Woot! Thank you to Scott and Ken at the Andersonville Galleria for featuring one of my Valentine's paintings in the front window display.
I've just finished 4 new small lovebird paintings in time for the upcoming holiday. New greeting cards will also be available soon. Looking out the window right now with the snow coming down I can see why Valentine's Day is so well placed this time of year - everyone could use a warm-up!
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Portraits make great gifts. Our lovely Bonnie just celebrated a milestone birthday, so I created a portrait of her as a birthday present. I found a great fun pic of her on Facebook and created this portrait from the photo. Went over very well at the party - Robin even found the hat from the photo and put it on Bonnie's head! Everyone laughed for a good ten minutes and Bonnie seemed genuinely touched! It was great!
This style of painting which is a combination of collage, monoprint and watercolor, is a fun and interesting style to use for portraiture. I've mainly used it for pet portraits but lately have tried a few people portraits and I am really loving the effects.
Happy birthday Bonnie!
Our lovely Bonnie! - portraits from photography
Playing around with some more monoprints lately. Dad and Lynda are celebrating their 65th birthdays this year so I decided to do a pet portrait from photos of their Wheaton Terrier, Seamus. He's a dashing young guy - lots of energy - and I thought the monoprint process would help depict his personality as well as make an interesting painting. I did two while I was at it. I also did a couple inspired by late fall color in the trees.
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Wayne Thiebold made a name for himself during the pop art movement by painting cakes and pastries - and I can see why he chose them. They're so pretty! Like making a painting of a sculpture, it's art inspired by art.
While the Pop movement was about glorifying objects of mass culture, my inspiration is more of an homage to the work and talent that goes into making a beautiful cake or pastry.
These were way too fun to paint, and I have lots of ideas to continue the series. However, the fall out is a pretty hefty sugar craving. Uh oh!
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I just finished a commissioned puppy portrait of Maya - a gorgeous Great Dane. My client purchased this painting as a birthday gift for her friend, Maya's owner. I always like to have a few paintings going at once so I'm not sitting there watching paint dry, so, while I was at it, I also did two other pet portraits. One is a portrait of Juno, a lab mix puppy owned by my good friends the Carrolls, and I also did a portrait commemorating my much missed cat, Daisy.
All three of these paintings are combinations of monoprints, collage and watercolor. I love the unexpected effect created by both the collage and the monoprint. You never know what you're going to get, but it's usually something good!
I've been seeing them everywhere - birds have taken over the interiors and fashion industries in recent years. My head has been turned - so many cute little tweeters everywhere I look. So, inspired by what I'm seeing around me, I thought I'd jump in and try some monoprints with birds as the subject.
For the birds? You tell me. Below are the series finished this weekend.
I've really been getting into monoprints lately. I learned a fun technique from Karlyn Holman at a class I took in April and have been playing with the concept ever since.
You start with pasting colored tissue on Masa paper, then you do your monoprint on top of that, and after it dries you can go back in... or not... with watercolor.
There's a lot of chance involved in the process because you can't really be sure where the papers will end up or what kinds of smudges you'll get in the print process. But I believe there is a lot of beauty to be found in imperfection.
Above, Blue Spring, is a favorite.
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