About Me

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San Jose, California, United States
Some paintings far surpass my expectations and some are scary awful, but it's always fun.

Friday, April 22, 2011

Murano Canalside Market



I'm not sure why I'm posting this-I am so not pleased with the way it turned out. It's from a photo I took of a produce market on a boat parked canalside on the island of Murano in the Venetian lagoon. I managed to take a cheerful sunlit scene and turn it into a murky mess! It's on a half sheet-15" x 22". I began the painting back in January, and it quickly became a mess, so I put it aside until last week, when I decided to bring it to some level of completion so I can move on.

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Plein Air April 21, 2011



Today we met at SCVWS President Karen Wong's house in Los Altos. She has a lovely garden, as do several of her neighbors, and we all enjoyed painting there. Everyone LOVED her 10 week old puppy, Bones!

Once again I used an Arches 140 lb. block, 9" X 12" and drew with sepia pens before I applied my washes. I went back afterward and added lots more pen. Next time I'm going to try to zero in on a smaller area so I can get more detail. The arbor is not skewed so wildly in reality-I just had drawing issues.

Afterward I went to lunch with Kaaren and her mother, Kay Marinaro. Kay isn't a plein air girl, but we're trying to get her to give it a try! We had a great visit.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Plein Air on April 14th




Last Thursday the SCVWS Plein Air group painted in Elaine Revell's garden. She is moving and downsizing, so she had a garage sale featuring loads of art supplies, books, videos, paper and more, the proceeds of which she is generously donating to the Watercolor Society. It was a nice sunny day and we had a great turnout.
I used a 9" x 12" Arches block and sepia Faber Castell pens with washes. I finally added the last few washes today. I'm happy with the way I was able to get so many natural-looking greens.