Works in Progress for Village Gallery of Arts

In May, I'll be showing four 6x6 canvases in the Village Gallery Of Arts 2014 Art Challenge in Cedar Mills. Here are my works in progress. I started with painted tissue paper strips, modern palette paint colors and floral drawings. Next, I plan to paint organic flower shapes on tissue with permanent inks.

Experimenting with Shapes and Spirng Flowers

Here's another exercise from Nita Leland's book- The New Creative Artist. We outlined a shape and then drew the flowers.  We positioned the flowers differently within each shape.

I like how extending the line outside the shape changes the dynamics of the composition.  This exercise also helps to work with negative space.

I had to draw and paint this beautiful bouquet of tulips in my sketchbook.

Modern Color Palette

Jo Reimer (see her One A Day blog) introduced me to the modern color palette.  I love these colors- how they go together, mix without making mud, their light and clear crispness. Patti Brady wrote a great article about Color Mixing for Golden's Just Paint using this palette. I like to use titan buff vs. the titanium white to tint the paints.

Another article from Will Kemp talks about choosing a paint palette for beginners. He also describes the modern palette.  Jane Davies often paints with this palette in her artwork.  I used the palette to create some postcards with painted papers.

Gestures and Painted Postcards

Here's another gesture exercise that I painted on tissue paper with a folded pen and Sumi ink. I wanted to make organic, free form gestures and play with the pen. I then added the painted gestures to painted watercolor paper and cut into postcards.