In the studio today...

A friend of mine is getting married

and she kindly asked me

to paint her a tree

that will be her "guest book" at the wedding.

Here's the tree "in progress"

in the studio...

Here are the leaves close-up,

which her guests will sign

with a paint pen.

Almost finished...

A detail from the branches...

My friend and her fiance's names and their wedding date are "carved" on the tree...

Congratulations and Best Wishes,

Adam and "Gypsy"!

Love ya!

Watercolor Wednesday

Well, this is the completed watercolor

that you got the little sneak peak of

last week...

This is Moses Parting the Red Sea;

I did this piece

for our local ballet company
who are performing the story of Exodus

this January.

Some of you have expressed interest
in seeing the steps it takes
to complete a painting...

So, here are some photos
of this painting in progress...

This is my sketch that I traced onto my watercolor paper...

Then I painted the foreground and rocks,

using salt to create texture...

Then I painted in the ground between the walls of water,

also using salt to create texture...

Then came the sky and water -- lifted clouds out with a tissue,

and created "rays" by pulling a dry tissue through wet paint...

Next came the water --

I did several layers to get the color intensity,

doing some glazes and dragging my brush to get a water effect...

Then I started working on Moses' robe -- lots of "losing the edge" in this part,

then glazing over it to achieve a uniform color...

Finally, I spent quite a while intensifying shadows,

adding local color to the sky,

Creating more depth in the water,

and finally, scratching the paper to get little sparkles and highlights...

Our fathers trusted in thee:

they trusted, and thou didst deliver them.
-Psalm 22:4-

Hope you're having a lovely week...

Art Journal/Calendar

I've never been much good

at keeping a journal.

But I saw the journal / calendar book

that this fabulous artist keeps,

and I was inspired to do the same...

because I do keep a date book.

So here are a couple of pages

that I've done in my art calendar

so far...

I'll be showing you more

as I go....

I'm using a 5 1/2" x 5 1/2" artist's journal that you can see here.
I have a cadmium green one.

At the Famer's Market...

Went back to

the Farmer's Market today...

My friend, Danny Brown was there

doing portraits & caricatures.

This is one he did of me
in between chatting with customers...
You can see more of his work here.

*****

And here's a little sneak peak

of a piece I'm working on now....

I can't tell you yet

what it is,

or what it's for...

but I'm very excited about it....

maybe you can guess from this little piece of it...

Hope you have
a lovely weekend...

Just a Reminder...

I now have the application forms for artists who wish to participate in the Fine Art in the Park at the International Storytelling Center in Jonesborough, TN on October 24th. If you are an artist interested in participating, please send me your e-mail address, and I will send you the application and guidelines. Applications are due August 25, so don't delay! Hope to see you there!