Not sure this one is done yet. Again I chose a previously painted floral and drew over it using a photo I took a while back of an empty church praise band area. I like the juxtaposition of the organic and geometric shapes.

This was a floral painting that was a bit overdone so I drew the trumpet and overpainted much of it for a whole new look. 

Here is a recent painting that started with a colorful wash and salt. It reminded me of coral shapes so I only had to add some of my favorites under sea shapes.  I also added some darker coral shapes by dropping ink and blowing it upward with a straw.  Such a fun piece. 

 

This is an example of an overpaint that I have been experimenting with recently. 

It involves using an older watercolor painting that I no longer value and drawing an image or images over it.  Then using gouache (a water soluble paint that is more opaque than watercolor) paint the negative space around the image.  I finish by adding a few details with watercolor pencils. 

Emma's Roses

I am showing the sequence of stages that this painting took as it developed.  After drawing the main layout from a photo, I masked some highlights in the hair and the main flower.

I applied a very watery golden wash to the entire paper and let it dry.  Then I added some more masking to save some of the yellow background color in her hair.

I began to lay in the main skin tones.







                                                                                                       



The second photo shows laying in  ore mid tones for the dress, hair and flowers.


I was able to remove the masking after this stage as I was finished with large areas and ready to focus on only the details.
















Finally I added the necessary darks to her hair, flowers and foliage and some shadows.

Painted this a while ago, but have been slow posting.  It won "best of show" at the Mayflower senior show this fall.  It was inspired by one of the posters at my favorite Sweet Tomatoes buffet,

I wanted to show photos of the beginning, middle and end stages of a similar painting.  I painted on them each while doing a demonstration for the Sanford Seminole Art Association recently.  Still need to finish two, but think the third is complete.

Just finished this. It's my first painting using a photo from a site called "Paint My Photo" which I've been interested in recently.  The photo is owned by Ainslie G and I wish to credit her here as well as on that site.  What first interested me in her photo was the strong shadows and dark/light contrasts.  I printed her photo in black and white before using it as a source.  As you can see I became more interested in the background textures than contrast and shading.  I do like the result though.

Two recent paintings, the brighter one, "Tomorrow's Bouquet" was chosen for the 2015 Central Florida Watercolor Show at Lew Gardens.

This painting, "Yesterday's Bouquet"  has collage elements.  Both paintings have some experimental spraying of paint over stencil shapes.

I was so excited to have this painting chosen for the Casselberry Rotary Club Calendar for next year.  The inspiration for the painting was a photo of my brother from his fishing trip in Alaska a few months ago.  Actually sold him the original, but had a number of giclee copies made first.

I started this painting by drawing in pen and ink followed with a wash of blues and reds to establish shadowed areas in the scene.

Next I added the local color, enhanced areas of interest and developed paths of lights and darks for the eye to follow through the painting.  The photograph I used for reference was taken at the Cherry Pockets restaurant and fish camp near Lake Wales, Florida.  I had a number of giclee prints made of this painting that I can sell for less than what I charge for an original.

MBF

Here is my painting that was selected for this year's Central Florida Watercolor annual show.  I called it "MBF" with an attempt to shorten a lengthy but descriptive title.  It is of course from a photo of our lovable dog, Sherlock Holmes.  The inspiration for the color scheme was from an article I read about selecting three primaries and working only with them throughout.  I like doing that as it pretty well insures a degree of "unity" in the work.

This watercolor is on display in the gallery at Florida Hospital, Altamonte.  I used a photo taken on our Hawaii vacation last year as inspiration.  Love doing rocky lighthouse scenes.  It's called "Leaving Kauai."

Published painting on Missouri County Register

My painting on the cover of the Missouri County Register

Acrylic on canvas paintings

  

These paintings are both worked from photos my daughter in law, Carla, took on a mission trip to Italy last year.  The canal one is 24" by 36" and the vertical bridge scene is 20" by 24."  It's been fun for me to experiment with acrylics again.  Instead of framing I painted around the edges of the gallery wrapped canvas.  It takes a little more time on the first stages of underpainting, but doesn't require much detailing.

Cactus Flower 2

 

This is the second time I worked from the same photo of the blossom from my cactus that blooms only at night.  After working with layering transparent washes to do a deep dark background (in the workshop with Soon Warren)  I like the effect and the contrast it offers for a painting like this.

Crystal Vase with Peony

Here is a painting I finished recently at the Soon Y Warren workshop during this year's Florida Watercolor Convention.  It was great working with her and watching her paint.  I used a lot of frisket to begin, and did some scrubbing out of color on the Peony petals.  When I was about half done Soon Young suggested I tape off the outside edges as they were distracting from the main event.  I was planning on just cropping out the outside edges, but when I removed the tape everyone around agreed that it was great looking the way it was.  In fact it enhanced the "main event."

This is how "Hello Birdie" began. I drew from looking at a favorite photo, then put some block-out medium on certain areas to cover where I wanted to maintain the white of the paper. I also put down a few of the light values of the bird colors.

Adding medium values............

Just need to remove the block out, add medium and some darker values. Also do background washes that enhance the theme.