Sister’s New Blog !

My sister has recently joined our blogging community here on WordPress.  I announced here, the release of her book on yoga for the special needs child in 2009. She has continued to offer workshops, lectures and demonstrations for educators, physical and speech therapists, doctors and parents of special children. She also shares with her private clients, helping them to grow and experience the gifts that Yoga can offer them. I find her work fascinating and her perceptions new and innovating. She brings a breath of fresh air to everything she does and an element of the spiritual always comes through.   One post I really liked was when she wrote of her daughter and the rescue of a little dog, Bella. You can visit her new blog here.

Welcome to WordPress, Nancy!   🙂

 

Old Mission General Store

Remember this post?  The above painting is what I came up with. In the long run, I like that I used rough Arches paper. I think it gives a softer and more aged look to the subject material.

I have included the steps I took in creating this:

Special considerations had to be perspective and all those little tiny detailed things.

I splattered the roof and street ( areas that were hit with bright light ) with friskit I used friskit to save the lettering on both blue signs above the store.  I painted in initial large washes on the roof and the street to define the light. I had to darken a window or two because all that white paper was driving me nuts!

I then painted the greens surrounding the building.  I used a loose squiggly  pointillism working wet in wet so the colors would blend some.  I worked on that red bench and a few tiny things.

Then the detail work began. This took forever. There is no shortcut! I thought about loosely painting this in with abstract little shapes and color that runs together, but the subject really did not call for that. I think the intrigue with this restaurant is the general store atmosphere and all that detailed clutter under the entryway roof.  Each piece required special attention because just one flat color was not going to shape it or make it look real. The windows were fun to create wet-in-wet. I also liked creating those double wooden doors in the center. I used very tiny brushes!   #’s 1, 2 and 4 rounds. Oh yes! I painted the chimneys, paying special attention to the shadowed and the light side.

This step was finishing all the detail under the porch roof as well as darkening areas of the main roof hit by sunlight.

 Finished Painting

This step involves tieing everything together.  I noticed the shadow under the porch roof had gradually appeared lighter and lighter as I added the details and more color in each step.  I painted the lettering on the signs above the porch roof and the color in the two hex signs. I could not get that tiny lettering perfect, by the way. Hand not steady enough, brush not tiny enough and an artist who does not care about perfection.   🙂     I used white gouche on the Coca Cola sign, to brighten areas of the “ice” box, the “Fish Fry” sign and the white legs of the red-topped table on the porch. I removed the frisket splatter and washed some red into some of it on the large section of roof.  What a great learning experience this was. Patience was the “key”!

New Student Art: Watercolor and Rice Paper Collage

Another class has ended. We had a great time exploring watercolor and Rice Paper Collage.

Nancy Longmate 3

We began with abstract and getting a feel for the different rice papers and how they accepted the pigment.

Dianna Burt

Next we created something from our minds in rice paper and watercolor.

Andrea Andis

Then we worked from a photo of a building and created a landscape out of our mind around it.

Sue Mendenhall

Then we worked from a photograph.

John Kelty 3

The last exercise was to take an old painting and turn it into something new.

A heartfelt thank you to all the participants in this class. You amaze me. To view other examples of the student work in rice paper and watercolor collage click here.