NEW YEARS EVE THOUGHTS

These holiday weeks have been relatively quiet here. Seems half the town has gone south. We had friends for Christmas dinner and our grand daughter came out from Juneau yesterday for a visit. We will have friends over tonight for fun and games.

I had intended to get two woodblock prints done before the end of the year, but am a long way from it. They are both for Baren exchanges. I have cut 2 blocks for the year of the rabbit exchange and once I start printing will do some reduction in one or both of them which should go pretty easily. but I'm anguishing over my image for the other one. The size is what's giving me problems... 13x 6 inches. Though it can be any orientation, I'm trying to do it with the 13 inches vertical. I've gone back and forth between 2 images, but now looking at something completely different.

I put my water mixable oils away a couple of weeks ago with intentions of getting back to them after New Years, but will have at least another week with these blasted prints. I'm admitting to myself that my love for printmaking has taken a downward curve. I've only done one or two editions for each of the last few years, and these have been for exchanges. The exchanges have been fun and I have received some real treasures and once I get into the long process, I do enjoy making them, but more and more I realize I'd rather be doing something else. There was once a passion there, but now it is just something I do. In this season of renewal, as I reflect on my recent illness and approaching another decade, time is much on my mind and using it more satisfyingly, more meaningfully is my goal for the new year.

My show in September is a big priority in my time and I want to continue with the oil painting, . And speaking of satisfying, I really must get back in the habit of sketching and/or painting my little "postcards" everyday. And with the daily doing will probably come more frequent posts on my blogs.

Here is a painting I was working on earlier in the month:



Creek 10 x 10 inches water mixable oils on canvas panel

I still haven't figured out how to get a decent photograph. The rocks definitely need more work and my values are off, more so in the photo than in the real thing. I like this stage of the painting better than the stage its in now:


I had done an under painting with burnt sienna before this layer.

I'm looking forward to long quiet hours in the studio in the coming weeks.

Wishing all a blessed 2011!

OOPS and NEW PAINTINGS

I am so inept at doing things on my blog. A few days ago I was adding some blogs to the list of ones I follow onto my blog and also deleting a couple that haven't had posts in months then clicked on the remove button and lost my whole list. What is so bad is that this is the second time I've done that. I got some back from the list of the ones I officially "follow".

But I'm making progress with the water mixable oils. I made a mahl stick that has helped a lot with details. It took me a while to figure out that it works quite well with just one end on the easel and the other end in my hand.



The School 9 x 12 inches water mixable oil on canvas



Beartrack Mountain 5x5 inches water mixable oil on canvus

I opened my little gallery today for the first time since my surgery in August. It feels good to be out here. I brought some of the oils out to get some feedback. Not very many people came by (the roads and paths are treacherous with ice), but the little one of the mountain that I just posted seems to be the favorite.

BACK IN THE STUDIO

I just don't know where the time goes. The older I get, the faster time passes., it seems. I went to Anchorage almost 3 weeks ago, then back to SE and spent a week in Juneau... partly medical reasons (all OK for now), partly shopping and partly to visit my son and grand daughter.

I stayed a little longer in Juneau so I could come back home on the very first ferry to our fair city on the 23rd. The car deck was full and there was quite a party atmosphere aboard. Seemed half the town was out to meet us. There's a very informative article about the ferry and our little city here.

As usual when I travel, my sketchbook and paints went along, but I only did a few pen and ink sketches. Back home came the turkey and time with friends and now back to painting.

These 3 were done last month before my travels. I had another photographed that I thought was finished but seeing it here, deleted it and decided to work on it some more.

