Sparkling City by the Bay

Shrimp Boats

11x14 original watercolor

This was inspired by a photo my aunt took in Corpus Christi, TX.  As I have mentioned before, my aunt spends a lot of time fishing and has plenty of tall tales.  She also is a photographer and takes many photos of the bay in Corpus Christi.  This Monday is her birthday, too, so Happy Birthday Aunt! 

One of the benefits of living in Corpus Christi is the fresh shrimp one can buy right off the shrimp boats when they come in at the T-heads.  I will explain T-heads in a later post.  Anyway, my aunt often buys fresh shrimp to cook along side her catch. 

This scene had a lot going on which I edited out if you can believe.  There were many more posts for the pier as well as many more birds.  I am not sure if those are pelicans or some kind of crane.  Behind the boat is the seawall lined with palm trees and part of downtown Corpus Christi.  Originally, I did not have the buildings in the background.  They are present in the photo.  I added the buildings after a day or so, just a hint.  The painting seemed incomplete without them.  I feel much more comfortable having them in the painting.  If you ever get a chance, go to Corpus Christi and eat some fresh seafood at any of the restaurants downtown or on the t-heads, then after, you must get a snow cone with a scoop of ice cream on top and walk the seawall!!!  The stories I can tell you that happen on the seawall.......

If you have already visited my website, thanks so much.  Please let me know if you see any improvements that can be made.  I am trying to decide if I should have a lot of paintings or just a few select.  If you have suggestions on a strategy, I am happy to hear your thoughts!

Thanks for visiting.

Updated Website!

I am so pleased to announce that many of paintings are now being offered as giclees on my website, www.lianayarckin.com. One of my highest requests for a painting is of the Highland Park Pharmacy, shown above. I found a printer that does amazingly beautiful prints on the most delicous watercolor paper ever. The color is so close and the paper makes it difficult to tell that it is a print. These are limited edition prints which are hand signed, dated and numbered by me. Please visit the website and as always, feel free to contact me should you have any quesitons.

Red Roses, Red Roses

I cannot believe how long it has been since I have posted something.  How is everyone?  I miss your comments and painting!!! The kids are out of school and it has been busy, busy, busy with them.  My 3 yr. old is just a darling right now.  I am teaching him how to swim.  He is the one that keeps me on my toes.  Constantly wanting to paint and draw and "do something fun".  I put his picture of his Power Rangers up for you to see.  He makes lots of cards, too.  Right now his focus is using one color.

I did see the most amazing roses at the grocery store.  I went to take a picture and was told that photography is not allowed.  They allowed me to take one photo so that I could reference the photo for future purchases.  The roses were white with the darkest red outlines on each petal.  I wonder how the petals would change colors over time.

Lastly, the new summer collection of note cards is here.  Please go to www.cardsdirect.com to purchase or contact me.  You can order just one image or make your own collection.

Now, I am going to go look at my fellow artists' blogs to see what they have been up to! 

Pretty in Pink

It has finally gotten hot in Dallas.  No complaining, we had an unusually mild spring with cool temperatures, but, now it is is hot, hot, hot.  One of the flowers that does well in this heat is the Echinacea plant otherwise known as Cone Flower.  In our backyard we have a perennial garden that has some Cone Flowers.  However, there are some that plant an entire bed of cone flowers.  One home had the Cone Flowers line the walk.  It was so pretty.  They love the hot sun and do not require any work really. 

I have wanted to paint the cone flowers for several summers now.  Here is my first attempt.  I am happy with the sky and the flowers.  I think the foliage got a little muddy when I was trying to add the shadows and the darks.  I will admit, one thing that lacks from this painting is the darks.  I had good dark shadows in there, but, then it looked too spotty and lots of hard edges so I went back and softened and combined the shadows.

Happy painting!  As always, thanks for your comments.  They are encouraging and enlightening.

Sunflowers

I am procrastinating.  I need to get a painting done to submit for SWS, but, I am doing everything else, but, painting! 

So I will tell you about Surtex, the art licensing trade show.  It was fantastic!  I made a lot of great contacts with both artists and manufacturers for potential licensing opportunities.  I learned a lot.  It was interesting that everyone liked different paintings for products that I never even thought of.  There were some paintings that received interest from multiple parties.  Florals and coastal were the favorite themes!

