Alpine View

This is an 11 x 15 watercolor that I did this weekend for the weekend drawing event on WetCanvas. Can you imagine...this is the view out of someone's kitchen window! I had a hard time with the fog, but I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out.

Perfect Seat

This is a 4 x 6 watercolor that I did at the beach last Saturday. It was windy so I was sitting next to the beach pavilion to block the wind. This couple looked so cozy sitting there that I had to paint this. Luckily I started with the people, because they weren't there for long. After they left I worked on the rest of the painting. A while later someone said "Mind if we look?" When I turned around it was the couple I had painted. They were surprised to see themselves on paper.

Blue Ridge View

This is an 10 x 13 watercolor on yupo done from a reference photo supplied in WetCanvas for the weekend drawing event. I picked it because I love the view of the Blue Ridge Mountains, a place I have visited before.

Tropical Retreat

This 7 x 10 watercolor was done for the Weekend Drawing Event for WetCanvas last weekend. The reference picture was from Trinidad or Tobago. I'm a palm tree lover so I couldn't resist this one.

Hillside Town

This 11 x 15 watercolor is of one of the towns along the Cinque Terre in Italy. The church was surrounded by homes, and the nearby hillside was covered with vineyards. Quite a lovely place.

Shutting Out the Sun

This 15 x 22 watercolor was done from one of my many Italy photos. I love the texture of the walls, and almost every window in Italy has flower boxes.

Open Door

This 7 x 10 watercolor was done for the Weekend Drawing Event for WetCanvas. The reference photo was a building in Santa Barbara. I worked from a black & white copy of the photo, so the colors came from what I imagined the scene would look like. I used typical CA colors.

Park With Bridge

This is an 11 x 15 watercolor done for a weekend project for WetCanvas, an online art group. Each weekend one member provides a group of reference photos, and you take your pick and do it in any medium you choose.

Tuscan Wall With Flowers

This was done soon after my trip to Italy. I was attracted to the texture of the wall and the lovely flowers. The bricks took a lot of time to paint. It is a 22 x 30 watercolor.

Sedona Red Rock Collage

This is an 11 x 15 stained paper collage with watercolors. It's my first attempt since taking Jerry Brommer's workshop. I'm happy with the way it came out and the texture it gave to the cacti.

Spirit of Tuscany

This is a 15 x 30 in watercolor done by combining several of my photos from Italy. The buildings came from one photo, and the wall and foreground trees from another. I think it captures the "Spirit of Tuscany."

Bella Venezia

This was painted from my reference photos from Italy. It is a half-sheet watercolor. The original photo didn't show much happening under the bridge, so I used my imaginination and added the people sitting at the tables and the pots of flowers. I gave this to my niece as a belated graduation gift.

Abstract Collages

Here are a few more collages done in the first 2 days of the workshop with Jerry Brommer. The first is a cruciform design (7 1/2 x 7 1/2). The second is a T shape (7 1/2 x 7 1/2) and the last is 11 x 11 in a radial design. I think I learned a lot in the workshop and will enjoy trying more collages on my own.

Tuscan Gold Collage

Our final projects for the class were landscapes. Of course I had to do Tuscany. It's amazing how much the collage papers add to the scene. It's Tuscany taken one step further. The workshop taught me a lot about design and balance in my paintings.

Cinque Terre Collage

This 11 x 15 painting was also done at the workshop. It's a bit more realistic, yet it still has a lot of abstract work in the bottom. I really like the deep colors I was able to get with this technique. My reference for this was one of my mini painting I had done in the Cinque Terre.

Floral Collage II

This is another of my floral collages. It is 11 x 15, done with stained paper. It took a long time to stain the papers for these projects. It worked best if we stained them the night before so they could dry by the time we needed them.

Floral Collage I

We did floral collages from our imaginations. The rule was to try to balance the colors in different parts of the design. Some of the papers are good for soft foliage that sticks out of the arrangement.

Stained-Paper Rhythm Design

This was one of my favorite stained-paper abstract collages that I did at the workshop. I like the rhythmic movement of the colors. This is 11 inches x 11 inches.

Stained-Paper Collage II

This is another of the small (7 1/2 x 7 1/2) collages I did in the collage workshop last week. It's a very interesting method of collaging. By staining the paper yourself you have a lot of control over the colors you can use.

Stained-Paper Collage I

My sister and I just finished a stained-paper collage workshop in SC with Gerald Brommer. This is one of the small abstracts that I did in the class. I really like the vibrant colors you can get this way.