Paint parties are fun!

I love holding paint parties and introducing the fun of watercolor painting to people that may never have painted before.

Pet Portraits

As we get closer to Christmas, I get more orders for pet portraits to be given  as gifts.  What can be more personal than gifting someone with a painting of their beloved pet.  These are some from this week.  One woman ordered paintings in two sizes.  She wanted one for their home and one for the RV.  I love being able to share in this way.

Remembering our Fur Kids

Often I am asked to paint someone's pet after they passed on.  It always seems like a sacred experience for me to do because I really want to help capture the essence of the animal that passed in spite of not having met them.  Other times I'm asked to paint the pets of people's children to be given as gifts and sometimes, as a pet nears their time with us, someone will ask me to paint them so they have something special to remember them by.  Whatever the reason, I feel a deep sense of awe and gratitude that they chose me to do this for them.  Here are just a few of my recent commissions.

Beginning Watercolor

I LOVE introducing people to the joys of painting and watercolor is such a great medium to work with.  I teach weekly classes through our community's art club where we can go into more detail developing a painting and I also lead paint parties.  The paint parties are 3 hours long and I introduce people to the subject we'll be painting and demonstrate the various steps to painting that subject.  My goal is to have people fall in love with painting where they want to explore it even further.

I was asked to have another paint party so people could paint an EMU.  Yep, the emu was so popular last year that those who didn't come wanted a chance to paint it.  Here is their work.  Please note, only a couple attending had ever painted before.

Since it is fall and the EMU paint party quickly filled up, I decided to offer another paint party, this time teaching how to paint the colors found in the maple leaf this time of year. Once again the majority attending had not painted before!  Didn't they all do great!!!

Another Pan Pastel

I usually keep quite busy with my commissions for painting people's pets using watercolor but found a little free time this past week to break out my pan pastels and practice using them.  I say practice because I'm fairly new to this medium and totally self taught.  I love how I am able to mix just a few colors to make almost any color I need.

Black background?

In my commission work, I have often been asked to not put a background in or just use a simple background so the focus can be on the dog or person.  I recently decided to try painting more realistically but use black watercolor in the background as a way to pull your eyes to the focal point.  Here are three of my recent works in this style.

Watercolor Portraits

I've been having fun with painting some quick watercolor portraits to use in a demonstration I'm doing next week for a neighboring art club.

The month of September has just flown by.  My shoulder is healing beautifully and the weather here in Arizona is starting to cool down.  Plus this had been a record month for my art sales.  I've sold 17 paintings since early in August.  Wow!

I continue to have fun with what I'm calling my colorful, whimsical paintings.  I have always wanted to push the boundaries of color but have usually been more of a timid tinter.   Well, I feel excited about how freeing using something other than "local" color has been.  Here is an example of some of my recent work.  These are watercolor painted on cradled panels.

Keeping Busy

I'd love to dedicate a different room in my house to each medium I'm working in.  One would be my pastel studio.  One room would be dedicated to watercolor paints.  Another would be for my oils and all the supplies that go with it etc etc.  It sure would make life a bit easier than trying to do everything in one room.  I'm lucky to have a large L-shaped desk but rarely get to see the top of it.  I know the easy solution would be to only use one medium, two at the most but then which do I give up?

I've been commissioned to paint this sweet dog in the colorful, whimsical style that I've been doing but who can resist the chance to "practice" with my pan pastels first.

These are just a few of the paintings I've recently done. I am especially having fun with the colorful dogs which I've painted with watercolor onto  cradled, gessoed wood panels.  Often the varnishing process takes me as long to do as the painting has.

I'm back!!!

Not only am I back home I am back to using, at least partially, my right hand.  I finally got to start physical therapy this past week and am thankful that I ignored the Utah doctor's advice to keep everything immobile until I returned to AZ.  I started moving my shoulder after 2 weeks and moved my elbow and wrist on a daily basis.  I have a ways to go to get my range of motion back and many months before I have built new bone and connected the areas that are broken but at least there is a light at the end of this tunnel.

I haven't gotten my oils out get but I did dig out a set of pan pastels that I bought a few years ago.   These have been fun to work with and I have to say I'm quite pleased with my first efforts.

Using my non dominant hand

I'd be lying if I said painting with my other hand was easy.  It's not.  Nor is learning to do anything new ever totally easy.  Giving up is easy but doesn't give the same sense of satisfaction as continuing on with something new.

My most recent other hand painting.

Anyone Can Learn to Paint

Hey, if I can paint with my "other" hand while my broken arm heals, you can surely learn to paint with your dominant hand.  This little gem was done by a guy who swore he had never painted before.  This painting was done in one of my one day workshops.  He was not the exception.  Most of the students produced wonderful paintings and YES you can start out painting successful portraits.

Painting with my non-dominant hand

I am a person who talks with her hands and having to keep one arm immobile is a real challenge. Today marks 3 1/2 weeks of being in a sling and I tell you it feels like three years!!!  I have been fortunate though to have taken my watercolors and acrylics on this extended vacation with me.  I have not attempted to paint with acrylics yet but my watercolors have been quite the experience.

I found that I am very wobbly with my brush unless I place a few fingers on the paper to help stabilize my hand.  I started with flowers, moved on to dogs and finally decided to attempt a face.  since I didn't have a model, I painted out of my imagination.  Not great but surely not bad.

I have a way to go until my broken arm heals enough to where I can use it again so in the meanwhile I continue to paint with my left hand.  Here are a few commissioned "other hand" pieces. 

More left handed paintings

Since I won't have use of my painting arm for awhile, I better get used to painting with my left hand.  Here are a couple of my most recent ones.

The Other Hand

The day after my last post I tripped, fell and broke my right humerus up into the shoulder.  How life can change in a second.  One minute I am mailing off a commissioned painting, the next I am trying to get up from the concrete sidewalk with the aid of one arm.  A trip to the ER, X-rays and a simple, undersized sling and I'm sent home.  Well, not actually home as we were in the very early days of a three month vacation.

My plans were to spend the summer months painting and attending about a dozen plays which we already had tickets.  I have new found sympathy for people who have broken bones, especially on their dominant side.  I haven't felt pain like that in a long time.  I also never realized just how much I use my right hand and arm.  We are waiting to see if it heals with the warning that a shoulder replacement is on the horizon.

What was I to do all summer I asked as I sat staring at my art materials.  I couldn't sign an X with my left hand, how in the world was I to paint.  Oh well, I had nothing to lose so I thought why not and I started to paint the wild red poppies I was seeing all around this area.  I won't kid you, I felt very spastic and the going was very slow but it was a heck of a lot better than sitting and feeling sorry for myself.  I painted almost every day eventually trying my hand at painting dogs.  I have to admit, I amazed myself.

Here are a few of my "other hand" paintings.  I don't necessarily recommend breaking your arm but there is something very satisfying about doing something you never thought you'd be able to do.