Orange Umbrellas
6x9 watercolor
I have stacks and stacks of photos I have taken of cafe/umbrella scenes. I do not know what it is that attracts me to outdoor cafes with umbrellas as painting subjects. Again, applying (trying to apply) what Andy Evansen taught us, I tried here. Andy paints on wet paper very fast. I think my paper was still a little too wet since the umbrellas bled a lot. Then the paper dried so fast I was painting wet onto dry paper. I do like the overall scene and the umbrella "dance"/"pattern" is interesting to me. I may try this on a large size paper. I do prefer painting with larger brushes and having more space to let the paint intermix.


My budding little artist painting on a snow day. His Auntie sent him that darling paint set.

Have a great week! Thanks for your comments, critiques and visits.

The Joys of a "Snow Day"

The Market
5.5" x 15"

Thanks to our "snow storm" in Dallas, I got to paint today!!!! Almost everything is shut down so it is a surprise "free day".

I was inspired from a scene I saw of San Miguel in the Smithsonian magazine. I tried to apply the techniques I learned in Andy Evansen's workshop. If you are a regular reader, you know that I desire to paint "loose", however, as you know, I always end up going to my natural style which is tight and detail oriented. I tried to give the idea of the viewer being IN a crowded market. I decided to paint this on a page cut emphasizing the horizontal. I learned that this is what I liked about my sailboat paintings. I feel in those paintings that I am on a sailboat in the dance of boats. I found that this shape was also good for the mountain scene and A Secret Garden. I like this horizontal format a lot. I feel like it engulfs the viewer.

HAPPY New Year!

Friends, Happy New Year to you! They say the first 12 days is an indication of how the rest of your year will be. (If your first 12 days were not the way you wanted them to be, just start today!)

Above are some of the paintings that were selected by the card company. The first two images are obvious how they would be used on a card. The last image they want to use for borders on invitations or by picking out areas for background. A lot of my florals were selected as well amongst some landscapes. Hopefully, soon I will have a link so that you can see all of the cards! Also, we are going to offer change of address cards/stationary for the clients that have commissioned their home portraits. The painting of their home will be on the card with their new address. I have learned a lot in the last few days about licensing one's artwork. Still, not enough to be an expert. Did you know that there are licensing conventions were artists and companies wanting artwork meet?

I have no idea what my next painting will be. We have been to the Turks and Caicos which was amazingly beautiful, but for a painting it would be the aqua paint right out of the tube for the water and then cerulean blue to ultramarine for the sky. Since Valentine's Day is coming up and I could not resist the very bright hot pink roses at the grocery store or the gorgeous white with red tips that my husband brought home, maybe I will paint those. Next post I will put a few Turks photos up. You will think they are postcards.

Have a great week!!!

Licensing your artwork?

has anyone out there licensed their artwork? A local greeting card company wants to use some of my artwork and asked how/what I would charge. If anyone knows anything about licensing your artwork, i would love to hear from you. I have learned some on the internet, but, have not found actual rates/fees, etc. I am sure there is a wide range, but, right now I have no idea.

thanks so much.

A Gift from the Heart

Here is one of the commissions that I have been working on. My client commissioned two of the same house. She grew up in this house and now lives in it with her husband and children. One of the paintings is for her, the other she is going to give to her parents for Christmas. Many of my clients have given a painting of their home or vacation home to their spouse for an anniversary gift, Father's Day or birthday. I love hearing the stories of how happy and surprised the recipient was.

Plein Air Painting with Andy Evansen

Here is some of my work I did in a week long workshop with Andy Evansen. It was so wonderful to paint plein air all day for an entire week! We even had the most perfect weather, too. Andy is such a pleasant and humble teacher. He really tried to help each of us with our struggles to paint loose. He had us work on 4x6 or 5x7 paper in gray scale to practice capturing the values. Andy works very fast and makes it seem so effortless. My favorite quote from him that I will remind myself was "just indicate...". We do not need to paint every brick etc., just indicate it is brick.

