Christmas has come and gone, with nary a snowflake in sight.  Well, maybe one or two, but not enough to stick. I felt a snowy winter scene was in order to remind me of what was to come this winter.

A few months ago, I stumbled across a photograph taken by fellow Michigan resident, "Dr. Farnsworth", and it was a stunner. He graciously allowed me to use his photo for painting (thank you!).  My interpretation is a bit different than his beautifully simplistic and peaceful snowy scene, but I hope I did it justice in his eyes.

I've also posted a few more Autumn scenes in my Sketchbook Gallery.  Take a look if you like.

Happy Winter! (the fun and agony has only just begun)

Summer, please come back!  I miss you already....

Speaking of which, I also miss all of my artist and blog friends.  I've been absent from the internet for a while, as you can see.  I blame it on Summer.  But... I'm baaack!!! Hopefully you haven't all left me by now, but I totally expect that you would have moved on.

Anyway, after a wild whirlwind of summer vacations and getaway weekends, most of which involved water of some form (pools, lakes, water rides), hot, hot sunny days, and sometimes camping, lighthouses, cliffs, DJ music and Tiki bars, I think I'm going into Summer Withdrawal.  Does such a thing even exist?

So.... what a great way to bring back the memories than by painting some waves.

Want to see more waves?  Water? Lighthouses? Sunsets? Tiki Bars?  Here's a small sample of my Summer (click on a photo for a larger image/slideshow, or hover the mouse over the image to see notes about it):

Now, I must admit that Fall is my favorite season, with all of its splendor and glory.  But, but, but... I'm just not ready for it yet.  Give me a week or two to get into the proper Spirit of Autumn.  In the meantime, I'm back to reliving the Summer.

Hope all of you had a great Summer too!

My previous post was Mead's Mills Ruins, done from a photograph over 20 years old.  I was not happy with the way the water was painted, so I called it a preliminary sketch and set out to do a bigger, more formal painting out of it.  Here is the result:

I took artistic license by adding in more rocks on the lower right as well as in the marshy areas.

After I finished the above painting, I had the opportunity to go back to Hines Park to see if the Mead's Mills Ruins were still there.  They were.... but a little more road weary.  Here are some current photos.  I was sad to see graffiti on this landmark.

You can see from the above photos the area of the waterfall I focused on.  Unfortunately, I was not able to access the exact angle of the area I'd previously photographed, which was off to the left more, coming in from the side.  There now existed a lot of foliage along the shoreline not there 25 years ago.  Funny how a landscape changes over time.  I only took the photos above by crawling through the trees downstream, trying to get a view not obscured by trees.

It was definitely worthwhile going back to visit.  Lots of memories and lots of reference photos for more Hines Park paintings.

Here is another scene from Hines Park in Northville, Michigan, at the Mead's Mill Ruins site.  This is a composite of several poor quality photos taken in the mid-1980's.

This was more of a sketch than a formal painting.  I fiddled around with the water a little too much, but I think if it was painted on a larger scale then it would not be a problem.  I do like the sunkissed glow on the rocks though.

I think I'm going to have to go back there and take some current photos of the ruins, and to see how much it has deteriorated since then.  Stay tuned for more photos and also a larger painting of this scene, which I'm working on now.

My previous post was about the three-day workshop I took with Joe Fettingis.  It was a small class, only about 10 people, so we got a lot of individual attention and more importantly, we each had a table to ourselves (no sharing)!  The other painting we worked on was Native American boy.

Here's what else I learned:

• Working wet-in-wet can much more controllable than I thought;
• How to create glowing skin tones;
• Reflected color is in everything!

Some things I discovered about myself as an artist during this time:

• Masking fluid is now my friend.  I'd never had much love for it, but Joe showed us his tricks in using it;
• I rediscovered and fell in love with my flat brushes once again.  I'd worked with round brushes exclusively for far too long and had forgotten how useful a flat brush can be;
• I let go of the fear of several things, including working on large format paintings, creating large washes, and fear of "wasting" paper.  It's actually easier to paint larger rather than squeezing detail in a tiny space.

I overcame a lot of mental blocks during these three days and learned skills toward future artistic growth.  I'm also ready to paint some more!

I highly recommend a workshop by Joe Fettingis, and if you take one in the future, or have taken one with him before, please let me know!

I recently attended a three-day workshop by Joe Fettingis where our class created two paintings, one of which is this bird, an Egret.

11x15” watercolor on 140 lb Arches cold press paper
Painting #49 of 100 Paintings Project

This was my first in-person workshop.  I’d previously taken wonderful classes online and learned through book or video demonstrations, but there is no substitute for a live experience with live feedback.

This workshop was life-changing for me.  I feel like I went from an artist who dabbled in sketches to a more confident painter ready to tackle larger format paintings.

Some things I learned:

• It is indeed possible to paint a rich, deep background in watercolor, which had always eluded me.
• How to obtain proper ratios of paint to water and when to use various ratios. I’d heard about this so many times before, but it wasn’t until Joe simplified the process that I understood it.
•  How to create a lighter value without adding a lot of water.
• Scrubber brushes are not just for correcting mistakes - use them to create movement in a painting as well.
• The relationship of brush to paper and how much pressure to use.
  

I’ll share more in a few days with the next painting we worked on, which seemed really complex, but when broken down in steps, was very manageable