Shirley Trevena Wannabe

I almost forgot to post this (again, another dark photo because I normally photograph outside). This picture was created a few weeks ago when I got together with Linda Young to watch a video of Shirley Trevena explaining some of her processes for her watercolors. I really like Shirley Trevena's style and had just recently discovered her. Linda and I set out to create a picture "Trevena style". Only two of the objects in this picture were actually in front of me. The rest was made up or taken from pictures I found online. Part of this style involves treating the background as important as the objects in the picture. She also tapes off areas to paint in sections. It was harder than I thought to think this way, but fun to try.

Jeanne's Class

I've been away for a while so I haven't posted. Here's a picture from two weeks ago of a still life from Jeanne's class.

Sally's Grandkids

I told some of my friends that I would practice doing portraits using photos they gave me. One type of photo that I find particularly uninspiring is the typical "head shot" photo that you get from a photography place (like Sears). I tried to do something different with these "head shot" photos that my friend gave me by taping off an area of paper and just painting a closeup of part of the face. I think this is more interesting than the way I would have done the painting in the past, but I'm also thinking I should have put the boys closer together and maybe done something more with the frames around them. Here's my effort for now. This photo is rather dark, because it's too dismal to take a photo outside today.

Abstract - not finished

This is an abstract I started in Ron's class and then worked on at home. We wetted both sides of our paper, then put down coffee filters and paper - then painted around the edges. (Our own designs, colors, etc.) I used some bunched up plastic wrap to get some texture, too. Then I went in and defined some of the shapes and added some colors and shapes. I'm still not sure where to go with it from here, but I don't feel it's "done" yet. It was a really fun process - and I might actually try it again.

Large Hibiscus

Ron's last in class assignment was to do a large Hibiscus flower. I found a picture online and painted this based on it. I enjoyed it more than I expected to - It was fun to paint the flower in a very loose style.

Sterling Edwards derivative

Ron did a "synchronized painting" activity in class based on Sterling Edward's work. I was frustrated in class because I didn't know where we were going with it. Once I got home and took a look at his paintings - I did this one based on his style. It did give me experience with using a rigger brush, Although I don't think traditional landscapes will ever be "my thing".

Here are two more from Jeanne's class. The clocks were set up in a very traditional still life - in a line horizontally - Jeanne sort of challenged me to not see them that way. I want to try some other still life paintings not being bound by the way the objects "really are".   I wasn't very pleased with my composition or color in the truck and bear picture - I may try it later on at home.

Jeanne's Class

It's been quite a while since I posted anything and I have things that I've been working on that I'm not going to post right now. I'm trying to figure out how I want to paint portraits - so I'm working out bits and pieces of things. This is a picture of a still life from Jeanne's class. Figuring out how to do the basket was much harder than I thought it would be.