Time for the Tropics

Just finished this lush, juicy painting of a tropical waterfall. It really felt good to smoosh the paint around after the careful portrait work!

Here is Tropic Falls, 11" x 14", available in my Etsy shop and on Ebay.

A Few Portraits for Wordless Wednesday

Wonderful Workshop and Show

So the week-long workshop with Ted Nuttall is over. It was fantastic! Many of our 23 class participants asked to have him back so I highly recommend Ted to any art organization that sponsors workshops. Very organized teacher with a unique message and lesson plan. We had students who have painted anywhere from 2 to 30 years and all learned something. Here is Ted on the last day reviewing my work. It turns out that the first one I did was the best because it was so fresh. (the girl with the rose from my last post) The other 2 I completed were a bit more worked, probably because I knew the subjects and tried to fine tune the likeness. I am jazzed to do at least 10 more to see if I can really embed his instructions in my scattered art brain.

Here are the 2 paintings of mine that he accepted for our show. This is the 10th Annual Juried Exhibition of the Saint Louis Watercolor Society. 85 paintings are showing at Creative Art Gallery in St. Louis. If you are in the neighborhood between now and May 30, stop in. It is a great show!



The first one is "A Row of Red" top left. The next is "The Range" top right.

Ted Nuttall Workshop

I am having a wonderful week! Painting 9-4 with master watercolorist, Ted Nuttall in a workshop sponsored by the Saint Louis Watercolor Society. He is a fantastic teacher; well organized, funny, a good instructor all-around. With his permission, I will share a little of the week so far.



We are studying portrait painting from photographs. The focus is to capture the emotion and expression with minimal definition resulting in a loose, painterly likeness. While it may seem that his paint is splashed on, each "sloppy dot" is very carefully placed. His work is high-key and the result of several very transparent layered washes. Here is Ted at work. He uses a hand palette and works on 300# hot press paper.


Here are my first two works-in-progress. It is amazing what reducing to thumbnails for the screen reveals! I have touch-ups to do, for sure!




More to come.....

A Walk in Shaw Park

One of the loveliest parks in St. Louis is Shaw park. The extensive Japanese garden is graced with lush growth and stately trees. This arched gate marks the entrance to one of the areas of the park. I chose to show only half of the gate to create an interesting shape with the white space of the gate and walk.

Here is Moon Gate, 11" x 15" original watercolor, available in my Etsy shop.

Getting Things Done

I have been so busy that if I had been painting, I could have completed a 4'x6' photo-realism cityscape. Alas, that is not the case. But I will share a painting with you reminiscent of the April showers we are having in St. Louis.

Here is Umbrellas, 15" x 22" available in my Etsy Shop.