My favorite piece is the value sketch in the middle photo. I feel like it has the eurythme I always want to capture. The darks, the movement, the hint, the looseness and the freedom. I did not finish the color image below it. This was all done on site. I didn't get the darks in as dark as in the value sketch. Notice one of the value sketches at top was from one of my plein air paintings from the Cape. The bottom photo is from the last day of the workshop. We painted in the trolley barn down on McKinney St. We did White Rock Lake, Farmer's Market, the West End and Turtle Creek.

This Saturday is the BIG day. The show runs through January 3. But, I would love it if you came by to see me at the reception this Saturday:

Where Texas Gets its Color
The Dutch Art Gallery
10233 E. Northwest Hwy (corner of Ferndale)
1:00-5:00

Friends in Dallas, I hope to see you at the Dutch Gallery Reception. This will be a great collection of art in various styles and mediums from a select group of artists. Each artist is allowed to put in up to 7 pieces so if there is an artist you like, you will get to see several pieces. This will be a large show, so I am sure you will find something you like.

Apologies for having few posts. I have been working on commissions of home portraits for the Christmas deadline. I cannot post any of those paintings until after Christmas since they are going to be given as gifts. I do want to post my work from the Andy Evansen workshop as soon as I get a chance.

Highland Park Village

11x14

This is a scene in a shopping center in Dallas. One can park their car and walk around to the various shops and restaurants here. I painted this last week in preparation for the Andy Evansen workshop I have been partipating in this week. I cannot tell you how great it is to do plein air painting with Andy. He is ovbiously a great artist, but, he is also a great teacher, too. We have been all over Dallas painting street scenes, landscape at parks, boats at White Rock Lake and today, trolleys on Mckinney St. I am very happy with my value paintings, but, the color ones are not so hot, yet. Maybe I will post next week.

Fair Day

Cotton Candy

11x14

Photo of Big Tex

Yes, it is time for the Texas State Fair. This is my husband's favorite event. Although, he would never tell you that, you just know by how many times he says how great the fair is while we are there. For years I have taken pictures at the fair for paintings, but, I have never painted one, yet. When I saw the Cotton Candy stand, I was inspired. I specifically took the photo of Big Tex for everyone who does not live in Dallas. He is 52' tall, talks and makes announcements and has his picture on the cotton candy bags. Do you see the ferris wheel in the bottom of the photo? It is in my painting, too. P.S. my toddler HAD to have the beautiful cotton candy. When he tasted it, he started crying and saying, "Hair, hair, get the hair out of my mouth." I guess he will be scarred now.

Fall Harvest

11x14

I have never really been one for painting holiday themed art, but, the weather was so amazingly gorgeous with beautiful, bright sunlight and just the perfect mild temperature I had to sit outside and paint this gorgeous fall display created by my friend, Richard. Richard relocated to Dallas from New Orleans after hurricane Katrina. He and his family were actually considered refugees for a time when they first evacuated their home. They didn't bring much when they left and when it was safe to return to New Orleans, they found very little to salvage. They have been living in Dallas since. He is extremely creative in making the most beautiful garden scenes using flowers and plants one would not typically put together. This is just a part of the display. That pumpkin is so large, it makes the perfect seat for my kids. Every time my toddler sees this display he shouts out, "Look at all of those pumpkins!" Then he goes to sit on this giant pumpkin.

ANNOUNCEMENT:
Alan Barnes Gallery
2011 Juried Exhibit
(I am in the show!)
Tuesday, October 14
5:30 - 8:30 Reception

Grapes in the Sunlight

The photo that inspired this painting was an ad for Mexico on the back of the Conde Nast Traveler magazine. The way the sunlight was coming from the side/back creating interesting shadows and then even illuminating some of the grapes. Two other things came to mind, the Grape Escape which is a fundraiser for Heart House, coming up (my friend is chairing it, so I hear about it daily right now) and one of my favorite watercolor artist in the blogger world, David Lobenberg. He has been blogging about his vineyard experience. He paints with very clear, clean wild colors and has the best sense of humor.

Colors of Fall

Fall Bouquet, 11x14

A Secret Garden, 6x14

Believe it or not, the colors of fall in Dallas right now are really what you see in A Secret Garden. Inspired by a real garden I found on a walk, this is a plein air study. The blooms are a little embellished, but, it is true, the flowers are much happier now with the high 80 degree days vs. the +100 temps. The encore azaleas are blooming, as are the crepe myrtles and the roses, hibiscuses, inpatients and perennials are all happy. However, the shadows are getting much longer. I walked out in the backyard the other day and noticed I was in the shadow of the house as it stretched far into the yard.

