Friday, January 27, 2012

Another Direction

Sometimes you need to change things up. It could be trying Plein Air instead of staying in the studio or experimenting with another medium or going in a different direction altogether. Change can be scary or uncomfortable.  It feels good to stick with what you are good at or can do easily, but change can be a good thing. If you just remember it is only paint and don't take it too seriously it can really be fun.

This is an abstract using acrylics. I like acrylics when doing a more free form painting because you can thin it and it has a flow to it. Also the colors can be very rich.  Acrylics dry quickly so you have to paint fast which can be very freeing.
This painting reminds me of the Southwest and I have no idea why but that is what I think of when I look at it.  That is the fun of abstract it can be anything to anyone. 




Saturday, January 21, 2012

BIG WEEK

This week I learned that I have an article in International Artist Magazine with a step-by-step description of my process painting the above painting. It also shows other pieces of my work. Today I was notified that this painting and one other were accepted into the Women Painters of the Southeast exhibition at Corse Gallery in Jacksonville. I'm having an exciting week!

Posted by Carmen

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Teapot with Lemon

At our Pieces of Eight meeting this Monday Carol Schiff brought this cute little teapot and the other items in my painting. We had decided a few weeks ago that we needed to take turns deciding what we as a group would paint each week instead of each of us doing our own thing. After a brief gab session we all started to paint. I never manage to finish a painting in one session so I painted a bit on Tuesday afternoon and worked again on Wednesday for a few hours.

I have declared this painting "finished". "Teapot with Lemon" is a 6"x8" oil on canvas board. Anyone for tea with lemon?

Phillis Holland

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Class Abstracts


In class this week, my students tried some abstracts, using a shortened version of some techniques I learned in a John Salminen workshop.
It was a fun lesson, and here are some of the results.
Mary

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Mary guides us in Watercolor and Colored Pencil






The holidays make it hard to all get together, but it was fun for those of us in town to meet at the Guild yesterday and have our own Mary Warnick guide us with a small project of using colored pencils over watercolor. Thank you, Mary!

We are almost always like herding cats but Mary kept us on theme. Above are a few photos from our morning adventure. I'm not sure what order they'll appear in, but what I see is a carnation in its almost finished state by Cindy, Carol at work on her composition, Carmen on about her third wonderful watercolor, Mary demonstrating, and Donna just starting to apply pencil to her watercolor. Anyone want to post their completed project?

Sunday, January 1, 2012

SOPHIE ON THE INDIAN RIVER




This is a painting of my grandpuppy, Sophie. Sophie is our daughter, April's German Shepard. April and Sophie came to live with us for six months while April's husband is in Afghanistan. April asked if I would do a portrait of Sophie for her. Since this would be my first portrait ever, I asked my painting instructor, Lisa Mistuik if she thought that I could do it. Being the great teacher that she is, she was very encouraging. So one afternoon while we were on a river cruise in our boat, I took along the camera and made lots of pictures of Sophie in the bow of the boat. This is the portrait that I painted from the photo that April liked best. The Indian River close to where we live is in the background. I am pleased with the painting and hope it will be a reminder to April of the special times we had while she and Sophie were with us.

Phillis Holland

Ballard Park, Original Oil on Canvas

  I had not painted outside in two years, so this was quite a challenge. It was one of those paintings I had to improve upon in the studio. ...