"Bountiful Peony Bouquet" (watercolor and oil pastel on paper; 10.5" x 15.5")

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With this peony painting, I did something unusual and crazy.  After finishing the painting, I decided not to leave the background pure white.  I first tried several vertical stripes of dark colors, which made the background come forward.  Oops.  How about dark squiggly lines in oil pastel over those random stripes?  Then, I spritzed water where the flowers met the background to soften the edges.  It was a complete mess!  Finally, I strengthened the now fuzzy-looking bouquet with white gouache and dark paints.  I think the result looks rather dramatic and contemporary.  What do you think?

"Robin's Nest" (mixed media; 7" x 9")

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When I let my hair down and have fun, I come up with a loose, fresh, and uncharacteristic piece like "Robin's Nest".  To create the effect of an intricate and messy bird's nest, I resorted to oil pastel.  I wonder why I don't do this more often!

"Big Hug" (mixed media; 8" x 8") sold

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A pair of baby African elephants greet each other with a big hug!

"Robin's Nest" (mixed media on paper; 6.5" x 9") sold

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It's a risky thing to do, but who can resist peeking into four vivid blue robin eggs in a beautiful nest up the tree!  The painting is a mixed media of watercolor and oil pastel.

"Summer Reading" (mixed media on paper; 10" x 14") sold

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Summer is the time to take a vacation, sunbathe on the beach, and catch up on reading. Not for me, unfortunately.  This is the second year without a summer vacation, thanks to my daughter's busy camp schedule.  I am in a way taking a break from my everyday painting routine by photoshopping many images of my artwork, updating my website and blog, and mulling about how to keep growing as an artist.

During my "break" last week, I found the above image among my portfolio.  It's an old painting that I did after a family vacation to Maui many years ago. A couple in swimsuits lean back comfortably in beach chairs, probably reading something light.  The sunlight coming down in rays of warm-toned dots envelope the figures.

What kinds of mixed media did I use?  The toned ground and figures were painted in watercolor; the dots were created with Prismacolor colored pencil.  Without the pointillist effect of dots, the painting would have been unremarkable.  With the dots, it pulsates with brilliant sunlight, which brings on the associated feelings of warmth, idleness, relaxation, and happiness.

A successful painting makes the viewer linger and feel something profound.  It may be longing, nostalgia, joy, passion, sorrow, inspiration, etc.  I endeavor to create that kind of art--emotional, powerful, and unforgettable.

"Maine Event" (mixed media; 14" x 20")

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Here is an old painting of mine out of which I got a lot of mileage, since it was juried into The Art League American Landscape Show in 2000, and received the second place in the Potomac Valley Watercolorists Invitational Show in 2003.  You will be surprised at how it all got started.

First of all, it is not quite in my usual realistic style.  My foray into a semi-abstract art happened out of my thriftiness.  On a piece of a half-sheet watercolor paper, I had done a drawing of Cliffs of Moher in Ireland.  I didn't like it; instead I decided to paint fishing boats in Maine.  Unfortunately, I must have marred the paper with the pencil line, which became noticeable as I began to drop paints onto the water area.  Oops.  As the painting was going fine so far, I waited until the paper was bone dry, then connected the indented line, changing here and there to make the dark shape interesting.  (As you can sort of tell, I had turned the paper upside down when I started the second project.)

The painting proceeded in the usual watercolor fashion--layers of darks on lighter shapes.  But when it was done, something was missing.  It felt empty and boring.  I brought out my big box of colored pencils and began to add dots--I went pointillist.  After thousands of dots, the painting glowed, partly because of the wax in colored pencils, but mostly thanks to many dots scintillating against the water--light against dark, dark against light, complementary colors, and so on so forth.  The pointillist masters such as Georges Seurat knew all about it.  A friend of mine tells me that she dreams about "Maine Event."

"Evening Walk in Dublin" (mixed media on paper, 14" x 10") sold

sold

The scene is Dublin in sunset.  The mood is dreamy.  The technique--definitely pointillist.  The painting won the Best in Show in The Art League monthly show in 1996.  When I heard the news, I almost fell off the chair, because I had never been accepted in a juried show, not alone won an award.  The beginner's luck!

This piece is the first decent painting I have ever created.  When I started painting, I chose colored pencil, because it felt least intimidating.  In Pat Barron's class at the Art League School in Alexandria, VA , there were some students who were working on the paper first painted in watercolor.  So I emulated them.  Pat complemented me on the palette I had chosen--orange, green, and violet, saying that it was a classic triad of secondary colors. 

At that time, I didn't know a darned thing about colors.  Now I look at the body of my work, I see a great deal of these three colors, as if I was born color-coded with oranges, greens, and violets.  Interesting.  Pat no longer teaches; she has retired and moved.  I hear her health is failing.  She was one of my first art teachers and I am grateful to her.  The painting is dedicated to Pat Barron.