Paintings # 23, 24, and 25

Hi everyone, Well the last few days have been quite hectic. I had the student watercolor exhibit, then quilting at church on Tues. most of the day, as we are getting ready for the Fall and Christmas bazaar.

I have other obligations and things I have to do so for the next few days, my painting time will be very limited. I have decided that number 25 will be my last painting in the challenge. Sometimes you have to change courses right in the midst of something, but that is life. I am pleased with the number of paintings I was able to do. The will be for sale and will be displayed at a couple of Fall shows.

I realized yesterday that I was getting in a bit of a stressed mode when I had to hurry to finish the one above and not give it all the time I would have liked. To me, painting must be fun and pleasurable and at the same time, I an interested in the quality of my work more than the quantity.

For this one today, I merely redid one I had done earlier and tweaked it a bit to improve it. So I hope you enjoyed seeing my paintings this month. It is time to do some other things, as well. I soon will have some cute ideas for Fall decorating and crafts, so hope you stop by again soon, Egretta

The Last Photos of the Art Exhibit

Hello Everyone, here are the final group of photos from the Student Watercolor Exhibit held Saturday. 

Preparing for the Exhibit was fairly easy as there were about 14 or 15 people helping set it up, put out the art work and cookies...It came together in an hour and then we all sat down and had lunch together before it began.

The next class I teach will start in January and I only have room for 2 or 3 left.

Some more of their work. It was very good and I am proud of each one.

There were 80 guests who signed the guest book, so we think it was a big success. Thanks to all my students...they are the loveliest ladies you'd ever hope to meet and they inspired me every time we met!

More of my Watercolor Class Exhibit

Hi Everyone, I am back today with more photos of the students' work at the watercolor exhibit on Saturday and Sunday. Be sure to click on any photo to see a closer view. 

I was so proud of all of them. As you can see, they were amazing and all of them had never done watercolors and only a few had painted any at all.  By the way, in the above photo, you can see the delicious  cookies they all brought for our guests to munch!

They enjoyed doing paintings in the round and made some wonderful paintings.

There were a variety of sizes of works, some tiny and others quite large.

They wanted to do people...we opted for "character" type portraits and they painted from photographs, learning how to do flesh tones, shadows, and basic proportions, etc. It turned out to be one of their favorite lessons!

 

They really enjoyed floral painting, too.  

Each artist made 5 bookmarks, hand painted with little flowers or trees, etc. to give to our guests. They were really pretty and a big hit with all!

It was a fun day and I still have more photos. I'll wrap it up tomorrow. Hope you have enjoyed our show so far.

A proud student, Janet, with her round floral painting on the left and her window with flowers on the right.

#21 and #22 Paintings and my Student's Watercolor Exhibition

Hello Everyone, Today I am posting # 21 and # 22 in the 30 paintings in 30 days challenge. It has been a bit hectic at times getting a painting done each day, but because they have been small, it is doable! The one above is of a pretty brown crockery bowl filled with decorative gourds. Both it and the one below were done in water soluble oils on 6 x 6 gessoed panels and to photograph them is difficult because they are square. So in both photos a part is not shown.

"Window in the Tropics"

I taught 14 students this summer in a Watercolor class. Some went on vacation a few weeks, but normally, there would be 10 or 12 there each week for 12 weeks. They were all beginners in watercolor, although some had painted before with oils or acrylics. So today, you will see their show!

Here we are before the show started. They brought cookies to serve and each one painted 5 book marks to give as gifts to our guests. I will show some of them tomorrow . I have lots of photos to share, but today we will get started by showing you only some of them. You can click on any one of the photos to get a closer view.

The exhibit was held at the Peace Lutheran Church Fellowship Hall. It was amazing how many works they created in the twelve weeks. The way I teach is not for them to copy what I have done. I would demonstrate what technique we would be doing and the subject matter, such as flowers, and talk about aspects of painting and then they were urged to create their own individual painting. They did a super job every time!

Here are some of the crowd enjoying the paintings.

If you enlarge this, you can see them a bit better.

At first, I intended to mix up every one's work, but then several of the artists wanted to group their own together, so we did so and it was probably easier for people to know who did what. We had each artists name in front of her table. The ones on the rack were mixed together, however.

One of our sessions was painting animals and trying for character above all else. 

They did a round painting, which was lots of fun, and they learned how to make a pleasing composition in the round.