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Buddha in Homer 16 x 12 water mixable oil


Inner Lagoon 9 x 9 water mixable oil


Secret Beach 7 1/2 x 7 1/2 water mixable oils

VERY BELATED HAPPY NEW YEAR

This is my ninth year of participating in a print exchange of Chinese New Years greetings on Baren Forum. Each year I have made a print, about 4x6 and mailed them out to about 50 others and they send one to me... or at least they are suppose to. Most do eventually. This year is the year of the tiger. I usually get mine out around the first of the year, but not this year. I had almost decided to wait and send them out with the next years print, but that could lead to even more procrastination. So last week, I took a few days and yesterday put them all in the mail.


The black is printed with linoleum which I had carved months ago. The bamboo was printed with one woodblock reductive, the ochre first and then the green. I cut another woodblock for the "2010" which originally included color for the tiger, but I liked her better white. And 2010 is actually the year of the white tiger so that it is. I use Japanese methods for printing.

I came to Juneau yesterday and flying to Anchorage today. Will be back home before Thanksgiving. Maybe I'll put some photos on before I get back.

THE PAINT IS DRYING

Here are a couple of paintings that have dried enough to put in the scanner.


Almost to the Top 9 x 9 inches oil on gessoed watercolor paper

So often I don't see something wrong in a painting until I've put it on the screen. The left tree needs a lot of redoing and I think a little more lighter plants at the bottom would lead into the painting better. I'm sure liking being able to fix things, unlike with watercolor.




Wetland Path 8 1/2 x8 1/2 inches oil on Canson Canva-Paper

I read about doing an under-painting and tried it with this one. I used burnt sienna. I like the way the color shows through. I don't know if splattering is a common oil technique, but its what I would have done with watercolor and it seemed to work.

GRANITE COVE VIEW

I've continued painting with the oils almost everyday and doing lots of reading and looking at the way other people do them and making progress. My years of painting with watercolor have certainly hastened the progress.

I've tried to photograph some but can't get anything but blurs or glare, so guess I'll have to wait for a sunshiny day, or at least one that isn't raining all day or get my tripod out to get a decent photo. This one has dried enough to put in the scanner, though there was a little white speck of paint to clean off the plate of glass when I finished. Any suggestions for photographing wet oil paints would be greatly appreciated.



GRANITE BEACH VIEW water mixable oils on watercolor paper 5.5x5.5 inches

This is from a photo I took on a kayak and camping trip last May.

WATER MIXABLE OILS

I'm making one last effort to become an oil painter. I said that the last time I tried.... May of last year when I took a 3 day plein aire workshop in Juneau. After I got home, I didn't touch the paints again. The time before that was about 12 years ago... I did one painting which wasn't too bad. Someone even bought it. There were a couple of times before that, years and years ago. Each time, though, I probably never spent more than a week trying to work with them. Always back to watercolor with the easy clean up and no bad toxic odors.

In the last couple of years, working with gouache, I've been finding watercolor less and less appealing. I really like being able to paint lights on dark, not having to save the whites. All summer, I had lots of intentions to go outside and try out the oils again, not wanting to use them inside, but just the idea of getting outside with all the gear and remembering the frustration outside in that workshop, I never got there. I saw a show in Juneau last summer with some work done with "water miscible oils" and read up on them, figured they would be good to try, and last month ordered a few tubes made by Winsor and Newton and started working with them a couple of weeks ago. And after starting to experiment with them, I ordered some more tubes. I'm loving them.

From what I heard and read, most oil painters say they aren't like real oil paints. But since I'm not at all experienced, I don't know the difference. Here are a couple of what I did the first week:





These are both small, about 5 inches high and painted on gessoed watercolor paper

It hasn't been easy. Controlling the long brushes at an easel instead of a flat table still feels awkward and it has been hard getting the colors right and painting on top of wet paint.... especially painting on top of wet paint. I ordered some fast drying medium and hope it helps. Also ordered some more brushes and some canvas panels. I think I'm hooked.