One of the things I learned was that everyone had an entirely different opinion.  One person might say your work is too loose while the next said they liked how tight is was.  Would you believe that one agent told me that my paintings were too dark.  I want to run to that watercolor teacher from long ago and tell her, someone thinks my colors are too dark because she always told me my colors were way too bright. 

With that said, I posted these 4 paintings of sunflowers done over the course of 10 years.  My Surtex experience has led me to believe, paint whatever you want and however you want, someone out there will like it.  Of course, it doesn't matter whether anyone else likes it or not, so long as an artist, we are fulfilled from the experience. 

What's been on the drawing board

Preparing for this trade show has been a lot of work.  I have had to make a lot of new paintings that coordinate with existing paintings to make a "collection".  It has been fun, interesting and experimental to create these coordinating all over patterns.  Someone may not want to hang them on their wall, however, one may be perfect for wrapping paper, bedding, home decor, who knows.  This has really freed my painting style up a lot.  I love having the freedom of working with the colors just to make an interesting design versus my typical style of not straying far from the subject and local color. 

I encourage the artists out there to put similar sheets together for a newsletter, post or mail to your clients/potential clients.  I know many of you have beautiful collections of paintings that can tell a story.  Some of you can make an entire book, even!  Either way, it is a great sense of accomplishment and I think it helps viewers see your work in a different way.

The last is a pen and ink that someone commissioned to give to their PTA president.  They wanted to do one of the school as well and make stationary, but, budget didn't allow for it.

Have a great week!  Thanks for visiting!

p.s. for those that receive this post via email, you may want to visit my actual blog one day and look at the different pages I have added.  The tabs are at the top and you just pick the tab.

Rose Garden

I know I said I was going to paint something other than flowers, but, I just keep seeing all of these gorgeous flowers all over Dallas.  This painting is inspired by a house that I have passed by on my walks.  I drove by the other day with my kids in the car, stopped and snapped a bunch of photos.  My kids were at first shocked and then said, "oh, are you going to paint this house?"  I only embellished the flowers slightly.  The house does have all of these fabulous roses growing in abundance.  They even have some sort of column type trellis that the climbing roses go up in the center and then billow out of the top.  It is truly a sight right now.

Do I like Pink?

Pink Tulips in a Vase

6x9

Pink Roses

8x9

The spring flowers are all gone by now.  We had lovely pink tulips in our yard this year.  Luckily, because of our unusual cool temperatures, the tulips lasted a while.  The Pink Roses may or may not be complete, yet.  I like it like this and am too chicken to do more.  What if I mess it up!  So I am leaving it like this for now until I feel good about the next step.  Any suggestions?

p.s.  I think I have had enough of flowers.  I am painting lots of other things for the card company and the trade show in May.  Maybe I will posts some of those things next time.

And More Daffodils

Here are some more daffodils.  I am getting looser - I think.

Time to Give

Friends, remember my post from the summer about my father-in-law having macular degeneration?  Well, the fundraiser for Retina is coming up in 2 weeks.  My husband is on the board and we have been involved with the Retina Foundation of the Southwest and the fundraiser, Racing for Sight for the last 6 years.  If you are in the Dallas area, grab your hat and come join your friends at this fun and exciting day at the Races.

Racing for Sight

Lone Star Park

Grand Prairie, TX

April 17

1-5

Buy tickets or make a donation by clicking here

There are amazing Auction Items - Vacation House in Greece, Play with the Masters, an autographed guitar by every member of the Eagles, jewelry from Bock Jewelry, Mavs, Cowboys, Texas Rangers and Stars suites, tickets and such, Titos Vodka, Baron Estate, Tejanos Brothers, The Charter at Beaver Creek, Byron Nelson, play with a Pro on the PGA Pro Tour, Abacus, Shinsei, Capital Grille, Emmitt Smith, Tiffany & Co., El Phoenix, CardsDirect.com, amazing swag bags filled with goodies and so much more. 

A huge thank you to the committee that has worked so hard on all of the aspects of making this event happen.  A very big thank you to all of our Donors for your support and very awesome donations!

