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>Kris’ Brooklyn Skyline

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My older son, Kris, who lives in a gorgeous neighborhood in Brooklyn Heights, NY, wants a painting of Brooklyn. But he likes impressionist work, and wants one that has a sort of old-world feeling. I had a 6 x 12 canvas and a great image of the Brooklyn Bridge skyline at night and decided to try to convince him that THIS is what he really wanted for Christmas. It’s in the mail and he’s busy with final exams, work, and volunteering at a community shelter over the holidays, so I don’t think he’ll be reading this post and feel safe posting it…

Some of it works kinda nicely, I think. I used bubble paint for the light dots and some other streaks of light reflection in the water but didn’t want to use too much of it.

I worked on this one, the Borch family crest, and the Bavarian Church scene all at the same time. Crazy stuff!

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>Moving mountains

>This image is painted from a photo I took while traveling in Bavaria, Germany in 1991. I was staying with a lovely family who took me around the countryside on daytrips. I have kept in touch with them and decided what better way to express belated thanks than by making a painting of one of the scenes we experienced there together?

I am feeling more comfortable working with acrylics than watercolors, as you might be able to tell here. The trees came out really easily, and while the structure has a bit of wobbliness to it, it’s not half bad, is it? Hazel added the gorgeous golden afternoon light glow to the building and we thought it was good to go until we noticed that the highest mountain peak was right behind the church’s tower. I figured this was accurate since it is how it was in the photo, but Hazel and I went round and round about factual accuracy and art. In the end, I caved, moved the mountains (messed up a previously lovely sky), and ended up with this. When I tell you I messed up the sky, I’m serious, there are so many layers of paint under this I’m sure the postage will be increased by $3 because of the weight! LOL.

It’s a pretty little thing, though and I like the serene feeling it evokes.

So, the moral of the story is, never put a mountain peak, tree trunk, rock crevice, castle, or other big structure directly behind your main subject. I hope that makes sense?

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>The Borch Crest

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Working from a horrible copy and doing several hours of research, I was able to come up with this for the ex-husband.

I used a sort of tracing paper you can buy at art supply stores to trace the image onto the canvas, and worked from there.

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>Tackling the Walsh family crest

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Growing up, my Walsh family had two things it could count on: chaos and the family crest. I don’t know where the original came from, but dad had a copy of the full crest mounted in a large picture frame on the wall, and wore the pierced swan on a gold ring all his adult life. The motto is “transfixus sed non mortuus”, wounded but not dead.

My younger brother, Kevin, who knew I was trying my hand at painting hinted a while back that it would be cool to paint the family crest. He even showed me a spot on a wall in his rec room where it would fit perfectly. So, I researched, got the best image I could find to reproduce, and used an enlarger lamp device and copied the image onto a 16 x 20 canvas with pencil. I had seen my BFF Bindy enlarge computer generated images in this way and figured it might just work.

The first day back to painting class for a shorter, 2 week “intersession” I brought in the pre-traced crest image and my acrylic paints. Starting with a very large (1-1/2″ mural) brush, reasoning that I was painting a large area, Hazel came by, first told me to work with a smaller 16-round brush and not worry about laying the paint on the canvas in any good order to begin with since I’d be covering and reworking it several times. I had been trying to paint as one would paint a wall, strokes all going in the same way, but she explained that doing that would show subsequent brush strokes that couldn’t possibly mirror the same length and style of stroke I was already using so random, smaller ones were better.

This was an absolute b**ch to paint, pardon my french! I had not planned it out too well, the greenery around the shield was supposed to be exactly the same on both sides, and the “arrows” that look like eyes and nose are supposed to be identical in size. So much for perfection. And I do recall Kevin saying he wouldn’t be bothered by a loose interpretation of the crest. He just wanted something…

All told, I think I spent more than 20 hours on this, but am very, very proud of the effort. I know I’ll have a hard time figuring out how to ship it — he lives in Virginia, but I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it. Sorry about the lousy photo – it’ll have to do in a pinch.

I plan to do at least one more crest for another brother, and try to do one of the “Borch” family for my ex-husband. As my son’s family name, I figured they would appreciate the effort I put into the research and creation and I knew he’d like it too.

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>Do try this at home!

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At least that is what I’ve found… Working in my own studio, I feel comfortable and can explore on things that might seem too ambitious for a 3-5 hour class where I have to tote all the gear in, subject myself to Hazel’s criticism, and work with limitations of size and scope.

So over this weekend, I tackled this lovely piece – it’s a 16 x 20 acrylic based on a photograph I saw recently and just loved because of the colors. I love the simplicity of it too. What do you think?

I am giving it to my older son, Kris, who has a small but bare apartment in Brooklyn Heights, NY. He needs color and I need space! I hope he loves it!

