CHRISTMAS CARDS

I have never posted these two Christmas cards. The first is the one I was going to send out this year, but never got to do it. Don't know what happened. The second one is done on yupo in a sort of monoprint style.

ON INSPECTION

Before they moved to St. Louis, my grandkids would take turns coming over for Sundays. It was Iris's turn. She had on her pink fuzzy hat and was intent on inspecting a small plastic dog with a magnifying glass. I don't know why.

Mine is not to question it...just to paint the moment.

FOR THE BIRDS

I was reminded that I've never posted my paintings from the trip to Parrot Island, a bird sanctuary in Tennessee that we visited on our last reunion.

The first is a sun conure, done in watercolor pencils. I really enjoyed teaching myself more about watercolor pencils and doing an entire painting in them. Until this time, I'd only used the pencils for touch ups or details that were hard for me to do with just a brush. (I don't have steady hands with tiny brushes.)

The second of the blue parrots was one I considered a total flop. The original background was just too muddy. But I cropped away until it was this skinny, used it as a bookmark, and I like it way better. (Backgrounds are my weakest area)

This bird was also in the sanctuary. I believe it eventually landed on my sister Judy's hair. We were able to get into the large cage and photograph these birds.
This little guy is done on regular 140 lb Arches cp, doing the background wash before anything else was painted.

My Grandma Dorothy

This is my father's mother, Dorothy Mae Mackey Dearing. I painted this from one of Dad's favorite pictures of his mom. The greatest difficulty was that it was one of those old fashioned studio portraits that hand painted over the lips and cheeks. So it was difficult to see where the true lip line and cheek structure was. It gave me a lot of pleasure to see how much Dad liked his surprise Christmas gift.

I printed it in two ways: the original color version, and the black and white on brown paper. I liked the way they both turned out.

TILE MOSAIC PROJECTS

Since Katy gave us a set of coasters she'd made from tiles for Christmas, I keep getting ideas for things to do with plain white tiles. I printed out some of my paintings, put them on tiles with mat medium, and sprayed them with acrylic to seal them. The second picture is an example of some I've done. You might recognize some of the paintings.

The first painting I printed out as a 5 x 7 picture, cut into small squares, and with mat medium, I applied the squares to a piece of watercolor paper that had an ugly painting underneath. I wanted to see what would happen if I printed out a large painting, cut into 3 5/8 inch squares, and applied those to white 4" tiles. I am seriously thinking of trying that, now that I see how it might look.

Problems: When I print on plain paper, sometimes the ink smears when I put a layer of mat medium over it. (It doesn't smear on the layer that I use to glue it to the tile.) This is fine for soft edged things, like the birds. But on some paintings, especially those with white backgrounds, it is too obviously a smear. This smear problem doesn't exist with, say, magazine pages. Just those I've printed on plain paper in my printer.

Problem #2: How can I put the overcoat of mat medium on without the paintbrush strokes showing? I have tried buffing them out when they are dry with a piece of steel wool....too much work, and not too effective. I haven't tried rolling with a breyer yet because I am afraid of smearing the ink more.

Wiley--Ready for Roundup

Lisa Snell, who teaches in our school, took a photo of her cat that I just loved, and
I finally got some free time in November to start painting it. (I was working on the Pontiac for several months before that.) I finished it in December. It's one of the few
paintings that I have done just for myself, not for a show or anything else. I think it is actually the only one I did in 2011 that wasn't a gift or a commission.

There were a lot of issues to work out. The texture of the saddle is something I am most pleased with. First I miskited out the white threading and metallic areas. I laid down about four or five colors (quin gold, some pinks, cerulean blue, and burnt sienna) in a wet wash, and then lay wrinkled saran wrap over it until it was completely dry. Then I copied the saddle pattern onto that and negative painted all the darks. It was a bit tedious, but it was fun to see the pattern emerging.

In the photo the saddle is set on a 2nd story railing. Here I wanted it to look more like it is on a fence. I added the saddle blanket to pull some interest down and to give more texture.

Backgrounds are always an issue for me. I get so excited about diving into a painting, that the background often remains unresolved. In the photo the background is neutral brown with some light coming in from some source. But I wanted the cat's face and eyes to really be a focal point, so I wanted the background to have some cool blue to contrast with all the warms in the picture. I had to resort to some fluid acrylic to get the pop I was after.

Toby: Good Therapy

Right before Christmas a good friend asked if I would do a portrait of their therapy
dog, Toby, part Lab/part shih tsu. I didn't know if I could pull it off on time. I usually
like to spend a lot of time thinking about a painting and getting a critique and advice
from artist friends who do a lot of this kind of thing. It is done from a photo, but I also
know Toby, so that helps. So, since it too was a present, I couldn't post it until now.

BABY PROJECTS GALORE

Most of what I have done in 2011 was for family and friends, and I realized I never posted any of it, except for the dendrobiums that I did for Bo's wedding invitations.
So here are two playful things I did for the Katy's twins, Lucy and Violet. I made quilts with appliqued centers based on this pattern, and some decoupage blocks along with the same theme.

'49 Pontiac/Doug's First Car

I have been waiting for a few months to be able to post this painting I did of Doug's first car, a '49 Pontiac. Craig wanted to give it to him as a surprise, and it wouldn't have been much of a surprise had he seen it on here first! It was a challenge for me, since I am not a mechanical person.