Can I Come In?

11 x 14 Watercolor on Arches 300 CP

Red Grapes, Blue Cloth

11 x 14 Watercolor on Arches 300 CP

This is another spontaneous still lifes I make when the morning light shines in so lovely.  I guess I need to keep fruit in the house for just those occasions.

Is it "still lifes", "stilllifes", "stillifes" or "stilllives"? I get a red line under every version!

Cardinal

11 x 14 Watercolor on Arches 300 CP

I painted this cardinal from two different photos. The goal was to work on making backgrounds I like. I'm not sure I succeeded in that regard. I like the picture overall. I like the bird especially and the bench very much too, but what my mind envisioned for the background and what it morphed into aren't really the same. Still a handsome picture, I would say.

The Fleet

 

From a photo taken in Bayou La Batre

11 x 14 Watercolor on 300# Arches

Field in Middle Tennessee

 

22 x 12 Watercolor on Arches Cold Press 300

Framed

Sent from my Samsung Epic™ 4G

Mollie Waits

11 x 14 Watercolor on Arches 300 CP

This is a portrait of my beautiful chocolate lab, Mollie B Beckham.

I painted this from a photo I took of her while she was still young. I reckon she was about 10 months old here. This was before we built on to the house and got rid of those concrete steps. 

She's so beautiful. I like the painting and it looks like her but it doesn't do her justice.

Calves on Hwy 30

 

 8 x 20 Watercolor on Arches 300 CP

Green Sea Turtle

 

8 x10 Colored Pencil on Acid Free Museum Board

Gorilla at Knoxville Zoo

 

8 x 10 Colored Pencil on Acid Free Museum Board 

 This is one of my first colored pencil attempts. Colored pencils are pretty cool but they are a lot more physical work then I imagined. All that covering and burnishing can where you hands out if you're unaccustomed to it.

Gloria's Produce

 

11 x 14 Watercolor on Arches 300 CP 

This was painted from a photo I took on the way to Dauphin Island, Alabama.

Anyone who has ever driven to Dauphin Island will recognize this scene. Gloria's Produce has been there for years. I'm not sure how they stay in business. I reckon there are enough locals out there even if you can't tell that by the main roads.

But rain or shine, there is someone manning the produce stalls there and whatever is in season is prominently displayed.

Zebra Pen & Ink

 

5 x 7 Pen and Ink and Color Wash

Crow Pen & Ink

 

5 x7 Pen and Ink and Color Wash

Wren in Reeds Watercolor

 

8 x 10 Watercolor on Arches 300 CP

Hibiscus Watercolor

 

8x10 Watercolor on Arches 300 CP

Mule in Pen & Ink

 

8 x 10 Pen & Ink

Mules on Hwy 30, Pikeville, TN

 

8 x 10 Watercolor on Arches 140 CP 

I painted these from a photo I took while visiting my brothers in Tennessee. One lives in Knoxville and the other lives in Woodbury. And these mules live in between them if you take the back roads.

Walter and I spent the night in Fall Creek Falls, that trip, at the Wayside Inn. It's a crazy little 1950s motel with a gregarious cook at the grill slinging hash and hamburgers.

While traveling to Woodbury we stopped and a number of places to take pictures and look around. I originally stopped by this fence because the owner had lined yards and yards of rickety and rusty farming equipment along it like some people have cedar trees.

But as I approached the fence these mules came toward me and gathered to take a look at what I was up to. The black one in particular seemed to want an introduction. He was quite assertive and wanted to be sure that he was the point man, much like some over friendly dogs will block you from making contact with the other dogs. 

None of the mules bore the same coat or color. I don't know what kind of mules these are, or even if there is a breed nomenclature for the varieties, but if there isn't there should be

Kiwis on Red Plate

 

8 x 10 Watercolor on Arches 300 CP

Anna's Cherry Blossoms

 

8 x 10 Watercolor on Arches 300

Morning Glories

 

8 x 10 Watercolor on Arches CP

Pelican Watercolor

Hummingbird Watercolor

Three Crows at Sunset

21x9 on Arches 300

 This is an experiment with watercolor and india ink. I've never used india ink before and it is thicker than I imagined. It can be quite gummy, in fact. Or at least, the old bottle I found and used needed to be thinned.

Mockingbird on Fence

8x6 on Arches 300

Heron in Pines

18 x 10 on Arches 300

I really like the zen of this painting but for those with more traditional tastes it lacks something. Namely the empty space should not be empty. Frankly, it's not really empty. There is sky and clouds. But I get their point even if I disagree.

I wonder how much of that is a conditioned perception. Coming from a graphic design background, I like the white space. I think it helps balance. It gives the heron a route to escape into the open. Everybody needs an exit, don't they?

This was one of my early favorites. It was exhibited in a small juried group show, "Color of the Coast", at Cathedral Square Gallery. I was quite pleased as it was one of my first attempts to get in a juried show. And I happily hanged next to my husband's photograph. 

Alligator in Pencil

Egret in Pencil

Completed Watercolor Hibiscus

Eventually I will scan it. This is a snap from my blackberry

Hibiscus: Work In Progress

Eventually I will back track to my progress since April, and catch myself up to the present.

But for now I'm just going to post my work of this evening - a hibiscus I'm painting from a photo I took in my yard.

Introduction

I hate the term "Artist". Skill and talent land on such a spectrum. It seems an insult to Raphael to categorize myself by the same term.

Be that as it may, I have no better self-descriptive than to say I'm a self-taught artist.

This blog is just what the title implies: A place to post my drawings and watercolors.

I've been drawing all my life, sporadically. April of 2010 I decided to say Bullshit to the notion that I had to be in the mood. Or I needed inspiration. What I needed was to make a commitment to actually putting hand to paper everyday.

I knew that, although I'd spent years away from my sketch pad, the skill would return. Using my Doodle of the Day discipline was a springboard to get myself in to watercolors, a medium that I've always wanted to try.

Now that I've got myself into this adventure, I feel a need to complete the process and show and share my work, for better or worse.

Comments and feedback are welcome.

Hope