Colors, Artists, Miscellaneous (because I like to spell miscellaneous)

What do you think of quinacridone violet?

Charlotte, are you familiar with Brent Perkins' work? I saw his watercolors on his blog. Most of his subject matter is in Nevada and Utah. Very nice.

We sealed the grout today. We still have to install the transition strips and put the molding back up and we'll be done.

I've started a sketch for a watercolor of a tree in our neighborhood. I'm not sure what kind of tree it is. I know most of the trees around here, but this one is a mystery. I hope my painting will do the tree justice.

Mary Warner's Show

After Jim and I set our last piece of tile today, we went over to Donna Beam Fine Art Gallery to see Mary Warner's show. The title of the show is Angels & Insects. I liked almost everything I saw. She did some really big pieces (65"x46", 44-1/2"x96", 65"x48", etc.). There were paintings and drawings in gouache, graphite, charcoal, acrylic and oil. She worked on paper, canvas and plaster. She did all florals. If you're in or near Las Vegas, go check out the show. You won't be disappointed.

Porcelain - A New Art Adventure!

Did I get your attention? Well, it's not exactly what you think. Jim and I are replacing the wood flooring that was damaged during our Spring Break flood. We're almost done setting the tile. It's beautiful - Venetian Stone porcelain tile (really and truly made in Italy). Neither of us has set tile before. Jim has worked with vinyl, but this is different. If you ever decide to do something like this yourself, be sure to buy knee pads. Also, buy gloves and use them. I didn't bother using my gloves the first day we were working on the project because it was easier to handle the tiles with my bare hands. However, thinset is very hard on your skin. I now wear my gloves. Here are some pictures of our work in progress.

Girl in a Red Swimsuit - Completed

I decided against darkening her skin. The colors are darker when you see the actual painting than they are in the photos. So, this is it. I painted the things that attach the oars to the boat (I don't know what they're called), added a little more yellow to the inside of the boat and put a little more shadow around the perimeter of the boat.

Girl in a Red Swimsuit

This is almost done. It's a
10-1/2"x7" watercolor that I'm painting for Karin Jurick's Different Strokes From Different Folks challenge. I'm going to play with it a little more. I may darken her skin a little to make her stand out more. I thought about darkening the water around her, but I like the water the way it is. Decisions, decisions.
It's only a piece of paper. It's only a piece of paper...

Playing with the Camera

I'm having so much fun blogging. I love dropping by people's blogs, finding out about their lives and getting a chance to see such beautiful art. I also love the challenges (like DSFDF). This all started a couple of months ago for me. I was looking for some information on the Internet on Cheng-Khee Chee and I came across Rhonda Carpenter's blog. I was hooked. In a matter of seconds, I can look at what artists all over the world are doing. Amazing. An added benefit is that people are so nice!

Today I went out to trim the bloomed out roses. (Some critters are eating them. I'll have to investigate further.) The roses are pretty much done for the season. I decided to play with the camera a little. I took some photos of a couple of oil paintings that I did that Jim hung in his "shed gallery". He hung them inside the shed door. When he works in the yard,
he likes to leave the shed open so he can see the paintings. (What a good husband! He likes my paintings!) Here's a still life. Watercolor is my favorite, but it was fun to play with oil. The cool thing about it is that you can paint over anything you don't like.:) This is probably old hat you, but I built my own canvas. This painting is 24"x32".

The dogs were helping me in the yard. Here are a couple of pictures of Rosie and Briscoe. Rosie is the Lab and Briscoe is the terrier.

Tucson

Our trip to Tucson turned out a little different from what we had planned. Jim's dad went into the hospital on Wednesday, but we didn't find out until Friday afternoon. (I think he was trying to keep from telling us in hopes that he'd be out before we got there.) He was having irregular heartbeats. We spent the day with him in the hospital. He kept apologizing to us for that. We told him it was great to visit with him no matter where we were. Everything seems ok now. He looks and sounds great. He's moving around pretty quickly, too. I predict that we'll go on one of his famous 4 mile hikes on our next trip to Tucson.

We rented a cute little red convertible in Tucson. Jim's dad got to ride home from the hospital in style - with the top down and the wind blowing through his hair!