A Basketted Purple Bike...

I am currently working on a couple of commissioned porch pieces.  Yes, I'm doing a bit of catching up and while I'm doing that I thought I would share a piece that I put on my bike art page but I never did a little write up here about it.  Part of the reason was that I barely finished it before Little Red and then it sold quickly.  Here it is...

"Basketted Purple Bike"; Watercolor on 6" x 8" Paper.

It was one of those quick little paintings I did in the evening while watching TV.  A fellow bicycle club member bought the painting and asked that I frame it in a black frame with matting.  That's what I did and here it is framed and ready for their wall...

"Basketted Purple Bike" framed.

They were very pleased.  I thought that the mint green really brought out some of the green undertones and made the bike pop.  I hope to have some porch commissions to reveal here soon.

A Commission for Mom...

My mom recently decided to remove a shelf in the kitchen-dining room area.  She asked for me to do an oil painting of flowers that was large enough to cover the place where the shelf had been.  She gave the measurements and requested a wrapped canvas.  She didn't want to worry about framing and I think she liked the idea of a more modern unframed painting to update the area.  From there, she gave me ideas on what she would like but always mentioned that she was sure that whatever I came up with she would be happy with.  Thanks mom!  No pressure what-so-ever.

First she sent me a few magazine pages of ideas... A Van Gogh of flowers which she explained, she didn't like the actual flowers.  She considered them too child-like but she did like the green wispy strokes in it.  Then, there was a photo of yellow tulips taken in her dining room.  She wanted tulips.  Then, she included a couple of other pages with flowers that she would like to have in the painting. 

Then, she included a diagram of a certain degree...

She wanted to keep to yellows, greens, and purples with a bit of pinks in there too.  She kept an emphasis on keeping it nice light and airy.  Now, I will put a disclaimer here.  I'm not really a flower type of painting gal.  Buildings and bicycles are more my type of thing that I like to paint.  Flowers are a different territory altogether.  I will say I struggled with this for awhile.  I took a bit more time than usual on the under painting.  I did several layers with an iridescent gold and two different yellows.  Then before I started to lay in the actual flowers of the painting.  I painted in the green wispy things.  Here's what I had...

Next, I did some sketches of flowers on paper and played with arranging them on the canvas.

There was a selection of different flowers that I threw in that I thought might look nice with the other flowers she requested; irises, primrose and lavender.  I layed out the drawings on the canvas to get a feel for what looked good together and what would fit and still be light and airy too.  Then I sketched the general format onto the canvas with the same green paint as the wispy things.

I talked with Mom this last Sunday morning on the phone and explained the general format that I had come up with.  She thought it sounded pretty good.  So I proceeded to paint on Sunday evening and Monday night and this is the finished painting that was produced...

AND I hope that Mom is happy enough to hang it on her wall when I bring it home to her in Cedar Rapids, Iowa in July while I'm there for RAGBRAI.

Happy Father's Day!!

Here's wishing all of you Fathers out there a Happy Father's Day!  I've been waiting before I posted this painting until it arrived at my little brother's home in Iowa.  I did it as a present for him for Father's Day.  I was trying to make it a surprise.  It features my two nephews standing in front of a car at a car show.  Here it is... 

"Boys-N-Cars"; Watercolor on 9" x 11" Paper

I rather got a kick out of how both of them are standing with arms folded; kind of like--"Yeah, we are tough!"  I did this painting in the puddle style of water coloring; mixing all of the colors on the paper.  I also used a limited color pallet-- phthalo blue, phthalo green, and permanent rose with just a bit of meduim yellow to do the skin tones.  I hope you like it little bro!  Happy Father's Day!

Thanks, Silliness & a Winner!

A BIG Thanks for all who swung by my Art Booth at the Little Red Riding Hood Ride.  What a FUN event and such wonderful weather for the most part.  There was a couple of small cloud bursts where I was holding down some tarps to protect some paintings but they were short lived.  It was wonderful being out and having people swing by to view my art.  People from my bike club swung by and were rather surprised that I did anything outside of biking.  It really was a fun experience.  I also managed to sale a few things too!

I managed to get a little silly on Friday night and entered the Little Red Groovy Costume Contest.  They made us get up on stage and dance.  I just wiggled around because I wasn't too sure how a hippie was supposed to dance.  But here's a shot of me on stage in my full regale...

Oh MY!  I think it looks more like I'm doing a Rain Dance!  Maybe that's why there were the cloud burst on Saturday!  Go figure!

AND The winner of the Little Red Raffle is....

Annette T. from Spanish Fork, UT.  Congratulations!!  When she came to pick it up, she told me that she never wins anything.  Well, that's not true anymore and lets hope your luck has changed Annette.  Annette's daughter who did her first 50 mile bike ride ever at Little Red this last Saturday will be receiving the winning painting. Here's the raffled painting that went home with Annette and her daughter...

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