"100 SLC Porches, No.19"

"100 Salt Lake City Porches, No.19" - Poured watercolor on 6.5" x 9" paper

I started two poured watercolors at class last night.  This porch painting was the smaller of the two.  I was attracted to the white woodwork on this porch.  It's a charming little porch, and I hope I managed to capture just a bit of its charm.  I like the muted colors that evolved as this painting progressed.  I hope to finish the other poured watercolor porch tonight.  I'm also working on an oil of a porch too.  This project seems to be progressing along.  Please visit the 100 Salt Lake City Porches page to see the full progress of the project or if you are interested in purchasing a porch painting.  I would welcome any feedback you may have.  Thank you.

"100 SLC Porches, No.18"

"100 Salt Lake City Porches, No.18"- Poured watercolor on 9" x 12" paper

This porch painting, I struggled with.  I started after my watercolor class last week prior to porch #17, and I poured all three colors at once.  It was a bit of a murky mess but I worked through some of it with Colleen's help last night.  She made some suggestions and after a little more work on it tonight I finally feel like it's done.  I look at this and think of myself sitting on the porch during a hot sultry summer evening with a cool glass of lemonade as I watch the sun dip towards the west horizon.  These are nice thoughts to be thinking of during this cold February weather we've been getting here of late.

"100 SLC Porches, No.17"

"100 Salt Lake City Porches, No.17"- Poured watercolor on 10" x 11" paper

This porch painting I had started on Monday night when the gym ended up being closed for the night.  This is a poured watercolor where I did one color at a time.  First, I drew in the porch lightly and double taped the paper to a piece of glass.  I masked all of the areas that I wanted to be white.  Then while that was drying I mixed up the yellow.  I poured the yellow paint all over.  I poured off the excess yellow paint off by standing it up in a plastic tub.  I wiped the bottom and left the painting to dry overnight. 

"100 Salt Lake City Porches, No.17" - in process taped on glass before masking was removed.

Tuesday night, I masked off those parts that I wanted to be yellow.  Then, when the masking was dry; I poured the blue.  I added more water with my mop brush to the sky area moved the paint around to create somewhat cloud sky affect.  I again stood the painting upright in the plastic tub; letting all the excess paint run off.  I let that dry.  Then, I masked off the areas that I wanted to keep blue or green.  I let that dry overnight and took it to water coloring class tonight to finish with the last color-- Red.  I borrowed Ann's little dropper and proceeded to drop the mixed red paint on the painting.  I moved some of the paint around with my fingers over the masking to get in the cracks of areas between the masking.  I teased Ann & Colleen that this was much like finger painting and I was having fun.



Colleen taking a photo of the porch painting before I left class.

 Colleen thought that it looked like an En caustic painting before I removed the masking and asked for me to take a picture of it before we took the masking off.  She was so excited to see the painting that she was helping me to remove the masking right along with me.  I was cracking up the whole time.  She kind of reminded me of a kid in the candy store.  She even took a picture of the painting before I left class.  She thought that it was pretty cool.

I did end up coming home and touching up because I had masked over the mail box and address area where there were penciled in.  I went over that real quick when I got home and the finished product is at the top.

I also had Colleen help me with another porch painting that I still have a bit more work to do before I show it here.  I hope to finish that tomorrow night.  Oh, by the way, I'm also working on another porch painting in oil.  Yep, the great American past time-- multi-tasking!  Life doesn't get any better than multi-tasking a favorite hobby!


Colleen overseeing Ann's progress on a poured watercolor painting.



"100 SLC Porches, No.16"

"100 Salt Lake City Porches, No.16" - Oil on 8" x 10" Canvas

This sunny little porch I spotted this Last Saturday when I was out for a bike ride.  I love the warm yellow contrasting with the brick and then the bright green front door.  This painting came together quickly; though I will admit that an 8"x 10" paints quite a bit faster than some of the 16" x 20" paintings I've done.

"100 SLC Porches, No.15"

"100 Salt Lake City Porches, No.15"- watercolor on 8.5" x 11" paper

I did most of this porch at watercolor painting class last night learning a new style of "Pouring It On".  Colleen first showed examples photos of the "Pouring It On" style of paintings.  The first examples she showed were from the painter Lian Quan Zhen.  He does a method of pouring watercolor that's more of a Chinese Watercolor Pouring on Style.  Next, she showed paintings from Leslie Redhead who does a pouring on method that is one color at a time.  Both of the styles of pouring watercolor were amazing.  I especially loved the building scene paintings done by Leslie Redhead.

Out of necessity, Colleen said we will limit this month's watercolor painting class to the Chinese style of pouring on.  The one color at a time does not work well in a class situation because it needs more time.  There is a waiting for one color to dry completely before you pour another color.  But she did suggest that we try this style as homework. 

