Sharon's Back

Drypoint Etching, Printed on Archival
Italian Printmaking Paper, 3 1/2" x 4 3/4"
$75.00 Go to eBay

This is my model Sharon again. Always
graceful, and always inspiring.

Sharon Posing during Figure Class

Drypoint Etching printed on Archival
Italian Printaking Paper, Image area
5" x 7", margins, 2" $100.00

I did this from a photograph that I took of
this model. She has been modelling for me
personally, and for my classes, for about 12
years. I have done at least ten paintings of
her. She is a fantastic model, even now at
the age of 50, after bearing, raising, AND
homeschooling six children! She just has a gift
for modelling. And, did I mention - she's also
an artist, with a real gift for color, but unfortunately
not a lot of time to make art. I own one of her
paintings. It's a luscious painting of a tomato done
in acrylic. I keep it in my kitchen, and get enjoyment
out of it every day.

I did say, when I introduced myself, that I would
be working in several different media. I just can't
help it. It is not that I am a dilletante. I actually
have a Masters in Printmaking, but have been
much more of a painter in the past 25 years. But,
every once in a while I get struck by the urge to
make drypoints.

They don't take long. All you have
to do is make a drawing with a diamond-tipped
scriber on either a zinc, copper, or acetate plate,
ink it up with etching ink, soak your paper and blot
it, and then run it through your etching press, and
Voila! You have a print. And you can make about
ten more good prints.

To get more than that you really do
need to have your plate electrolitically steel-faced
(can't do that to plastic, of course). They (whoever
"they" are...) have actually taken some Rembrandt plates
that he himself cancelled by scoring them with a big
X - indicating he didn't intend to make any more prints
from them - and had them steel-faced, just to make
money off of them. Greed will make people do really
inane things. Expecially in the art market.

Bearded Iris

Watercolor and Gouache on Arches Cold Press

Watercolor Paper, 4.6" x 4.6" $100.00

I really thought this bearded iris was spectacular
and I just had to do a painting of it. I didn't have
much time though, so it is really just a sketch.
Next time I think I'll use oils. They are SO much
more forgiving! I'm so glad that its finally spring!

Phalenopsis Orchids at US Botanical Gardens

Watercolor, gouache and pencil on hotpress watercolor board,
4" x 5 3/4" $100.00

I was very intrigued by these orchids. I was at an orchid exhibition.
They were everywhere! They were purple, white, cream , pink,
tiger-striped - just about anything you could imagine. Of course we
see them in the supermarket all the time, all alone in those pots.
But this was in a huge room FULL of orchids of so many varieties.

It was mesmerizing, and so beautiful.

Purple Datura Flower in the National Botanical Garden

Gouache and Watercolor on Watercolor Board
4" x 5 3/4" $80.00 go to eBay

Wow!!

That was all I could think when I saw this
spectacular Datura. It was about seven
inches long, with a trumpet-like opening
(I'm sure you'll eventually see a painting
of that also...) that was about 4" in diameter.

I was a little embarassed, because I was so
transfixed by the beauty of this plant that I
couldn't move for a few minutes. I had to keep
staring at it; got fifteen pictures of it,
from every angle that I could.

This is a very sketchy picture, and, except for
the color, I hardly feel that I did it justice -
except I have to say I do like the looseness
of the composition. There were so many other
types of vegetation around it - other smaller
orchids, types of leaves and grasses - it would
be very daunting to paint all in detail. One has
to be in the mood. And frankly, sometimes I
am. But not today.

Pewter and Cherries with Turquoise Fabric

Pastel on Wallis Sanded Paper, 4" x 4" $100.00

This is a fragment that I chose to select out of
a larger still life that was placed inside of a black
"drawing theater" - a black box that is only open on
one side. It is fun to place objects in it and then play
around with the angle of lights shining on still life objects
in the box.

Different types of effects can be created by how
far inside the box the objects are placed, and also,
from how far an angle the light shines in, or across.
I use this in my drawing classes with just black and
white objects to teach tone and value recognition.
But it was fun having this colorful still life contained
in this box, and even more fun working on the
sanded paper, which never seems to stop holding more
pastel.

I had a happy accident when I sprayed the piece near
the end with Sennelier Fixatif Latour for pastel. It is
not an aerosol, but rather comes in a plastic pump
bottle, and sometimes spits out little circular dots
of fixative. This happened on the pewter goblet,
making just the right kind of texture for that object!

Sunset over Italian Garden

Oil on Paper Laid Down on Board, 4" x 5" $85.00 eBay

This is an interpretation of the gardens of Tivoli,
done from an old photograph. I have actually done
several versions of this, in different sizes, all over black,
or, brown and white underpaintings. For instance, I did
one that had a brilliant red and yellow sunset, but I prefer
this blue-green, analagous color composition. The photograph
that I worked from was black and white, so I always have made
up the color, and it has always been a good exercise in color
harmony and using my color imagination.