Watercolor Lessons

My fellow artist 

Carlene Dingman Atwater

provided my watercolor instructor

John Preston

with the reference photo for the first of these paintings.

Carlene asked how it turned out so I decided to post it.

Although I don't always post my paintings from class, or rather,

paintings done under supervision.

This is the best way for me to paint in watercolor.

Here are some of the more successful ones.

John provides the reference photos and 

does a demonstration of how he would paint it.

 Then his victims, er...students, paint it themselves.

 It is a great class and because he is such a patient teacher

all of his students learn something new about painting 

and themselves

in every class.

I will not be posting the clouds from our last class...

I completely crashed and burned!!!

Lake Lacey

I love Lake Lacey.

I have painted it before 

and I will paint it again.

This beautiful little lake is located in Lacey Keosauqua State Park,

on the Des Moines River just over the bridge

from Keosauqua, Iowa.

"Lake Lacey"
12 x 12 oil on canvas  $125

This year the Fairfield Art Association
 asked its member artists
to create something on a 12 x 12 canvas.

This is a fun show to see
because of the huge variety of
mediums and techniques that are used by
everyone.

If you are in Fairfield the show is in the lobby
of the Fairfield Arts and Convention Center.

Part of the sale of the art displayed goes to
the Fairfield Art Association.
Their gift shop is right off of the lobby and has loads
of gift ideas.....jewelry, ceramics, glass
and of course paintings.

2014 Calendar

My nice friends at Community First Bank asked me to create

 another pen and ink for their calendar this year.

Wickfield Pavillion

Cantril, Iowa

I decided to make it more of a landscape than a

portrait of a building as I did in 

previous years.

Apple-ista

Ok, I really have done quite a few paintings this year.  

But I haven't posted any for a long time.  I think it has been since March?

These are the paintings that are going to the Fort Madison Art Center Member Show.

     

                       "Apple-ista" 8" x 8"  $95.00   Oil on panel 

                                      Framed in rustic black

                                  "Passed By". 8" x 10". $110.  Oil on panel

                                                  In a silver frame

           The Fort Madison Art Center receives a portion of every sale.  Pay them a visit or

       Contact me for more details.

Navigating Nevis

No, I'm not in the tropics!

This was painted over a month ago.

In the depths of our endless winter.

So much for keeping up with my blog

in February.

Navigating Nevis  - 8 x 8

Oil on gesso board

$75

I certainly haven't wanted to paint snow

and when Gin Lammert invited me to paint

with a group of artists at

the Fort Madison Art Center....

I knew I wanted to paint 

a warm location.

The photo was taken in Nevis many years ago

on a trip with my husband's family.

It was taken with actual 35mm film.

Remember that stuff?

St. Leonard's Church in Lipnica

I did this watercolor as a birthday gift

for my sister-in-law.

We visited Poland together last fall

with our husbands.

They are brothers.

But we are more than sisters-in-law.

It was a blast....

St. Leonard's Church in Lipnica

This beautiful church is one of the oldest 

Gothic wooden churches in Poland.

The first story is made of logs and the interior

walls and ceilings have

scenes from the Bible

 colorfully rendered from the 15th to the 17th century.

We visited this

 church with our husband's Polish family.  

Their grandfather grew up in the town of Lipnica.

It was our second visit to Poland

and we found the country and it's people just as

enchanting this time as we did last time.

Dy 30 - 30 in 30 - Pont de Paris

For the second year I am a bit

conflicted on the last day of the 

30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge.

It is wonderful to have an excuse

to paint every single day for an

ENTIRE MONTH!!!

But then,

life

happens.

I wasn't going to paint today.

But I had this one last image 

that I wanted to interpret.

"Pont de Paris" - oil on panel - 5 x 7

Yesterday I thought that the painting

that I painted

was a bit too colorful.

But, this one is coming out a bit dull.

The pastels are subtle in this one.

I photographed it at night,

and it was wet.

Excuses, excuses....