PROBLEM!!!

There is a problem within either Blogger or Picassa and I am unable to upload any pictures to my blog. I have been doing lots of painting but please check back, I hope this problem is resolved soon.
Thanks

Watercolor Cacti

 

These 3 small watercolors are done on Fabriano paper. They were based on photographs that I have taken of cacti in and around Central Texas.

Sadie Tussling with Brandy's Ball of Yarn

Sadie is a lab mix, a fun-loving, mischievous  dog who belongs to Grant & Brandy, my older son and daughter in law. Sadie decided to tussle with a ball of yarn that Brandy was knitting with and ended up all tangled up and Grant captured this cute picture of her-caught in the act! This portrait is pastel done on Gatorboard that has been coated with lightly textured  gesso in a light clay color. 

Kaleidoscope Beginning

This is another kaleidoscope design  - a flipped version of the finished one posted yesterday. This is watercolor on Arches 140 paper. I have laid down a cruciform wash in aureolin yellow and turquoise. Since the turquoise and yellow have mid-values, I will make darker tones by adding neutral tint not their compliment which won't alter the actual color of the pigment only darken the tone. These are great exercises for value and composition.

Agave with Hummingbird & Flowers

This is watercolor on Arches 140 paper.  It was a value exercise for Kathy Summer's class. First I went to the light table and traced only the lights in the scene and then painted those. Went back to the light table and traced on only the mediums and painted then the same for the darks. It was extremely abstract while painting it but then this close up of the agave with the details of the bird and flowers really gave the finished picture a lot of character. 

Pottery & Chilies Still Life

This is a  still life that I started on last night in Deb Richardson's painting class at Jerry's Artarama. It is a Mexican clay pot filled with dried chilies and has some spilling over. I am trying to paint this a little looser  than I usually paint. The one figure holding up the pot in the foreground will have more detail than the others. The chilies too will have some detail.The pot is sitting on a burgundy drape and I also have attempted to paint that very loosely...easy to get bogged down in detail on a drapery. This drape looks fairly nice at a distance. This is painted on Arches cold press paper from a block.

Churchscape Kaleidoscope - in progress

Here is the churchscape kaleidoscope in progress. This is painted on Arches coldpress 140 paper.

More Sunflowers!

Here is the same group of sunflowers that I have painted before. This one on Arches cold press paper has suggestions of sky and ground with very light sponging of sky and ground. This painting is for my young friend Alyssa.

Variations on Sunflowers

Here are more sunflowers! These seem so symbolic of Texas in the summer to me.
The painting on the left and in the background was done very wet on Cansen paper which I am going to toss out, it just isn't a good paper for me. The painting on the right was done on handmade cotton paper and it was so over absorbent that it dried too quickly, almost as the brush touched the paper, and it bubbled up. couldn't really get a very nice blend of colors on it. But I am going to try colored pencil and Gamisol on this handmade paper, I think it might just work!

New Kaleidoscope Watercolor

Here is a new kaleidoscope watercolor that I am painting. I put in gradient washes of Indian yellow and  French ultramarine. These kaleidoscope designs are really fun to paint and a great learning tool as well. 

Revised Winter Trees

Here on the right is a revision of my Winter Trees watercolor. I added a third tree, off the main picture, and  pulled white down in a reverse S  from the right side of the upper tree down through the middle to the mid-bottom of the  painting - both improved the composition. And  I added flakes of snow!

Grapes & Bottle

This evening in Deb Richardson's watercolor class at Jerry's, we selected 2 items for a still life and  painted away. Deb challenged us to "see through" the  glass bottles and record the shadows and colors that  we were seeing. I was pleased with the  results and my cork looks really detailed and cool up close. This was done on Cansen  smooth watercolor paper which I don't like to paint on. No texture and it roughs up very easily if you are trying to pull color off to regain highlights.

Watercolor Apple

This apple was also painted this evening at Deb's class. We did a very wet run of color for the background then painted in an apple & shadows from a still life. Remember, I said I would post the good, the bad and the ugly! This was ok, I did like the background and will probably work more with wet background runs of color - very atmospheric.

Winter Scene

This was painted in watercolor on Canson fairly lightweight and not too textured watercolor paper at Deb Richardson's watercolor class at Jerry's Artarama this evening. I was pleased with the abstract nature of the sky, mountain, snow. The sky and mountain were done fairly wet and the snow foreground was painted wet and had salt applied to it for a bit of snow texture...hard to read in the photograph but better in person.

Jack the Boston Terrier

This is a pastel on ampersand board of our beloved and departed Boston Terrier, Jack. This was painted from a picture my older son, Grant, took of Jack in 2001 when Jack was about 6-7 years old.

Positano, Italy watercolor miniature

This miniature watercolor of Positano, Italy was presented on a miniature easel and gifted to my friend in honor of her special birthday! Especially meaningful to me was that she and her husband, who have traveled a lot in Italy, both recognized that it was Positano!
This was done in watercolor on Strathmore cold press watercolor trading card paper.

Work in Progress - Autumn Leaves Kaleidoscope

Here is another kaleidoscope painting of autumn leaves. Still in progress. The turquoise color is so nice with the quinacridone gold & burnt orange colors.

Poppy Kaleidoscope - COMPLETED!

Here is the finally completed Poppy Kaleidoscope. I had trouble with some of the darker red washes but was really pleased with how the lighter washes changed shades depending upon the gradient wash that was underneath it. Arches 140 paper.