"100 SLC Porches, No.9"

"100 Salt Lake City Porches, No.9" Oil on 16" x 20" canvas

This porch is actually right next door to SLC Porch No. 2 that I did earlier.  It just goes to show you how much variety of porches there is in a short walk.  I loved breaking into my tube of Indian Red oil paint.  The brick of this house is painted a wonderful shade of red and I love how its set off by the teal.  I decided to do this at a closer scale than some of the other porches.  I think it turned out pretty well, but would invite any feedback that anyone has.

Watercolor Painting Class- Sumi-e

Cherry Blossom Season from the Gallery of Kazumi Cranney.

A New Year and here I am back at my watercolor painting class.  This Wednesday, Colleen focused on Sumi-e.  Sumi-e is the Japanese ink wash painting that focuses on simple lines and open spaces.  It's beauty lies in its simplicity.  Colleen started our lesson by showing us a series of examples; quite a few of these wonderful examples were on Kazumi Cranney's website.  Cranney is an amazing sumi-e artist that was born in Japan and later relocated to California.  I was especially fond of her Cherry Blossom Season pictured above.  Her little birds are just amazingly simple and I thought SO cute!

Next we went into practical mode and Colleen showed us examples of the simple brush strokes.  She showed us how to load the brush with paint.  Then, she continued on showing us how to hold the brush in order to do the brush strokes properly.  She made it look very simple, and I mistakenly thought it would be simple to learn.

Here Colleen is showing us an example of the "Bamboo" brush stroke.

Then my classmate, Anne and myself "tried" these simple strokes.  I can safely tell you that it's hard to be simple.  I REALLY struggled with most of the brush strokes except for the "Smoosh" one.  I was a natural at that one.  But this is giving me ideas for trying this style with one of the 100 Salt Lake City Porches Project.   I may try it on one of the SLC Porches in next week's class. This was Anne's second try at this style of painting and she was doing much better than I was!

A smiling Anne with her latest piece of artwork.

100 SLC Porches, No.7 & No. 8

"100 Salt Lake City Porches, No.7"- Oil on 16" x 20" Canvasboard

I've been on an "at-home" vacation this last week.  I haven't been "toiling away" at my normal everyday secretarial job and  I've been away from computers.  Instead, I took the opportunity during the week to do some reading and I also painted a couple more porches.  So here I am catching up on the first day of the New Year and putting these on here.  Happy New Year and a belated Happy Holidays! 

Both of these porches are from a local Salt Lake City street that is called "Christmas Street".  That is not the actual name of the street but it has over the years acquired the name because all of the houses decorate for Christmas.  I had a friend that used to live on this street and as I wanted to do a couple of porches at night with Christmas lights she suggested I try it.  It was very hard to narrow down the choices but here are the two that I decided to paint.  Enjoy!

"100 Salt Lake City Porches, No.8" - watercolor on 10" x13" paper

"100 SLC Porches, No.6"

"100 Salt Lake City Porches, No.6"- watercolor on 10" x 13" paper

This porch is within a few blocks of where I live and I often find my eyes lingering on its wide expanse.  I love its detail and colors.

"100 SLC Porches, No.5"

"100 Salt Lake City Porches, No.5" - 12" x 16" oil on canvasboard

This small stoop caught my eye because of the bright pumpkins and the same orange color that was duplicated in the stained glass of the window.  It's a small sunny home that sits engulfed in a bit of early snow but even amidst all that snow it looks warm and inviting.  I also had fun painting the white birch tree that overlaps the actual covered area of the porch.

A New Area for Watercolors...

I've created a new area to show off my watercolors.  I just felt that the watercolor paintings needed their own area to be displayed.  As I am discovering that watercolor as a medium is quicker to produce an end piece of art.  Therefore I'm figuring that I'll probably have more watercolors to show and thus I'm trying to plan ahead for an area where I can display all of those watercolor paintings.  Please check it out when you get the chance.  WATERCOLRS  or click the WATERCOLORS with photo link down along the righthand side of my Allgood Art Blog.  I welcome any feedback you may have. 

"100 SLC Porches, No.4"

"100 Salt Lake City Porches, No.4"- watercolor on 11"x14" yupo paper

This porch I decided to use a limited color pallet when I painted.  I also tried to keep away from detailing too much of the snow on the roof line and in the yard. I really like the play of yellows and purples.

"100 SLC Porches, No. 3"

"100 Salt Lake City Porches, No. 3"- oil on 11" x 14" canvasboard

I was especially enamored with the orange and brown bricks contrasting with the cream.  I really think it's a striking porch.

"100 SLC Porches, No.2"

Here it is, I finished it last night...

SLC Porch, No.2- 10" x 14" watercolor on cold press

I was fasinated with this porch because of all the fallen leaves and snow.  Obviously, not a well used porch. I chose to do it in watercolor because it has so much white that I thought it would translate well.   

"100 SLC Porches, No. 1" - The Beginning

I’ve decided to do an art project that was partially inspired by a fellow blogger.  For quite a while now I’ve been enjoying the “100 Faces” of artist Karin Jurick on her blog – A Painting Today.  Each new face she has painted has been unique and I am in awe of her talent. I thought it also might be a good way to challenge myself as a painter by doing “100 of” something. But I’m not talented enough yet to step up to "100 Faces" but maybe something else. But what? The idea has been simmering in the back of my mind for awhile.

SLC Porches, No.1-  8"x10" watercolor on cold press

So this last Thanksgiving holiday as I was walking/jogging, trying to burn some of those consumed calories, an idea struck! For some reason as I was going along I was noticing the porches on houses. There’s a great deal of variety of houses along my favorite route, and I will admit that is part of what has made it my favorite. Each house is unique and I was finding myself focusing particularly on the porches. Each porch is unique and I couldn’t help but feel I was being given a glimpse of the people who dwell in each house. The more and more I looked at all of these porches; I saw all of the variety and the possibilities. Boom! The light bulb went on, and I thought to myself. Why not? “100 Salt Lake City Porches”!

This last Saturday during my walk I took my camera and snapped photos of about 30 different porches. I’m not sure if all of them will translate to paint well, but it’s a start.  I'm playing with the "game plan" of doing 2 porches a week.  But I really don't want to focus so much on time restraints.  I want to feel that I'm doing proper justice to each unique porch.  I, also, want to allow room for artistic inspiration, and maybe for some that might be considered a "cop-out".  But any of you that know me, know that once my mind is set on something I can be darn tenacious.  I may from time to time need a "break" from porches and may feel inspired to paint something else from time to time.  Thus, I'm not really giving myself a dead line to finish these 100 SLC Porches.  Sunday I sat down and painted the first of many.

Oh, and if anyone sees a Salt Lake City porch, or perhaps, has a porch they would like to see painted.  Drop me an email its2allgood4u@yahoo.com with an address, or a request.  I also would love to hear any feedback you have on the “100 SLC Porches”.  A co-worker has already requested for her porch to be #52. I guess its her lucky number, or maybe she figures that by #52 I’ll be accomplished enough to make her porch look really good?  Hmmm...