"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.

"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