Back in the Challenge # 13 to 16

When I took this challenge for the second year I thought I would narrow my painting down to focus only on portraits. It worked well for the first few pictures, but I soon realised that the restriction was becoming counter productive. I have a busy life schedule and the challenge for me really is to paint regularly. Besides I am still learning to paint with water coliurs, and  restricting myself to a single subject doesn't really help my painting. So having discussed this with Laure who agreed with me as well, I am back in the challenge, but my paintings will not be restricted in its subject matter, but will keep to the original objective of paint, paint and paint!

Lorrie #72 - Breakfast

Breakfast, watercolor 12 x 15 inches

Confession: one of my favorite ways to start a day is a large cappuccino and a croissant!

Kristin: 67-68: black and white scratchboard

A couple more scratchboard drawings, but I tried a new technique. After drawing and scanning them in, I went into Adobe Illustrator and made a "live trace" which turned them into vector shapes. I like the way they look when they are enlarged, but am not sure about when they are small. I included the original pen drawing of the rabbit below for comparison.

 Chicken of the Woods, computerized scratchboard

5 x 5" (c) klink, 2012

Cottontail, computerized scratchboard

5 x 5" (c) klink, 2012

Cottontail, scratchboard original

5 x 5" (c) klink, 2012

#4 Banana -Camille

I painted this on the back of an old painting on Strathmore paper.  I decided to leave the background white and have a few lost edges.

Kelly - Paintings 13

(watercolor)

...a watery rendering of an American Kestrel, our smallest and most colorful falcon. Back in Autumn Matty and I went to a photo shoot of raptors at RAPTOR, Inc., a raptor rehab facility. This is a painting of "Steel," who is blind in his left eye. He perches a lot in this posture, because he doesn't like to turn his blind eye towards someone.

Golden-crowned Kinglet #24

This little painting looks a lot like my #16. Same subject, but different paper and different approach. I was hoping by being very careful I might have something I like better. I like both, but for different reasons.

Painted of Bee Paper's Aquabee Duper Deluxe 93# sketchbook paper.I like this paper for a reasonably priced watercolor paper that takes both ink and watercolor well. This painting is pencil and watercolor.

Claire painting 6: Tulips for a winter day

Its been a very cold winter here in California, with very little rain to speak of. I'm used to green hills this time of year, but without the rain we're left with unexciting brown hills. When I saw these beautiful tulips in the grocery store, they really caught my attention. I decided to treat myself and mom to bouquets of the tulips to brighten the cold winter days. My idea sure worked for me - the tulips brought warmth like sunshine on a bitter cold day. I also had fun sketching and painting the crystal vase that my parents gave me years ago.

Liz Cutler 94 and 95 8x8 oil on board

It is just too cold outside so I pulled out a photo from long ago , and quickly laid in the values with a fairly limited palette. I did not get too detailed and kept to the values of my original sketches.

#3 Clouds- Camille

This was a fun experiment.  I wanted to use a lot of color as it has been hard for me to use lots of color in my paintings-so time to try new things!  I am not happy with the right side of the painting...the cloud has no attachment.  I didn't even notice until I had scanned it.  I think I will scan my drawings before I paint.  Another good reason for me to paint what I am actually looking at for a while.  But it was fun.

Ford Pond Barn #23

This old barn is just a few miles from my home. I've often wanted to make a little painting of it .. and finally did.

I often mix watercolor and ink. It is one of my favorite mediums to work with. Painted on Strathmore 140# cold press watercolor paper ...inexpensive paper which is quite durable. Inking was done with my fine and flexible Pelikan fountain pen and Platinum Carbon ink.

Kelly - Paintings 9 -12

These paintings all fall under "economy of brush strokes." I wanted to see how few strokes and how little detail was needed to capture the feel of the bird (I used no pencil marks either...just worked with the paint brush). I started with the wren and worked my way up. By the time I got to the chickadee I found I didn't need many brush strokes at all to come up with a likeness...(check out the date on the paintings....I wrote 1-2011...that's so me....darn! At least I got the month right!).

(watercolor, cold-pressed paper)

(watercolor, cold-pressed paper)

(watercolor, smooth hot-pressed paper)

(watercolor, cold-pressed paper)

Kristin, 65 and 66: Illustrating what we can't photograph

Sometimes I feel like I am cheating when I post stuff that I am doing for work on the challenge, but the sad truth is that I probably wouldn't achieve 100 paintings if I didn't. It also allows for me to post a greater variety of work. So these illustrations are for a project, but the cool thing about them is they are both of subjects that don't exist in modern times, so took the imagination of the artist to bring them to life.

Hadrosaurs, 14 x11" gouache and watercolor

(c) klink, 2011

Katmai artifacts: Basket, oil lamp, spear head, and harpoon

11 x 8.5" gouache and watercolor

(c) klink, 2011

Small Watercolor Paintings - Dora Sislian Themelis

#54 Three Friends ©2012 Dora Sislian Themelis
7x10 Watercolor on Arches

#55 Shells with Peach ©2012 Dora Sislian Themelis
7x10 Watercolor on Arches

#56 Four Shells with Rock ©2012 Dora Sislian Themelis
7x10 Watercolor on Arches

I photographed these small watercolors at different times during the day. What a difference in daylight colors! I might have to re-do the first two, just too much blue from the morning light.