Tulips

Pink Tulips

8x10

Tulips

8x10

Right now I am working on 4 small florals.

The two above are painted on yupo.  This was my first time to work on yupo.  Working on it's slick, nonabsorbant surface with watercolor is a very different experience.  The most amazing thing is no matter how much water I put on it, the yupo stays perfectly flat and smooth without even the smallest ripple.  The paint sits on top, it wipes off very easily, even unintentionally. 

 

Paintings from Spring Break

Free of Expectation

11x14

Sundance Run

6x9

My family and I were so lucky to stay at our friend's house in Telluride, CO. over Spring Break.  The very lucky part is that my friend is a fellow artist!!!!  In the craziness of packing, I forgot my paints.  Luckily, my friend had an extra palette of paints that she was happy to lend me so that we could paint together. 

My friend also paints in watercolor.  She paints faces a lot.  She showed me some pictures that she tore out of a magazine and sort of challenged me to paint one.  Now I was painting a completely different subject than usual and painting with someone else's color palette.  I was free of expectations of myself!  We were painting for fun.  That was how Free of Expectation came about.  I had seen some masking tape in one of the drawers and with Flocking Together still being fresh in my mind, I applied similar techniques here.  I really, really like the effect of masking.  I like the crisp edges and sharp contrast and the accidental bleeds.  I am trying to figure out how else to work masking into paintings at a more interesting level.  I am not sure what I think of this painting, but, I did have fun doing it!

I painted Sundance Run simply because I was so inspired by the mountains, trees, bright sunshine and very blue sky in Telluride.  Telluride is truly beautiful and my painting does not at all come close to representing the breathtaking surroundings.

Your feedback really makes my day!  Let me know what you think, good or bad.

Have a great week!

Rememberance of Nana

Geraniums for Nana

15x22

Nana

11x14

 Photo of Nana and me

Nana, my great-grandmother

March 24, 1897 - September 28, 1997

Nana was a very strong and truly good person.  She worked so hard all of her life.  She was giving and a caretaker of everyone.  Widowed very early in her marriage, Nana raised her only daughter with the help of family.  This must be what gave her her patience and what made her have to be strong. 

What I like to remember about my great-grandmother is her laugh, I can still hear it.  She loved us all so much.  She had all of the time in the world and appreciated the simple things in life.  I remember her pointing out the evening breeze and how good it felt.  She said, "This is my air conditioner," one night when we were sitting on the front porch. 

Nana ended up living with alzhiemers for over 10 years.  It was too long to live like that in my opinion.  Below is a poem I wrote in 1986 when I was a senior in highschool (thank you to my teacher, Mr. Joseph Wilson) about Nana and her alzheimer's.

Requiem for Nana and Me

Once I laughed at you
Telling me I was a naughty girl
Pointing that finger at me
I climbed higher, swinging on weak branches to watch you yell and scold me
I knew you wouldn't be mad, though.

But no more can I run and hide from you.
You are too old to chase me
I am too old to play silly games.

Never again can I sit in your lap
You are frail and like dead tree branches for me

I never understood why you worried when I would be a big girl
Always wanting me to stay little.

Oh Nana, I want to spit againso you will tell me that is bad
I want to walk to the store with you holding my hand tight.

I hate the smell of this place
You can't even notice it
You barely notice me.

Nana, this can't happen
But, you can't do anything
Neither can I
Nobody can

Okay, Nana

I'll stop whining and be a good little girl.

Flocking Together

Flocking Together
11x14

Here is a painting I had so much fun doing. I always enjoy painting, but, on this one I used different techniques than I normally use. I am going to show this to the card company. Similar to Love is in the Air and Butterflies which I did specifically with Cards Direct in mind, this image was born. The process of getting a new idea or image in my head is so exciting to me. During my day and talking with other people I am always seeing things to paint or noticing the colors or light on objects. A friend has suggested, " You have to do something with birds." It made perfect sense with the change of season to spring and migration. I used pouring techniques and concentrated liquid watercolor. I think I could do more on this in the ways of adding detail, but, right now I like it as is. Maybe later I will look back and think how naive of me. I have some other ideas that I can't wait to try. If you have an opinion, please let me know!

p.s. i found out who my admirer was and I am not the least bit surprised after the fact.

