Back to Biking with Peace, Love, & Flowers...

The Groovi-ness continues, as I prepare for the Little Red Riding Hood Bike Ride in June.  I'm planning on having a little booth with some of my art on sale.  The theme for Little Red this year is Groovy!  Here's my latest creation keeping in with the cycling and groovy theme...

"Back to Biking with Peace, Love, & Flowers"; Watercolor on 12" x 16" Cold Pressed Paper.

On this painting, I used a combination of styles.  I did a couple of layers in watercolor pours for the background, the bike seat, the bike seat bag and seat post. I used puddle painting for the rest of the bike.  I limited the colors to yellow, permanent rose, dioxazine purple, and a watered down liquid red watercolor.  I think the ladies at Little Red will like this one!  Would love to hear your feedback and thanks for stopping by!

A Red Big Bad Wolf...

I put the last finishing touches on this painting last night as the wind was howling and the rain was pouring.  It made me glad that I had decided to go for a run at the gym than to push being out in the pre-storm windy weather.  But either way, this painting that I had started a couple of weeks ago finally came together last night as I sat in my cosy, dry apartment.  Yes, I had a bit of painter's block on this painting and that happens sometimes.  But FINALLY I worked through it.   Yeah!  Here's the resulting poured watercolor...

"A Red Big Bad Wolf"; Poured Watercolor on 8" x 9" Cold Pressed Paper. 

I did this in preparation for the Little Red Riding Hood Bike ride that takes place the first Saturday in June.  The Big Bad Wolf is a mascot of the ride.  It's quite a FUN event and I'm really looking forward to it!  I'll have this painting and several others on sale in my booth during that event.

Eastern Versus Western...

This month in my watercolor painting class, Colleen is focusing on Eastern style of Oriental Strokes.  Last night, I decided to do the same picture in the Eastern Style versus the Western Style of painting.  I thought it might be interesting exercise to do.  I will admit that I didn’t follow all the Eastern style rules, and I did take more time in sketching out the Western style painting.  But when comparing these, I think is very interesting.  Here they are...

Eastern Style--

"Italian Garden Wall"; Oriental strokes on 11" x 14" Sketch Paper.

Western Style--

"Italian Garden Wall"; Watercolor on 9" x 12" Cold Pressed Paper. 

Thanks for stopping by and I would love to hear your input on this East versus West.

Another Girlie Duo...

The weather cleared up last night and I had enough time to get a 22 mile bike ride in and then put the final touches on this little bicycle composition too!  Talk about having a wonderful evening!  I'm calling this one - "Another Girlie Duo".  Some of you may recognize this; yes, it is a redo of "A Girlie Duo" that I did almost a year ago.  Only the "Girlie Duo" was done with a limited color pallet.  This Girlie Duo, I just played with a bit of puddle mixing and had fun with it.

"Another Girlie Duo"; Watercolor on 6" x 8" Cold Pressed Paper.

I hope the FUN shines through!  I welcome any feed back or comments you may have and thanks for stopping by!

Biking Blues...

Oh, those April showers are bringing on the "Biking Blues" for me and I am hoping for some blue skies soon.  Here's a quick watercolor I did last week on a rainy night...

"Blue Bike on Grid"; Watercolor on 7" x 8" Cold Pressed Paper.

I'm hoping to do a few more bicycle paintings this week if the skies don't clear up.  But I'm REALLY hoping that I'll be on my bike soon and feeling the wind through my hair.  Bring on those May flowers soon, I say!  Thanks for stopping by and feel free to leave a comment!

Oriental Strokes & A Thank You!

This month, Colleen has been having us work on our Oriental Strokes.  It's Sumi-e painting to a certain extent but she wanted us to take into focus all of the possibilities/styles of oriental strokes including the Chinese strokes too.  She wanted us to look at the different aspects and rules of Western art/composition versus the aspects/rules of Eastern art.  She talked about the four gentlemen of Oriental painting-- the plum, the orchid, chrysanthemum, and bamboo.  Last week, she did a demo of all the various strokes and did this wonderful quick demo of painting a wild orchid.  This last week, she allowed us to bring in our own painting ideas.  I brought in a photo of a local building and this is what I worked on...

"A Tree Top & Spire"; Watercolor on 12" x 14" Sketch Paper.

It's loosely based on this photo of one of my favorite buildings...
Salt Lake City's Columbus Community Center

Part of the process was to try to simplify the original  down to it's essential parts.  That is easier said than done.  After I had lightly sketched it on the sketch paper then it was time to paint.  I tell you it is hard to keep your brush vertical and your wrist stiff!  But for a relatively quick in class painting, I think it turned out kind of fun!

You may have remembered that I posted a painting of the Popette a little while ago.  Well, tonight I'm taking her along with me to Colleen's Gallery Open tonight during the Sugar House Art Walk.  The Popette was SO pleased with her portrait that she wants to thank Colleen personally.  Here's the Happy Popette with her painting that I gave her for her birthday this last week...

Photo- The Happy Popette and her painting!

Thanks for stopping by and please feel free to leave a comment!

Painting Ideas While Cycling...

The idea for this painting came to me last week as I was riding (struggling) on my bike up Emigration Canyon.  Another cyclists went whizzing by like I was standing still (always makes one feel confidant- NOT!) and on the back of his jersey was this big eye ball.  I thought it looked cool as it disappeared around a bend in the distance. As I continued to struggle up to the top of the canyon on my bike and this idea started to take hold and evolve.  The idea of a crank inside the eye just sounded like a fun challenge and a possibly wonderful poured watercoloring adventure.  Here's the result of all that thinking as I struggled to climb the canyon on my bike...

"Dilated Chainring"; A Poured Watercolor on 10" x 14" Cold Pressed Paper.

And a BIG Thanks to my friend Jay for helping me to name this artwork; another challenge for me in some cases.  When he mentioned this possible title I thought- PERFECT!  Please feel free to give me any feedback on this interesting bike art work, and thanks for stopping by!

A Psychedelical Direction...

I went in a bit of different direction this last week.  I wanted to try some new ideas and work in an abstract type of form.  I also have been itching to get the liquid watercolors out again.  So in the mix of creating, this is what came into being...

"Psychedelically Cranked!"; Poured Watercolor on 9" x 12" Cold Pressed Paper.

The real funny thing is that I would have shown this on my blog sooner but I couldn't think of a name for it.  So thanks to my friend, Kym, and throwing some titles around I finally arrived at a title.  I told her that sometimes putting a title to a piece of art is harder than doing the actual piece.  She didn't agree with my estimation! :)  I welcome any comments and thanks for stopping by.

Working Girls

Sometime ago I took this picture of my favorite pair of high heels that I wear on a wooden chair in my living room.  I wear these shoes about 3 to 4 days a week at my REAL job which I refer to as a "glorified" secretary.  I thought that this photo might make a fun "Still Life" watercolor.  So I took the photo with me to my art class the other day and got a start on it.  I finished it up this last Sunday while it was raining outside; no bike riding that day!  Here's the result...

"Working Girls"; Watercolor on 9" x 12" - 140 lb. Cold Press Paper 

Here's the original photo that I worked from.  Would love to hear what you think!

Original Photo

Thanks for stopping by!