Tag Archives: watercolor

Eeeeek! Bad Cropping, Facebook!! Gasp. Here’s Something Better to Look At!

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Sorry sorry sorry, y’all!  My last blog entry contained paintings of two full length nudes, neither of which was ‘out of bounds’ (IMHO).  So, I was aghast when I checked to see if Facebook had re-posted it and found that the images had been sliced and diced in an unexpected manner (to say the least).  I hope you clicked over to my blog to get a better sense of the overall paintings!

In any event, here’s a ‘palette cleanser’!  It’s one of the radishes I painted during the Saturday afternoon session of my Wendy Artin workshop, followed by one of Wendy’s gorgeous still life watercolors — also of radishes.

Radish 1. Watercolor on Paper.

Wendy’s radishes — again, quite a difference:

Radishes, 2001, watercolor on cotton Khadi paper, 11″ x 12″

Excellent Watercolor Workshop – Thanks, Wendy Artin!

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This past weekend I spent two grueling days knee-deep in watercolor.  Wendy Artin, a fabulous artist and lovely person, was our instructor, at Glen Kessler’s Compass Atelier.  Talk about ‘alla prima’ painting!  She dives right in – no rough sketch, no gesture drawing, no nothing — just her eye, her paint & her brush to guide her relentlessly down the sheet of paper.  Her tonal nudes, in which she paints ONLY the ‘shadow shapes’ yet leaves you believing the whole body, are exquisite.  Her colorful fruits & veggies are more fully rendered, but are also beautiful & light.

Here’s one of her nudes:

And one of mine — a half hour pose during the workshop (quite a difference, yes??:

I was VERY happy to be able to switch to vegetables in the afternoons!

Teaching and Being Taught in Lafayette

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Last week I taught a one day iPad art workshop to a number of local artists in Lafayette LA and then attended a three-day workshop in watercolor journaling held by Don Getz and organized by my sister Ceci. Another sister, Mercedes, participated in much of the fun, including the iPad session. Since I was so close to home, Ceci and I swung over to Biloxi afterward to visit our dad and his wife and more brothers and sisters.

As for making art while out-of-town, I didn’t paint while teaching. And it was so cold and windy during the plein air workshop that I didn’t do anything of note then either. In fact, after a couple of watercolor/ink drawings, I resorted to my iPad to get something — anything — down before my hands went numb. Though everything is unfinished, I’ll show you the state of play (along with a few photos of what we were memorializing) so you can get a flavor for the beauty of Cajun country. Teaser: we painted the St. John Cathedral Oak, the third largest live oak in the country.

Now Here’s One I Love!

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My sweet hubby, busy reading the Saturday papers. A new ArtRage/iPad painting, done freehand, based on a reference photo I made of him some time ago. This one was done using only the watercolor tool, over a light pencil sketch on the bottom layer.

reading the Saturday Post

Pat, reading the Post on a Saturday, with coffee.

Vinales Finale ~~ on to Havana!

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We had beautiful days in Vinales, sunrise to sunset. I took lots of photos and, while waiting for evening activities, made a couple more paintings. A gouache of the valley below our balcony (the black paper didn’t photograph well):

a gouache painting of the Vinales Valley beneath our balcony

‘Gauzy’ gouache of the valley beneath our balcony.

and a watercolor of a lone palm tree presiding over the pool (painted happily with a Mojito at my elbow):

A painting of a solitary palm tree with mogote background, watercolor

A proud palm by the pool at Los Jazmines,Vinales.

Here are a few more photos in and around Los Jazmines Hotel, made primarily to fix the place and its beauties in my memories:

Early sunrise at Los Jazmines.

photo of the valley with a tobacco barn under construction

Tobacco barn underway in the valley.

looking down the length of the bar

The cozy cafe-bar in the hotel.

bartender behind bar pours coffee

We DID drink coffee in addition to plentiful Mojitos!

pink hotel and blue pool

Pink hotel and blue pool made a cool combo.

waiter and guests chat in the cool evening

A casual evening around the pool.

sunset, sky and part of the hotel balcony

We sigh and snap a photo of our last Vinales sunset.

painting on a wall near the hotel

We pass a ‘colorful’ mural en route to the morning bus.

Goodbye, Vinales! Goodbye, Los Jazmines! On to Havana!

Touring and Painting a Cuban Tobacco Farm

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For the next cultural-artistic adventure, we bused to nearby Vinales town and hiked to a small tobacco farm out on the valley floor.

The tobacco farm set against pasters.

Our first glimpse of the farm.

The farmer's wife brews coffee for our group

The farmer’s wife brews coffee.

In the thatched kitchen — an outbuilding, so as to minimize the risk of fire — we enjoyed a complimentary coffee brewed by the farmer’s wife from beans grown and roasted by the family.

As we sat around with some of the best coffee we’ve ever had, her husband demonstrated his cigar-rolling technique. It was interesting to learn that each farm family uses its own secret recipe to ferment its 10% share of the annual tobacco crop.

We were able to persuade the farmer to move his table outside and demo his technique again — this time, we painted. Another wonderful local subject!

The farmer poses for the painters.

The farmer turns model for the afternoon.

I was grateful to snag a small chair and a sliver of shade for our painting session. Here’s the watercolor I made.

the tobacco farmer poses for us in his yard

The tobacco farmer with background bull.