Winter Road

Watercolour with some pastel pencils used at the end.

This was painted from a photograph taken on my drive into town for groceries. This is on the way back home.

Sumac

Sumac painted with pastel pencils and watercolour from my deck.

Filtered Light

I’ve been experimenting lately with adding pastel pencils to my watercolour paintings.

This piece was painted from a photo taken on my early morning walk. I added pastel to the darker tree trunks for added texture and to the foliage.

Birds of a Feather

This past week I got together with a couple of friends to paint and play with polymer clay.  Julie  drove up from Brockville to stay with me for a few days.  Margo is a neighbour  here in Calabogie who joined us each day.

Day 1

Margo doodled with pencil and coloured pencils .

Margo doodling

 

 

Julie finished a watercolour she had brought with her and then switched to pastels to work on a Great Blue Heron we had seen earlier that day.

Julie’s watercolour

I worked in pastels on an Osprey that I had photographed a few weeks ago.

 

 

Day 2

We got out the polymer clay and my toaster oven and made heads.

Julie working on a polymer clay head

Margo working

Julie’s head – in progress

Last batch of the day – just out of the oven

 

Watercolour and Pastel

Yesterday I was going to post another of my watercolour paintings.  However, when I looked at the photograph of it I noticed a few things that needed correcting.  I worked on it a bit yesterday and earlier this morning.  I need to photograph it again but I like to use natural light and it is raining.  So instead I am posting this painting.

This painting is done from a photograph I took near my cottage in Calabogie this past winter.  It was a beautiful day and after trying to photograph a Pileated woodpecker that was not cooperating, I walked up the hill and there were two deer posing perfectly for me.  One just stood there and stared.  The other, the one I have painted, moved around a bit but always kept his eye on me.

I planned to do the picture in watercolour and chalk pastels, so I chose rough watercolour paper to work on.  After I sketched and masked out the deer with frisket, I painted the background with watercolours.  I was not pleased with it.  Maybe, knowing I could cover it with the pastels, I was careless.  I did cover it with pastels.  I then removed the frisket and painted the deer with watercolours.  I used some pastel on the deer as well.

Peter Pot Peeper

Last weekend, polymer clay and multi-media artist Maria Saracino visited my doll club, All Dolled Up, and gave us a workshop.

Guided by Maria we made “Peter Pot Peeper” on clay pots we had brought from home.  I made mine on a pot I  made years ago.

 

Maria suggested that I paint my little fellow green, which I did with pan pastels.

Visit Maria’s website: http://www.saracino.ca and her blog at: www.mariasaracino.com.

See more images of the workshop at All Dolled Up’s blog: www.alldolledupottawa.com.  There you can see the variety of Peter Pot Peepers that the club members created.

UFO’s: Little Green Man and a Cat

The Green Man started out as an exercise to use techniques that I learned in a Robin Foley workshop to build up areas of a face using batting.  The original workshop used a carved styrofoam block as a starting point.   For this project I started with a flat surface.  Once I had built up the areas and “skinned” it, I needle sculpted the wrinkles and painted it with soft pastels.  Then it sat for a few years and became lost in my studio.

Green Man UFO

My local doll club, All Dolled Up, had a UFO (UnFinished Object) challenge so I found my Little Green Man and decided to put him on a background.  I painted a prepared canvas with pastels and attached the head to it with acrylic medium. Then, I made leaves with free motion embroidery.

Free motion leaves on wash-away stabilizer

I put masking tale around the edges to keep the stabilizer from wrinkling as I sewed.

Green Man

Green Man – Detail

I also found an embroidery project in the basement.  It was based on a Mola, which is a hand sewn reverse applique panel made using several layers of cloth  which are cut away to reveal the layers underneath.  Mine is machine sewn and it is only one layer.  The image is based on my cat.  I sewed it onto a bag.

The Cat