...and Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone!

I apologize for being away so long...

I've been working on various art projects and will share them with you soon.

If you are a painter of florals there is still 9 days to enter the International Artists Floral and Gardens Competition by going here. I entered the Poinsettia..."It's That Time of Year," and the crystal roses, "Spring Enchantment."

Check back in a few days...I have something to tell you...

Here it is...

Here it is...now I need to come up with a title...before Monday.

A little more progress

I'm Baaaaack!

I have been away for a while. My husband underwent tests to determine whether or not the symptoms he was having was lung cancer. Thankfully he does not have it.
My Mother was in the hospital with heart pain and had tests but she is home and doing well. I was able to paint some during this time but it was so difficult to focus.

I am back now and working to finish this for a May 15th show with the Knoxville Watercolor Society.

It is funny...when I started this the thought of working on the roses stressed me to no end! I have actually found them to be quite restful after working so long on the crystal. I think this is one that I am going to be happy with when it is finished.

Crystal Vase Progress

Here is a photo of the progress so far. I am much happier with it since I enlarged the sections and can actually see what is in there! I am almost to a point that I can remove the masking.

I compared this photo with the one before I started over (January 26th) and the colors are so much more alive in this...just what I wanted.

Fresh Start

I missed a very important step in this entire process. I always enlarge my reference photo in sections so that I can have a better understanding of what I am trying to convey to the viewer. For some reason I didn't do that until a few days ago. Needless to say I spent a couple of hours lifting and scrubbing so that I could get to a place where I could have a fresh start.

We have several inches of snow which is the most we have seen in 10 years or more so we went out for a while yesterday checking on family members but today I plan on staying inside and spending some extra time on this painting. Thanks for stopping by!

More Progress

...and another progress shot before

going back to the drawing board.

This is much too dark but I will have

to wait for the sun to shine again before

I get a good photo.

Whew!!!!

Here is a shot of the progress I am making on the crystal vase of roses.

Whew!!!!

Crystal Vase

While I am finishing the last details on the rooster I have also been working on the line drawing for the Crystal Vase. I want to have a simply detailed line drawing of this vase on file so that when I want to paint it in the future it will not have to be redrawn.

I have another painting "on the drawing board," so to speak and will show photos when it is further along.

I Can't Help Myself!

This painting will be, as I mentioned before, a painting of a crystal vase and roses. Both the vase and roses are my mother's. The roses are from a bush she planted about 50 years ago.

I know that I should be working on "Spring Cascade" but I had been thinking and sketching on this for about a week and I just could not figure how to draw the cuts in the crystal.

Tuesday was my day to stay home and paint or draw. I had planned to paint but I can't help myself, I couldn't get the crystal out of my mind. I needed to solve this problem! I sat down to draw and came up with the 1st drawing to the left.

It looked ok until I stepped back and looked at the whole drawing. The cuts are much too small for the size I have drawn the vase. The vase is actually much shorter than this but I wanted to make an impression and to fill space so I decided to make it taller which means that everything has to be elongated.

After studying the vase by sight and touch, I came up with what you see in this photo. I still have to work on "seeing" how the cuts appear as they curve around the vase but I am to a point that I can put it down and finish work on the painting...I think.

If anyone has advice on drawing crystal PLEASE feel free to share! Thanks!