PEARS

Last week I found this website of pear paintings, got inspired to paint another still life, and went to our little stores looking for pears and there weren't any in town. I asked a friend who was coming from Juneau to bring some out to me and spent the week painting them. Here are 2 I did in watercolor. In each there are 2 De'angelos and a Bartlett.





watercolor about 8x8 inches on Fabriano hot press




watercolor 11 x 8.5 inches on mystery paper

I placed the cloth hanging vertically behind the pears. I'm not sure it reads that way. I love this paper..... on a block that I got at a garage sale.... a German company (I think) with a long name starting with an S. I no longer have the cover of the block with the name on it.

CARROTS FROM THE GARDEN

watercolor about 9 x 9 inches

I brought these in from the garden to have for dinner one night and they looked so pretty I started painting them. Different light coming through the window on different days made for some confusing shadows, I used some white paint in the highlights. By the time I finished panting them they were ready for the compost pile.

ACROSS FROM THE LAKE

No rain today and would have gone outside and painted in the sun, but was waiting for someone to come by all day (he never showed up) and so painted from a photo that I took last week. Tried to do something a little larger than usual with gouache.... still pretty small.



gouache painting 8x8 inches

I feel like such a beginner with gouache, still having trouble with the values..... the mountains should have been lighter. I have begun using oil painting brushes and painting on an easel instead of with my watercolor rounds working flat, and it is beginning to feel a little easier but for the details. I had a lot of trouble with the foreground on this one, wiped it out a couple of times and still don't like it.

COLOR OUTSIDE MY WINDOW

Its been over 6 weeks now since my surgery and I'm getting into the studio and starting to paint again. I'm having a hard time getting enthused about painting from photographs. I want to go out and paint, but the weather is just too yucky. I did go out for a walk with my paint kit yesterday, a relatively nice day, but I was just too cold to set up. I did these two from my studio window last week.



gouache about 5.5x5.5 inches I painted the sky with a wet wash




gouache about 7x7 inches

I

GETTING MY MOJO BACK

This is about the longest I've gone without a posting in one or the other of my two blogs. First I apologize to those who have enjoyed looking here and now a bunch of excuses for my absence.

Not very many days have gone by that I haven't felt guilty and wished I had some piece of art that I felt good enough about to scan and write about. It has really been a long dry spell as far as producing any painting is concerned.... nothing much since last winter. Much of my energy this summer was on getting my gallery open and tending to it almost every afternoon..... that and the gardening, a trip to Juneau to visit with my son and grand daughter and two visits here from my grand daughter took about all the time and energy I had. I did do a lot of work on some botanical drawings (more about that later) and an occasional drawing in one of my sketch books. Now that I look back, there are a couple of things I probably should have posted. But my Internet connection was getting worse and worse all summer and I could only get on line at one spot in my house and I got new scanner to scan slides and when I got it working, my old scanner wouldn't work and the new scanner was in a different place and finally I sort of said to heck with it (thought still lamenting everyday that I really ought to make the effort to put something on my blog, though as I said before, there wasn't much to post.) Well, last month, after some trips to the local clinic, I ended up having surgery in Seattle.

Now I'm home and feeling better everyday, I'm definitely getting my Mojo back. For the first time ever this time of year that I can recall, we've had almost 2 weeks straight of sunny weather which has really helped my state of mind. It usually rains most of September. I've been getting out and walking and a few days ago started taking my paints and doing some little watercolors... 4 of them below. It felt so good to be out there in the sun painting again.



each is 4x6inches watercolor on paper


Today, the weather changed and I'm inside and there is no longer an excuse for not getting back to my blog. Now I have broadband (still pretty slow but that is what its called) and I got my old scanner to work, and now I can get on line all over the house. I get happy just thinking about it!

My show at the Juneau Arts and Humanities has been rescheduled to a year from now (September of 2011) and I have reluctantly turned down the job to do the botanical drawings for the Park Service, as the drawings are needed by February and it would be impossible at this point to do most of them from live specimens.

I'm thinking seriously about reviving my other blog, Watercolor Postcards and am almost ready to promise myself to paint a postcard everyday. And now that the rains have started, I'll be getting some work done in the studio.

