Tomatoes on Aquabord

watercolor on aquabord - 11" x 14"

I'm moving slowly on all my paintings because I have so many of them going . . . including a few valentine surprises.  Here's the latest on "Vine-Ripened Revisted."  Have a great day!  :)

So Proud

"all together now . . ."  

Well, tonight was the last night of my watercolor workshop.  I am sooo proud of my "On the Vine" students and happy to share their paintings with you.  Look at how well they turned out.  While they are all the same subject, each one has its own style and personality.  And pretty much these are all from first time painters!  I'm so proud of "my ladies'" patience and commitment.  I mean, look at the depth on some of these tomatoes!  :)  What a great class -- thank you so much Donna, Jacqui, Joanne and June.  

Donna

Jacqui

Joanne

June

Tomato Class

Here are a couple more progress shots of the work my students are doing in my "On The Vine" workshop. Because of vacations and such, we've decided to extend the class one more week, so I'll post the finished images next week. There's one more student, but she took hers home before I had a chance to photograph it.  Aren't these looking great!?

And here's what I've begun . . . 

Vine Ripened

"Vine Ripened"
5.75" x 7.75"
watercolor on paper

Click here to bid.

I thought you might like to see these progress shots again.  I had hoped to finish all three paintings last week, but only got through two.  The strawberry is killing me!  :)  So I planned out my week . . . beginning three new paintings this morning, two of which I've made a lot of progress on already.  So I'm off to a good start -- hoping to have a productive week.  Thanks for stopping by.  :)

Goals for the Week

I meant to post this much earlier today, but things just got in the way.  My goal this week is to try and finish 3 small paintings this week -- the strawberry one that's almost done . . . this new tomato one (measures about 4.5" x 6") . . . and another one with some more berries and cherries.  We'll see how I do.  I'd like to squeeze in some more time on my Nantucket basket too -- oh boy.  

In other news . . . I had a great first class tonight for my "On The Vine" workshop.  Unfortunately one of my students wasn't able to join us due to an emergency -- hopefully though, everything worked out and all is well now.  She and her family are lovely people.  

Thanks for dropping by . . . 

The Daily Paintworks Challenge

"On The Vine"
6" x  4.5"
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This week's Daily Paintworks Challenge is one of mine.  I hope you'll all give it a whirl!  (And many thanks to Carol Marine for the DPW site and her encouragement.)

The idea: This week’s challenge is to create a dynamic composition - really think outside the box - and pay particular attention to your design. I’ve listed a few of my favorite “rules to a good composition” that I use to help guide my students (and me!) to dynamic arrangements of space that will draw people into the painting. Feel free to use some of them, all of them, none of them . . . whatever helps you:

- create depth through foreground, midground and background & overlap shapes
- use diagonals (oh so much more interesting than horizontals!)
- use "run-off" (have objects run off the page on all four sides – but be sure to avoid having them just "touch" the edges)
- employ the rule of thirds (divide your paper into thirds rather than halves – horizon lines and focal points should all fall on these lines - stay away from centering - create INFORMAL BALANCE
- create “shards” of negative space (maintain interest through contrasting sizes and shapes of negative shapes)
- keep 80-90 percent of your space positive (enlarge your image to fit your space, no one wants to look at a page of empty space)
- use contrast (create apparent differences in size, shape and value)
- stagger objects (avoid lining objects up)

Have fun designing!

Fiddling and Winners!

"One the Vine" (wip)
4.5" x 6"

I fiddled with this little one over the weekend and will finish it up today. Then it's back to my nantucket basket!  

In other news . . . I finally decided on a name for my bowl painting (below). I want to thank everyone who wrote in with their suggestions, both here and on my Facebook. I really appreciate your input not to mention your taking the time to respond. I decided on Shelley Warburton Siegel's "Morning Blues" -- I think it brings a story to the painting. I love the word play but also the lingering question. So thank you so much Shelley, for your clever title!  I'll be sending her a little prize in the mail. In addition, I've put all your names in a hat and picked another winner who will also be getting a little something . . . and that person is Crystal Cook! Crystal posted a lovely and thoughtful suggestion here on my blog. So thanks again and keep your thinking caps on, because I'm sure I'll be back for more help. 

"Morning Blues"
12" x 16"

Have a great day and thank you for stopping in.