Closing in on my year and still trying to push on.

Lorrie #71 - Aurora

Aurora, watercolor 9 x 13 inches

There are so many stunning photographs of the aurora borealis (northern lights) on the internet, I had to try a watercolor version. The sky took a bit of experimenting first, to figure out how to do it in a single, wet wash so that it didn't look overworked..

# 90, 91, 92 and 93 my dog Brindle Graphite, oil

14x17 graphite on drawing paper

How is it I find a face with lips that extend below her jaw to be so adorable? I have spent most of this week in nurture mode after her limp was diagnosed as bone cancer and she became tripawed. She is much better now, so her long poses are over. I am also recovering as well. I thought I would do a series of sketches then choose one to paint but she shifted constantly so

my painting was as long as she sat still.


As soon as she nodded off I drew, once she felt my eyes on her she'd get up. I went back in with my eraser , forgot how much I like that.

Oil on 12x12 gessoed grey board.Gamblin fastmatte and oil study.

Last of the Yupo #22

A black bear and her cub wander through an aspen grove in Yellowstone. If you look carefully at the nearest aspen you’ll see little claw marks made at some earlier date by a cub climbing the aspen. The lower parts of both aspen are scarred and nearly black because elk have chewed the bark off during the hard months of winter. This little painting was inspired by one of my many trips to Yellowstone. Painted with water soluble graphite pencil and watercolor on Yupo.

Now for a confession. When I purchased the Yupo ‘paper’ a few days ago my normal caution was sleeping. It was sold on the same rack with Arches watercolor paper. I assumed this stuff was also a quality surface. I’m always checking the acid content of paper and making sure I’m do serious work on good paper. The Yupo didn’t have any information with it.

Laure Ferlita gently asked whether I knew much about Yupo. She also sent a link so I could start discovering. Yupo isn’t paper. It is plastic! No wonder paint washes off and ink takes forever to dry. It is a very different surface and offers some intriguing possibilities, but I think the archival qualities need to be addressed. If you go to the Yupo website (http://www.yupousa.com/paper/index.php you find out how tough it is, but not how archival it is.

According to another web site plastics are degrading and at an alarming rate: As artists I think we should all be aware of the probable limited life expectancy of art created with plastic. I don’t plan to spend any more of my time working on this surface. Thank you, Laure, for alerting me.
(http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/art/2009/07/does_plastic_art_last_forever.html

88, Liz Cutler oil on board,12x12 # 89 monoprint mexican mask

A monoprinting workshop with my mom and daughterat Cristi Fer Art, Playa del Carmen. Printing image then painting.

One of my daughters friends signing autographs after breakdancing in Plaay del Carmen, Mexico. A limited palette quick sketch with a good deal of medium working from a photo.

Liz Cutler 84's origins and 85, 86, and 87

Three paintings and a photo This was a quick painting 12x12, from a photo ... a 22 year old photo as my daughter is now 22. There was a nice warm light on her face in contrast to the coolness of the rest of the photo.

I broke out my CaranDache water soluable pastels and sketched Jeff as he was driving. These work as a bridge between draing and painting for me, though I wish for thicker darker ones for blocking in large spaces.

12x12 oil on gessoed board. Another self portrail with a limited palette aliziron, blues and indian yellow, there is color distortion in the photo as there just is not an orange cheek on my painting. Still need to work on the structure of an eye, paint got too juicy and muddy and it is so hard to paint my eye as I am observing it.

Idecided to post this photo so you could see where my 'graphite painting"self portrait in my last post, came from. This mask was part of a 4-H demonstration of Edtih Platt's spirit mask making process. (I felt like I got a facial during the process).

Lorrie # 69 and #70 -- Stormy Saturday at West Cliff, & Surf Riders

Stormy Saturday at West Cliff, watercolor 5 x 7 inches

It was windy and rainy at the coast today, but also sunny and clear sometimes! I put paints in the car and drove down to West Cliff Drive (Santa Cruz) but wasn't really in the mood to paint after all--and juggle the materials while sitting in the driver's seat (it was too blustery to paint outside). Finally though, when these two people stopped right in my view, I took the chance to sketch them.

Surf Riders, watercolor 5 x 7 inches

Another bit of the stormy Monterey Bay today. There is no end to the practice and challenge that the ocean presents... !

#2 Red Onion - Camille

This was a challenge but fun.  I decided to paint from life rather than from my imagination.

Kelly - Painting 8

(watercolor, 12x16)

This Barn Owl's name is Storm. She's a rescued owl for RAPTOR, Inc. One day last fall, Matty and I went to a photo shoot of the owls. I based this painting on one of the photos Matty took. It made him happy that I preferred his photo over all of mine! Storm is a beautiful bird. She is a working educational bird with RAPTOR because her wing was damaged and she can no longer fly.