Nuts and Bolts Impression (watercolor on clayboard 10 x 24) $400

I enjoyed the long skinny format of Handyman’s Preserves so much that I ordered several 10 x 24 inch pieces of claybord so I could play around with the format a little more.   This time I worked a little larger, a little brighter and a little looser.

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"Bottles and Stoppers" (8 x 10 watercolor on claybord) $100

Painting can be magic.  You get to see new and hidden things.  When painting these bottles, I exaggerated the contrast between the various soft gradations of color within the bottles.   None of them looked like anything in particular,  just abstract shapes to paint.   But having painted the shapes I discovered that one of the things I was exaggerating was the magenta bottle’s reflection in the purple bottle.

It’s fun.  But it’s not unusual.  When painting reflections in metal or glass, I often discover that I have painted more than I can see, and yet the painting is right.  I’ve clarified by exaggeration.

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"Bowl Full of Spring" (11 x 14" watercolor on aquabord) $225

I’m still busy working through glass and reflections.  Long time readers with recognize the green mister.  I love painting it.  In ordinary household lighting, it is a dull unexceptional object.  With the sun shinning through it, it is magical. The camellias are fresh out of the garden.  Here in Salem camellias mean Spring has come.

This time my palette was: phtalo green, phthalo blue, quinacridone magental, new gamgee, and dixion purple.  I used a hint of burnt sienna to dull and darken the greens and for the metal parts of the mister.

Painted on Ampersand’s  aquaboard and mounted on a 2 inch black cradle frame the painting is ready to hang.  Hung this was the effect is much like a gallery wrapped canvas.  A frame may be added for a more traditional look.

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Craft Room Pickles (11 x 14 watercolor on aquabord) $300

It’s  fascinating to paint what happens to objects behind curving glass.  Add that the objects are more glass, and it gets more fun.   The shadows cast by glass are even more interesting because glass not only casts shadows it reflects light into those shadows.

For this particular painting I filled mason jars with the brightest objects I could find, marbles, crayons, and brightly colored thread.

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Handyman's Preserves (9 x 23" watercolor on paper) $425

Right now I feel like a magpie–I’m attracted to shiny things.  I’ve just finished a series of shiny brass and silver instruments.  The last couple paintings, I’ve done cut glass.  This subject is a little humbler, but it’s still all about shine.

I like the nostalgia of it too.  Surely I’m not the only one who’s seen a shop window full of jars of screws, nails, washers, and bolts and noticed how beautiful they are.  The subject may be humble, but it was a bit of a challenge too.  I began by painting the background in layers starting with new gamgee and ending in dioxin purple and cobalt blue.

In Progress

Filling in the background brought the jars into instant relief.  After that it was simply a matter of adding the contents one jar at a time. I treated each jar as it’s own little painting, with it’s own compositional problems. The result is a happy variety.

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Out For Spring Cleaning (11 x 14 watercolor on clayboard) $300

It’s Spring cleaning time here at the Armitage residence.   With a little dusting and a little sun, my cut crystal sparkles.  I can’t imagine another time of year I’d have all of the cut crystal out at once, but it sure does shine when I do.  The lighting was a little bit tricky because I arranged the glass on the shelves in my new studio.  From there the glass is back lit through one set of windows and indirectly front lit through the others.   The result is a lot of extra glitter.

Like the metal instruments I’ve been painting the last few months, cut glass is all about shine and it contrast in values that makes shine.  The actual colors don’t really matter so much as long as the values are right.   For this set of crystal I used primarily cobalt blue, pthalo blue,  new gamgee, burnt sienna and dioxin purple.   There are hints of magnesium blue, and touch of pthalo green.

Painted on clayboard and mounted on a black cradle frame, this painting is ready to hang.  For a more traditional look, a frame may be added.

