Leaving a Vestige - Mixed Medium (11 X 14)

Leaving a Vestige -  Mixed Medium (11 X 14)

Petal Tips! Thiis painting is in a mixed medium. I took an old 300 # watercolor paper and added gesso for the design. I don't throw away my paper, I just take it into a mixed medium. With a watercolor, if you over work it, it looks overworked. If it doesn't work, I don't despair, I just get inventive. Since I use 300 #, it is like a board and can take a lot of heavy layers of gesso and acrylic. 140 # can be used and I have some old paintings I painted years ago and I don't like them, so I've done the same thing. If you use 140#, keep it small, it doesn't have the weight to take all that painting. Then I painted the finished painting in oil. I just love the blending of oils opposed to acrylic.

                                                             
The red spot in the nest is from the original watercolor. It is as if a red bird has just left and a red feather has been left behind.. Be careful about using round objects, make them interesting. I used the branches and things in the nest to shoot out from the circle, giving it motion and direction. The red feather is the focal point. Even though it is about the size of the tip of my finger, it still tells the story.

That's what art does.It records our history. It shows where we were. Every time we make a brushstroke across a canvas or paper, we are leaving a vestige, a mark or a print of what we have done.

Maybe that is why I am telling you my secrets. Many artists will not divulge their secrets and techniques. I feel like if I can pass them on, you will become better because I have passed by you. Some where along the way, I learned the technique from someone. Nothing is ours, we borrow from each other, ultimately from the great Creator.

Paint with Grace in your hands and on your heart.

Meanderings~~~~~~ I am always looking back and wondering if my footprints are showing. Just a habit, probably I need to break it, it probably is tied into a lack of faith. If we leave a trace of the red blood which we were bought with, we can be certain it will remain.

The nest could belong to any bird, but the red says, it's got to belong to a red bird and. I love that it came from the original idea. Isn't that how this whole history plays out, It is His story, we just land for a spell and have our young ones and then we go.

Leaving a Vestige 2 (11 X14)

I loved the idea so much I painted two of them. I placed them differently in the painting. The second has more detail, but the first has more artistic value. The second one doesn't have the same motion, but it has more depth inside the nest. Probably if I did again, I would incorporate the best of each. Also the red in the first is down in the foreground, so the second one I deliberately put it off center since that is where I wanted the eye to go.  But I am already on to another subject, look in tomorrow, my garden always looks different the next day. Maybe it is the love that lingers from our last visit.

In Motion with a Sweet Tooth

Hummingbirds have a sweet tooth, I guess they really don't have teeth, just an appetite for sugar. If they are not busy sucking the nector from the flowers, we are inviting them in with extra sugar in a red feeder. When we see them, it seems like we have to stop what we are doing and just look. What is it about the huningbird that intriguqes us?

In Motion with a Sweet Tooth  (Mixed Medium 16X20)

I painted a series of humingbirds and butterflies. I used a different technique on this series. I started with a canvas, gessoed it with pink tint. I like to do that because when the other paints are applied, the glow from that underpaint comes through. I drew the image loosely in acrylic paint. Remember you can always use water base paints on each other, (acrylics, gesso or watercolors), but once you switch to oils, you can not go back with the water products.

Hidden (Mixed Medium 11X 14)

Petal Tips! I laid down an old doily and sprayed the painting with different colors,(I used Krylon spray paint). It gave the feeling of small feathers on the breast and hazy flowers in the background.. The colors dried within ten mintues, then I began applying oil paints in short strokes developing the design. If you notice the head and the lightest light in the little yellow flower in the left hand corner are detailed and they brings your eye to the most important place on the canvas. Also, I wanted to keep the fast motion of the butterfly, so I used the motion in the background to indicate it was stirring up wind. This was done in short strokes with oil paint with lots of medium.

You could miss the hummingbird in this second painting. All the red is up in the left hand corner. His head and the flower is in different shades of red. There are subtle lines that leads the eye to the bird.

