Jackson's glass

Last weekend I enjoyed a workshop with Paul Jackson and this was one of the paintings I worked on in the workshop. The other two aren't completed yet and I hope to complete them. these were Paul's compositions with his beautiful glass pieces that he brought along for us to paint. I always enjoy Paul and it is a blessing to be able to study with a master of the craft.

busy, busy schedule

Just wanted to pop in here and let everyone know that I've been traveling a lot and not around my studio much to finish many paintings. I went to New Orleans, then Austin for a week, then Chicago for a week and am now in San Antonio. I head to Baton Rouge tomorrow before finally returning home to Tyler on Monday. Paul Jackson and his wife, Marla, will be heading to our house this week and staying with us while he teaches a workshop in Tyler. That is followed by a family reunion and then a camping trip. Whew!

I'm hoping, once this hectic schedule is over with, then I can settle back into a painting routine. I have several new paintings that are in the beginning stages of compositions - I just can't get the time to actually get any headway in painting them! I am looking forward to an empty calendar in August.

Ice Cold and Creamy

While I'm showing off Caffee Tazza's paintings, I must also add this little diddy I painted last week of the yummy Italian gelato they serve! I've had "gelato" across the U.S. and this is as close to gelato in Tuscany as one can get. Hmmm, I think today should be a gelato day.

Here are two paintings that were recently delivered to Caffee Tazza, a wonderful Italian coffee house here in Tyler. On Thursday evenings they have Art and Music Night where they feature a fine artist and a musician and sell Italian wines. Their food is healthy, the finest ingredients, and made fresh every day. Its one of the gems of this town. They sell Daruta Pottery there, hand painted in Umbria, Italy, the feature of these paintings. This was a sale I was glad to make.

Rose Colored Glasses

For the final painting, I spent time adding darks and toning down high-key areas that were standing out too much. After punching some of the color with a few glazes, I had to call it complete. It is easy to overwork a painting like this and I was just about to do just that!

Rose Colored Glasses WIP 3

There's always an "ugly stage" in paintings and I find when I hit this stage I am at a crossroads. I can push through it and try to force it to work, and take the risk of ruining a painting; or I can back off and take a breather and look at it from a distance. So I'm taking a break from this one and starting another painting. I know that this painting will need more balance in the values. Darks will have to lay in under the glasswork to ground them on the table. More layers of grey will be added and darker values on the rose bottle in the middle. I will add details on the purfume bottle and glass goblet as well. And maybe wash a brown-grey across the entire table.

Wincie's Garden: Iris Study

Thought I'd jump in here and post the finished painting I did as a demo for a class I was teaching. This is done with a very limted palette - pthalo blue, permanent rose, new gamgoge, quin coral for the iris petals and beard. Same blue & yellow for the stem with a toss of FUB and burnt sienna. Background was done by mixing a black out of pthalo green and permanent alizarin, then leaning it toward green by adding my green mixture and a bit of FUB. Basically, it was the dreggs of the palette with fresh mixtures of my working paint thrown in.