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They Were So Juicy and So Sweet ("11 x 14" watercolor on clayboard) $225

The light in my new studio space has inspired me to begin painting glass again.  The light through the windows is just perfect for the subject.  I both enjoyed and went slightly nuts getting all the little shapes in the cut glass bowl, but I happy with the result.

I used a slightly different palette than my usual for the cut glass:  magnesium blue, pthallo blue,  dioxin purple, burnt sienna, quinaciderin deep red rose,  new gamgee, and raw sienna.  The magnesium has a reflective quality all it’s own that very useful in depicting the shine of glass.  The raw sienna helped created the textured background.

Painted on clayboard and finished with a coat of clear polymer varnish this painting my be either framed without glass, or matted and framed like a traditional watercolor.

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My New Studio

I haven’t been painting as much since December.   The reasons are various, but all related to our basement flooding.    The water was only about a half inch deep anywhere, but it got a whole number of boxes and other things left by the previous owners wet.   So rather than letting it all mold, we had to actually clean out the basement.   Don’t feel too sorry for me though.  It didn’t take me the last two months to clean out the basement.  But once we had all that basement space cleared out and organized we could use it for other things.

That meant I could separate many things from my studio space.  I was able to move my sewing stuff out of my studio and into the basement.   Many art supplies I only use once or twice a year moved to the basement too.   And then momentum took over.  . . .

We had always planned to  move my studio into the sun-room, when the girls no longer needed it as a playroom.   Now we actually did it. A new table and many trips up and down the stairs (not to mention trips to Goodwill with toys), my studio is now in the sun-room.  I splurged on the table.  It’s designed for science labs and adjusts from standing to sitting height.  As I like to paint standing up, it’s perfect for me.   My computer fits on what were once toy shelves.   A new key board tray slides out from under the shelf, so the computer takes up  no floor space.

New Studio Work Space

The new space is not only efficient and light, but spacious enough to hold wicker furniture as well as well as work space.  So it feels generous and spacious.  My family is happy too, as my old  loft studio is now computer, homework, and board game space.

Quintet in Color (watercolor on claybord 14 x 18") $325

Recently I’ve been doing some graphic art to sell on Zazzle a print on demand site that sells mugs, ties, business cards, phone cases, coasters, T-shirts and a variety of other useful things.  My particular corner of Zazzle, is called Paintbox Silhouette.  There I sell images like these on a variety of products:

Goose Pile

Color-washed Rooster

Golden Trumpets

Earth Apple

This work is a combination of silhouettes I drew with the mouse in Photoshop Elements and watercolor backgrounds  photographed and manipulated with Photoshop.  This kind of computer drawing and collage is  incredibly fun to do.  But, while fun, comparing this kind of work to making paintings is like comparing candy to a full meal.  It’s quick and fun, but doesn’t lead to the same ultimate satisfaction.  However I did learn some valuable skills, including how to do my value sketches with the mouse.

Lollypop Violins and Violas

More importantly, one kind of art inspires another.   The image for mugs above, is my inspiration for this latest painting.

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New Orleans Reeds, (12 x 15 watercolor on paper) reserved for WFWS

Each year The Western Federation of  Watercolor Societies hosts a  juried show open to its member associations. The Western Federation of Watercolor Societies’ members association include:  the Arizona Watercolor Association, The Colorado Watercolor Society, The Idaho Watercolor Society, The New Mexico Watercolor Society, The Nevada Watercolor Society, The Southern Arizona Watercolor Guild, the San Diego Watercolor Society, The Southwestern Watercolor Society, The Utah Watercolor Society, The Watercolor Society of Oregon, and the West Texas Watercolor Society.

I am pleased to announce that New Orleans Reeds has been chosen as one of the 100 paintings to be exhibited in the 37th Annual Western Federation of Watercolor Societies Exhibition.  The exhibit will take place at the Marjorie Barrick Museum on The University of Nevada Las Vegas campus, from April 13th to May 19th, 2012.  This year the show was juried by Gerald Brommer, who will pick the award winners in April.