A Fish Out of Water

A Fish Out of Water

8" x 10"

Prismacolors of Fisher 400 paper

I could do loads of these... I am such a fan of kitsch! 

A Walk in the Woods

10" x 8"

Prismacolors on Pastelbord

We have been enjoying loads of wild raspberries from our backyard. We've had raspberry muffins, pancakes and they are great in my greek yogurt with some walnuts. So this little still-life is just some things I found in the woods behind my house and stuffed in a little metal green teapot. 

Sorry for the lousy photo.. it was late and I only had artificial lighting. The photo below is interesting though. The butterfly still-life on the left is under Museum glass and there is no glare and the orchid one next to it which is on Pastelbord and has been varnished has a terrible glare! The Walk in the Woods has not been varnished yet so again no glare there. 

I hope to drop these 3 off to the gallery tomorrow along with some portraits. That is if I can get them framed! They are just sitting in the frames right now. 

Oriental Flair Big

Oriental Flair Big

11" x 14"

Prismacolors and Coloursofts on grey Pastelbord

I hope everyone had a good weekend. I carved out some time this weekend to work on a larger version of the oriental inspired orchids (mostly the rainy Saturday we had). I haven't varnished this piece yet, so I hope the grey board won't darken it too much when  I spray it. I think what happens is the varnish makes the board show through more making it darker. 

Below is this piece paired with the mini piece for scale. 

Oriental Flair

Orchids

         6" x 10"

Prismacolors of Fisher 400 paper mounted to Gatorboard

I'm kind of hooked on this 6" x 10" shape. Its kind of funny because this shape is just the leftover piece from the board I had Creative Encounters cut & mount off of my sheets of Fisher 400 paper. I just like that little bit of extra height to cure that perfect rectangle feel of an 8 x 10. 

I am also stuck for a little bit on the tiny details after doing these! I better do a bigger one next to get me out of it for a bit - but I have 2 more 6 x 10's left!

Here's a pic of the three small ones sitting on (a very dusty) ledge together. Seeing this I may darken Maggie's figure  on the first one. 

Well Read

Well Read

6" x 10"

Prismacolors on Fisher 400 

The last one was so much fun I had to do one more. Unfortunately I had to use me as the model because Maggie and I posed at the museum. That's fine really but its just not my best side. 

Anyway... the work of art I am in front of has some meaning too, but not as much as the other one. My husband had a print of this painting hanging in his room in college which is where we met. It is Fragonard's Young Girl Reading.  On the National Gallery's website it has this to say about the painting:

 "Fragonard painted several young girls in moments of quiet solitude. These works are not portraits but evocations, similar to the "fantasy portraits" Fragonard made of acquaintances as personifications of poetry and music. He painted these very quickly—in an hour, according to friends—using bold, energetic strokes."

The fun thing about doing these miniature paintings is it feels like your tiny pencil tip is a big paint brush - with every stroke counting!

detail of my drawing about actual size!