Here He Is---MY DADDY!!

I finished the portrait of my father. This is only my third portrait, the second in oils. I am very pleased with the results. The technique of painting a value scale underpainting and then oil overlays makes you really look at your subject and understand the structures without the complication of color. If you are very careful with your underpainting, the color overlays just fall into place. This has become my very most favorite way to paint.

Another Portrait

I am working on a new portrait this week. This one is a portrait of my father. I am planning for it to be his Christmas gift. This is the underpainting which is done in Burnt Sienna acrylic paint. This portrait is being painted on 8x10 gesso board.

Christmas Teddy Sweatshirt

With the Thanksgiving holiday, I haven't had a lot of time to paint or to do much of anything else. Here is one of my latest pieces. This little teddy bear is painted on a sweatshirt using DecoArt So-Soft fabric paints. He is adapted from a design in an old book by Trudy Beard. Sweatshirt fabric is soft and absorbent. When painting on fabric, always remember to put something under the fabric or inside an item like a garment or a bag so that the paint does not go through to the other side. You can use a piece of cardboard, several pieces of disposable palette paper, card stock. Just make sure the barrier is at least as large as the design and that it is not going to shift while you are painting. This design was painted using a deerfoot stippler and the result is a soft-edged painting that is very appropriate for a fuzzy teddy bear.

A White Poinsettia

At our last watercolor class for the season, we painted a red poinsettia Christmas Card. While I was giving the preliminary instructions, one of my students asked what you should do if you wanted to paint a white poinsettia. While they were working along on their red flowers, I decided to paint my sample with a white flower.

You might remember from previous discussions that white is not white. In order to give a white object form and dimension, you must use color. Also, the original design for this card had no background. It did not need one. However, a white poinsettia on white paper will disappear, so I added a background.

You can see that the colors I used on this piece were Ultramarine Blue, Violet, and Gamboge. The leaves were developed with Sap Green and tints of the other colors were added. There is no doubt that this poinsettia is white. But just look at how colorful it is!

Trying Something New

I have been playing around with Adirondak alcohol inks and dominoes. They are actually quite a bit of fun to use. The dominoes are first cleaned and then you dab on inks--three colors on the dauber. The effect is the look of stone. Then you stamp a design over the dried inks. Once completed, the dominoes can be turned into jewelry, magnets, or some other useful item I haven't thought of yet. You can also use the inks on glass. Here are a couple of samples of inked and stamped dominoes and a glass candle holder all done with Adirondak inks. I haven't completed the domino jewelry, yet. That is for another day.

Basket Luncheon

Last Sunday, Town and Country Decorative Painters held their first Basket Luncheon. For those of you who are not familiar with this type of event, a basket lunch is a luncheon at which the entertainment is a gift basket auction. These kinds of luncheons are generally used as fundraisers. Ours was sponsored by the Retreat Committee and will benefit our annual retreat. We had 106 people attending and had 20 baskets. The gift baskets were donated by our members. Each one was required to have a retail value of at least $35 and had to contain at least three painted items. Our baskets all had values significantly higher than was required and they were all beautiful.

In addition to lunch and the opportunity to bid on baskets, each person took home a painted pumpkin pin and there were also painted door prizes and the table centerpieces. The luncheon was a huge success and we will be starting work on next year's luncheon very soon.

Banquet Hall

Gift Basket Display

One of the baskets I designed: "Tea With Friends"

painted items: tea box, napkins, and a framed pastel painting

A Portrait of my Aunt

I do not consider myself a portrait painter. This is only the second portrait I have ever painted. The first was a watercolor portrait of my mother. This painting is a 4x4 oil on board painted from a photograph of my Aunt. I have to say I am pleased with the way it turned out, generally. I am planning to send it to her for her birthday.