Next, Colleen did a demo of the Chinese watercolor pouring on style.  She had all ready drawn and masked off the white areas of ducks in a pond.  She then mixed 3 paints in separate cups; one blue, one red, and another yellow.  She misted the sketched/masked off paper with her spray bottle.  Then, she poured the blue in the area of the painting that would mainly be blue.  Then, she poured with the yellow paint cup the areas that would be yellow or possibly green with overlapping of the blue.  She took her fingers and moved the paint around on the paper to mix in certain areas.  Also, dropping some of the paint in other areas for spots of green or yellow.  Next she poured on the red paint in areas that the red would be.  Then, took her fingers again and moved paint around on the paper mixing.  She also took a straw and did some blowing through it to move paint around showing the different effects.  Then, she took some paper towels and absorbed some of the extra paint. 

As the painting started to dry Colleen showed us how we could do interesting things to the painting as it dried.  She showed how we could take a thirsty brush and pick up paint to almost make pale white areas with gentle edges; unlike the harsher edges that masking achieves.  She also put salt (both table & sea salt) on the painting.  Then, there was an application of saran wrap to make subtle effects.  I was getting excited by all of the possibilities~!

I then started my own pouring on painting.  I had all ready drawn and quickly did a bit of masking while I mixed my 3 cups of paint.  When it was time for the actually pouring on I quickly discovered that it was harder than it looked!  I ended up with a bit of a psychedelic mess!  But with some work and some wet to dry painting, I finally ended up with the above painting which was a pleasant surprised.  But I think this is going to be a learning curve type of thing.

"100 SLC Porches, No.14"

" 100 Salt Lake City Porches, No.14", watercolor on 9"x12" paper

Most of this porch came together rather quickly during a really FUN watercolor class.  We had an extra person this week that was making up a class and the phrase," ...the more, the merrier..." just seemed to fit.  Colleen was teacher a merry lot this week.  I finished the rest of the painting within an hour of getting home.  I was in the painting mode and viola!  Before I knew it, porch #14 was done.

"100 SLC Porches, No.13"

" 100 Salt Lake City Porches, No.13"- Oil painting on canvasboard 12" x 16"

I was in a VERY purple mood when I painted this porch last night.  In fact, outside of the pre-prepped canvasboard which had peach colors with a bit of blue; I only use two different purple paints and white.  But I think that it turned out very well.

A Break from Porches....

I've slowed down a bit this last week with the 100 Salt Lake City Porches Project.  It's partially on purpose and partly not. 

The partially on purpose part:  I decided to do a little side project and make some handmade invitations for my annual Black Widow's Valentine's Dinner.  It's a special little social event that I do with some single girlfriends to celebrate Valentine's Day.  We basically dress up as widows, come with obits & pictures of pretend deceased husbands, and enjoy a nice dinner together.  I try to make the invites a bit special too.  So this year I did a bit with my new art form of watercolors.

The invites I did by hand.

The partly not on purpose:  I'm having a bit of painter's block on porch #13 which is an oil.  I'm undecided on how to proceed and thus it sits in the easel in my living room staring at me after I get home from the gym.  Which is another factor... I haven't had the time to paint like I usually do during this time of year because I've been going to the gym two nights a week.

"100 SLC Porches, No.11 & 12"

"100 Salt Lake City Porches, No.11- watercolor on 9"x12" paper"

I've been working the last two weeks with the sumi-e style of painting in my watercolor painting class.  This week I finally felt that I produced two paintings that I could take photos of.  The above porch I used a great deal of the bamboo strokes and some simple line work to produce this wonderfully simple porch that is made even more warm by the wood siding that makes up most of this house.  This porch inspired me to try some of the simple and clean sumi-e brush strokes.  I also had fun with the trees on this.

The other porch below held an architectural outline that suggested an oriental treatment.  It's a very common house that you find in the Salt Lake Valley.  They are often referred to as "Bungalow" style.  I was drawn to the greens and the warm wooden railing that stretched across this one.  However, on this one I was not able to stick as closely to the sumi-e style of painting because the yupo paper did not want to "play" well.  In other words, I discovered the hard way that proper sumi-e painting is best done with paper that absorbs water.  This is not what happens with yupo paper.  So I decided to add ink to finish out the outlining on this porch.

"100 Salt Lake City Porches, No. 12- watercolor & ink on 9" x 12" yupo paper"

"100 SLC Porches, No. 10"

"100 Salt Lake City Porches, No. 10" - watercolor & ink on 8" x 10" paper

I found this porch a gem in green; literally!  I especially liked the line of short round evergreens in front of it.  I'm also very curious about the sunroom off to the side, and the gingerbread effect just enhances it all.