Happy Painting.
 .
Meanderings~~~~~ Maybe the hummingbird  makes us stop from the busyness of life and look. We need more hummingbirds in our lives. What other small things seem to draw us away into God's goodness? Maybe a kind gesture or a smile or just a thank you. It's amazing how little it takes to see the glory of God.

Berries and Leaves

Berries and Leaves add to the garden.

Berries and Leaves

Petal Tips! This watercolor 20 X 30 on 300# watercolor paper is a negative painting. What I mean by negative, everything is painted around the subject, which are the leaves and berries.

I started with an underpainting. I wet the paper, dropped in yellow, purple and green. Be careful not to mix the yellow and purple, they will go muddy. So know where you want this underpainting. On this one I had already drawn a design and I knew where the leaves would go and also the berries. Sometimes, I just drop the paint and let the painting create itself, then I draw in the design.

Next let it dry. If it is not dry, then the underpainting will become part of the added colors. Once it is dry, start carving out around the berries. If you notice the value around the berries is  dark purple. I also painted around the yellow leaves with the purple and green.

I wanted a feeling of movement so I placed the stems and leaves in  a circular motion. It has to have a connection to each other and they do this by the way it is designed. There is a focal point, can you guess where it is?   I'll give you a clue on this one, it is the lightest leaf, with the darkest purple framing it. Sometimes I use the values (light to the darkest) to show the focal point, especially with this one, when all the colors are the same. I'll talk more about focal point in other paintings.

Happy painting to you my friends.  If you are not a painter, just enjoy the beautiful of this garden.

Meanderings~~~~~ We must have the thorns among the roses, those berries hid in the thorns, but come harvesting time, blackberry. blueberry or raspberry pie and homemade jam, we will forfeit the pain to gather them.

Each year, my daughter Cricket gathers blackberries which grows wild along their road. She would take the kids when they were young, now she goes alone, but she makes blackberry jam for us every Christmas. Every year, we would say, all we want for Christmas is homemade jam. She would send each of us a quart. It took hundreds of berries to make one quart. She would sigh and say, "You don't have any idea what it takes to gather enough berries for just one quart of jam."

We would just laugh and tell her how good it was. Oh me, what others do so that we can taste the sweet savor of their garden. We have no idea.

Peek a Boo

Petal Tips! This sunflower is a watercolor on 300# paper (11X14). It feels like it  peeked outside of one of its petals. Can we really hide behind who we are? We shouldn't want to. We carry the beauty of the Divine. The sunflower grows wild around here. I noticed when we built a road on our property years ago, the soil was dug up and loosened away from the dry ground it was a part of.  It was wonderful to drive down that road all hedged in by the bright yellow. That's the way the Spirit works, when the stoney heart is broken up in our garden, it gives way for the planted seeds  to become what they intended to be.

If we hid ourselves, then we are apparently ashamed or feel the darkness that coveed us. God calls us his Garden enclosed. This is  for any one who has surrendered to his answer, Jesus Christ, the Son of God. He is the light and will take our darkness. When darkness is brought to the light, it has no power over us.

Even all creation travails for the revealing of the sons of God. The Divine reveals Himself in us, his garden.

Peek a Boo

 I love to paint sunflowers. I put the  big money in the center.  I water the paper slightly, drop a little ultramarine blue in the center,  I save a white spot (which is the pure white paper) for the highlight, I drop a little orange in the middle also and  add burnt sienna to the edges and burnt umber around the circumferance of the center.

If you notice, I paint purple next to the yellow, which is the compliment and pushes the color of the yellow petal. This also enables it to come forward giving it a third dimension.

In the center of the petals I keep dark, I add a little orange and burnt sienna in it. This causes the eye to be deceived and it feels like the flower is cupped and not flat. We must have those darks next to the light to get that focal point.

Bursting Forth together

This bouquet of sunflowers bursts forth on the watercolor #300 paper, (15 X 20). It is the purple around the yellow flowers that make them come alive. Each sunflower is turned a different way, and each center has it's own personality.

