Plein Air final feature

https://www.outdoorpainter.com/plein-air-salon-celebrating-winner-next-awards/

PleinAir Salon Art Competition Winner

Honored to announce that three of my pieces were accepted into the 7th Annual PleinAir Salon Art Competition, and my drawing "Cora" won Best in its category. Thank you PleinAir Magazine!

Green Pitcher and Cherries

Gravy Boat and Cherries

"Preparing for the Show" 24x36

This is a fun little drawing I did for a group in Virginia called 

Hampton Roads Spirit Search and Rescue.

Drawimg demo at Yorktown Gallery

I have been practicing drawing with my left hand lately. This really helps me to focus on my seeing skills and helps me to be more methodical. Love it!

Self Portrait

Self portrait done in the bathroom mirror :-) 

Abstract painting #1

New Work for Exhibition "Emanate"

"Mackenley"

This is a portrait of a little girl that is friends with Cora. She is so beautiful, I just had to paint her. I remember years ago painting a portrait and not being able to see subtle warms and cools. It was so discouraging! But when I was painting this portrait, I could see so many colors that I couldn't paint them all. It was so exciting!

"Bacche Rosse"

This is my most recent still life. Experimenting with leading the eye in a path through the painting. Harder than it looks (:

'Une Rare Beauté'

My most recent portrait. I'm still loving that unfinished look. Hope everyone else does too (:

While I was painting this I could really tell that my colors were coming easier to me, there were some that I did that afterwards I realized I didn't even think about them. My hands just did the work. It was a really cool feeling. 

When I was doing my apprenticeship with William Whitaker he used to talk about how you always have your palette set up the exact same way, and pretty soon your hands just go to colors without you having to think about it. How cool is that!?

"Roses"

I revised this painting one last time, just the tea cup. Its really hard painting a picture on an object. To make the object look 3D, but the picture on the object look flat, without making that particular part of the  whole thing look flat. Does that make sense? But, I think it turned out way better, I'm very happy with the end result. 

"Pearls"

I wanted to do a really simple painting of these pearls that I love! I've always like that unfinished look, but the more I paint the more I like it, especially the warm underpainting coming through the cool top layer. 

Don't you love glazing!?!

This is a recent still life that I did, I was experimenting with fabric, and how that could improve my work. I like the directional flow that it adds, helps to lead the eye and adds dimension. When I was finishing this I decided to warm up the painting as a whole with a glaze, and change the background a bit, thanks to my hubby's advice. Seems to flow a little better now. What would I do without critiques? (:

Fine Arts Gallery on Historic 25th Street

Next month I will be featured in a great little gallery on Historic 25th street in Ogden, Utah. 

There will be a Gallery Stroll the first Friday, November 5th from 6-9pm, and my work will be hanging all month. For those of you who went to my show in Provo, there are some works that are the same and some new ones too.

Hope to see you all there!

http://www.fineartson25th.com

Mounting linen on Gatorboard

I have been trying this new technique using linen. Instead of stretching it with a wood frame, I have been mounting it onto Gatorboard. This board looks like foam board but it is very hard and archival. William Whitaker introduced me to it. I have been using it for a while as a board behind my drawings because it is hard enough to draw on, but it has a little bit of give, so you don't have to have a big stack of papers behind the one you are drawing on to soften your surface a little bit. It is also great for behind Frosted Mylar, which is a wonderful painting surface, and also archival. 

Here is a pic of the Gatorboard with the linen mounted on it. I cut the linen to about the right size for the board, then I covered the board with gesso and mounted the linen using a credit card, starting from the middle and pushing out to the edges. It stretches the linen also, then I put a thin layer of gesso on top to seal it, then trimmed up the edges. I have really enjoyed painting on it, it has the great linen texture, but the board is very lightweight and thin. Save space and if you are shipping your work, this would save a lot on shipping costs!

New Drawings