MID SUMMER

I'd better get with a posting here before the summer is over. The internet is still slow as molasses and new scanner is giving me difficulty.

Since I last posted, my granddaughter, Alyssa, came to visit, the 4th of July happened and I've continued to open my gallery every day but Sunday.... well all but one Monday when Alyssa and I went to the beach and picked wild strawberries, picnicked and sketched. Van has been home a bit, but left a couple of days ago to fish cohos until the August closure.

Its been raining a lot.... making up for the dry warm May and early June. The slugs are out in droves.... I spoon up dozens everyday and still my poor cabbages are full of holes. My lettuce and arugula are in a galvanized tub and so far the slimy things haven't ventured in.

Brown bears have come to town. Black bears are common here, but only rarely a brown. One was killed last week, sparking a State Trooper investigation as to who shot it. Another one was seen today and there is fresh scat near my house. I don't worry much about the black bears, but the brown ones are a different matter.

I haven't been very productive painting. It seems I'm just getting ready to get started with something and its 2 p.m. and time to open the gallery. Some days no one comes and other days I'm talking to people most of the afternoon. I've put a table out there and have been able to do some sketching.

A few weeks ago, I got a small Guerilla paint box that I had ordered last month. It goes on a tripod, but so far haven't had a chance with decent weather to go outside with it. I have done a couple of little paintings inside using it painting from photographs. This is one of them:


Lupines at the Beach 5x7 gouache painting

It is a whole different experience painting on an easel.... something I find awkward. I paint all my watercolors and until now, my gouache with the painting on a table, and being left handed and always an overhand writer, I tend to paint overhanded too, especially in the details and want to rest my wrist on the painting. I've made a mahl stick to try next time and trying to paint more with my hand under. After over 60 years of trying I still can't write that way, but hope springs eternal.

I've started a larger painting of this same scene in watercolor. I'll probably pull out the gouache when I get into the flowers.

Its way past time to make a block print for the Year of the Tiger exchange at Baren. I have the design figured out and might have time to start carving my block tomorrow.... I can probably work on it in the gallery.

I'll be going to Juneau next week, but promising myself and whomever else might care that I will start blogging more often... and painting more often too.

ANOTHER GOUACHE PAINTING AND FRUSTRATING INTERNET CONNECTION

Any time I try painting something larger than about 6 inches wide or high with gouache, I end up with having to wipe out a lot and struggling with the sky. I can usually get a large area of flat color, though I'm still having trouble predicting what its going to look like dry, but I really have trouble when there is some gradation...as in the painting posted last week.


gouache painting on black gessoed 300# Arches, about 51/2 x 6 inches

This one came a little easier than the last one being smaller. In fact I was surprised how quickly I did it. Its from a photo I took last winter at the beach. I love the way the grasses and willow glowed from the light of the setting sun.

I did another one from a photo from that same afternoon and was going to link to it here but after waiting for the archives to load for a half hour, we'll forget that. I guess its from just too many people using the system here in the summer that makes it so much slower than in the winter. Some times I can't even get connected. I could have gotten a good start on a painting in the time I've spent with this entry and am asking myself why I do this.

LATER: Well, it dawned on me after publishing this that I could just go to older posts and find the painting I was looking for, so I did and couldn't find it. So then, in the depths of my brain, I remembered my other blog and looked and found it there. The stuff on the side of my blog still isn't coming up. Maybe its blogger.

VIEW FROM THE HYDRO ROAD

As usual, the summer is flying by.... just a few days until solstice and the days will start getting shorter. We finally had some rain but most days are sunny. I've been opening my gallery every day and having a few people come by. I've moved a table out here and have been drawing and painting between visitors. The internet comes slower out here, but I've got lots of time.

Today was the dedication of the hydro-electric plant here that has been in the works for many years and came on line last year. Until the hydro, we relied on oil powered generators for electricity. For the first few years we lived here, there wasn't even that and we used propane lamps and only used our little generator for washing clothes.... those were the days.