Meanderings~~~~~: We growr best in the sunlight. We only grow in the Sonlight when we surrender to the Son. God bless you for being in my garden.
.

Cabbage Roses

Cabbage Roses in Oil

Cabbages roses are my favorite, not only to look at but to paint. I have painted a bunch of them. This table was  prepared in teal green and painted in a tradional style in oil. The table is approximately 20 X 40. Look closer and you will see bees and butterflies.

Meandering~~~~~~~ Sometimes, we do not need words for something so beautiful. When I see the cabbage rose, I almost think it is a sacred moment. Something too beautiful for words. There have been times in my worship in the Lord, there is nothing but thanksgiving that comes over me. I just want to keep saying thank you, thank you, thank you.  Maybe that's how I feel with the rose, I just want to thank it for its beauty.

Sit a Spell

Under the Aqua

This chair is one in my line of handpainted chairs. Even though this blog is dedicated to my floral paintings, I thought it would work OK to show some of my floral chairs. This is painted as a pair.

Petal tips! When I first started painting chairs, I thought,"I'll never get all those rungs painted" It took forever and I was using my oil paints out of the tubes.But I have a secret to painting them, keeping down the time I spend on each chair. It is not a secret, but  its working smarter than harder. Al, my husband, sands them, repairs them, and when he has about 7 or eight chairs ready, he sprays them all with enamel paint, turning them upside down and spraying the bottom of the seat and the rungs. I use all different colors for the base coat.  Then I start painting it with my good oil paints and if I don't entirely cover the whole surface, it doesn't show. I use the base coat as part of the design  After painting them all, then we put on 6 or 7 coats of polyeuthene. This chair has  been in the weather but the polyeuthene is the key to keeping it beautiful and protected.

I look for chairs where ever. I am looking for unique shapes, one of a kind or two of a kind. They are easier to find than a match set of four.

These chairs can be seen at Lorraine's in Clovis, New Mexico. You can also check out her blog for more photos of my handpainted furniture.

Sit a Spell, meader into the corner of my mind!

Why don't we take time to sit down and enjoy the things our hands have found to do? When I have friends over, then is when I seem to take time to enjoy with others what I've done. Some how it is their response that is more satisfying than actually enjoying these alone.

I just decided to name this chair and will in the future write the name of the chair on the bottom of the seat.

Walking in the sunlight: Or sitting in the Sonlight. It will give us a new perspective. It gives us heaven's view point.

Not Alone

Swirlling

Cut flowers

Oil, 24 X 30

Petal Pits! This floral is one of my favorites. I guess everyone is my favorite. When I paintit, I fall in love with it.The colors are rich and bright. I was able to control the colors by working compliments together. Red roses against green foliage bring out the roses. I was pushing colors for the focal point. The water in the vases tells us the flowers are freshly cut and alive.

This oil is done with brush and palette knife. I love the combination, the background is feathered and remains in the back in a hazy feeling. The roses and daisies are  executed with the knife, bringing them forward.

The white strokes with a brush in the foreground could indicate a table cloth or a doily.

The short brushstrokes on the foliage gives direction to the design.

Meanderings~~~~~! Direct opposites are what we need to bring out and enhance us.

Autumn Floral

This oil painting was painted in class in 1968. It was one of the first paintings I painted, of course with the  help of a teacher, Cynthia Gusavick in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

It probably took a couple of months in class to complete.  This was the beginning of a very traditional style.

Autumn Flora, oil, 15 X 30

Cotton and chili grew all over the Mesilla Valley. This arrangement was a great study to learn how to paint objects together, over lapping and hiding things behind..

Petal Tips! I applied oils with a lot of medium oil into detailed work.  I had begun with a landscape teacher three years before. He taught with the palette knife.  This painting was done strictly with brush strokes.

It gave me a real foundation of looking at an object before me and learning how to put it on the canvas.