A Different Kind of Secret Admirer

Friday morning someone left a page from a magazine (top pic.) for me. It is the hopeless romantic in me that has interpretted this kind gesture (obviously from a friend and supporter) as a secret admirer of my art work. The mystery person drove up to my house and asked my babysitter, who happened to be outside, to give this page to me. Who is this mystery person/secret admirer/wonderful supporter? And what do they want for me to do with this beautiful picture of camellias? Clues: a female, drives a tan SUV, has brown hair, they read Southern Accents magazine, they know I like to paint flowers. This pretty picture and thoughtful act was a great way to start my day. I was motivated, intrigued, excited, curious, felt loved and special.

In response to this mystery surprise, I decided to post this video of a painting of mine that is of similar colors and petals. It is of a peony.

I would love to know who this wonderful person is, so please reveal yourself. In the meantime, we can all be secret/or not admirers and offer encouragement and feel goods to those that we admire whether it be an artist, teacher, spouse, child or parent. I know if you are a blogger, you are a great admirer to many and often encourage and support others. I would be such a lonely painter if I didn't have my blogger friends. Have a great week!

Flowers, flowers, flowers

Daffodils or The Daffodils on Mockingbird Lane
13x22 watercolor
The daffodils are blooming on Mockingbird Lane. I keep seeing them as I drive by and think, "Oh, I have got to come take photos", then I chuckle because one of my biggest supporters cannot stand daffodils AND they happen to live on Mockingbird Lane. The neighbors on Mockingbird Lane decided to make daffodils their street flower so the whole street and streets around it have daffodils lining the sidewalks. How can a daffodil be a flower that someone does not like. The architecture alone of a daffodil is so unique. With a center cup surrounded by 6 petals alternating in two different kinds of petals. Here I show two different varieties. I am not sure of the names. The white with orange centers are very ruffly.


Four pack of florals
The note cards are here!!! I am so pleased with how the note cards have turned out. I ordered some for myself to give to clients as appreciation gifts. I had mine printed on felt, which looks very similar to watercolor paper. The quality came out so good and true to color. They almost look like originals! A direct link for this 4 pack has not been set up just yet. I will post it as soon as CardsDirect puts the 4 pack on their site. In the meantime, if you want some, just email me.

Tissue paper and an old rendering

Here is my painting, Love is in the Air, printed on tissue paper and bag tags!!!! The tags and tissue paper were used for the favor bags at a YPO Valentine Party. Cards Direct had the design enlarged on the tissue paper. I think the tissue paper emphasizes a special luminosity.



8x10 pen and ink in sepia
This was the first rendering I did as a gift for a friend long ago. I always loved the architectural style of this house in Northern Hills in Dallas. Northern Hills has a very interesting history which continues to twist and turn. It is just 4 quaint streets of homes mostly built in the twenties. There have been issues with the neighbors that are trying to preserve the beautiful architecture of this neighborhood with new home owners that are building homes without any regard to the surroundings. Look at this wonderful home, how tall and proud it stands with appropriate proportions to its site. I hope the fate of this house is safe.

Happy Valentine's Day

Rose Bouquet

11x14

Love is in the Air

15x22

Love Wins

11x11

This year has been so joyful so far, it makes me want to keep spreading the love. I am so thrilled with Cards Direct purchasing the license to use some of my paintings that it has really given me the joy and justification to paint more.

Because of Cards Direct, I painted Love is in the Air. When I painted this I thought that they could use it has a background. This was new freedom for me to paint in this style. It was experimentation with color and new techniques that I normally don't use. Cards Direct did purchase this one and asked me to do something similar with butterflies.

Love Wins was inspired after I went to a Southwestern Watercolor Society meeting. The artists bring paintings that are voted on. I saw two that were done with masking fluid and looked like batik. They had bright colors with the high contrast against the white. Our speaker / demonstration was by Carla O'Connor. She is one crazy artist - and I mean that in the most desired way! From her, I learned freedom in painting. She said crazy things like, "I don't know what it is going to look like in the end...", "oh, let's see what will happen if i do this...", "painting is not the painting in the end, it is the process...". By watching Carla paint and listening to her, I was inspired to be more free and more experimental. Question for you on Love Wins: Should I paint the background solid black with Indian ink so that the hearts and circles pop out?