Anyway, most of the town folk walked or got a ride up the hill and were treated with burgers and hotdogs and listened to speeches and got a tour of the facilities and best of all got to look at the falls and the view of Icy Strait from about 600 feet.

Here's a painting I painted last week from a photo I took from up there last year.

View From the Hydro Road gouache painting 6 1/2 x 10 1/2

This doesn't look like I'd envisioned but after getting away from it, I kind of think its OK.

STRANGE WEATHER

The warm sunny weather continues. What little rain we've had has been at night and not very much. We did have a thunder storm one day (but not much rain with it) which was quite unusual for this time of year.... most years go by without any thunder being heard around here. It is an El Nino year, but despite what our former governor and other yahoos say our globe is warming. Oops, getting political so I'll go to other matters.

This summer is quite different than most.... Van has gone to Sitka to fish every one of the last 30+ Junes since we've lived here, but this year he has fished nearer to home and has actually been home some. And the weather is keeping me outside more than usual..... I've been waiting for a cool raining day to do several things (like keeping up with this blog) and those days just aren't happening. Today is cloudier than usual so here I am.

I opened my gallery last week, and this year I am opening 6 days a week for 3 hours rather than being just on call or sporadic. I've spent a lot of time matting my new paintings and getting things ready and very little painting.... but my work is cut out for me for the next year.

I had applied for a one person show at the Juneau Arts and Humanities Council last April and expected to hear something at the beginning of May and had about decided I wasn't accepted but at the end of the month I got a letter accepting my proposal and am scheduled for a show next April. I'm going to have to put a lot more time into painting than I have been these last few years and am happy to have some goal.

And I might be taking on an other project doing some botanical illustration with pen and ink. Its not quite a sure thing yet, but I'd really like to do them.

Well, I need to put a picture on here.


YELLOW IRIS watercolor 14 x 7 1/2

I painted this several years ago..... it never really finished it to my liking, and at some point I had outlined everything with a red Nexus pen. Yesterday I cropped it and fit it into a mat that I had cut wrong for another painting and it seems to work now and its hanging in the gallery.

AN AWESOME TRIP

Last Saturday, my friend Kim and I caught a ride with my husband Van to Cross Sound where he was going to fish for a 3 day King opening. We took our kayaks and got off the boat at Elfin Cove and paddled over to Granite Beach on George Island and camped for 3 nights.

On Sunday our friend Jane boated over from her home, a very special place that you can read about here, and spent the afternoon with us.


Here's sweet Jane.


On Monday we paddled around another island (Three Hill) which took most of the day. Fantastic weather.... sun and not much wind, and the tides were right. Here's Kim thinking about going through the arch. She didn't.

We stopped at a couple of beaches and explored and had lunch.


Here we are at the far end of the island watching nesting cormorants on the cliffs. Weird sounds coming from them.



A 20 minute walk from where we camped took us to this cannon which was part of a military installation protecting the northern entrance to the inside passage during WWII. There were also some remnants of buildings.


And here is an overlook from one of the trails. For years I've passed by these islands in our boat and never saw them from the inside... quite a different experience.


Many pleasant hours were spent on the beach. A humpback whale was in the cove much of the time.


Oh yes, I also did a few sketches.

And now I'm home getting the garden planted and my little gallery ready to open and a zillion other things on my list. And we're having a heat wave. I'm sure we must be breaking records with the weather this year. It has hardly rained at all since I came back home a month ago.

A PAINTING DONE IN MARCH

Juneau in February 7x10 inches

Here is a painting I did in March while in Florida,from a photo I had taken when we passed through Juneau on our way South. The big house with the green roof is the governor's mansion.

I'm still not back to work in the studio. About all I've done are some little flower studies which I'll get scanned and on here next time, maybe. Staying busy with the garden and getting the gallery ready to open next month. And tomorrow, I'm going paddling and camping for a few days.

