Functional Art On Gadgets You Use Everyday!

 I have now open a store "as well as etsy" to a whole new way of looking at art that is also functional! Come check the store out for products you use everyday at my store in Pixels which for me is  Functional art !  

I would love to hear your positive or constructive thoughts on this! Thanks!

Flowers Steal The Show

$225

Purchase 

Just finished today another flower I have been wanting to paint and include a few birds 

that didn't quite steal the show of these beautiful Flame Lilies. They grow everywhere

here on the west coast and come in different colors. These are my favorite with the mingling colors 

of red, deep orange and yellows. I purchased a new palette of colors and have been enjoying them. The only problems I really ran into was simplifying my original photo I took of the flower. That has

been my only struggle with  painting plants in their environment. 

Mixed Media With Jelly Fish

 Jelly Fish Dance

 Click to Buy

I decided to mask the jellies and use a acrylic wash in the background with this painting.It was fun to see if the watercolor and acrylic both had the same luminous look to them. You can look closer at it in my store to see more detail here. I watered down my acrylic paints and used a lot of the spray bottle that also had water in it to wash it out some. It's a messy technique, but a lot of fun!

Mama And Baby Dolphin In Pod

I've finalized the painting of dolphins and I feel I'm done. I've added some pale yellows to the mama and baby and to a few of the others to draw your eye to the baby. The bubbles are also a guide to move your eye around the painting. I've enjoyed working with the Daniel Smith moonglow on the dolphins and worked it into a few of my other paintings as well.

Traveling Dolphins Watercolor Painting In Progress

I'm about to complete my painting of dolphins. I've found I prefer working on 300 lb paper a little better with all the work I do than the 140 lb I'm using on this painting. These are the steps thus far in the painting.

Laying down the background and removing the pebeo. I find using the pebeo to be the best masking 

I've ever used, but it's still tricky laying it in without having to go back into the subjects and 

fill in background. 

 I painted the dolphins using Daniel Smith  "moonglow". It has 3 different pigments in it that looks like you are using several colors in the body of the dolphin.

Coming to final phase of the painting. My mother and calf were to be the focus but it looks like the larger one at this point is coming in sharper. Will work on the background a little more and bring the calf forward a bit.

Finished

I finished my painting from the weekend workshop with Nancy Collins and learning her technique burnishing on hot press paper. This was a fun painting but I probably wouldn't want to do the burnishing very often. It can be tedious after a while. But, the colors really do pop on the 300 lb paper. So tell me what you think?

Hot One In The Family

In Between Website Shopping, I took a Workshop

Now that I'm working with watercolor, I decided to take a workshop here at the Mendocino Art Center with Nancy Collins. She's a very talented artist that knows alot about watercolors and color theory as well as the properties of the paints. We learned so much with a technique she taught us with burnishing on hot press paper. I'm just about done with it, but decided to post what I have now. It helps to see your artwork upside down, through a mirror and online.  Final piece will be done today and I'll get back to my dolphins.