Painting "the Adobe" makes me want Mexican food!

Another hour of work on this painting, I started thinking of enchiladas, refried beans, guacamole and sour cream, black olives on top. So that's what we are having for dinner!

How to fix an oops in pastel paintings

After finding my previous paintings with buildings had crooked or sloped edges, I knew I had to come up with a solution how to control that before I got too far along in the painting. So, I came up with something I'll share. I do a full-size sketch, and then trace the outlines of the building and important parts of the landscape on a writeable transparent sheet with a sharpie pen. As I go along with the painting I can "check" my work to make sure I don't get too far off the mark. I don't want hard edges in my pastel, so I feather the background into the edge of the wall, and feather the wall colors into the background. In so doing, I cover up my outline! So holding up the transparency keeps me on track.

The house roof line (the purplish wall in the back) went way too high. So I held a ruler at the right angle and then blew off the "oops" part with canned air. (The canned air idea was not mine - I learned that from Margot Schulzke!)

Start of a new painting in pastel

After doing the watercolor sketch, my husband noted that the wall was a big empty space. Good point. I added a window in it here on my pastel paper. I just blocked in the darks and turpentined them. A couple of friends said they liked the original lay-out rather than flipping it the other direction. So, I'm going with that. After the turp dries, I will start with the pastel.

Sketching in Watercolor - Adobe House

On our visit to New Mexico I photographed this house. I will probably do it in both watercolor, and also a version in pastel. I was in my outdoor "studio" (the pop-up canopy) enjoying doodling in my sketchbook, getting familiar with rendering the adobe, when I remembered a lesson in design and composition - and that is: people (in western cultures, that is), are comfortable reading from left to right. As I look at my drawing, the viewer enters from the right and travels to the left. Hmmm ... maybe if I flip it over.

I must be weird, because it makes no difference to me. If you would like to comment, I'd be happy to hear what you think!

I was going to paint more, but a neighbor started practising "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire ...", on a flat clarinet or sax. It is amazing how a listener tries to strain along with the musician to get the right note ... I just couldn't take it anymore. Think I'll go to the State Fair and join my Spinning and Weaving Club tent and spin for demonstrations!

"Wine & Grapes" Watercolor Painting

I've been working on this for the last three days. Yee-haw! I'm finally DONE!!!! I saved it as a full-sheet, so you can click on it to enlarge it to see detail (and there is a LOT of detail....). I think I'll do something easy next! That is, after I go for a trail ride on Casey tomorrow!

The "Art" of Free-Form Embroidery

Yeah, I know, this is not painting. I'm bending the rules a little bit. I planned it that way - I called my blog an "art" blog, not a "painting" blog. This morning I met my stitching friends at the stitching shop for our weekly stitch and bitch (well, that IS what they call it!). Since I've been painting so much, I haven't been to stitching like I used to. This project I have pictured here (sorry, it is hard to photo satin material) is going to be a fancy handbag. I must have started it a year ago! It is completely free-form (I just make it up as I go) and used entirely with left-over beads and threads and ribbons from YEARS of doing whatever craft had left-overs. It is kinda wild and busy looking, but, hey! At least I'm making use of the stuff that has been in my closet forever.

Now, back to my wine and grapes painting....

Gradually.....Getting There...

Still plugging away with this painting.