I wanted to share that gorgeous middle photo with the plant alive with the glow of the sunlight.

Fall Bouquet is painted from a bouquet I put together for a school coffee at my house. I couldn't resist using the pumpkin branches or the bright orange and magenta colors.

Thanks to both my blog readers and my email subscribers for your comments on my posts. I love that connection!

Art Therapy - You can still paint even if you can't see

Meet my father-in-law, Grampy. He has had Macular Degeneration for about 30 years. That means he started to lose his vision in his early 40's and can no longer do the things he once could, like drive, for example. Imagine if your vision started to go away very rapidly and you could no longer do all of the things that require eye vision. Every summer we visit my in-laws. I use to drive my father-in-law around to antique shops. He would pick up a piece and have me look at it and tell him what the writing said and I would answer his questions about an antique he was looking at. Now with the economy and increasing loss of his sight, he is not in the antique business anymore.

Every summer I always encourage Grampy to take clay sculpture classes or pottery classes so he can use his hands and creativity. It never happens. I guess because I had just done our little impromptu painting workshop with my nieces and nephews, I talked Grampy into painting right at that moment! Of course, he resisted. He said he had no talent and his painting would be ugly. I told him who cares, we will paint on a paper plate and then throw it right in the garbage so nobody sees it. I told him that we were going to paint just for the experience, not for the end result.

I myself learned so much about painting. I would ask him, do you feel how much water is on the brush? Do you feel how the brush feels on the paper with this amount of water? Can you feel how much paint is on your brush? Then he would ask me questions like, "Were is green, I want to use green. How do I make it darker? I like how that looks, what color is that? How do I make it darker?" Grampy can see through his peripheral vision, but, I don't know how well.

Here he is holding up his favorite of his three paintings. Look at that smile on his face, especially the one where he is painting. I haven't seen him smile in a long time. Grampy had some great ideas for his first time painting. He said, why can't each color have its own tray/bowl so that the colors are not so close together (talking about my paint palette). I told him that there are artists that do that and I happen to have a book of one of those artists on the table.

I hope you find this story encouraging and that you may pick up a brush and paint on a paper plate one day, too. P.s. Grampy didn't throw his paintings away. I hope Grampy keeps painting.

To find out more about Macular Degeneration or to get a free screening, visit the Retina Foundation of the Southwest.

Stoli Doli and Friends

Stoli Doli and Friends
11x14

I have been collecting photos of ice cold beverages during the 107 temps in Dallas. I saw this jar of Stoli Doli in a bar in Cape Cod. The bartender was already working on my martini, so it was too late for me to try the Stoli Doli. I have heard it is good. Pineapple soaked in vodka. In any event, I couldn't resist taking a picture of it to paint one day. Limeade has sold so I wanted to paint another jar of sliced fruit before I missed it. I couldn't believe how strong the local color influenced me in this painting.

DALLAS Exhibits Announcement - Mark your calendars!

Three great shows in Dallas with wonderful art by local Dallas artists and by Artists of Texas. All works will be for sale! Yes, I have paintings in two of the exhibits and maybe even the third. However, I already saw a painting by someone else in the show that I just have to have!

September 10 - October 2

Fine Art in Dallas 2011: A Retrospective

Artisan Style

2417 Mahon St., across from the Crescent

Please join us at the opening on Friday, September 10, 5-8

This show will feature the art of over 50 Dallas artists that are in the 2011 CityARTCal book.

October 11 - October 24

Alan Barnes Fine Art - Juried Exhibition

1019 Slocum Street

Please join us at the reception, Thursday, October 14, 5:30-8:30

November 6 - December 31

The Annual Artists of Texas Show

Dutch Art Gallery

10233 E. Northwest Highway, Suite 420

The reception will be on Saturday, November 6, 1-5

This show will feature art from Artists of Texas.

