Daniel Smith Cobalt Teal & The New Black

I've just completed a commissioned painting, a four cat portrait for their human Mom's birthday. I took photos along the way and I've gotten permission from my client to post the WIP on my blog.

I want to give a shout out to Daniel Smith for their fabulous Quinacridones. I doubt I could've achieved the results I did without them. Quin. Burnt Orange is perfect for orange kitty fur and a few flourishes of Quin. Violet bump it up another notch. One of the cats was predominately grey and black so I went with Quin. Sienna and Indigo for my black mix. I normally use burnt sienna but no more. I was thrilled with the black the Quin. Sienna produced. Very clean and rich and it watered down to a nice neutral grey. But grey is still grey and it needs help. This is where the Cobalt Teal came into play. I had planned to use it in the background so I needed to work it into the cats somehow. I added a light glaze on the grey fur and wow! That grey came to life! It was one of those ah HA! moments I love. It never gets old. I'm happy, my client is happy...now I hope the birthday girl will be happy.

Yummy Greens

A feast for the eyes yummy. I tried to capture the rainy day shades of green in the park. So lush almost like another world. The weatherman is calling for more rain even though the sun is shining at the moment. I'm looking forward to it now.

Drawing a Rainy Day Away

It's been raining here for the past two days. I'm not complaining(!) because we really do need this but the gloom does get to me. I went a surfin' on the web and was inspired to pick up a drawing utensil(in this case a Micron 05 pen)and draw the scene directly out my front windows. It's something I look at every time I sit down on my sofa and I could do an entire series on that one little view. It offers several species of trees, one that produces berries, and wild shrubs, weeds and grasses. The various shades of green are stunning at the moment. No wonder green is my favorite color.  

Roof Patrol

Here's my latest acrylic. It's 5" x 7". I darn near went blind painting it, too. Well, that's a slight exaggeration but it's a lot of tiny details for me. It looks much better at a distance.

Photo courtesy of Lorenz on PMP

Frame Cards

My latest acrylic painting. No title yet but I was in the mood for tulips. Wait! There's the title!

I'm trying something new at the moment. Paintings don't seem to be moving this summer at the gallery but card sales are up. The trouble is there is not as much profit to be had so I need to get creative in more ways than one. I recently ordered a box of frame cards w/envelopes from Clearbags  and I'm working on more 5" x 7" paintings to frame in these little cards. They look quite nice when completed. Now we'll see if folks are willing to pay $20 for a card with an original piece of artwork  included. I have some customized stickers I ordered from Zazzle last year that I will apply to the back of the cards to personalize them even more.