Celtic Majic

This was inspired by my grandmother's birth place in Tourmakeady. Ireland. It is a high horizon with a focal point to the right of the main house.   The design is purposely diagonal in its structure. Tourmakeady is in County Mayo. The cottage sits at the edge of the beautiful Lake Mask.

Blue Vase

This is Blue Vase.... My latest Mixed Media Piece.  if you are one of my students you should be able to figure out how I did the vase????

Faeries and Fuchsias in Bunratty, Ireland

This is a close up of my latest Irish Collage. The paper is so important in achieving the right effect.  Go down to the final picture to see the finished painting.

This is the left side of the picture. The house is composed of very thick paper  that looks like white stucco. A picture can not do it justice.

The unusual  Japanese paper comes in spirals and i used many of them in this piece.

This is the final picture. It took me about 8-10 hours to produce.  the process starts with a sketch.  I did four sketches to try a few different designs.    put my pencil drawing on tracing paper and on a heavy 300 lb piece of watercolor paper.   The papers are selected and painted. Then the papers are glued to the design. the final step is painting over the entire piece to add all the details including shadows, windows, and other touch ups.

Mixed media is very comfortable for me having come from a textile background. I love the textured papers and in some ways they remind me of wool.

Another fun watercolor and collage of Ireland

I am finding that working with watercolor and collage is fun and challenging.  I am a fiber artist also and there is something about the assembly of textured papers,color and design that remind me of creating a wall hanging from all the bits and pieces of wool. It takes quite a bit of time. In this one you'll see I  used quite a few diagonal shapes.  The yellow in the front and the off-white stones lead you toward the white cottage.  This is based on a photograph of  the village of Tully Cross in  Galway. the most difficult part were the windows. The paper was a multi-colored blue tissue paper and I painted in the shadows and white curtains.  The dark shapes in front are piles of peat. many Irish folks still heat their homes with peat that is cut from the bogs. Can you see the sheep on the hills????

This is watercolor and collage. The church was on a high ridge on Achill Island in Ireland. I love the island. It was hit hard by the Irish famine. Many of the deserted and ruined cottages are still there. Only sheep are present in many areas.  If you look carefully you can see the trenches in the land where the potatoes were planted.

 My family was hit hard by the famine. My great grandfather Paddy came to America and worked for awhile. Eventually he returned to Ireland. In 1912 my grandmother bought a ticket on the Titanic but traded it in for one on the Ivernia that sailed a month earlier. An Irish gypsy told her she didn't feel good about the Titanic.  Needless to say we are all happy that she made the decision to take the other boat!!!

Wet on Wet Paintings

This proves that it  doesn't take days to have fun painting. I did this small painting in about 20  minutes working wet in wet.  I caught the essence of a snow scene but certainly not the details. Timing is everything. The more you work in this manner the easier it gets. If the paper is too wet the tree shapes will melt into the background. If the paper is too dry you won't have the lost edges that make this technique so lovely.

This is a painting done in an intuitive style. The paint was applied wet on wet. I had no concept beforehand  --only shapes and a color plan.

I call the painting Two Worlds  to bring attention to the fact that we live in two worlds. There is the world we see every day, and it seems to be real but it is really only an illusion created by us in the inner world.   The Course in Miracles says in Lesson #31 " I am not the Victim of the World I see."

MORNING GLORIES

 I love this flower so will be teaching this project at Anne Arundel Community College this week. Here is a step by step description of how it is done.  Notice the yellow leads the viewer in diagonally across the picture.

This is the second step. Painting the flowers wet on wet . This is direct (positive)  painting.

This is the first step. I painted the background  wet on wet with three primary colors. I used Permanent Yellow, Permanent Rose, and Cobalt Blue. I left the paper dry around the flowers. 

Morning Glory Project

I love this type of design with a central window. The colors are limited which is the very best way to go. I am playing  with two opposite colors - blue and orange.  Notice the negative painting outside the window in the border area. This negative painting technique creates the mystery.

I am teaching a variety of unusual designs just like this at  Maryland Hall for the Arts, here in Annapolis Maryland on May 12 and 19.

Watercolor on Yupo Paper

I was introduced to Yupo paper when I was a new painter and I hated it. Now that I am experienced with the medium I have re-discovered this unusual paper.  Yupo is synthetic paper. The paint is not absorbed by the paper, but instead sits on the surface.  It helps to use less water when you begin to experiment. with it.   

This hibiscus was so much fun. It almost painted itself. The background was easy but the shadows on the flower were hard to control.

Kent Island Art Association-negative Painting Class

Here are some of the great pictures from the Kent Island Art Association Class on Monday.  I hope that this taste of negative painting will be helpful to everyone that attended and add a spark of mystery to paintings yet to be created!  The  house above is the art center. It is located in Stevensville, Maryland --over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. Go to http://www.kifaevents.org for information on classes.

Georgette is an acrylic painter and was able to do a beautiful job with the  project in watercolor.  See our fall leaves above.

This is me explaining the importance of the under painting. This is the foundation of a great negative design.

This is a close up of the first layer underway. Many negative paintings are built up with many transparent layers  of paint. Understanding color is very important.

Jane's Color Clock Secret For Artists

 I have put my popular color theory  into a small book. I am dedicating it to my students who have asked me for this for years. If you have struggled with color, this book will  show  you how to look at color differently.

If you click the link below the book it will take you to Blurb.com and you can order your own copy.

Hibiscus To The Point

If you like this painting you will love my workshop at Maryland Hall in Annapolis. Maryland May 12 and 19 called  Painting Outside The Lines  with a Focus on Design. You can sign up by going to www.marylandhall.org

This is a tricky painting. Notice the change from positive painting to negative painting in the blue triangles. If you let you attention slip you'll lose your place.   I love this type of painting because it is almost like solving a puzzle.

Vermont October

This one of my favorite fall scenes. As  I   created the wet in wet underpainting, I scraped out some birch trees with a palette knife. It is a small painting but a real gem. The reflection of the orange tree in the water leads the eye into the trees. It all happened in a spontaneous way.   I tell my students to let the water and paint do their own thing and step aside. This is hard to do. Life is a little bit like this. Sometimes letting go and realizing everything will fall into place and take its own course is the best way to live.

Exercising the right side of the brain in a big way!

This is the under-painting with the exception of the rocks. I went over the rocks with additional paint and a palette knife.  As a negative painter, I try to have an idea in my mind, or a photo reference to use as a guide when i loosely lay down the shapes and color. This is what I call my road map.  

The final picture above is above is carefully created by carving out shapes. I think trees and bushes but my shapes are made in an intuitive manner without the support of a drawing.

Intuitive negative painting

I usually work from an established drawing before I lay down the under-painting in most of my work. In these two watercolors I did a dry on wet under-painting and then let my intuitive side see a scene and create it. The under-painting will lead you in a particular direction. It looks easy but it is very hard to get the perfect first layer. It helps to use paint right out of the tube and make sure both sides of the paper are thoroughly wet.   This is really the most sophisticated level of negative painting and if you want to give the right brain a work-out try it!  

I have two workshops coming up all about negative painting. Go to my web-site at www.paintpencil.com  and look under classes.

Playing around with unusual backgrounds

 I like the combination of hard geometric edges up against the soft flowing lines of a flower. This was painted today as I celebrated another new  year ahead.   If I do it again I will change the center which is too symetrical.

Visit my other new blog-- veggiefoodie.blogspot.com . This is a blog I am writing with my sister Susan. We are both vegetarians. I am a gluten free vegetarian leaning Vegan. My sister is the real cook. I would rather paint!     Happy New Year!!!!   Jane