Artcolony Challenge for February

Did I mention that I love my IPhone??!!! For this month's Artcolony challenge (Things We Love), I knew immediately what I wanted to paint. Now, this image isn't a good one b/c I took it at night inside the studio so its not as crisp as it could be. But it is full of symbolism! I put 52 pieces of mail because this is my 52nd year and I used the number 8 because it is a symbol of perfection and balance in infinity, and is the expression of the totality of the universe in Asia. The time is set at 6:03 am because I was born in the morning of June 3rd. And the text message symbol has "hi granny" in it because I love getting texts from my granddaughter. Besides my favorite applications (Facebook, Movies, Urbanspoon, Bookworm) I've put symbols for other things I love in my life... gourmet food, my "tunes", Mother Earth, Cyclone (my cat), daily painting, and jewels! I also put an ap for Artcolony using the blogspot symbol and put a paintbrush behind the B. I've added an ap for "Tella-vision"... my family. My grandkids called my mom and dad paw-paw and maw-maw "Tella". I used a take-off of my family's coffee business for the logo. I also have "NOLA-Tonio Figs" to represent my husband's family, the Figueroas.. who live in New Orelans and San Antonio areas. Of course the fleur d'lis is a symbol of my home state (GO SAINTS I CAN'T BELIEVE WE WON!!!!) and the family was living in New Orleans when Katrina hit. So it is now a symbol of renewal for us as well. "B&T Network" represents my daughters, Brandi and Tarah, who are as different as night and day, yet are fiercely loyal to each other. I used an image of a lunar eclipse of the sun for their symbol. And of course, I can't forget "Nando Words" which represent the many poems my husband has written for me.

Artcolony Blog

I am fortunate enough to be a member of Artcolony, a closed blog community of professional artists from all around the world. If you are a watermedia artist, many of the names in Artcolony you will have heard of, or may have a book authored by one of its members. For a look at the blog, see http://www.artcolony.blogspot.com and check out the names in our community. What is so marvelous about this "community" is the level of sharing, responses, and musings the artists incorporate in the blog posts. Its like a little window into the lives of these prominent artists.

At Artcolony we have a monthly challenge that many of the member take part in. February's challenge is "Things We Love". I'll be posting the painting I did for February in a bit. Meanwhile, check out the blog!

W.I.P. - 26"x20" Brown Pelican

I have been fascinated with pelicans since I was a teenager. My home state of Louisiana has the brown pelican as its state bird. I'm thoroughly captivated by the way it glides over water. Every year at the L.S.U. lakes, I would keep an eye open for the migrating white pelicans, which often visit the area for many weeks every fall and early winter. I love watching the flock move in concentric spirals above the lakes, changing from white and black to nearly invisible as their forms shifted in mid glide.

So now that I live in Corpus Christi, the brown pelican hangs out by the marina, posing for my sketch pencil and camera lens. For this painting, while I have fresh masking fluid handy, I masked off the outline of the pelican and worked the background in about five layers. I wanted bright hues to put this guy against, to mimic the colorful sunrises and sunsets of this coastal city. I removed the masking before I begin painting the pelican. I used indanthrone, phthalo blue, quin coral, permanent rose, and new gamboge. It is quite possible that I may lay more pigment in the background as the painting develops. At that point I will have to mask again, but I won't know until his form begins to take on shape. I put a thin glaze of lavender-grey over the feathers and pouch of the pelican to begin to separate color from the white of the head and neck.

Hibiscus - Almost Complete!

On my way out the door today to go work out at the gym I just had to stop at the studio and do "just a little bit" on this painting. Before I knew it, it was 4 hours later, painting almost completed, and I still haven't made it to the gym. The painting hasn't been flattened yet and is at the "have to live with it stage", but I believe its about complete. I may go in and shadow the stamen a bit and do a bit more leafwork. The stamen was done with new gamboge, quin sienna and alizarin. Leaves were a mixtures of greens using new gamboge, indanthrone, cobalt, undersea green and alizarin. My browns are my usual mix of whatever red, blue and yellow I'm working in... in this case it was indanthrone, new gamboge and coral (sometimes alizarin), adding a bit more blue to lean it toward a burnt umber and a bit more red when leaning it towrd a burnt sienna. The flower was new gamboge, quin coral, alizarin, and quin magenta. After masking off the stamen and petals, I did three washes of primarily phthalo blue (red shade), mixing indanthrone in toward the top of the page and working in gradation toward the horizon. Remember, the closer you get toward the horizon, the lighter the sky, due to atmospheric perspective. Now... for the gym!

W.I.P. Hibiscus 20x26 (cont...)

I continued to develop the foliage, adding leaves and background information, some of which was done painting negatively. Darks were made by mixing my usual "black", a combination of Phthalo Green and Alizarin Crimson, then adding bits of that to various green mixtures. Several more layers will continue to be built up in the background and under the leafwork. Alizarin Crimson, Winsor Red and Quin Magenta were added to the combination of hues in the flower, while color is being built up in the petals using thin washes.

Hibiscus W.I.P. 20x22 cont...

I continue to use coral and gamboge for the flower, layering it over the first pass of gamboge on the petals. Toward the inside of the cone, I worked in alizarin crimson with the coral. The leaves are continuing their development by layering pigment over the first wash of color. I added DS undersea green to the green mixes I'd previously been using. I plan on having a strong diagonal design, developing leaves through the bottom left corner of the page. At this point I wanted to workon the background, but realized I am out of masking fluid and this composition really needs to be masked off in order to give a clean background around the stamen and anthers of the flower. So I'll have to take a dash to the local art store and hope their masking fluid isn't too old sitting on the store shelves. I use masking so seldom that it dries up before I use up 1" in the bottle!

W.I.P. Leaves and Stems

Artists constantly struggle with leaves, and I am no exception. I know people who create beautiful realistic foliage in their paintings. I find I don't pay as much attention to foliage in my paintings because I want the flower to be "the big dog". But this is how I develop my leaves. I made a mixture of green by using cobalt and gamboge, then shifted it duller and darker by adding coral or alizarin, or shifted it warmer by adding gamboge or quin gold. I loosely paint in leaves leaving hints of veins. I drop in additional pigments letting blossoming happen. This first layer doesn't bother me at all, because my next step will be to add quin gold over the entire leaf, warming up the veins and melting them into the leaf. A third layer will then be added, maybe more.

The branches are created by loosely laying in a burnt umber mixture. I made mine by using the three primary colors, as I always do when making my browns. This mixture was alizarin, indanthrone blue, and quin gold. More blue turns it burnt umber, more red turns it burnt sienna. I dropped in quin gold and coral, the pigments I'm using in the flower, to harmonize the hues.