One of the ladies also started a sketch book for watercolors while she was on vacation (above)

I want my students to know that they were awesome and I enjoyed each one of them very much. I was truly amazed at how much they accomplished in 12 weeks and look forward to our next session starting in January. If you do not see your work here, ladies, you may see it tomorrow, because I still have lots of photos to share!

So I hope you have enjoyed the exhibit so far and I will be posting more. Have a great day!

Paintings # 19 and 20 and Yummy Scones

Hi Everyone, Above is # 19 in the 30 day painting challenge. We are now 2/3 through and only 10 more to go! It has been a great learning and practicing experience. I meant to only paint flowers, but somehow just veered off the chosen path into some other things and it has been fun! 

I couldn't resist painting these pretty tomatoes before eating them! Maybe soon I will get back to flowers!

Yesterday, Carolyn on Aiken House and Gardens posted her great looking Oatmeal Scone recipe and I had to try them. They were awesome. You can check out her beautiful blog at http://www.warrengrovegarden.blogspot.com/or just go on Google and search for Aiken House and Gardens. You won't be disappointed.

My scones don't look as nice as hers, but they tasted so good. I will be making them often.

Thank you for sharing, Carolyn.

Hope you have a happy Fall day!

Painting #17 and 18 and Photos

Hi Everyone, 

My favorite models were these delicious McIntosh Apples and this is painting number 13 in the challenge. I had just washed them and the beads of water were still clinging to them. I loved how this painting turned out.

Number 18 is "Key West Cottage". It was one of those paintings not planned, just done. I just sat down with no preconceived idea and started painting, not even knowing what the subject matter would be. It was a HAPPENING!  I am chuckling as I write this, but that is how I painted this one. At first, it looked hopeless, but it finally shaped up. Not my favorite, but it is o.k

Going through my camera to see what I might have shot with hopes of painting, I found a few interesting things. This bull, for instance. Doesn't he look sweet...I didn't get too close to find out.

This kitty, on the other hand, does not look too sweet to me, but he was. I was at a park, plein air painting and he accompanied me all the way! Nice company.

 

This might be "a worried look" or maybe just a "what are you doing look".

These flowers on the fence could work for a painting....hummmm.

This last one was taken in Micanopy. It is not a toy, but a real abandoned truck peeking out of the vines.I took this photo from the car. Wish I had gotten out and taken more, but maybe I can paint from this in the future.

I messed up and left this painting  off and I have already shown you the apples before. Very hard to keep up with the numbers. Anyway this one was really #17. This one turned out really well, I thought, and was fun to paint.

Rainy Day, 2 Paintings, and 2 Batches of Cookies

Hi Everyone, Above is number 15, yesterday's painting for the challenge. It is actually one I had painted earlier, but I hated it, so I redid it and added more intense colors, more shadows and just cleaned it up a bit. It looks much better. 

Here is number 16, today's painting. I actually did it yesterday and am trying to stay ahead of this challenge, in case I get too busy one day to paint! But today it started raining after I got home from the pool and doing those great water exercise that I love, so it is a fine day to just be home and in the studio. I am working on tomorrow's painting and also made some cookies to take to the quilt group tomorrow.

  

I have shared this recipe with you before, but it is worth repeating for those of you who didn't get it. They are Oatmeal Sugar Cookies and  I got the recipe in Minnesota from my husband's niece who got it from her mother in law. I have made it a lot and everyone loves it!

1 cup shortening

1 cup white sugar and 1/2 cup brown sugar. Cream together well, then add :

1 beaten egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

Sift together 1 and 1/2 cups flour, 1 tsp. soda, 1 tsp. cinnamon, 1/2 tsp.salt

Add 1/2 cup oatmeal. Chill dough. Roll into walnut size balls. Flatten with a glass dipped in sugar.

Bake 350 degrees about 10 minutes. 

This batch is called Cracker Cookies

Line a cookie sheet (with sides) with foil. Spread with saltine crackers, side to side, not overlapping.

Boil 2 sticks butter with 1 cup sugar for 5 minutes. Pour over crackers. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and spread with 1 package of peanut butter chips. Spread them with a knife, as they melt. Place pan in fridge until cool and cut into squares or just break into pieces.

Both recipes make a lot and both are yummy.

Well, I'll be back in a couple of days to share my newer paintings and whatever else might be in the works....I am getting ready for a Fall bazaar, too, you know!Keep busy; that's my motto! Hope  you are keeping busy, too, and above all, being creative!