Tweaking Paintings

On Friday I met with my critique group and got some great suggestions to improve the paintings I showed. As usual, I made some changes and ignored other suggestions, but all in all I think the paintings are improved. I will post images of before and after because I always enjoy seeing the adjustments other artist make in their work.

See if you can spot the changes.

By the way, this latest work I just sent off to the Watercolor Society of Oregon hoping to get in to the upcoming competition.

Caribbean Cornrows II

Before

 

After

 

Changes: I wiped clean the area of hair behind the hands and made it a white background and more tendrils of hair. Also, the cornrows have more black in them. Above the upper curved colored arch, I darkened some of the white spotted area. I put some detail into the hands of the braider and made the feet of both women more readable. Finally, I made the green shirt black. Better?

Carabbean Cornrows

Before

 

After

 

Changes: I gave up some white by putting a light wash on the enpty chair. The point of the top of the empty chair got rounded. The plain purples in the spaces around the chair arms were adjusted to fit into the painting better.

Questions Rising

Before

 

After

 

Changes: Only 2--The lower right hand set of rings gained a ring, and the edge of the lower left rocks got broken up with a more interesting shape.

And now fore the abstracts. I experimented with both Clear Sailing and Lily Pads by adding some light washes in the white areas. I recieved the same feedback from almost everyone that the left white made the paintings seem unfinished.

Clear Sailing

Before

 

After

 

Lily Pads

Before

 

After

 

How many of the changes could you spot before reading the answers? Keep your fingers crossed for me regarding the image I've sent off to the WSO Juror.

Further Playing with Patterns

Once again I am playing with white space and patterns. My goal is to create a painting as dynamic as my collages, using only transparent watercolors. Rather than come up with a new composition, I relied on the lovely Roatan woman sitting on white lawn chairs.

I attacked this by saying my favorite mantra repeatedly: It's only paper.

I'm posting 3 images to help you better understand just how challenging this experience was. Although it was difficult, it was also liberating, as I ignored all my impulses to do something safe.

I'd welcome feedback. I'm asking myself the following questions.Is it playful and whimsical? Does it make me smile? Is it over the top?

 

 

 

Paintout at McKenzie Orchards B & B

 

Friday I joined a plein air group which was invited to paint at a soon to open McKenzie Orchards B & B. The generous owners, Karen and Tom Reid, not only invited us to paint and soak up the lovely scenery, but also provided us with a gourmet lunch.

Knowing the day was to be a scorcher, I arrived in the morning and looked around for an inspirational and shady spot. There were many pastoral scenes to choose from.

 

But I resisted abandoning my current fascination with white space and chose a group of lily pads in a pond instead.

 

I wanted to apply the abstract technique I'd been using in the studio lately to create a painting based on a shape I found in nature.

 

I also wanted to paint completely with transparent watercolor and use patterns on some of the shape to mimic the use of collage pieces. After painting two or three hours in the morning and having a delicious lunch, I packed up my piece and headed back to the studio.

 

Once at home I lifted a few shapes, used the mouth atomizer and added some pattern here and there.

 

Lily Pads 15 x 22

As always, comments are welcome.

More Analyzing and Mixing it Up

Ever since I stumbled into success with Sound Bites and it's mix of big white shapes and collage work, I've wanted to reproduce that winning combination. So what does it take?

First I started looking for a simple story between people. They needed to connect in some way and have an intriguing shape to float across the page, as the sailors did in Sound Bites. I remembered a photo I took in Roatan ten years ago. I loved the two women sitting on the porch, one braiding the hair of the other.



The first challenge of this was to draw an accurate depiction of the two figures. Their unusual positions are interesting, but easily misinterpreted if not rendered correctly. It's not my usual way of doing things, but for this I enlarged the photo, traced the figures and then used a grid to draw them on a large piece of watercolor paper. I eliminated the male figure and used the white lawn chair to complete the large white shape I wanted for this piece.

 

I added diamond shapes in a pattern to cross the page, joining one side to another, as I had done with the sailors. I also continued the white shape to the top of the page utilizing the window shape in the photo. To connect the white to the bottom of the page, I planned to leave white connectors with extensions of the chair legs and human legs.

Since this is a tropical scene, I wanted to use hot colors, so I next started gathering up old paintings with reds, yellows and browns.

 

When I created Sound Bites I fell into the creation of the collaged area by accident. I cut and glued without any planning ahead. Luckily it worked. This time I took my time choosing and sorting and taped all parts to the paper before gluing. This gave me a chance to make alterations if a piece didn't work, or an area became too busy or dominant.

 

Only after having all the pieces selected and attached by tape, did I move on to the permanence of gluing the pieces down.

 

I was very happy with the vibrancy of the collage pieces and the great color combinations. Next was the tricky part. How would I use paint and collage to finish the figures and have them settle into the painting? I used cutouts of different colors and patterns to determine what colors would work best for their shirts. I cut out the folds of the skirt in one color, then tossed them out for a more pastel combination. The pattern work at the bottom made me nervous. I had drawn in ink a pattern of larger diamonds, so was committed to doing something with them. In the end, I painted the diamond shapes in earthy tones. Then I eliminated most of the white by painting over the diamonds once they were dry. This created a more unified look to the bottom of the painting.

And here's the result...

 

Caribbean Cornrows 19 x 22

Two Very Different Trips

The last two weekends I have traveled nearly 2000 miles. I have been east to Colfax and Pullman, Washington for a family event (1082 miles) by car; then north to Victoria, B.C. for fun (832 miles) by car and ferry. They were certainly two very different trips. One was with the oldest member of my family, my 93 year-old mother. The other was with 3 children under 8, including the youngest member of my family, 18 month-old, Noah. One trip was to cowboy country, one was to a sophisticated city. Both were full, surrounded by family, and wonderful in different ways.

The first weekend to Eastern Washington was traveling with my two sisters and my mom. Her knees have pretty much given out on her, so we had her walker along to aid in her getting around. Needless to say, we didn't get around fast.

 

Sister Janice with Mother.

 

Sister Barbara with Mother.

We visited our three cousins, their spouses and offspring. The first day there, we visited our oldest cousin Pat and her husband, Fritz.

 

 

The big event of the weekend was the 25th wedding anniversary of my cousin Kay and her husband Stan.

 

It was a great party held at the County Fair Grounds, with a buffet prepared by Kay and Stan's kids. As every big party I've been to in the Palouse there was country music and dancing.

 

Cousin Bob dancing with his daughter.

It was great to catch up with that branch of the family.

 

Janice visiting with cousin Dorothy.

 

My mom and cousin Kay.

I think we won the distinction of traveling the furthest to attend the party!

I was barely home long enough to wash my clothes and repack before we were headed to Seattle, then Victoria. This trip included both daughters and their families. With three kids, strollers and lots of luggage, we didn't move very fast on this trip either.

 

Angelica, Marin and Noah.

We stayed at Victoria's landmark hotel, The Empress. All the girls (myself included) loved the elegance of the place.

 

 

Of course we went to Buchart Gardens.

 

 

And a carriage ride around the city was a "must do."

 

 

Josh, Marin and Rachel.

Noah stayed at the hotel with Mike and me, but got to pet the horse...

 

and have the run of the hotel.

 

Meg and I splurged on high tea. Yummy!

 

And before I knew it I was back home. Honestly, I'm ready to stay put for awhile.

Today I was back in the studio working on another piece with lots of collage. I hope to be sharing it on my blog soon.