Last, Rose Bouquet. I had a rough sketch made from several photos I have taken of roses. I added some white hydrangeas because I noticed the use of hydrangeas in the Valentine Bouquets around town this past week. I painted it looser than usual and also, you should have seen how dark the first stroke of red was on the wet paper! I love painting with reds and pinks. I literally felt "drunk" during this painting. I was not. My family had been gone for 3 solid hours, I had the music blasting, and not one interruption. It was blissful!

So whether it is Valentine's Day or some other day, spread the love!

Sweets for Your Sweetie

11x11

This piece was immediately spoken for by both my 9 and 10 year old sons. There are some parts of it that are not perfect, but, when I saw how big my sons' eyes got and their huge smiles when I showed it to them, that is what I remember. They both said with total sincerity and enthusiasm, "Awesome, that's the best painting." My 9 year old said, "those are my favorite."

I did two paintings today, this being the second. I will try to fix up the parts that I don't like. This is on hot press paper, so it is very easy to lift, but, I am disappointed with the part you know I am talking about.

I have to tell you about the doughnuts. One of the mom's in our playgroup always pick ups the most adorable doughnuts when it is her turn to host. Needless to say, our kids eat about 3 each and love going to her house. This time I took my camera because I wanted to paint the doughnuts. Well, she surprised us with these heart doughnuts! Just in time for Valentine's Day! I took several pictures with the doughnuts arranged in different positions. I didn't realize how much I was handling the doughnuts and how unappetizing that was to the other moms. I don't think anyone ate these particular ones. I forgot the name of the doughnut place. If you live in Dallas, it is on Lover's Lane by the Drip.

p.s. thanks to MY sweetie for letting me paint all day!!!! what a treat!

The Lazy Life of the Well Kept

Sassy
9x6

This is my aunt's cat, Sassy. My aunt is a photographer and is always sending me zillions of amazing photos for me to paint from.

First, I wish I could promote her blog or website, but, Aunt, you don't have one, yet! (hint, hint).

Secondly, this takes me back to: some photos are best a photo and would not make a good painting. Some of the great photos my aunt has sent are gorgeous sunsets over the Corpus Christi bay with the sailboats and bridge in silhouette with perfect reflections on the water. Now I am starting to think, maybe I should try painting that. I guess I am fine with leaving a great photo as a great photo. In any event, when I saw Sassy's fluffy tail and her fur "halo", I thought I want to try to capture that fluffiness.

I painted wet into wet on the backside of watercolor paper for added texture. I am proud to say that I did this painting a lot faster than my usual time. To me, that means I captured the esence (hopefully) instead of getting caught up in a bunch of tiny details. Next time when I do a people scene, I will try to remember this so I can just give the idea of a group of people rather than painting every detail.

Butterflies

Butterflies I

15x22

For about 3 years now I have had an image of butterflies covering a page in a whimsical, transparent way. This idea has been coming in and out of my head but I was always trying to think of how I could do this as a painting for someone that may what to hang on their wall.

Using the technique above, I made one for Valentine's Day, which, the greeting card company, Cards Direct, has already purchased the license to use. Cards Direct asked if I could do something similar with butterflies!!!! So, voila, I finally got a client that my idea could work for. I have not shown this to them yet since we are having another snow day. I promise in real life the colors look much better. The colors are more yellow to citron, yellow to orange and aqua greens. In the photos above there is a blue grey overcast and the colors seem not to flow together as they do in the painting.

Please check back on Valentine's Day to see the Valentine painting!

Orange Umbrellas
6x9 watercolor
I have stacks and stacks of photos I have taken of cafe/umbrella scenes. I do not know what it is that attracts me to outdoor cafes with umbrellas as painting subjects. Again, applying (trying to apply) what Andy Evansen taught us, I tried here. Andy paints on wet paper very fast. I think my paper was still a little too wet since the umbrellas bled a lot. Then the paper dried so fast I was painting wet onto dry paper. I do like the overall scene and the umbrella "dance"/"pattern" is interesting to me. I may try this on a large size paper. I do prefer painting with larger brushes and having more space to let the paint intermix.


