Bringing the Everyday to Life

This is my second painting of a series I am doing from my visit to Columbia last fall.  It is a watercolor on a full sheet of watercolor paper (22" x 30").  This is the largest watercolor painting I have done.  I have a number of photos that I plan on using as inspiration for some more paintings.  We had such a wonderful time in Columbia.  These men were playing music for us and I loved the traditioinal clothing they were wearing.  For both of these paintings I mostly focused on warm and cool instead of the hue of the color.  I tried [...]

I just spent the weekend in Spring City, Utah painting.  I had a great time painting and meeting new people.  I had entered the 2011 Spring City Plein Air Competition.  I painted 4 plein air paintings, sold 3 of the paintings, and received an Award of Merit.  I was very excited!  Not only did I get some good painting time, I got to meet a lot of great painters:  John Poon, Doug Freyer, David Koch, Zachary Procter, Matt Larsen, and Joseph Alleman (a fantastic watercolor artist whose work I admire).  I also got to spend some time with my friend Tom Howard, who [...]

This is my 10th painting for my Utah Plein Air Project.  I had painted this farm earlier in the summer and wanted to do another one.  The first one I did on an overcast day, but a week ago Saturday was sunny.  My husband's family owns a farm and so the idea of a family farm is close to home.  I liked the idea of a man showing his son how to keep the family farm.  Just as my father-in-law showed my husband and as my husband may show my son some day.  I intentionally kept the colors subdued except the [...]

This is my ninth painting for my Utah Plein Air Project.  I started painting at high noon, my least favorite time because it is hot and the shadows aren't very interesting.  However, I found this dark clump of trees and a single runner ran infront of the trees and the image intrigued me.  I was on the dirt road towards Mormon Flats.  This man was running in the heat of the day.  I had to admire his dedication.  The tall dark trees silhouetting the lone runner seems to emphasize his solitude.  That is also why I have an extra tall format.       [...]