ARTIST BLOCK

I've been home for almost 2 weeks and still not into the swing of things, certainly not in the studio. I'm busy with other things like gardening and spring cleaning, but do have time to spend in the studio. However, the most I manage to do are a few little "postcards" and a very bad start of a larger piece from a photo. Oh yes, and lots of looking for things, sorting through my stuff, rearranging the room. The muse just isn't around. Very little I've ever done seems very good to me and there's nothing I want to paint. It's a perennial thing that happens about this time of year, especially after I've just come back from a trip..

I just read Robert Genn's latest letter which is on artist blocks. He says one should identify ones species of artist block, listing the main ones:

".... fear of failure after previous success, fear of success due to a sense of unworthiness, lack of potential venue, jaded attitude, crisis of confidence, evidence of persistent poor quality, lackadaisical motivation and common everyday shortage of ideas."

I seem to suffer from most of these at some time or other ... right now it's probably just lackadaisical motivation... and I just don't have the will to overcome this inertia. He advises one to get out the paint first thing in the morning and go to work. Maybe I'll try that tomorrow. But first, I've got to sort out another drawer.

I guess I'd better put a couple of my poor efforts from the last couple of weeks:

gouache on arches 140 gessoed with black 5x5"

This was looking out the window..... hardly any color in the willow when I first painted it, then yesterday I splattered on the new leaves..... should have left it alone.


ink on Yupo 4x6"

I did this after going through my paper and finding some Yupo paper, and trying out some non-waterproof ink in my pen.

SOME TRAVEL JOURNAL PAGES

Back home last week and back to my blog! We left Florida a month ago.... heading west then north. Here are some pages from my journal.


I did this while still in Florida, at my brother's in Lake Wales. We left Van's rowboat there.



After stopping to visit cousins and aunt in north Florida, we headed towards San Antonio to visit my other brother. East Texas was beautiful and I wish I'd had time to paint the fields of wild flowers. This one little blue bonnet was all I had time for.



The back yard of friends we visited in Las Cruces NM



The Grand Canyon was amazing.



Another back yard,

More days on the road, stops in Twin Falls, ID; Zillah, WA, and Bellingham, visiting friends and relatives. Some sketching in the car, but pretty shaky lines.



Finally to Prince Rupert, BC where we got on the ferry heading for Juneau.




Across from the ferry terminal in Wrangell.




We got to Juneau on the 26th. Van flew home and got the boat and came back to Juneau where we did our spring shopping. Wonderful trip, but sure am glad to be home.

JOURNEY DAYBOOK ADVENTURE

It's been really busy around here. Our son and grand-daughter were here for 10 days. We did a lot of driving, Disney World, visiting family, perusing antique and junk stores (a family addiction), enjoying the warm weather and water when it was near, swimming a couple of times, and just enjoying each others company.

Last year here in Cedar Key, I attended a class on keeping an illustrated journal with local artist Margaret Herrick. .... no, actually the class was at Fanning Springs and I wrote about it here. Last Friday, I joined her and several other journal keepers on their monthly Journey Daybook adventure at Rainbow Springs State Park.



This is my journal page from the day.... the heron is a photo from a brochure, and the dragon fly is the stamp that they put on your hand when you pay your admission.

Journey, contemplation, being present, and working alone are the process of Journey Daybook.
The Journey Daybook site is here and Margaret's beautiful work is here. Both sites are very inspiring and well worth a look.

TRAVELS CONTINUE

So busy! We spent a pleasant 10 days in Cedar Key.... have done a lot of walking, not much time on the water as the wind has blown a lot, made a trip to the Suwanee River Refuge on Van's birthday on the 7th, and I've done a bit of painting.


I scanned some of my sketches then Photoshop E crashed and I only had one saved and here it is:


watercolor about 5 x 5"

This is along the road into town. I sat on an old dock below the bridge in very hot sun to draw it and partly paint it. It rained the next couple of days and I finished from a photo.

