Elephant and Macaw Watercolor Paintings

These are my first tries (since high school, 1986) at watercolor with cheap-ass paint and paper from Hobby Lobby. Master's Touch--I wouldn't recommend their stuff to a 3 yr old! But I framed these two and they're hanging in my living room, lol.

Southern NM State Fair Wins and More Art Plans

My 5 entries all won ribbons at the Fair. I also got Best of Show in the 2 dimensional art section (competing with about 70 total pieces). I was so shocked and happy. Felt like a star for a day, and I have a big 18" ribbon too. Also won a little money, yay!

I got a white ribbon on "Cap Off the Toothpaste," a red on "Silver Cup with Grapes" and "French Glazed Donut." And then I got a blue ribbon on "Silver Cup with Green Apples" and "Rhyolite Mercantile" which I had just finished literally the day of the evening I had to deliver it for set up. The bowl of apples won the Best of Show.

So now I have a display wall at home, lol.

Now I've decided to work on a collection of southwest architecture paintings. I love the feel of it (being new to NM) and so hopefully I won't get bored. The newest one is "Santa Fe Door." That's the second one and I have 2 more barely started. I hope to do at least 10, maybe even 15 or 20. In any case, I want to do a "southwest collection" that will include landscapes, architecture, and still lifes. At least a total of 20!

New long-term goal:  To become an "art-vendor" here in the city. First I have to make a collection and a website....was supposed to do that a long time ago.

  

A Pair of Impressionistic Paintings

Toothpaste and Cheez-Its

Acrylic on 8x12" canvas sheets. Both done in one afternoon. I wish I could paint like that everyday!

New Paintings

I finally got around to painting again. These were supposed to be practice paintings and so I did them on canvas sheets instead of stretched canvas.

Avocado

B is for Bananas

A Whole Bunch

Lime Sourball

 And my favorite one so far...

Silver Cup with Grapes

There were others but they didn't make the cut, lol.

Seascape and Vegetable still life paintings I put in the fair last month

Yay, I won 2 ribbons in the Erie County Fair in NY last month.

The Seascape is a painting I did for a friend, and it won a 2nd place ribbon.
And the vegetable Still Life painting, now hanging in my kitchen, got an Honorable Mention ribbon.

Here are some of the steps they went through:

and

"Goin' West" Landscape and "Seaside" Coasters

**(Update on Seaside Coasters--they DID stick together using just the artist's Liquitex gloss varnish. So after that disappointment, I got out my small can of Varathane that I'm using on the chalk-painted chairs and brushed a coat of that on them. Worked great! No stickiness. I painted the sides like sand and they kind of also look like cork, even tho the coasters are hard inflexible material ( don't know what exactly..) Here's the final photo.

In the process of practicing clouds from a reference photo, I added land to the bottom. I heard that without a back, middle, and foreground, it is just a "study." Goin' West"---something I will be doing in the not so far off future.

And I was going thru stuff, trying to get rid of lots of things so our cross country move will be lighter and cheaper. I came across a cheap coaster st from Dollar General. I thought I could paint on those, so I gessoed them and today finished painting little seascapes on them. They are "reversible" because I painted a scene on both sides. I still have to do the edges and gloss them. And then make sure they don't stick together. I will probably make them available to purchase, but I don't mind keeping them!

Cherry Tomatoes painting

Cherry tomatoes. So much more delicious than grape tomatoes! Lol. I just finished this 11 x 14" acrylic paint on stretched canvas. Very happy with it! Mixing white is coming in handy.

7-4-16 Latest version: (It looked like it was missing something so I added a tomato top!)

(First version)

 (From this morguefile.com reference photo which I obviously cropped.)

First practice of painting Clouds!

After years of avoiding them, I finally tried to learn how to paint clouds. There IS a method to the madness......

Good Things Keep Happening

Good things keep happening in the area of my art. This morning I got an email from redbubble.com telling me that my painting "Ten Cardinals in Birch Trees" was featured on their homepage! It's in the form of an iPhone case, first one in the second row. It's listed on the Found! part. I guess one of their curators chose it and that's how it got there. I was so surprised! 

So it's a brand new kind of recognition. And nothing motivates me more! (aside from getting PAID) I can't wait to paint more paintings!

Next I plan on doing some stormy skies. Maybe with land, maybe with water. But definitely want to work on clouds. Try to incorporate the golden ratio and proportions into the landscape too. 

After that, I want to try impressionist cityscapes. Then night scenes, And of course I can always do more food!

Once I have a few series done, I will be trying to sell again. Or maybe even display them somewhere. IDK where exactly...

And I have to get going on making my website!!

   

French Donut Before and After

I thought it was finished but I decided I didn't like how green it was and wanted to make it a warmer orange. And it was easy! Wasn't a pain to do at all, and only took a short time. I'm much, much happier with it now.

Before

After

French Honey Dip Donut

The last in this group of single donuts. I want to move on to other subjects. These were fun to do and it helped me with self-discipline and speed. Maybe now I can focus more on slowing down and doing more involved work.

Glazed Donut painting

I did this today from life. It doesn't look like the actual donut, but I still like the end result. I guess i still have to work on better color matching. Neatness doesn't matter, but color and value do. And try to pay attention to brush stroke textures.

Chocolate Glazed Donut painting

Did this one from memory alone. Testing my abilities. Also did it in one afternoon--2 hrs I think. 6 x 8" on canvas panel.