2022 Art on the Green - mark your calendars!

 

Come on down! I will be participating in this years Art on the Green, which is in its 3rd year.

A Weekend of Art in Greenwood Village

 Saturday and Sunday, September 17-18

10 AM-5 PM 

Curtis Center for the Arts

Great Spangled Fritillary Butterfly

 

Great Spangled Fritillary, 10x10, oil on panel available

 

My apologies to anyone who has clicked on this post to find it empty! It appears I did something to delete the original post of which I still have no clue as to what that might have been.

This image came from a hike I did last summer up near Vail, CO. I did not know the name of this butterfly so had to do some research. It was taken with my phone camera and I used 'portrait' to get the image up close and the background blurred.

In drafting this painting I did a thorough drawing of the butterfly so as to get a feel for the pattern on the wings before diving in to paint. The flower petals were drawn in as well as I felt I could get the flow of the petals better if I drew them in first. I used a red colored pencil which is still in evidence. I am not known for soft edges so the background blur was fun to play around with.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

After: Waiting on new window-back to original size. plastic for now

This week's painting is interior. I had my main floor bathroom remodeled during the month of July -I live in a house built in 1890 or thereabouts, so no ensuite bathrooms in this ole gal-and to save $1000 I took on the painting of said bathroom with assistance from my daughter and son-in-law. Then, since the basement is not finished according to modern standards, there was quite a bit of dirt, dust and other detritus that fell through the old floorboards during the tear down and rebuild onto the basement floor. Since the floor and surrounding area had to be cleaned anyway, it seemed a good time to paint the old wall and floor, at least in that section. I am not a glutton for punishment, after all! Between that, having a friend come for a long weekend along with the two of us driving back and forth to a Kaiserslautern High School reunion, it has been a busy time. Then the bathtub refinish was the last item and happened Monday. That was less than stellar so now the same kid is coming back today to try and buff out the many imperfections in the new finish. When he masked off the bathroom - all sparkling new - his tape ripped off the paint in several areas so I need to go back and touch that up once he is gone today. Not sure if he will tape it off again, so I am not willing to do it any more than necessary. 

Before: ceiling above shower raised back to be level with the rest of the room; toilet, medicine cabinet, light and sink replaced.

Here is the painted floor in the basement-nothing glamorous but looks fresh :

Remake - Sausalito Houseboat

Original with a few adjustments already begun

Almost finished, but not quite, 20x16

This is a remake of an old one I did when in class over 10 years ago. It is quite ugly and every time I came across it I wondered why I didn’t just throw it away. It is of a houseboat in Sausalito CA. Richard and I had stopped there on our way back from San Fransisco to his parents house. It isn’t a pretty boat to begin with, but I sure didn’t improve it any! I could not find where I had ever taken a photo of it that is how much I disliked this painting.

So as you can see, the top one is the ‘original’ from class, when we were studying textures. Which I did very well as far as that goes. But it was so dark. I had already decided to take out the wooden structure on the left and you can see my corrected drawing, in pink, as to the top of the boat so there would be more sky and better proportions. The siding should be white but it looked so gray and dingy. So will it ever be a great painting? No. But it gives me a feeling of satisfaction to fix something like this. I still have to finish the big window and put the bike back in a few more finishing touches, but you can see the difference, which is all I wanted for today. Side note: I wrote this almost two weeks ago and then was distracted by a bathroom remodel so never posted. Here is the painting today as I did get some work done on it between painting walls and trim.

I used the side of an old credit card to get the illusion of rough wood with peeling paint. It is fun to do, although would not work for most of what I paint, it works well for this. 

Sausalito Houseboat, 16x20, oil on panel, available

Here is the 'finished' painting, at least for now. From the last photo, I dulled down the wooden screen in the window, finished the plant, redid the reflection and finished the bike.