Moving Sale

It's overwhelming to me when over 20 years of artwork has to be whittled down into cardboard boxes onto a moving truck. Knowing the cost involved to make the move has me cringing! In response to the sticker shock I am having a huge sale of large frames, and many of my large and smaller paintings. For my blogger friends I wanted to mention in my Etsy shop I am offering free shipping, just enter code SPRING2013. For my local friends, contact me directly if interested in viewing work first hand via email

Despite my relocating, the internet does allow for business as usual and I am comforted knowing I will continue to blog. Just last week I had a therapist in the UK ask permission to use one of my paintings on her website, http://www.sonialee.co.uk and I was surprised she even thought to ask. I know copyright online is impossible to control and it's a price artists pay when we use the internet to share images but the sincerity with this professional has impressed me. She may even end up with a print of the work she asked to use on her website.

"The White Lotus" 

Today I begin organizing and downsizing, wish me luck!

Rangeley, Maine

"North of Rangeley"

18 x 24 

watercolor on paper

Living in New England for the past 24 years has allowed me to travel to some of the most beautiful places, all of which have been inspirational to me. After yesterday's class, I was able to finish working on the demo today. There is so much natural beauty, from rocky coastlines, mountain ranges and rolling meadows. I forget how beautiful it is until I take the time to paint.

WIP

For a while today it was questionable whether I would be teaching tomorrow due to an unexpected major snow storm. It's incredible to me that with all of the available technology weather forecasts can be so wrong. We were told to expect about 4 inches of snowfall (nothing major) and it's just starting to ease up, 13 inches later. Being stuck home today allowed me more time to work on a demo painting for the workshop but I had to force myself to stop painting in order to share process with students. I think the best way to teach is by demonstrating.

Work in Progress, after today -

I will show students how to paint negative space allowing the paper white and lighter colors to pop. Working on the foreground will be the main focus on my demo tomorrow.

Stopping point from yesterday -

A bit of snow from today, view looking out back. Is it time to shovel yet?!

Demo painting

It's been a while since I have taken out my watercolor paints and yesterday was the first of a two Saturday workshop at Montserrat College. I could say painting is like riding a bicycle -- you don't forget how -- although I did have to spend a large portion of today fixing problems I created because I didn't plan out beyond the wash resists I had demonstrated.

I will be adding seaweed and underwater growth, the challenge will be that not having saved the white of the paper, mud is bound to appear.

"Goldfish with Lilies" - a work in progress

watercolor

12 x 18

I used a paper cutout to create the koi. Usually I go for trees as a first subject, but this time fish were on the brain. My goal was to get everyone comfortable with their paints, creating a resist, working wet, using a spray bottle, layering color washes, and letting the paint flow.

Next week I will bring in a still life setup and also plan another favorite warmup lesson. This is my last scheduled workshop as I am getting more involved with my upcoming move to Chicago.