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>My first creature attempt

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I decided I had gotten into this class to be able to illustrate a children’s story book based on my dog and my son Pete’s dog so, this being the last class of the session, I better darn well take a stab at canines. Here’s Smokey. I realize her eyes look evil and scary and hollow and I’ll have to do something about that, but I am sort of pleased with the overall shape and stance and all that. What do you think?

And on the other picture — remember, I work in pairs at least, since it takes them time to dry — I still had another seascape in me, as illustrated here. It is from a scene on one of the travel brochures from the Panhandle region of Florida. I murked up the water something bad, but did an OK job on the seashells, sandollars and bird prints, I think.

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>Today’s lesson: patterns, shadows and highlights

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It was a hectic week getting back into the swing of life, what with work, unpacking, stocking up the fridge and all, but I managed to get to painting class all the same.

Driving in I noticed the fall leaves are still so gorgeous and I think lend themselves to watercolor painting, but unfortunately, I’d brought images of Florida to paint instead. I am tempted to bring my acrylic supplies but just didn’t have my act together enough, so…

The top painting is based on a photo I took while visiting a medieval village in Austria. Hazel tried to help me get the angles and perspective right and showed me how the pattern of the sky against the rooftops was what would draw peoples interest.

I’m afraid I really botched it up when I went home and used a heavier than appropriate black marker to outline things on it. Darn! Mediocre at best.

The image below that also deals with sky and just when it looked like it was a complete failure, Hazel came by, took my paintbrush, and put some great highlight color onto the brick in the foreground to really make it jump out. And used blue to shade in the white beams. The whole painting is, again, mediocre, since I think the colors – excuse me, the VALUES – are way too dark in most of it, but it was a great lesson in applying little changes to bring things to life. And if I did anything good, it was the original brickwork. For the mortar, I basically scrubbed the paint out with a fine brush and water.

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>Acrylics, LOVE THEM!!!

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OK, the vacation is almost over and I hate like heck to leave and return home.

That said, I’ve discovered a newfound love: ACRYLICS!

OMG, why doesn’t anyone ever tell new painters that they are so much easier to work with than watercolors? That the final product is vibrant, fun, exciting … brilliant! That they are forgiving and give the works more oomph?

I used to love the look of watercolor paintings and will admit they are beautiful. But now, honey, there’s a new kid in town!

I tried painting in acrylics both ways – watering them down and using like watercolors, as in the first painting, above. It was done on canvas, though, and the flaws of the cheap canvas showed through. Clever me, though I incorporated the flaws into the mast of the sunken wreck and the moon.

The other is a goldfish. I’ve been dabbling with her all week and think if I don’t stop now, she’ll be a mess! From my friends at painting classes, I learned that using craft-style “bubble paints” is OK as long as it is for really out there endeavors. I figured this goldfish and my gold glitter bubble paint were made for each other!

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>My first plein air efforts!

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Well, to be able to paint “en plein air” is something probably most artists hope to achieve at some point in their lives. Some are more fortunate and get to do this on a daily basis. Today was my first effort in this and it was lovely in what I was able to experience, but the set up and all that proved … cumbersome to say the least. And trying to paint in sand? Not so much! Even though I had a great blanket spread out and the painting box with easel. The problem arose because we’d brought Smokey and, well, let’s just say dogs, sand, and watercolor painting do not mix…

When I got back to our rental home and looked at them after they dried, I am afraid I ruined them with the dark markers I used to liven up the color of the grasses. Too heavy handed, me thinks.

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>Having a lovely time, wish we could stay here!!!

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OMG, I love it down here! We’re staying in Gulf County, Florida, on the Panhandle below Panama City in the area of Port St. Joe. We’ve rented a place 1-1/2 blocks from the beach which is deserted except for us, the dog, and occasional flies, gulls, and dolphins that dance in the water. Every night, the sunset is better than the night before!

There’s not a McDonalds or Walmart within 30 miles, I think, probably one of the reasons it’s so lovely and we love it! (No offense, you two global giants of commerce, but the less people, the better…)

The mornings are filled with walks on the beaches with the dog. And I mean LONG walks (at least by Smokey and I… David tends to lag behind and relax in his own way). We explore. She sniffs and meanders and I tredge purposefully along the surfline in one direction and up by the dunes and grasses on the return trip.

Today, we actually snuck out leaving “daddy” behind to sleep and drove to one of the beaches at Mexico Beach. As we walked, the dolphins escorted us along the coastline. I got loads of great shells, and of course, Smokey had a grand ole time! I shot pictures of the sun as it rose and plan to paint some of these gorgeous scenes at some point.

We arrived back home to a nice breakfast and are planning the day as I write. I haven’t yet tackled the plein air painting of my ambitions yet but think today is the day. We have a cart to wheel all the gear down to the beach with and I’ll spread out a blanket and have a chair as well. Can’t wait!