Been a bit absent!

I've been a bit busy with other life happenings lately so the painting time has been scarce.  We are having our back patio enclosed to make an all weather room and the workers have been here for a few days with that project.  It will only be 11 feet square but will have two walls that are all windows plus a full view glass door.  The windows are all operational and match the ones in the rest of our home.  When the weather is nice, we will open them for some great fresh air.  When it is too cold or hot, there will be an A/C vent so that we can use the room year round.  We are both very excited about it and the opportunity to enjoy the outdoors without the bugs, heat or cold. 

Also, on July 20, we flew to Kansas City to pick up our new little female yorkie puppy, Emma.  Two and a half pound of wriggling love and heart! We lost our little Zoe to cancer in March and that was just heartbreaking.  In April we got Cooper at the age of 6 1/2 months.  He's a peach!  Gorgeous and pad trained to boot.  Best little personality.  He comes from a breeder in Kansas City who shows yorkies and has had over 70 champions in her career.  Both Emma and Cooper have generations of champions in their pedigrees.  So life is a bit more exciting here with a new little one.  Emma is five months old and though she is pretty good with the pads, she still has accidents now and then so we have to be pretty watchful.

I also had the great pleasure of meeting a friend at DFW this morning as he flew from Arkansas to his new home in San Francisco.  Robert and I met in an on-line art community, Wet Canvas.  He's also a follower of this blog.  We've been Wet Canvas friends for over a year but had never met in person.  What a pleasure to be able to spend a bit of face time!  We will be able to Skype when he gets settled there and I'm so excited about that!  Big hugs, Robert!  I'll be glad when you are up and running on the net again!

Hopefully painting will resume within the next couple days.  Thanks for reading!

Gavin in her Dallas Cowboy fan gear, WIP

I'm not totally happy with how this is turning out but I'm determined to try some things I normally don't succeed with, like using more colors on the face.  When I go back and review Ted's work, I see that I am far too concerned with local color and not so comfortable in adding other colors.  I also seem to soften edges much more than he does.  I need lots more practice!!!!

Chandler, another WIP

Another from a cute little snapshot when Chandler was maybe 18 months old.  Watering flowers with a spray bottle.  My usual paper for my portrait work is Arches 300 pound hot pressed and I've grown really fond on that paper.  This is on Arches 300 pound cold pressed and it is really different!  Need lots more water in my brush or it behaves like a dry brush.  I'm also not accustomed to doing flowers or foliage in the background so this is quite an experiment for me.  I'll post more stages as I go along.  I have to keep telling myself that I am learning and there will be bummers along the way.  I'm pretty much Type A when it comes to wanting things correct from the beginning.  Wrong attitude for a water colorist, huh?

I think this may be finished

I have added a loose background to this.  I started with just a light wash of cerulean blue.  Considered leaving it at that but it appeared unfinished to me.  So I added touches of cobalt, mineral violet and cad orange.  I think the cad orange picks up the color of her hair and pulls the background together with the figure.  What do you think?

I intend to work on some new things this week and REALLY try to add more colors and a looser look.  Wish me luck on that! 

The temps here remain in the triple digits with no relief in sight.  Come on Fall!!!

Chandler, WIP

I just love the  expression on Chandler's face here.  It is a snapshot taken when she was about 18 months old, or so.  I worked on it this week and think I have the figure about where I want it.  Now the dilemma is the background!  It seems that I am often unhappy with the background and therefore, ruin some of my paintings.  Poo!!!! A perfect example is the painting in an earlier post titled "Farmer Gavin".  I was pretty happy with the figure and then could not get a background that I liked.  Hence, I will probably not post the finished version of that and will try again from that same photo of her. 

We are attending a family and friends reunion party today.  I hope you all have a marvelous Fourth!  Stay cool and enjoy!  Thanks for reading!