ART SHOW

              Beauty in Brokenness

                       Lemon Tea

           Pink Ladies All in a Row

A few weeks ago I updated my goals for 2009, and mentioned that I had entered 3 juried competitions. One of those competitions was for a local Art Show which will be held in October. I am happy to say that I received confirmation that all 3 of the pieces I entered have been juried into the show... no "declined" this time!

When I sent my entry for this show, I forgot to mail the entry fee with my application form. The director of the show was kind enough to contact me to let me know, and I immediately sent off the cheque. Even though the said cheque was only going about 30 kms., it took almost 2 weeks to get there!!!! I was ready to personally drive a replacement cheque to the director on the day she finally received the original cheque in the mail. Whew! She told me that she receives mail from thousands of miles away in just 3 days. That does not say much for our local post office, does it?

Rhino - a watercolor work in progress - texture

Here you can see some of that texture created with salt and throwing of water which I spoke about in my last posting.  More of the bumpy skin is created through lifting the color from places with pure water and a brush. 

Although you might not believe it, doing this texture takes days and days - at least for me it does. But, it makes for some good times listening to radio, or music, or zoning out to a favorite t.v. show. Here is a close up of the texture on his shoulder as it stands so far. Long way to go yet! But did I tell you, it's fun? Ha ha! No problem getting in my 20 hours a week of painting with this guy!

Here is a closeup of that texture - it will be more defined when I place a darker color behind the blobs, making them stand out more.

Rhino is getting closer to being complete! 

Rhino - a watercolor work in progress

Rhino

20" x 30" watercolor

140 lb. Arches paper

Here you see the next stage of Rhino. I have added the background, creating depth with the purples of the rock and the green of the foliage. This makes him "pop out" and appear lit by the sun. In some of the washes I have added to his body, I have created texture with salt, and with throwing water to make backruns or blooms.  This will become more evident as I work further on his skin.

Here is a closeup of his ear so far. I love how the reflected light turned out...

Next step is to begin the long and tedious... but fun, of course... process of adding the bumpy skin texture, starting at his back end, and working toward the front.  

I will be away from the easel and this blog next week. Each year, we join with my husband's siblings an spouses for a short vacation. This year we have gone together to rent a cabin on a lake in Lake of the Woods. My husband and I are driving which will take us 2 days each way. I hope to get lots of reference photos taken for future landscape paintings in oils. We always have fun together- lots of laughter, lots of playing of games, and lots of eating good food. I'll be back with more progress on Rhino on the 13th of July.

Till then, I wish all of my American friends a wonderful 4th of July, and I hope all of you who visit this blog are enjoying your summer.

HAPPY CANADA DAY!

               White-Faced Ibis 

(click on picture to view in larger format)

On Sunday afternoon, my husband and I traveled an hour outside of Calgary to a bird conservatory named Frank Lake. It is a large slough really, in the middle of farmland and prairie, which is home to so many beautiful species of birds that I could hardly believe it! Of course, it was the wrong time of day and weather for really good pictures - mid-afternoon and bright sunlight - but the wind was blowing which meant no mosquito bites, and it was warm, which meant taking pictures in comfort, so I am NOT complaining!

I had never seen this bird before - and when I shot this picture, he was in the air and far away - just a black outline really. But when I got home, and uploaded the pictures onto my computer, I saw all the beautiful iridescence of his wings and was AMAZED!!!

In my bird book, it tells me that the name of the bird comes from a "naked facial patch" which is white - you can see it around the eye area, extending to the beak. It has red eyes, and lays 3 or 4 bluish-green eggs. This bird is "very rare" in Alberta from May to September, so I feel like I have made a "catch" in capturing this one on camera! What an odd shaped bill it has - perfect for gleaning the aquatic invertebrates it eats - but odd looking! It is anywhere from 48 - 66 cms. long, and its wing span is 91 cms.!!!

Be sure to click on the picture to view it larger - and enjoy this wonderful creature as we did on Sunday.

Happy Canada Day to all my Canadian visitors!

Rhino - a watercolor work in progress

Rhino

22" x 30" watercolor

140 lb Arches paper

Rhino is coming along - but he also has a long ways to go. Part of the challenge with this particular beast is that he has such interesting and unique skin and plates. To try to achieve something that even approximates his texture is quite a long process. I will be adding the background next, looking to create blooms and splotches to suggest the rock behind him, but nothing that will complete with the texture I plan on adding to his body.

I started this painting with the pouring technique, masking off areas I wanted to remain white. I then poured a second and third layer, lifting the masking fluid for some parts of the second pour, and other areas for the third pour. If you click on the photo, you can see that I have already done a layer of texture by adding salt when I painted certain areas and the watercolors were still wet enough to accept the salt and move. 

Back to painting!