My budding little artist painting on a snow day. His Auntie sent him that darling paint set.

Have a great week! Thanks for your comments, critiques and visits.

The Joys of a "Snow Day"

The Market
5.5" x 15"

Thanks to our "snow storm" in Dallas, I got to paint today!!!! Almost everything is shut down so it is a surprise "free day".

I was inspired from a scene I saw of San Miguel in the Smithsonian magazine. I tried to apply the techniques I learned in Andy Evansen's workshop. If you are a regular reader, you know that I desire to paint "loose", however, as you know, I always end up going to my natural style which is tight and detail oriented. I tried to give the idea of the viewer being IN a crowded market. I decided to paint this on a page cut emphasizing the horizontal. I learned that this is what I liked about my sailboat paintings. I feel in those paintings that I am on a sailboat in the dance of boats. I found that this shape was also good for the mountain scene and A Secret Garden. I like this horizontal format a lot. I feel like it engulfs the viewer.

HAPPY New Year!

Friends, Happy New Year to you! They say the first 12 days is an indication of how the rest of your year will be. (If your first 12 days were not the way you wanted them to be, just start today!)

Above are some of the paintings that were selected by the card company. The first two images are obvious how they would be used on a card. The last image they want to use for borders on invitations or by picking out areas for background. A lot of my florals were selected as well amongst some landscapes. Hopefully, soon I will have a link so that you can see all of the cards! Also, we are going to offer change of address cards/stationary for the clients that have commissioned their home portraits. The painting of their home will be on the card with their new address. I have learned a lot in the last few days about licensing one's artwork. Still, not enough to be an expert. Did you know that there are licensing conventions were artists and companies wanting artwork meet?

I have no idea what my next painting will be. We have been to the Turks and Caicos which was amazingly beautiful, but for a painting it would be the aqua paint right out of the tube for the water and then cerulean blue to ultramarine for the sky. Since Valentine's Day is coming up and I could not resist the very bright hot pink roses at the grocery store or the gorgeous white with red tips that my husband brought home, maybe I will paint those. Next post I will put a few Turks photos up. You will think they are postcards.

Have a great week!!!

Licensing your artwork?

has anyone out there licensed their artwork? A local greeting card company wants to use some of my artwork and asked how/what I would charge. If anyone knows anything about licensing your artwork, i would love to hear from you. I have learned some on the internet, but, have not found actual rates/fees, etc. I am sure there is a wide range, but, right now I have no idea.

thanks so much.

A Gift from the Heart

Here is one of the commissions that I have been working on. My client commissioned two of the same house. She grew up in this house and now lives in it with her husband and children. One of the paintings is for her, the other she is going to give to her parents for Christmas. Many of my clients have given a painting of their home or vacation home to their spouse for an anniversary gift, Father's Day or birthday. I love hearing the stories of how happy and surprised the recipient was.

Plein Air Painting with Andy Evansen

Here is some of my work I did in a week long workshop with Andy Evansen. It was so wonderful to paint plein air all day for an entire week! We even had the most perfect weather, too. Andy is such a pleasant and humble teacher. He really tried to help each of us with our struggles to paint loose. He had us work on 4x6 or 5x7 paper in gray scale to practice capturing the values. Andy works very fast and makes it seem so effortless. My favorite quote from him that I will remind myself was "just indicate...". We do not need to paint every brick etc., just indicate it is brick.

My favorite piece is the value sketch in the middle photo. I feel like it has the eurythme I always want to capture. The darks, the movement, the hint, the looseness and the freedom. I did not finish the color image below it. This was all done on site. I didn't get the darks in as dark as in the value sketch. Notice one of the value sketches at top was from one of my plein air paintings from the Cape. The bottom photo is from the last day of the workshop. We painted in the trolley barn down on McKinney St. We did White Rock Lake, Farmer's Market, the West End and Turtle Creek.

This Saturday is the BIG day. The show runs through January 3. But, I would love it if you came by to see me at the reception this Saturday:

Where Texas Gets its Color
The Dutch Art Gallery
10233 E. Northwest Hwy (corner of Ferndale)
1:00-5:00