Two New Framed Watercolors

I gave my husband, Charlie, two of my framed watercolor paintings for Christmas.

The first one reminds me of the New River in Ashe County, North Carolina.  We have gone "tubing" down that scenic river many times.


Mountain Creek, by Jeanne T. McBrayer, 2012

 

 

It was begun in a class with Tom Jones at Raleigh's Art of the Carolinas.  The object was to achieve the look of the sun splashing through the trees and reflecting on the water.

 

 

 

The other one was also begun in a Tom Jones class.  It represents a cabin in Yellowstone National Park.  The object was to represent the mist over in the mountains.

 

 



Mist in Yellowstone, by Jeanne T. McBrayer, 2012

 

We have never been to Yellowstone, but hope to travel there some day.

 

These two paintings have the same frame size and style, although the mats are different.  I think Charlie plans to hang them both in his office at work.

Art of the Carolinas: Day 2

Today I went to another watercolor painting class at Art of the Carolinas with artist Tom Jones.  Today's topic was painting mountain mist.  And, much to my surprise, there were only two of us in class today!

Here is what I finished up with.

 

We learned some neat tricks to soften the edges of the mountains, make treelines, make smoke, etc.  Mostly Tom helped me with mixing my colors and loading my brush, which I had never really learned to do very well.

 

Tomorrow morning I am leaving for South Carolina and a weekend of babysitting with my grandchildren.  Charlie went to the mountains with our dog Kasey.  I won't be back until Monday. 

 

Can't wait to go see my little monkeys!

 

 

Art of the Carolinas: Day 1

Yesterday was the first day of classes at Art of the Carolinas in Raleigh, NC.  The vendor mall was not yet open, but my class was held at the nearby Jerry's Artarama store, which sponsors the art conference.

First I checked in and received my free gift bag with a bottle of water, a bamboo mat that rolls up to hold your paintbrushes, and a nail brush.

Then I went to Jerry's and bought two new watercolor brushes for the class.  When I checked out, I got a free Jerry's T-shirt.

My class last night was with Florida artist Tom Jones.  The workshop was called Sunrays Filtering Through the Forest.

The subject matter reminded me very much of a scene from Ashe County in the North Carolina mountains, where we have a weekend place. 

When I went into the room, I found a slimmer Tom Jones, who has lost twenty pounds since last year.  Also, I was delighted to find that there were only four students registered for this class, and one of them did not show up.  So, we got lots of individual attention!

Tom provided the paper and paints.  He did a great step-by-step demo.  He brought his painting around for us to see up close after each step.

 

I loved working with those gorgeous autumn colors.  The little green speckles in the water area are frisket, a mask applied to preserve white space.  It is rubbed off when the painting is done.

 

This was my painting about halfway done.  The water area sort of looks like a blue sky with fluffy white clouds at this point.  In fact, one of the students in class was doing his whole picture upside down and had to start over.

 

 

Here is Tom's finished painting with a working mat.  It is taken at an angle.  I think his is gorgeous!

 

 

And here is mine at the end of class.  There are a few places I want to work on.  I might even do it all over for practice.

 

 

I have another class with Tom Jones later this afternoon.  This one will be about painting mountain mist.  Here is the sample from the website.

 

 

Beautiful, yes?  The bare brown mountains look more like the Rockies than the Appalachians of North Carolina, but I can't wait to work on this one.

 

 

 

 

Mountain Barn Watercolor Painting

For another Christmas gift to my husband, I matted and framed one of the new watercolors that I painted last fall.  I began the painting in a workshop with Tom Jones during Art of the Carolinas.




Mountain Barn, 2011

For those of you who live in the area, I have been having my artwork framed at Michaels on Capital Boulevard in Raleigh.  I have been happy with their assistance, materials, and service.

I very much admired Tom Jones as a teacher and artist.  Charlie bought me his book,  Simplified Watercolor Landscapes, for Christmas.

                         

It is in a wonderful format which provides a working sketch, step-by-step instructions with photos, and a photo of the finished painting.  Mountains are the subject of several of the lessons, so I know I will be trying them out.

We got a good chuckle when I opened the book and read the personal inscription by the author:  "To my new friend and fellow artist Charles:  Have fun painting and remember you are better than you think you are." Charlie is many wonderful things, but have never known him to be an artist!  I take that back, he was a true artist on the trombone for many years.

There is also a nice little value sketch drawn on the inside cover under the inscription.

He also included a small colored painting on watercolor paper.  Tom is a generous artist, as I found out during his class, when he provided all paints and paper for our class, and also gave away the demo painting.

I have been procrastinating all day because I have to take the ornaments down off the Christmas tree.  We usually wait until New Year's Day, but we had a leak right before we left for our trip.  Either Charlie over-watered, or the water container has a leak.  Thankfully we mopped it up before we left, but I expect it is still damp under there, and we need to take it down before our wood floor starts to buckle.

It was a beautiful, cold morning, though, and I took Kasey to the greenway for a walk. 

