In Time for October....

A cool shot of our resident Black Cat...Maddie.

Inspiration at last!

These photos don't give "her" full justice...but I got these mannequin heads from freecycle last year. At the time, I didn't know what I was going to do with them, just that they lent themselves to some sort of creative objective. This week I got inspired...and painted one with Van Gogh's Starry Night...or my impression of it, anyhow. I love it. Not sure how I'm going to handle the hair yet...I sprayed it with blue hairspray for now...

College Pics

These are all photos of pics I did in college...not all of them of course...but a few. I thought they were at least interesting enough to post here.

These are the current works for this week. Neither is finished. The one of my Dad and Carol is a "study" I'm doing in my sketchbook. I intend to play with the colors, image, and background in a small(er) format before I decide on how I want to do a larger painting. I like this one, but it isn't quite what I had in mind. Kevin Welsh is the photographer. He took the picture in the Bahamas.

The other one is the color sheet of Daniel Smith paints I just got (see earlier post). As you can tell, they are all lifting paints. Instead of just doing a stripe on each color, I decided to use my orchid pattern to see if they lifted. They do.

Primatek Watercolors by Daniel Smith

I got quite a few tubes of Daniel Smith's primatek paints for my Birthday (thanks Dad and Carol!). I painted out some squares and on the sample sheet Daniel Smith sent to get a better idea of my new colors. Overall, I really like them. Some of course, more than others.
Here are the colors on the first picture from top left Purpurite, Amethyst, Sugilite, Sodalite, Blue Apatite, Lapis (I didn't have much of this one, just a little on the card),Sleeping Beauty Turquoise, Accidental Jade and Amazonite mix (pretty though), Jade, Serpentine, Rhodonite,Minnesota Pipestone (very small sample),Tiger's eye genuine,Hematite Burnt Scarlet, Bronzite,Sedona genuine,Amazonite,Blue Apatite charged with Rhodonite, Amethyst charged with Rhodonite, Purpurite charged with Sedona.

Sugilite is not what I expected...way more iridescent (not sure how I will use this in my paintings...might be better for abstract work). The bronzite and amethyst also show some iridescence, but not as much and it almost disappears in washes. The serpentine is much nicer in person than on this photo. It is one of my favorites. I just wanted to show what they looked like so other artists could decide for themselves. I have not checked opacity or staining qualities yet, but it is late tonight and I'm going to bed. Hope this gives you a better idea of the colors.

BtW, the rhodonite on the small sample card got contaminated with some of the sodalite so it isn't a good example.

Trish

Corelle Color Your Home in Corelle Contest

Domino magazine www.dominomag.com ran a contest with Corelle plates...Color your home in Corelle...

I did a lot of research into past Corelle plates, other plates, design themes that are popular right now, and came up with these ideas. The bird of paradise fits two design themes right now, tropical, and the colors blue and orange, which are apparently popular right now. Plus, there aren't many bird of paradise plates, and I liked how it came out. Sort of an abstract version.

The orchid is another popular color scheme in design right now, purple and green, plus its exotic and my version is simple. I know purple is not good "feng shui" for the kitchen, but I have grape plates in almost that exact shade of lavender and I love them.

I had never even imagined trying to design plates before, so I learned alot in my research, and it got me painting again, which I hadn't been in quite some time. I'm not sure what I will do with the images if I don't win but I will probably work on them and work them into some sort of collage.

Wish me luck.

Updating my site, finally!

These are some of the things I have been working on for the last month or so. Pretty diverse. The angle of the rhino was very challenging, but fun. Not sure what I am going to do with the orchid yet, probably work it into another painting. These are all in my "sketch book", about 9 x 12 inches.