CATITUDE 1~'Caterwauling'

I had a LOT of fun painting this one. I found a photo reference of a cat in full 'yawn'. Also in this photo was a flower stem with it's bud in just the right position to suggest a microphone. The TV reality show 'American Idol' popped into my head immediately. And c'mon...anyone that's watched that show even once must have seen worse performances...right? Anyhoo...this poor cat's ears had been cropped off so I had to supply him with at least one and I replaced the flower bud with something that more resembled a real 'mic'..namely a prairie coneflower. Voila! A cat belting out a tune into his flower microphone. What could be better?

More Good News!

~ALL SOLD ABOVE~

I received a call from the gallery yesterday. Vivi, one of the owners and a great advisor told me four more pieces sold and they only have three of my pieces left. Need more! I was almost speechless! And thrilled.

I have to give Northern Michigan Artists Market a great deal of credit for accepting my work in the first place and being such wonderful promoters. I couldn't be happier with how things are going and how comfortable they make me feel over there. I look forward to a long and enjoyable relationship with this gallery. And a profitable one, too. *big smile*

Jack Revisited

I did finally decide to add a bit of ink to this one. I cleaned up the edges, defined a leaf edge where my color values were too close and added some violet that was missing at the base of the flowers. I'm stopping now before I over-do it. I have a tendency to fiddle my work to death. One of the trickiest things about creating a piece of artwork is knowing when it's done.

Jack in the Pulpit

Jack-in-the-Pulpit

preaches today

under the green trees

just over the way.

~Clara Smith

I lost the light before finishing this today. Hopefully I will be able to get a better photo tomorrow. I'm debating whether I want to add some ink to this one.

Jack in Progress

Having tried at least seven trial compositions with this subject (mainly where to place the stem and leaves) I realized I was stuck. Thankfully it's summertime so I decided to just go out and dig in the dirt for awhile. As luck would have it I sprained my toe so I finally decided to have a go at this. I chose my original comp minus the third flower sprouting from the center. I felt that including it would be too complicated to pull off and really unnecessary to the finished piece.

I also tried out a few new colors. Up to this point I've stuck with the three primaries. This time I chose Perylene Maroon(basically the color of a blood clot but a great mixer), Sap green and Daniel Smith's Greengold. I mixed Ultramarine violet and a dash of Indigo with the Perylene Maroon to cut the slightly gory look it has. It worked great for the 'hood' of the flowers. The Greengold is a very acidic color so I diluted it a great deal.

With these new colors I ran out of atomizer bottles so I ordered some Holbein atomizers from Blick. They spray a much coarser mist that I found hard to work with. They produced some neat looking mottled effects but not what I wanted for this application.

Timeout for Garden Talk

Sorry to be MIA...again. I've been gardening. 'Tis the season and around here it's short so I've gotta make the most of my time. I want to share my Black Currant Swirl hollyhocks with everyone. These beauties are real showstoppers.

Jack in the Pulpit Thumbnail

I'm planning to paint Jack in the Pulpit next using my spray technique. The actual flowers are pretty simple but as usual the background will take some careful thought. Using my colored pencils I created a thumbnail of the plant on semi-transparent paper. Then I colored an underlay of a possible background and folded my thumbnail over it to get an idea what it will look like without drawing and redrawing the plant. I'll probably be doing a couple more before deciding what works best.

Just Received a Wonderful Email

Marty Scott, one of the owners of Northern Michigan Artists Market sent me a lovely email today. I've decided to share it on my blog:

Billie --I looked at your blog today and I loved the enthusiasm of you and your loyal followers. I put a link to it on my blog. Thanks for the link to the Artists Market site and for the kind words about the Market. I am looking forward to selling lots more of your work and working with you for a long time.-- Marty Scott

King of the Porch

I've had a reference photo for this cat a long time and finally decided to give it a try with watercolor. It seems lately cats have been lucky for a few artists so what better time than now to paint a cat! This one won't be going to market, though. I had some help from my faithful studio assistant, Raven the cat. She graciously added a few purple paw prints and some equally purple splots and drops here and there. *sigh* However, she DID inspire me to try stepping away from a realistic palette so I plan to attempt this cat again with a few Daniel Smith colors I've been dying to try out...Moonglow and Tiger's Eye Genuine. These may produce a very unusual but interesting cat. Anyway, I'll never know until I try.

This was also done on Arches hot pressed watercolor paper which I don't normally use for brush on paper techniques but I do love the smooth finished surface. I applied a very thick mixture of paint with a stiff short bristled brush to create all that thick calico fur. I feel it was successful.

Two Pieces Sold!

Hemingway's Cat~SOLD

I contacted the gallery today and two of my pieces sold. YES! The Buckeye Butterfly and a print of Hemingway's Cat have now gone to their new homes.

Gallery Walk

The annual Petoskey Gallery Walk will be held June 21st, not the 23rd which I had previously thought. Eleven galleries will be participating and the walk will end with fabulous food and entertainment at Stafford's Perry Hotel. All the galleries will be donating artwork for a prize drawing.