I look back to those days when I couldn't paint enough.  Up all night, with oil paints on my nightgown, and wanting to paint everything. I was hooked and have not stopped painting over forty years later.

Meanderings~~~~~ In the garden of life and stuff, as an artist, I see great still lifes - as a write, I  see stories - as a romantic, I see playful dramas.  As a daughter and mother, I see warmth and love - as a friend, I see your necessary presence for my full potential and growth.

Flowers and Hues, Mixed Medium

I started this morning believing I could add one painting and meaningful words every day to this blog. A friend of mine purposed to write a poem a day, and that was five years ago. She has written 1,825 poems since she made that commitment. It pressed on me if I was going to log in all my art, I needed to be focused and make time for a job which could be overwhelming. Also sufficient is the fresh thoughts of that day. Tomorrow they are gone.

 I havent' wanted to take time for an essential task like this, but it is part of today. Don't ask me why it is, except I know it is for purpose. I am not sure the purpose, I could name you several reasons, but I know I haven't discovered the reason yet and won't until it is done. The things we do today will lend towards tomorrow's success.

I have sold many of my paintings, lost many and gave away bunches. Have I kept good records? No.
I have encouragaed others to compile their writings, make a book, register their work  but I haven't done it myself. I've made a few feeble attempts over the years but my art is always changing location and gone.

It's always been in my heart to write a book with my paintings, I've always wanted to write why I painted a certain subject. I need to have a working catalogue for buyers and galeries. Also marketing comes into this process.  Also these are good reasons, but purpose is something else.

Flowers and Hues, Mixed Medium

Petal Tips! I painted this floral in watercolor on a 300# paper, then I added white acrlic and then oils to it. I love the direction of the strokes, strong colors and the subject.

The brushes are standing in a blue clay jar in front of the subject. The brushes are not the focus, but where they are pointing is important. The tubes of paint are placed where the circle is continued back to the brushes.

The focal point is the big sunflower in the center and is reaching forward to be enjoyed.

Meanderings~~~~~!There are those flowers in the garden of life that stand out among the others. It could be for a short time or grow into a long lasting friendship.

Life seems to point to them because we need something they have to offer. Maybe it is just learning focus like my friend, the poet who has written a poem of day. She pointed a way for me to walk.

As I walk through this garden of flowers, I am brought back to things I did yesterday which are blessing me today.

                             The Moment of the Rose

T. S. Elliot, poet writes, "The moment of the rose and moment of the yew tree are of equal duration". This means to me the completion of the rose and its beauty is in one season, for the yew tree it takes hundreds of years for its completion.

For the rose, even as beautiful as it is, we can easily miss it. It passes by us gently, quietly and quickly, the yew tree stands for years, beckoning to us to turn our heads and enjoy.

I question, is Life made of many moments or is it an ongoing continuous moment? I came to the understanding that we each experience things and bloom in our own way. For one it takes only a season (like the rose), another it takes years (like the yew tree or pine tree). It takes Who God is and ALL that we are for this moment.

Meandering~~~~~ The moment we are complete is in where we are. I believe it isn't at the end of our lives but as we live and how we live in the moment. Have we established His word on this earth as we stand in faith in that moment? Hopefully we have.



This blog is to show the florals I have painted, the moment they spoke to me, the moment when I saw their beauty and felt it necessary to record it as an artist and writer.

Iris in Bloom

Iris in Bloom

Petal Tips! This watercolor is rendered, wet on wet, on 300 pound paper, 11X14. I love the flow of colors in and out of each other. I made sure I saved the white, then I cut in the background with dark blue and paynes gray. The problem with many paintings, they range in value between 4 and 6, they lack dimension and are flat. When soneone asks me what is wrong with their painting, it is usually the values.



Meanderings~~~~~~Oh that we would all bloom as freely as the iris. It comes back every year without coaxing. It demands nothing but to be allowed to bloom. It grows staight in its own beauty. Should we not allow every person to bloom as they are intended to be as they  grow straight.