Painting as Fast as I Can

Painting faster = painting looser

I am pushing myself to do at least one small (9x12) painting a day. By painting faster, I find I am able to be a little looser which is my goal. Looser, in my opinion, gives a more fresh appearance. If the man looks familiar, it is because I've painted him before. He's still not as loose as I'd like to be but I'm working on it.

Flinging and Flicking Watercolor Paint

I had so much fun painting the last dog that I thought I'd so another. Flinging and flicking paint, I have to admit, is out of my comfort zone but I want to loosen up and use more color so what the heck. Just go for it. I wasn't prepared to apply masking fluid and searched around our summer apartment to find an applicator that might work and didn't find anything suitable so I inserted the end of one of my paint brushes into the pencil sharpener and applied the fluid with that. I don't think that part was as successful as I could have wanted a thinner line but I had fun and that is what really matters.

High Key Watercolor

A high key painting is one where the values (light or dark) fall into the lighter range. Low key paintings are mainly painted with darker tones. I've wanted to paint a white dog against a white background yet still have it be colorful. This is what I've come up with.

Coffee and a sweet pup

Bob and I stopped at a nearby coffee shop this morning and were sipping our coffee when we noticed the dog at the next table. He reminded us of our dog who passed many years ago. His human was training him with hand signals much as we did with our dog. I couldn't resist the chance to paint him so I mustered up the courage to ask if that was possible. I was thrilled when I got the ok.

Painting Family Members

It is true, that painting someone you know can be a bit of a challenge especially when using watercolor. I've not painted all of my family yet but just finished this one of my husband, Bob. I tried to capture his essence, his personality, his soul by not belaboring over the painting, but just putting down colors and shapes and values loosly and more impressionistically.

Watercolor Portraits

I absolutely love painting anything with a face. I know I've said that before but it is true. Somehow I feel engaged and connected to my paintings when I'm painting something with a face. Here are just some that I've been working on.

Paint Parties

I LOVE sharing my passion for painting with others. I especially enjoy showing someone who has not drawn or painted before how much fun painting can be. It has been 16 months since I held a painting party and was thrilled to have been asked to do a few on Saturday afternoons. The party goers, like so many before them, hadn't picked up a paintbrush in most cases since they were a child. Didn't they do a great job!!

Addicted to painting

 Taking time to paint almost every day helps me find my center.  My personality type is one who has a tendency to flit from one thing to another, never quite finishing one project that is until I discovered painting.

I am basically self taught although in my later years I have taken a few workshops or watched a few (ok more than a few) instructional videos.  I started painting in my 50's and I'm trying to make up for lost time by making the time to paint, at least a little bit, each day.

This summer my goal is to paint more quickly and with more color.  Since watercolors are so portable, I have a tendency to take them with me whenever I travel.

These paintings are all matted to fit into an 11x14 frame.  I might use them as studies for larger paintings, offer them for sale or just pile them under my bed along with the others I've done in the past

My granddog, "Freckles" when he was a pup.

(I've painted this pup with pastels before. This is the first with watercolor.)

.  I paint because I am addicted to it.  When I'm not painting, I'm thinking about painting, looking at other's paintings or buying more art supplies.  Those of you who know me, know that last statement is very true.

Freckles (my granddog)

11 Months later

 It has been 11 months since I last updated my blog.  I have been busy painting these past 11 months plus have been busy trying to figure out how to move my in classroom teaching onto videos and set up online classes.  Technology has not been my strong suite and being German I've been too stubborn to ask my informed adult son to help me.  With lots of trials and many errors, I finally got my classes up and running.  I have to say I actually enjoyed teaching online once I mastered the art of projecting two cameras at the same time and got the kinks worked out.  My productions are in no way professional but my students reported back that they really liked them and most preferred them to being in the classroom because they could get up close, stop, rewind, and watch as many times as they wished.  I kept all the demonstrations up for two months so they had plenty of time to practice.

I also fit in a lot of personal painting time.  Covid gave me permission to paint non-stop without guilt.  I found myself mainly using watercolors but occasionally got out my oil paints with a pastel or two thrown in there for good measure.  Here is just a sample of some of the ones I painted this past year.

This is from a workshop I took.

This is a project done in a workshop.

So not to bore you, I'll stop at these but trust me, there were many MANY more.  I am so fortunate to have a loving, supportive husband who has taken over the chores of laundry and cleaning so that I might have more time for painting.