Spring Is Coming!

Even though we can't grow beautiful hyacinths down here in Florida, I did the next best thing! Walmart had a bunch of bulbs in potting soil, just starting to come up. So, I planted them next to my front walk - and now they're starting to bloom. And smell heavenly! I miss that smell so much - and now when I look at them, I feel a certain stirring of Spring!


And, this morning, there were robins in the yard! Usually we get about 3 different flocks doing a drive-by each winter. It was hard to take this photo, cause I just don't have a good enough camera to zoom in. But, it's always fun to see these guys - they hang around in the yard for a few hours, and then they're off again! So, if you're reading this up North -- they're on their way!

Getting Ready

The Citrus Watercolor Club will be having our annual show and sale at Homosassa Springs Wildlife Park in a couple of weeks. This is the show that I won the 1st Place Ribbon in last year! Of course, this year, they've decided to start giving out monetary awards - so now I'll be hard pressed to win! So for the next several days, I will be figuring out which paintings to frame, which ones to put in my browse box, and make sure that I have lots of cards and bookmarks to sell. Then, 2 weeks later, we participate in another show at Rainbow Springs State Park's "Art in the Park". That's usually a good show, also. Last year, I sold quite a lot at both shows - hope it's as good this year!

Yupo Fish

We played with Yupo again in Pat's class today. I was really excited, because I've been watching Mark Mahaffey's video on doing watercolor on Yupo. I've even ordered some Yupo paper, so that I can make the amazing abstracts "just like his"! Oh yeah, in my dreams!! Anyway, it was fun to make the background all swirly like his, but then I couldn't come up with what to do next! So, I decided that it needed fish. But, it was great fun, and I'm still looking forward to my Yupo papers to get here.

Now, I have a question for you -- I've been making lots of bookmarks (see last post), and I've been spraying them with fixatives (I've tried 2 different ones) - and even 3 days later, they still smell like the spray! Does anyone know of a good fixative for watercolor paper that won't continue to smell? I used this stuff on my acrylic canvases, and no smell. I'm hoping that the smell will go away before the art shows! Help!

New Bookmarks!

Today, I worked on making some new bookmarks. We'll be having an art show next month at Homosassa Springs Wildlife Park, and then another show 2 weeks later at Rainbow Springs State Park - so I thought I'd make up a bunch and sell them for $1 each! They're finished on both sides, and sprayed with a fixative, so I'm not going to go to the expense of sleeves for them, or ribbons. They lay flat, and I think they're kinda cool! I think we'll make some in my class next week. They took me all day to make, but I think I can get an assembly line going and hopefully make about 50 or so before the shows.

Frank

11" x 15" Watercolor

Today in my watercolor class, we had fun with latex house paint - outlining the image, letting it dry, and then painting! I decided to do a simple one, so I could show the technique. I also have a companion piece in progress, of a hen. They will be Frank and Martha!

In other news - the church where I teach my class, gave us a Student's Art Gallery Wall! Some of my students are members of the church, so they get a lot of pats on the back!

And, speaking of my students, here they are! In the back row, left to right, are Jeanne, Judi and Gloria. And in front are Loree and Maureen. Great job today, ladies!

Paint Around

Last week in Pat's class, we had a Paint Around! Each of us brought in a drawing on paper, as well as our inspiration photo. This was mine (I masked out the bird):

Then, we gave our painting to the person on our right, who painted whatever they wanted to for 20 minutes. The timer went off and it went to the next person on the right for 20 minutes. It went to one more person, and then we were left to finish it! This is how mine came back to me (after I took the masking off).

So in today's class, we finished our own paintings. Here is mine! I felt so lucky - I didn't have to do much to it, except finish the bird. What fun it was!

More Practice

So, while I was waiting for my Robert Burridge DVD's to come, I practiced on a couple more flowers and pear. Then, the video came yesterday - and I had a whole new bunch of practice pieces to do! They started like this:

Paint splattered all over a little sheet of gessoed watercolor paper - throw in some drops of alcohol and let it dry.

Then, go in and paint everything that isn't a floral bouquet! Granted, these could use more work, but the whole idea behind this is to start your creative juices flowing. Work fast, using only a few colors. Below is the first one I did with this technique - so it's a little off kilter, and not a very pleasing shape. But, hey, it sure was fun!

Wildflowers

Another little ditty a la Robert Burridge! I'm so in love with this way of painting! This was another 10 minute warm-up, so it's kinda rough, but I love it! I can't wait to get his DVD. Until then, I'm going to keep on painting pears and flowers. I promise not to post each one (I don't want to bore you!), but maybe at the end of the week, I'll show you what I've been doing.


I have to change gears on Tuesday, though. In Pat's class, we're going to be doing a watercolor paint-around. That should be challenging!

Single Pear Warm-Up

I received my new Cheap Joe's catalog the other day - and as I was looking at all the cool workshops that I will never be able to afford to attend, I found Robert Burridge. Oh man! I ended up ordering 2 of his DVD's (and had to pay a fortune for shipping). But, it's still cheaper than a workshop! Anyway, looking around at his site and Cheap Joe's, I got to preview some of his teachings. I watched him do 3 pears in a row for a warm-up - and loved the way he just slaps the paint on.

He recommends that you do this every time you start to paint, and I can see why! It took me less than 10 minutes to do this exercise. He shows how you start with a little sheet of gessoed watercolor paper, paint a circle and a triangle on top of that with white, then add the red and yellow and blue, and BAM! you have a pear! Next, I want to try his Circus Birds!

Bird Watching

After watching a PBS painting show recently, I was moved to try my hand at painting some birds! Neither one turned out exactly as I wanted them to, but I really like painting birds!



I had purchased this little book on bird watching (that was published in 1955) from the library book store for 50 cents. It's such a sweet little book, with little paintings of all the different birds for people to look for. The previous owners of the book, had labeled all the birds that they had found, and where they saw them. So, I used a few of the birds in the book as inspiration. What fun!