She was on high alert for awhile, stopping and perking up her ears.  I thought we might see some deer moving around, but we did not.  She gets equally excited over squirrels.  I am glad to have a dog to give me a good excuse to walk on pretty mornings like this.

                     

Love having my doggy back home!  So does her daddy.

Watercolor Weekend Day 1: Tom Jones

Last night was my first class at Art of the Carolinas 2011.  I took a watercolor painting workshop with artist Tom Jones.  What a wonderful teacher- patient, low-key, encouraging, generous. 

This class met at Jerry's Art-a-Rama, and the demo station had a mirror to show the class what the instructor was doing.  For people like me with directional problems, it was somewhat disconcerting to see him painting in reverse.  But that's okay.  He walked around with his in-progress painting often.

Everything was provided for this workshop except for our brushes and palette.  He gave us the paint, and gifted each of us with a spray bottle that sprays dots instead of fine mist.  Our paper was 300-lb Arches Bright White.  I have never used that before- a very heavy paper that does not curl when wet.  I loved it...and probably can't afford it!

The class was full and everyone produced a very nice painting in their own style.

Here is mine!  I am very happy!



Mountain Barn, Jeanne McBrayer, 2011

This afternoon is my class with Karlyn Holman on Painting Colorful Boats.  I am looking forward to being in her class again. 

Here is the description:  

 Paint these colorful boats from Vernazza, Italy on this unique surface. You will be provided with a pre-drawn sketch of these boats, stretched onto a wooden frame. Paint this image and then add a spray of acrylic and frame your finished painting like an oil painting. This lesson is an abstract composition, as well as, an on location scene. The interlocking shapes and bright colors form a strong design that is exciting to paint. Join the fun and take home a finished painting on canvas.

Each student will be provided with a printed image on canvas, stretched on a stretcher. Bring your favorite watercolor paints and brushes.

If you live in the Raleigh area and have any need for paints, paper, brushes, or instructional materials, the Trade Show in the North Raleigh Hilton is free and has some great deals, plus lots of famous painters on hand doing demos.





Landscape #2: Cubism

I got the nod of approval on my Lesson 1 landscape in my Pamela Allen online workshop, so it was time to move on to the next lesson.  The assignment was to interpret our chosen subject in a Cubist style.   Instead of one moment frozen in time on a flat canvas,  the Cubists interpret what can be seen at different times and from different viewpoints.  Of course, one immediately associates Cubism with Pablo Picasso.  I theorize that one reason he had so many different lovers in his life is because they all got a little bit miffed after he painted their portraits!  Consider this painting of Dora Maar!

Head of a Woman, Pablo Picasso



Besides the strange portraits with faces portrayed in different planes at the same time, Picasso painted landscapes, my chosen subject.  In Landscape at Mougins, the mountains, lake, and a house are all at least recognizable.



Landscape at Mougins, Pablo Picasso

 This style is rather daunting for a non-artist to attempt, but Pamela offers many ideas such as fracturing objects, layering, including transparency and real world objects such as paper.  Here is an example of a still life by Juan Gris.



Still Life With Geraniums, Juan Gris

So, on to the fabric landscape in Cubist style.  My first attempt used some realistic looking woodsy fabric, an oak leaf in both positive and negative shapes, and a strong tree shape that also includes the roots.  There is a representation of a building that is made of newspaper. 

Even I realized that this attempt was too realistic to be a Cubist interpretation, so I removed all the elements I had cut and rearranged them on a plain background.

In the revision,  I added some rather geometric mountains and a river, and attempted to add a foreground.  I was a little happier with this and uploaded it for Pamela's critique.
She agreed that the second version is a more semi-abstract landscape, but noted that I was still clinging to realism.  Her suggestion, illustrated by her Photo Shop magic, is to make the scene more of a birds-eye view with map imagery.

Notice the dashed lines to indicate roads, the fracturing of the oak leaf, a stronger foreground, and the addition of more text (exit sign).  This is getting closer to my implied theme of man-made objects imposing on nature.

I have not gotten back to this project as real life has intervened.  I loaded the big candlewick quilt on my Gammill yesterday and got started on the quilting.  After all, I still need to make a little more money to cover the repairs to the garage door I backed into last week!

And today begins my first workshop at Art of the Carolinas in Raleigh.  The class is The Easy Approach to Starting a Watercolor Painting, instructed by Tom Jones.

"Truly a wild and wonderful NEW class where at the end of a busy week … you want to just paint … not have to “think” … or take notes … This class is for you! Great if you need to learn how to loosen up, or if you are a beginner, Tom will help you build a successful painting first, and then show you how unity, color, contrast and a focal point were utilized without you ever knowing."

I am super-excited about this class.  If I produce anything close to the lovely landscape in the sample image, I will be delighted!

Don't forget to enter the drawing for the Elm Creek Quilts novel.  Leave a comment at the end of this post and tell something about the friendships you have shared through your love of quilting.