prise fraîche du jour

Fresh fish.      Im not sure I shared this series.  So here are

pics.     This is from first series of four.

Collages

Here are two pieces done using those scraps mentioned previously.  Both done over failed paint pouring experiments. Im glad I dont need to look at them again.  When I found them in the shed the other day I was determined to either repurpose them or get rid of them.  Not wanting to waste a canvas, I opted for covering them in collage and paint.

Road to somewhere

Morning watercolor.

A little water color

This is the first watercolor I did with the Friday

group.  Someone gave me the lemons, so I painted them. 

Another art group!

Now there is a new group of artist wannabes at the senior mobile home park.  A new resident posted a note on the bulletin board to find out if anyone would be interested. There were 6 at the first meeting.   Two have never painted.  But seemed genuinely interested.    Next meeting just two of us showed up.  But yesterday there were six again.  And we had a fun morning getting acquainted and either painting or sketching. 

There were oranges and veggies on the counter so Indid a little quick still life.    Now that its dry I can see I need to beef up the color.   

Sharing a new passion

My mixed media group is now painting leaves too.   A friend and I dropped by the senior center to collect a bunch of leaves, and the next day when mm girls showed up at my place,  they could pick out leaves to draw and paint.    We had such a good time we did this two meetings in a row.    At the first class I provided watercolor paper with the outlines of leaves drawn on and backgrounds painted in acrylics.   This was for those that always say, I can't draw.   No excuses accepted.    And it was fun to do. In fact so much fun, I painted another batch of backgrounds to use myself.  Lol

Autumn leaves at Senior Center

On Monday mornings a group of art enthusiasts meet at local Senior Center.  Some paint in oils, some acrylics , some watercolors.  There are several who draw.   Some do needlework.   A new group has joined us with another teacher who supplies everything and has them painting rocks with craft paints.    During our time together we wander around to chat, and critique if asked, and just socialize.  Some if us have been there for years, some more than a decade.   Ages range from 55 to 88 currently.   Husbands and wives may come together but often are at different skill levels and interests. 

I had been drawing the brilliantly colored leaves found in the courtyard outside the art room, using colored watercolor pencils.   One day I was inspired to take my watercolors and try to capture the colors.      Here are a few.

The long lonely road

Across Nevada high desert.      Heading East.     Or West, or North or South.    With few landmarks its hard to tell.     Lots of subtle color changes in this dusty, sandy alkali soil.    This is when cruise control comes in handy.   

Coast highway

This highway is subject to landslides so is sometimes closed for repairs.    It is fun to drive with the windows down to feel the cool sea air and to look at the spectacular views.   

Homeward bound

Traveling on Highway 4, West of Angels Camp presents some challenging twisting curves on a narrow two lane road. . Its actually pretty scary making a sharp curve and immediately dropping over a crest into an opposing curve.    Might be fun in a sports car, like my old 1956 baby blue Porsche.     But now in a relatively large SUV its more nerve wracking than fun.    However, there are other sights so beautiful and awesome along this stretch of road, its worth the few uncomfortable moments.   This is one route I could take between my country place outside of Avery, and home in Stockton.   So seeing this meant the mountains were behind me and home was ahead.    A transition I loved, whichever way I went.   

  Two of my grandchildren are bus drivers.    While they were in training, their instructor had them drive this road.    I can't even imagine how it felt to drive a school bus around those curves.   But they did.  I guess that was the ultimate test..... 

This sketch is farther west as the road ribbons over the descending foothills dropping down into the San Joaquin Valley vineyardscand farmlands.    I drastically  foreshortened the valley so I could include Mount Diablo on the other side. 

Country Roads

More painted recently.  Sierra foothills. 
I was never a fan of landscapes...but last year when age was catching up with me and keeping me city bound more and more, I found that painting my favorite scenes was not merely a distraction, but an escape to places  that hold precious memories.   

Country Roads series

My morning watercolors are focused on country roads for the time being.    My grown son's off road trail bike club took some fantastic photos that I am using for some of these.   Some others are revamped versions of last years paintings that were in a smaller format.     These are all 6 x 8 inches. 

 The first one is inspired by a photo taken by my sons group in the high Sierras on a ridge.    Where the air is crisp.    I am leaving it unfinished.      I think I will paint it again with the foilage.   

