Musical Reflections (11 x 14 watercolor on clay board) $300

This is the first in what I hope will be a series.  It all began a couple weekends ago when I was taking pictures in Corvallis.  The instruments in the window of Gracewind Music caught my eye and I snapped a few pictures inside.  All of that shiny brass made me want to paint.  After wondering around admiring a little, it occurred to me that the bread and butter of many music stores is student rentals and that I might not have to buy the instruments to paint them.

After some negotiation I left the shop with three instruments of dubious music merit, a trombone, a flute and a trumpet which had been marked “for display only.”   None of the instruments is is great condition, but they are all pretty and shiny.  And a month’s rental of all three cost me less than what a single month’s rental of just one playable instrument might come to.

I have since borrowed a clarinet and a bells from a friend’s daughter.

Last week I took a whole series of photos of the instruments on a 42 x 64 inch mirror we had down for a remodeling project.  Spread out across the floor it added an intriguing double take on the instruments. I got out some of my blown glassware, a couple of silver vases, some fabric from my quilting collection, and mat boards for background a and began shooting.  The guys doing the remodeling must have thought I was losing my mind, but I had fun.

I painted this first one looking down at the  instruments from above.  However, the white ceiling reflected in the mirror did not provide the best background, so I painted in a dark reddish brown to set off the lighter instrument.

Mounted on a black wooden cradle and ready to hang.

Prints available through Fine Art America.com. See more clarinet artwork here: clarinet art

Nautilus with Marble (10 x 13 watercolor) $175

Same nautilus, new angle, new colors–after several attempts to paint the nautilus in it’s true colors, I think I understand why I keep changing them.  The shell’s shadows are warmer colors than it’s highlights.  Most real world objects have cooler shadows and warmer highlights.  But the standards of the shell have warm local color while the base of the shell has cooler local color. Painting apricot shadows with cool blue and green highlights simply goes against the grain.

This time I ignored the natural color of the shell entirely and simply painted the colors I felt like painting focusing entirely on value.  I painted the marble to echo the center of the shell.

I reserved the highlights with mask. The palette is phthalo blue, dioxazine purple, new gamgee, a little quinacridone magenta, and burnt sienna to dull the blues and greens.  The background is a wash of burnt sienna which I chose to contrast with the cooler shell. I mixed the colors in multiple transparent washes.  I dropped some of the softer shadows wet into wet paint.

Or purchase a print from Fine Art America.com.

Nautilus with Glass Stones (10 x 11 watercolor) $150.00

My husband and I spent last weekend on the Oregon Coast. The weather was so fine we hardly even went inside at all.  So on our last day having not set foot in a shop all weekend,  it occurred to us we had bought nothing for our daughters.  So we stopped in a shell shoppe. We did find some lovey sea urchins for the girls. But we also found something for us, a bisected nautilus shell. Stephen wanted it to display it, but I wanted to paint it. I’ve just finished painting it and it now lives on our mantle together with fossil shells and a free form hand made basket. But it will visit the studio again.

I took great liberties with the color of the nautilus which is really is really a dull orange in the outer chambers fading to blue green at the center. The color shift in my painting was driven by the decision to heavily under-paint the shell in phthalo blue to emphasize the depth of the shell.  I over-painted with various mixtures of new gamgee yellow, quinacridone madder rose, and phthalo blue.

In Progress

The left most of the glass stones resting in the shell is actually stone marble. But the green and rust of the actual marble would have clashed horribly with the rest of the painting, so I changed it to a blue glass marble.

The background is a wash of burnt sienna grayed down with phthalo blue.

Or purchase a print from Fine Art America.com.

The Opening (watercolor 10 x 11) SOLD

This is one more painting from my Valentine’s Day bouquet. In the clear glass vase the lilies are much softer and less dramatic. I emphasized the soft back-lighting.

The palette is only slightly different than Lily with Carnations. I added dioxazine violet which I substituted for phthalo blue when underpainting the lilies. Dioxazine is a good pigment for underpainting because it is strong, staining and transparent. Violet is warmer than blue, so the lilies are warmer too.