Last Sunday, we went back to Central Florida to my brother's in Lake Wales. Lee and Alyssa were suppose to get to Orlando on Saturday night, but the plane they were on had mechanical problems in Ketchikan and they missed their connection in Seattle, spent the night there and flew to LA on Sunday for a 12 hour wait and finally got to Orlando at 5:30 Monday morning. After a day of mostly rest, Lee, Alyssa, and I went to Disney's Magic Kingdom on Tuesday. I was lots of fun, and Alyssa loved it. Me to except for getting on the Thunder Mountain Railroad. We will go again to Disney next week before Lee and Alyssa leave.

Yesterday, we drove to Palmetto and are visiting more relatives. Undecided at this point whether to spend another day here or drive on up to Cedar Key today.

BACK IN CEDAR KEY

Quite remiss I've been with my blog. We are in Cedar Key again We're renting my cousin Martha's pretty cottage which is across the street from where we stayed last year.



Here's a little painting I did of it last year.

We've been busy since I last posted.... 2 days in Juneau and flew all day on Feb. 26 arriving in Orlando. We stayed with my brother in Lake Wales for a few days, bought a car and came here on the 3rd. I have to come to the library to get on line and it seems more pressing things are taking my time here than my blog. I have done a little bit of painting in my journal and will get something else on here soon. But now I'm going to walk back to the house before it gets too hot and go out in my new kayak this afternoon.

POPPIES FROM THE PAST

Busy, busy, getting ready to leave home for two months and haven't done any painting for about a week. We'll be flying to Juneau tomorrow if the weather lets us, and flying to Orlando on Friday. I'm planning to paint and blog when we get settled in Cedar Key, maybe even before we're settled.

I can't seem to find a scan I'm sure I did of a little gouache painting last week before I cleaned up the studio, so found this that I did in 2006 of poppies and peas from my garden.



Still life with Yellow Chair watercolor and gouache 24 x 18

As with most of my still life paintings, I painted the flowers first from life, sometimes with no idea of what else would be in the painting. I finished it several months later, adding the gouache background last. Looking at this now, the green pitcher seems to be floating, not grounded.... I never noticed that before.

HAPPY FISH

I don't think I mentioned when I posted my Valentine candies that they were many years old and in a box of "little things to paint someday." Also in the box were some little gold fish.


gouache painting about 6x6"


This little bowl seemed just the right thing to put in the same painting.

HEARTS IN THE WRONG PLACE

After doing the little Valentine card in watercolor, I decided to try painting the candies with gouache. I've used gouache in the past in still life paintings but always just in the flat backgrounds. I look around for something to put with the candies and came up with a little Chinese cloisonne dish.


gouache painting 5.5x5"

It really doesn't go at all with these little hearts. Chinese fortune cookies would have been more appropriate. I decided that copying the words from the candies would add insult to injury.... don't know if the LOVE will stay there.

I do like the looks though of the little dish..... much more vibrant than I'd ever be able to paint it with watercolor. I used gold watercolor on the table.

HAPPY ST. VALENTINE'S DAY

watercolor 3.3x4.7"

I moved the gouache paints out of the way for a while on Thursday and painted this for a valentine card for my grand daughter. Wishing you all a happy St. Valentine's Day full of love.

SOME MORE TREES AND BLUE SKY

gouache 3x5" on black gessoed watercolor paper

I did this value study last month of a stand of trees near the beach west of the Salmon River.... from a photo I took on a rare sunny day last winter.... Sitka Spruce, Coastal Pine and Cottonwood.


gouache 6x10" on gray gessoed watercolor paper

and just finished this from the same photo. I had a heck of a time with the sky... had to wipe it out 3 times because it was too dark in value, the last time after most of the trees were painted. I tried, unsuccessfully, to get some lighter value towards the horizon.