Yesterday I took seven of my older pieces to Northern Michigan Artist's Market for a total of nine on display. I included a mix...one colored pencil piece, two watercolors, three graphite pieces and one print. When everything had been delivered and put into inventory I promptly went home and took a three hour nap. *huge sigh of relief* I had no idea I was stressing so much but apparently I was. I'm all better now.

While at the gallery I had a chance to chat with Martin Scott, one of the gallery owners. They're in the process of updating their website so buyers will be able to purchase their artist's work directly from the new site. As Martha would say, this could be a very good thing.

Peacock Orchid Completed

I finally had enough time to bring this one home, so to speak. There's a few spots I may wind up tweaking a little but for the most part I'm pretty happy with it.

Quick Update~Peacock Orchid

Center Completed

My Working Drawing

I finally started this one...my peacock orchid. I'm posting an update on my progress so far. I think the worst is over...the center is completed! I keep telling myself I need to work in a much larger format. Cutting away all those tiny bits and pieces is a bit nerve wracking.

Wonderful News!

Daffodil

Buckeye Butterfly~~SOLD

I know I've been MIA for quite awhile but things have been...well...things. Recently some of my artwork has been accepted by Northern Michigan Artist's Market of Petoskey, Michigan and I couldn't be happier! Today I delivered two framed pieces to the gallery so I'm officially 'being shown'. There's still a lot of work to do on my part, tho. The annual gallery walk starts June 23rd and I hope to have several more pieces completed and ready to submit to NMAM.

I'm doing my own mounting and framing. I found out I can cook up a mean batch of wheat paste now! This is a wonderful opportunity and it's certainly a learning experience for me.

I've submitted my sprayed daffodil and a buckeye butterfly done in colored pencil.

Peacock Orchid~Comp and Value studies

Quick color study with colored pencils.

Here are my two studies. I chose to try one with the foliage and one with the addition of a spent bloom. As this plant begins to flower the blooms start low with each new bloom being produced above the last as the plant continues to grow higher. One plant can produce as many as 10-12 blooms, one at a time as the one before it droops and dies. The spent blooms tend to arch downward gracefully in a bell shape. The foliage is thin, flat, strap shaped and stands almost straight up.

This is a photo I took in my garden last Fall when the orchids were blooming. It was a windy day so unfortunately the image is a little blurry.

I love peacock orchids. They're so architectural and their height and verticality makes them a stunning addition to the garden. The blooms remind me of an exotic duck coming in for a landing on a pond. Even though they aren't hardy in my zone 5 garden I buy more bulbs and plant them every year. They tend to bloom when all else is done and gone. I've chosen them as my next subject for a painting. Now I'm trying to decide on a composition that shows off their best qualities. I've done two studies both for comp and as a value study. I may do several more before deciding on one I like well enough to paint. My format will probably be approx. 11" X 14" and I want to showcase the bloom more than the height.

Matting and Framing

The right mat and frame can and should enhance a piece of artwork. On the flipside the wrong mat and frame can ruin that same piece of art. Taking the time to chose the correct matting and a good frame is well worth the time and effort.

I'll be matting and framing The Poppy for myself. This piece will hang in my home on a pale yellow wall. I've decided I want a square format for the finished hung piece. Since this painting isn't square(approx. 11" wide by 10 " high) the mat will have a 3" border on the bottom. The sides and top will have a 2" border creating the square. I know it may sound odd but it works. For the frame I've chosen two that are simple and contemporary with a matte black finish. I haven't decided how wide I want the actual frame so I've done a virtual frame up with two different width frames which I'm posting here. Then I can look at them both together for a few days and decided which one works best.

The Poppy

This one tested my patience more than any other painting I've ever done...in any style. If my paper had been larger I would've chosen to do this in a much larger format. Also after it was completed (I thought) and I had removed all the frisket I decided the center of the flower was not dark enough. The frisket didn't want to stick well the second time around. Even after repeated burnishings I still had some bleed under it. I had to resort to a few dabs of opaque white to correct the problem. This finally became a quest! I was going to complete this or die trying. It's not my best effort to date but it's certainly been a learning experience for me. This taught me I have the stick-to-it-enuffs to stay with a difficult project and secondly, to get it right the first time!

Virtually Framed

I just had fun matting and framing my last piece online. You gotta love the internet!

Daffodil wip

Here's the finished painting. I may decide to

do a little more tweaking or chalk this one

up to experience.

I've masked off the finished cup and

started working first on the background,

then on the foliage and the lowest petal.

I started with the cup first, then masked it off

before completing the rest.

The sketch. I wound up tweaking this a little as I went along.

I enjoyed Mehaffey's technique so much I thought I'd try it again on another subject. I've used the same reference for this daffodil with graphite and really loved the results. This was much more difficult than the waterlily and I'm not entirely sure I like the results. It's all part of the learning experience, though.

Waterlily continued

Almost forgot. These are the sprayers I used. They
spray a nice fine mist and worked like a charm.
And here is my waterlily completed. There's many
things I'd do differently next time but not bad for
a first try.

And more layers. It's starting to look like something!
Here's the first few layers of paint. I'm trying to
get a bounce of warm to cool going diagonally from opposite corners.

I've removed my frisket from the drawing and placed it on
my working paper. I burnished it down with a spray bottle.

Blogger is acting up today so I guess my waterlily posts will be in installments.