Painting my Garden

Hello, long neglected blog. It's been a while! But summer is here, and I'm on vacation until September which means I have time for my art once again. For those of you that don't know, I teach ESL part-time at a local college when I'm not doing art. I squeeze in time for art whenever I can, so even though I haven't been blogging much, I have been painting, collaging, and drawing quite a lot this year. I'm focusing more on my painting skills these days and recently took Diane Culhane's wonderful online class "Paint Your Garden: The Language of Paint." Using a garden theme as inspiration, Diane teaches various painting techniques in this class such as pointillism and masking.

Lucifer and Becky

Inspired by the Crocosimia Lucifer and Daisies (Leucanthemum × superbum 'Becky') now blooming in my garden

acrylic on canvas

8" x 10'

I used a lot of masking in this one, both with masking fluid and masking tape. Can you tell where I used the tape? I might go back in and do more line work, but I don't want to lose the spontaneous feel I have. Diane uses the liner brush a lot in her paintings, but so far, I haven't been happy with my results. Like anything else, it will take practice.

Which brings me to another question -- How do you learn from an artist that you admire, but at the same time, keep your own 'voice'? I love Diane's style, but I don't want to copy it (and indeed, I am not able to copy it, at least at this point in time)?

Thanks for visiting today! I appreciate your comments.

Where the Wild Flowers Are

Where the Wild Flowers Are
mixed media on 8" x 8" panel

I can't seem to stop painting these crazy flowers. My family and I watched "Where the Wild Things Are" recently and I loved the monsters in the movie. I've always loved Maurice Sendak's illustrations in his beloved children's book. Somehow, my strange flowers here in muted colors remind me a little of those monsters, which is totally weird, I know. But these are not the dainty flowers that beckon you to smell them and cut them for flower arrangements. No, these flowers are different - a little scary, maybe, as if they were from a slightly scary flower nightmare, with a happy ending, of course. Or maybe they're on their way to an audition for "Where the Wild Flowers Are" not coming any time soon to a theater near you!

Trio
mixed media on 4" x 6" panel

I don't really know where these flowers are coming from, but they sure are fun to paint! For both of these paintings, I began by adding some collage before gesso and then continuing with watercolor and pencil. I love seeing glimpses of the collage underneath. As I've mentioned in other posts, I learned this technique from Carla Sonheim. It's helped me figure out a way to combine my new love of collage with my old love of drawing, and watercolor. I may have to stop doing these flowers at some point, but I'm sure I'll be exploring this technique for a long time. 

Where Have All the Flowers Gone?

It's been a flower crazy spring for me, ever since taking Carla Sonheim's wonderful online class in March. I've been doing more work with the gesso and watercolor technique, sticking primarily with imaginary flowers.

This one is actually a close up from an altered board book I've been working on. I've been doing collage before the gesso layer and I love the way it looks.

And here you can see the complete spread of crazy flowers.

I really love drawing flowers. I always have. But today, I decided it was time to branch out with this technique.

And before I knew it, this little bird stopped by for a visit. 

Flower Craziness

Hello, my long neglected blog and lovely blog readers!  I seem to have taken an unplanned break from blogging but the good news is that I've been doing a lot of painting. I signed up for Carla Sonheim's Flower Crazy Class and have been going flower crazy (in a good way) all through the month of March. It's my first online class and I am loving it. Carla is such a wonderful teacher. Beginners and experienced artists alike can learn a lot from her playful and practical approaches to creating art. 

One of the great ideas I've learned from the class is to look at other objects for inspiration. for example, in this exercise, I looked at pictures of gears online for flower shape ideas. Pretty cool, huh?!

And in this painting, I was inspired by a sea anemone.

It's amazing how this takes the pressure off when you're drawing, at least for me. 

Can you guess what my inspiration was for this one? 

I'm amazed by how many completed paintings I've done this month. It's definitely been a worthwhile experience to take this class.