sketchbook pages

chickadees

These are all 8x10, and only the first one is "finished."

Painted the first two in a class with Megan Swoyer. Megan always gets me out of my rut!

And a pair of cardinals I'm working on from a photo supplied by Nora MacPhail.

loch lomond

.                             10x14

Painted this view of Loch Lomond following along with a video on Lois and Morgaine Davidson Art's YouTube channel. 

I just discovered the channel recently, and there are a lot of good videos there.

Unfortunately I painted this on not so great paper and got runbacks when the paper couldn't take more paint or water.

Next time I'll use better paper.

classwork

                                10x14

Painted in class with SaltyWaterArt.

Sometimes in a class environment I keep painting when I should have stopped. But this is not as overworked as I first thought it was.

In January we painted barns; in February it'll be lakes.

amaryllis again

.                             9x12 CP

.                              12x16, HP

Still trying to figure out these amaryllis!

I find the open ones hard to draw, and the throat hard to paint!

All four buds are open now, so I'm not done with this yet!

And, I have another, a white one, still in bud!

cardinals again

5x7 each

Painted these in a zoom class with Nora MacPhail. This was my second class with Nora and I really enjoy her style of painting.

I see my lady cardinal got a bit too red, but I'm not going to let it bother me!

more hp

6x6

More playing around on hot press.

I like the mottling, and how you can push the paint around on the paper.

I feel like I should add darker darks, especially on the upper right.

But I think I'll just leave it high key.

creating a still life class finale

16x16

The final painting from Susan Abbott's creating a still life class. .. Though I'm not sure it's really done; I may add something on the lower left.

And my sketchbook pages, which I love maybe more than the painting! I love seeing the work, the process.

I should do this more often, but I'm lazy.

And since I already did the work, I started another!

cardinals

    6x8

I had hot press paper out for the amaryllis and thought I'd try these cardinals, reference photos for a class I'll be taking wit Nora MacPhail in a couple of days.

It's been a long time since I used HP; I used to prefer it for flower painting.

I forgot how much you can push the paint around on it; lifting is also easier.

almost

Tried hot press paper. Still struggling to find the right red ... I always seem to veer off into purple. Should probably try some swatches.

Cropped versions: