they take you.  Enjoy the journey!  For more information about my ongoing watercolor, acrylic, or oil painting classes please visit me on TeachStreet or send me an email. 

P.S. I've just added an Etsy store for my smaller available paintings for sale--mostly oil paintings under $100 with Free Shipping.

Springing for Color

 Happy March everyone! In anticipation of spring, I'm encouraging all my students to play with and use more color this week. If we paint enough, we all get into a color rut from time to time with our favorites (perm rose, indian yellow, and ultramarine are some of mine.) 

A great way to break out and discover new color combinations is to create what I call "mini primary triad abstracts," which is just a long way of saying play with warm and cool versions of red, yellow, and blue. In this example, I've painted the combos as a watercolor sampler, but of course you can create the same thing with acrylic or oil paints.  I promise allowing yourself this "discovery" time will make you a stronger, more creative artist.

In my watercolor sampler example, I've painted all of colors "wet in wet" (dropping in the color) but note that you could also pour the colors for even more subtle and interesting color mixing.  Here are just a few mostly primary color triads to try, but notice it's interesting to switch out a violet for a red or a burnt sienna as your yellow.  You'll likely discover some new favorites along the way as I typically do!

 Quick tip: Be sure to label your tests for future reference and for more detailed pigment info, see Handprint. 

• Rose Madder, Aureolin, Cobalt 
• Perm Rose, A,C
• Perm Red Violet, A, C
• Aliz. Crimson, A, C
• Opera (bright pink), A, C
• Aliz, Crimson, Lemon, Pthalo Blue
• Cad Red Light, Indian Yellow, Cerulean
• Perm Rose, Indian Yellow, Prussian
• Perm Red Violet, Cobalt Violet, Prussian
• Magenta, A, Phtalo Blue
• Rose, Burnt Sienna, Ultra Blue
• Opera, Indian Yellow, Ultra

Recommended watercolor reading for the week fellow Michigan native watercolor master Nita Engle's How to Make a Watercolor Paint Itself.  For more info about my classes please visit me on TeachStreet (search Scarlet Owl) or write to me at the email in my header.Have a great week!

Drawing from Experience

Happy Friday Everyone! One of my New Year's art resolutions is to draw more often, but as a painter I have to remind myself how valuable and essential this skill can be.  I sometimes "make" my students draw crumpled paper or bags, here is one of my own studies:

 

One of my favorite designers is the iconic Milton Glaser (in fact one of the only framed poster I have in my home is his Night of the Snow Leopard for the New York Zoo which I posted above).  On Glaser's website is a wonderful "essay" addressing 10 Things He's Learned over the years.  A part of this talks about his belief (and I believe it to) that drawing is good for your brain. Glaser also says of drawing: 

Drawing also makes you attentive. It makes you pay attention to what you are looking at, which is not so easy.

Here's a wonderful short video of Glaser drawing Shakespeare.Tomorrow I'm off to see my former figure painting teacher Ron Hicks demo at Meininger's Art Store--am guessing it will be a packed house. So planning to get there early and then try not to buy too many art supplies at their sale...