The second is inspired by a Joyce Hicks watercolor.

This is based on a photo I took in the foothills of the Sierras on a road trip with a friend who was raised in the area.  She knew just where to find the scenic roads.

The above painting is inspired by an oil painting by Colley Whisson in Queensland.     Thai fog or mist intrigued me enough to paint it twice.    

Hand painting

This painting is still evolving.     I gessoed over most of it leaving only key elements.      Now it sits on my work table waiting to see what happens next.     Hmmm......

Art around us

This composition of a faded rose from my garden in old bowl came about quite natually. I had tossed the spent rose into the bowl when I went to wash out the vase I used to display it.    Then forgot about it until this morning.   It looked so beautiful and sweet, I could not resist taking a quick pic.   

The floral watercolor is a morning sketch done a few days ago.

Morning watercolors

Most of my neighbors are out in their gardens early in the morning.    Not me.   I garden in the evening when the light is not so bright.   It's an age thing.    Dark glasses, sunhat,  sometimes even a second pair of dark glasses over the first pair.   

That leaves my early morning free to paint little watercolors.       Here are some new ones, some shown with the inspiration piece.   I dont really enjoy putting buildings in my paintings, so you will notice missing houses and barns.    This is a series called Country Roads.      One of my favorite subjects.     

Another redo.

Tell you the truth I am getting pretty sick of this painting.   Still too busy, colors now look muddy.    Hmmm..... whats next?  Perhaps cover it all with gesso.  Lol

Still in progress.

Months have gone by between work sessions or inspiration paint on this canvas again.    Ill be making more changes tonite.   

Back to my paints.

My studio tables were cluttered up with different projects.   Mosaics. Paper mosaics. Fabrics. Printing materials.  Rock painting stuff. 

 I just cant seem to settle in with watercolors until the space is cleared and things are tidy.   During this heatwave - many days over 100 degrees - I am not spending much time outside... I figured its a good time to clean the studio.   Now its orderly and i have open table spaces everywhere I look.   Its wonderful.  And I can paint again in my morning ritual.   Only thing is I need to be up an hour earlier to take advantage of the cool studio.   Here are the first three small studies.  It feels wonderful to paint again.

Still painting.

Although I have slacked off a bit from my daily morning paintings, I am looking forward to starting the routine again.    Heres a recent watercolor.

What can be done with the new inks?

These are all experiments with the Dylusions Spray Inks, and the Tim Holtz Distress stains and inks and water.    Then a few touches now and then with the white paint pen by Sharpie.

I'm doing the 30 day chllenge so it seems a good time to experiment.   Mostly I'm trying to see if these paints, although not created for fine art applications, and I have no idea how color fast they will prove to be - can be used in a painterly way.     Most people are using these in art journals and in paper arts applications.     They are fabulous for those.  The Dylusion sprays are so bright and vivid, I'm finding for my taste, I'm having to dilute them down with water to get the intensity more measured.   The Distress inks can give interesting effects with water sprays and drops      Wear gloves when you work with the Dyluion inks.   Found this out the hard way.

Here are some of the samples I'd done.  Mostly you'll see I'm into landscapes right now.   Meadows, waterfalls, mountains, water.  The basics.    

There are green colors here, such as Dirty Martini, Mowed Grass, Bundle of Spruce, Dark Olive.    I need to make myself a new color chart with the new colors. 

 The last three are all with the Distress inks and walnut inks.     Faded Jeans for the blue, sometimes diluted with water.    Walnut ink in the Eucalypus color is kind of a soft grey with a mere hint of green.    Faded linen is the softer beige tones.      This grey purple color ( I'll edit the name in later) is an interesting color.   When it is applied with the sprayer, it looks grey but as it dries it gets the purple cast.      I was not expecting that.

I'm dabbing out some of the blue in the sky with a tissue.     One of the distress staians is white, the Picket Fence.     I have it in the dauber and used it randomly on the sky before spraying the blue.  Not very successful, the white is more of an ivory white.     but it did serve to mix and tone down the blue when rubbed and blotted with a tissue.  


Today I want to lay on some crumpled plastic to see if it breaks up the colors as it dries, as it would with acrylic paint.  I'm hoping it makes a rocky looking texture.