Iris in Progress

Well, I have not really done this but thought it might be nice for everyone to see something while in progress. I have been working on this piece for about a week, of course not daily just when I can. I have been daily doing pen and ink doodle sketches that I learned of from Stefan Baumann on Youtube. He is an oil painter but has some great instructional videos that could be applied to anything, at least I think. Anyway, I did a purple iris before many years ago, but I wanted to do something a bit different and this is going to be a purple and white iris that I found at Botanical Gardens here in Tucson. Be prepared to see more Iris things from me in the days to come because the irises should be in bloom soon and my family is planning a trip to the Botanical Gardens in April. There will probably be butterfly things as well being Butterfly Magic is still running. I am doing a little bit of a different thing with this piece then my usual painting and doing some layering which I do not often do a lot of in my work. I love painting wet on wet more which I did for the background. Hope you enjoy this work in progress and the final product which should be done in the next few weeks, I hope.

Agave Plein Air Sketch

So, I have been trying my hand at Urban sketching as I said a few days ago. I have all my set up right now, but still ironing out the kinks. I found sketching this at a Bus stop here in Tucson, AZ was both fun and exciting but difficult. I need to get used to all the natural and man-made obstacles involved in this process. However, I do love the loose feel of this sketch. And I really wanted to capture the idea that this Agave had some pink in the points which I do not often see. Hope you enjoy this new adventure I am on these days.

Mugsley and Teddy Ink and wash

I guess I cannot get back to watercolor sketching without getting into ink and wash. This is our precious dog, Mugsley. He is usually a lazy dog, but even in his sleepy mode he is a mover. This was a fun little sketch I did while my daughter eat some breakfast. I did the other one of her precious toy, Teddy which is actually a monkey, shortly later and she could not resist adding some fun of her own with her little sketch of Mugsley on the same page as Teddy.

Exploring Brick

I have decided to start a watercolor sketchbook. It is often too hard with a little one to find a good chunk of time to complete a painting or larger size, but as I have been following several Urban Sketchers online I have decided that it would be fun to explore this world and get my skills back to producing art. The artist bug has really bit me these days and I have been doing lots of fun spontaneous ink and wash sketches but also got my outdoor kit going to do a watercolor sketch. It has been a while since I have been serious with watercolor as most everything I have produced in the last several years has been 4X6 in watercolor while only producing larger works with acrylic. So, here is to getting back into the world of color and expression. I did this Exploring Brick as a watercolor while my little one played in the backyard. It was great fun and I finished it later inside remembering the light and the windy day. It is a watercolor size 7.5" by 11" it is the size I have decided to make my travel sketch watercolor pad. This pad was also my first attempt at binding myself which was great fun. I hope you all enjoy.

Death and Love

This painting has two of the processes that I love to do with acrylics, sea sponging and swirly tree like patterns. I think of this as the fire and energy of death that comes with love. In every time of love with anything or anyone, there is a degree of death and dying to other things and oneself. There is so much complexity and levels to the power of that love and the continual death of other things to sacrifice for the love. This is, as said early, an acrylic painting. It is a larger painting at 24" by 18" with the the name, "Death and Love," in order to communicate the interwoven complexity of these too factors as they swirl and twist together. This was the last painting that I completed, but I have a few in the works. However, the rigors of family and a young child get in the way at times. Also reflecting in some ways this death and love. The love of my child so often brings about a death to the things I often took for granted as a single person; however, I would not trade the love and times to be with my little for anything else.

Evening Glow

"Evening Glow" (watercolor 4X6) was also painted in order to try to get the feel of art back into the bones. Sitting at a blank canvas or sheet of paper is often daunting, especially when I have really cut the creative side of my life short for so long. Whenever I seem to be in that bind, I often get loosened up by a sunset or sunrise scene. I love them so much and I have gotten to see so many beautiful sunsets in my life here in southern Arizona. We have some of the best evening skies around. If you have followed me for a while or even scan my old posts, there are several sky scenes. I do love them, so this is one to add to the rest. I am partial to this one right now because it marks the end of a hard year and the beginnings and hopes of a more creative and art filled life.

A Longing for Sedona

Well, in this time period of little art and no posts, my family has gotten a chance to spend a part of a day in Sedona. It was a very brief time after going to a wedding in Prescott. This painting and exercise from a Cathy Johnson watercolor book that I did recently. I had actually started working on this nearly a year ago, and did not finish it until just a few weeks ago. Cathy Johnson used watercolor pencils in her display and it was book on using watercolor pencils. However, I used Ink Intense pencils which I was unhappy at how they handled. Granted I had not handled them for quite some time, but I was still unhappy with the effect. But the real purpose behind longing to paint this was my earning to be back out in nature and my longing to be back in Sedona more regularly. Although, I am not sure where this painting was based from; it reminds me a great deal of an area that I took a jeep into during a trip in 2005 when I stayed for an extended time in Sedona. This is just a small postcard size rendering. It makes me want to go ahead and make a painting of the true area that I went to that year and see how that one would turn out.