The finished Aquaboard

Who's There?

Here's the result of the demonstration on how to paint on Ampersand's Aquabord.  It's 11" x 14"  After painting I sealed it with a spray coat of Golden Artist's Archival Varnish and 2 painted coats of Golden's UVLS liquid varnish.  No mat or glass are needed with these sealed Aquabord paintings.

Demonstration of painting on Aquabord

Tomorrow, Sat., Jan. 28, 2012, I will be demonstrating techniques for painting on Aquabord using watercolors at Island Gallery West in Holmes Beach on Anna Maria Island.  Time is from 10am to noon.  Address is 5368 Gulf Blvd.  I will be working from this photograph I took at Sunken Gardens in St. Petersburg in April, 2010.

Paintings in the Art in Bloom Show

Thank all of you who came to the opening reception for the Karen Black traveling exhibition "Blossoms II" and to the "In Full Bloom" show.  Susanna Spann did I great job of selecting a great variety of work from ten local artists, some of them nationally recognized.  In my opinion, "In Full Bloom" is possibly an even better show than the Blossom II exhibit.    I  feel privileged to be included in a show with with such talented artists. Here are the seven paintingsI have hanging in the Art in Bloom Show..

Out of the Shadows

In the Spotlight

Vanilla Light

Green Shadow

Sagebrush at Sunset

Autumn Pond

Thoroughly Modern Magnolia

Out of the Shadows

Out of the Shadows

A special traveling exhibit will be coming to Art Center Manatee Jan 17, 2012.  It is the Karen Black Blossoms II national exhibition traveling component.  As the name implies, it is comprised of paintings of flowers.  An accompanying exhibit is In Full Bloom, a exhibition curated by the watercolor powerhouse painter Susanna Spann.  Susanna has invited 8-10 artists to participate in this show and I am hughly flattered to be one.  So I have been painting new pieces for the show.  Here are the two most recent and the photographs that inspired them. 

Autumn Pond

In the case of Out of the Shadows, the shapes are what attracted my attention.  Obviously the colors were created.  The second painting, Autumn Pond, is truer to the photograph, but once again, color is used very differently.

52 Sea Grape Paintings

In the Limelight is my latest painting.  It is also, by my uncertain count, the 52nd painting of sea grapes I have done.  Number 50 was Tropical Grapes, the next to last painting I posted on my website.  Both have image sizes of approximately 11 x 14", however, Tropical Grapes was a more complicated painting.  It now resides in Holmes Beach, FL with the couple who bought This Way, one of the Hillsborough River Ibis paintings.  A 5x6 painting of red leaves was number 51.  Small paintings like it are not posted on the website because they come and go too fast.

The painting was taken from a small section in the lower right corner of the second photo.  This wall of sea grapes is at the Eastern entrance of Maximo Moorings in St. Petersburg.  The strong light and shadow patterns are what first attracted my attention to this hedge.

Paintings of sea grapes continue to be popular at the art festivals and street fairs I display at each spring.  So I keep painting

them.  So far all but one has sold.  My most popular painting of sea grapes has been  Spring Sea Grapes.  Reproductions of it continue to sell.

Tropical Grapes

This is my latest painting, just finished Monday and

framed today. It will be going to the Sarasota Main St Fine Arts Festival this coming weekend. The grapes were on Manasota Beach, south of Venice, FL. My husband and I were there for a rare "beach day" two years ago while camping near Myakka State Forest.

Fairytale Morning

Fairytale morning is my rendition of a steep, roughly cobblestoned alley in the river town of Joigny, France in Burgundy. As you can see by the original photo, all the shutters were brown but I chose to paint them a cereulean blue because nearly all the shutters I saw in France were that shade of blue. The day I was there it was the usual early autumn morning overcast but I thought it would look better with some sunlight. Artist's license. The painting is hanging at Art Center Manatee in Bradenton, Fl in the Florida Suncoast Watercolor Society exhibition. It will be there until April 18.