Apples, Peaches, Plums

15x15 original watercolor

Here is the painting that I have been working on. As I said before, it was inspired by a photo that I saw on PaperPumpkin. I saw the photo right after I had posted "Locally Grown".

I tried something new to me in this painting. I used a clear oil pastel to save some of the whites. I did not use it everywhere that you see the white because sometimes I like to go over the whites with a very light wash. Also, I wanted to be able to control soft and hard edges. The clear oil pastel is so clear that it was a little hard for me to control at first. It is an absolute great permanent resist. Some of you have noticed that my work is changing a little. I would love to hear your comments if you like or you don't like this new direction.

I have some great news, I was accepted to the Artists of Texas blog. Please visit me and other fine artists of Texas over there!

Thanks for visiting and enjoy.

CityARTCal Artists Party

The above photos are from the 2011 CityARTCal Artists Party. CityARTCal is a calendar that features local artists and also sponsors several exhibits, a silent auction and other social events for the artists. The photos above are from the most recent social events for the artist selected to be in the calendar. We met at Painting with a Twist and had a little painting contest in acrylic. The winner, determined by votes of the artists involved, would get an extra page in the book to feature a second piece of work!!!!! It was such fun to meet other artists and paint together. Painting with a Twist is on Lovers Lane and teaches classes to ANYONE who wants to learn how to paint. They have great music playing and you bring your own bottle of vino.

This is a painting I am working on right now. It is inspired by a photo from the blog PaperPumpkin. I liked the photo so much that I asked PaperPumpkin if I could paint it.

Revisions, Memories and Friendship

Thank you to everyone who immediately replied when I was in trouble with the above painting. I took your advice and I am happy with the mountain scene painting above. When I posted this painting last, I thought I had ruined something that I was very happy with. I am so thankful that my friends I have met through the blogging world came to my rescue.

Now I can tell you the inspiration for this painting. My friend who was pregnant with her third child insisted that she and I go on this 4+ hour hike up a mountain in Red River, New Mexico. It is not surprising that I would rather sit for 4 hours and paint vs. hiking up a mountain. It is embarrassing to say that I could barely keep up with her even though she was 3 months pregnant. She told me that at the top there was this glorious pond with the clearest water and giant rainbow trout. Well here it is. Although I was resistant to the hiking, my friend didn't believe me when I told her that I would indeed go swimming in the pond because I have an obsession with natural clear bodies of water. I told her to be ready with the camera and take a photo once I was in the water for evidence to all those that would not believe. The water was absolutely freezing, but, very exhilerating. I am giving this painting to her husband for his 50th birthday since he loves the mountains so much and he is taking up painting, too!

I truly appreciate your comments! Have a great day!

Happy Friday!

I saw these sailboats from far away. It turns out it was the local summer camp sailing. The shapes of the white triangles moving about each other against the blue water and sky was so calming. I wanted to capture this dance and I wanted to be in one of the sailboats, too!

I had one piece of hot press paper left. I cut it in half to get these two very horizontal pieces of paper. Once I had these long pieces of paper, I was getting more comfortable with the idea in my head and how I would put it on paper. It made sense to have these very long pieces of paper emphasizing the experience of what I would see if I was in one of the boats right there.

I am starting to really like hot press paper. Because of my lack of experience using it, I feel that I have more freedom to experiment. These boats may look like it was very easy to do. But, for me, achieving a look that looks free and quick is so hard. The image at the top was the second painting. In this painting, I am pleased with myself for having the confidence to use my artistic license more. I kind of just imagined this one.

I posted these paintings because they make me happy. So Happy Friday. It is our official last Friday of summer. School starts Monday.

Thank you for all of your comments, they make my day!

WAS pretty... now?

I was doing this mountain scene for a friend's 50th birthday. There was a point when I thought it looked so pretty. I don't think in person the sky looks as ugly as it does here. It is not so spotty in person. I know I need to darken and add detail to the trees on the left side. Should I lift out the darks in the water. I can also lift out the blue in the sky. I was trying to create atmosphere and distance in the mountains, that is that obvious line of nothingness in the middle of the mountain. Does anyone have suggestions? I did enjoy painting it up to this point so I guess I can start over, too.

Thanks. This is where I put down my brushes and walk away.