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.

I admit I love painting faces!

I have to admit that although I can paint almost anything, I absolutely love painting faces.  This summer my goal is to do a painting every day.  Yes, I mean do the whole painting from start to finish. By not taking my time, it encourages me to just get down only what I need to say.  When I take more time, my brushes get smaller and I put in more and more detail and often I overwork my painting.  Not that detail is bad but I am attempting to stretch myself and, hopefully, in the process take my art to the next level.

Painting Dogs and Having a Ball!

Who knew that I'd enjoy painting dogs so much.  Our own dog crossed over early in 1993 and we never got another dog so getting to paint pet portraits is second to having a live dog in my studio.

In my opinion, a painting seems to bring the person or animal to life even more than a photograph does.  The paintings I've been doing lately have mostly been for people who's pet has passed on or is soon expected to so being able to do this for them really makes me feel good.

These are a few of my latest works.

High Key Watercolor Portrait

I started out as a watercolor painter then turned towards painting with oils.  Although I tend to paint more using oils, I occasionally feel the urge to break out the watercolors.  This was painted from a photo I took last month.  I wish I had taken more photos of this wonderful woman.

I Resolve!

My New Years Resolution was to keep my blog up to date.  Here it is February 1, 2017 and I am finally getting around to it.  I can use the excuse that life has gotten in the way of painting and of blogging and that would certainly be true.  But life is always throwing things in our direction.  It is our choice how long to hold on to what has been thrown at us.  Right now I have a strong need to have more balance in my life and painting does that for me.  It brings me back to my place of center and in turn helps me handle what life tosses at me.

Over the next few days and weeks, I'll post some of the things I've been working on.  I would love to hear your comments as feedback is a wonderful motivator.

Being near the sea has always helped me feel connected.  Since I'm not living as close to the ocean as I would like, I've recently been bringing the ocean to me.

"Breaking Wave"

18x24 oil on canvas

Painting Faces- Animal or Human in Watercolor

The Sun City West art club has invited me to do a workshop on painting faces.  Rather than one full day, I've broken it down to two half days.  The first, Sunday, Jan 18th, will be a demo where I'll describe my process as I try to produce a complete or almost complete portrait painting in three hours.  The second part will be "Hands On" where students work from their own reference material or mine.  The paintings will be executed using a warm and cool of each of the primary colors.  Both half days are from 1-4pm.  I'm excited about this opportunity to show how much fun and how easy it is to capture a likeness with watercolors.

Working with Three Primary Colors

Using a very limited palette of colors can be both challenging and rewarding.  Although expensive one can purchase almost every color under the sun but where is the fun in that?  If you are new to a medium, one way to see if you like it without a lot of cost involved is to choose a warm and cool of each of the primary colors.  Since I will be soon be offering some classes and workshops in watercolor, I chose Hansa Yellow, Red Rose Deep and Phthalo Blue as my cool primary colors and Arylide Yellow, Vermillion and Ultramarine Blue as my warm primary colors.  With this combination almost every other color can be mixed.  The first workshop, "Painting Faces - Animal or Human" will be held on January 18 and 19th at the Sun West Art Club in Sun City West.  Here are a few samples of paintings done with these colors.

Just a few of my Pan Pastel Portraits!

I've really been enjoying my pan pastels especially using one color to render the face.  Some of these are from models who agreed to sit and others from personal photos or photos I've found on the net.  I wish I were ambidextrous so I could paint with one hand while drawing with the other.

Taking time to blog

These are a few of my more recent paintings.