Heaven and Earth Art Exhibit, Ocala, FL

I felt much honored yesterday when my painting “Morning in the Valley: Elk in Cataloochee Valley” received 3^rd place recognition at the juried art exhibition Heaven and Earth in Ocala, Florida. There were many fine artists represented there, with both 2D and 3D creations represented.

The Exhibition was the final in a series of three themed art events based on the classical elements Earth, Air, Fire and Water. It took place at the Interstate Commerce Center in Ocala and was the collaboration of two highly talented artists, Lauren Manera and Lisa Russo, under the partnership Bella Donna Productions. Lisa, as judge, did an excellent job of critiquing the very eclectic collection of artworks that included sculptures, photography, paintings in a variety of mediums and woodturning.

My thanks and goes out to Lisa for spending time with me providing much appreciated advice.

            Lauren’s website is themaneragallery.com and Lisa’s website is lisa-russo-art.com

Work in Progress: Sandpipers, Update 4

Week 4 (12 March 2014)

I've completed the Sandpiper in the back and nearly completed the second Sandpiper. Colors used are: Prismacolor French Grey 10%, 20%, 50%, 70%, 90%, FC raw umber, P ginger root, FC burnt umber, P 90% cool gray, Verithin black, P blue violet lake and P sky blue light. The blue violet lake and sky blue light, along with the french greys were used on the underside of the belly and some on the breast to give shading and show some reflection from the water. 

Work in Progress: Sandpipers, Update 3

Week 3 (4 March 2014)

This is the third installment of the Work in Progress for the Sandpipers. I made the decision to have the background in watercolor and the sandpipers, foam and seaweed in colored pencil. The background takes up quite a bit of area and would take a large amount of time to complete in colored pencil. It lends itself to watercolor. The sandpipers, foam and seaweed can be handled with either colored pencil or watercolor but, since I feel comfortable with colored pencil and can do a lot of detail work with them, I decided to use the pencils.

As you can see in this update, I’ve removed the liquid masking after adding a bit of detail to the water. I have pretty much finished two of the clumps of seaweed and put in a bit of the reflection on the clump on the right. The colors I used for the seaweed were light ochre (Faber Castell, FC), yellow ochre (Prismacolor, P), burnt ochre (FC), light umber (P), dark umber (P), cadmium yellow (FC), pumpkin orange (P), burnt ochre (P) and burnt sienna (FC).

I’ll probably stop on the seaweed at this point and start on the upper sandpiper, so that I don’t go back and forth on the paper any more than I have to and possibly smudge work that’s already done.

Work in Progress: Sandpipers, Update 2

This is the second installment of a Work in Progress : Sandpipers. It was originally posted on other websites 28 February.
Installment 2 of the Sandpipers. Here, I've transferred the drawing to stretched 140lb Arches watercolor paper and masked off the birds, seaweed and seafoam with masking fluid. Next I put on multiple washes of Winsor Newton cobalt blue. In between washes I dried the paper completely, then brushed in a light layer of water to dampen the surface. Then the wash.

Work in Progress - Sandpipers

       I've been working on a new painting and posting updates to its progress on my Facebook page, my Google+ site and a couple of other spots, but because I just opened this Journal it hasn't contained any of those updates. I thought I'd try to catch up by posting the updates from the beginning every day or two until I'm up to date. Then I'll post an update once a week until it's finished.
       The first entry then is from the beginning. Check back every couple of days to see the progress on the painting. The subject is Sandpipers on the beach. I took a great many photos of the birds when my wife, Rita, and I visited Canaveral National Seashore on the east coast of Florida last year. Rita's been suggesting for a long time I do a painting of Sandpipers, which she is very fond of. I've finally gotten around to it. The painting uses both colored pencil and watercolor. So, here is the first installment. I welcome all comments.

Week 1 (Feb 20 2014)

This is the pencil sketch and I'll be working it up in either watercolor or colored pencil or both. I hope to start on it in the next week, after I finish a botanical illustration.

Historic Madison, FL

            My wife and I took a trip to Madison, Florida this past weekend. Madison is a small town of about 3000 people just a few miles north of Interstate 10, west of Tallahassee. It’s about two and a half hours from where we live in Dunnellon. A little search of the web revealed it had a quaint historic district with homes that were 150 to 200 years old, so we decided to make the trip.

After a late start we arrived in Madison in early afternoon and stopped at a KFC for lunch, then spent the rest of the day wandering about the historic district taking photos and marveling at the beautiful homes there.

Madison County was founded in 1827 and named for President James Madison. The town of Madison (I’m not sure if it, too, was named after James Madison) was founded in 1838 from land obtained from Madison Livingston and became the county seat.

Most of the historic district is laid out around Range Street and about the centrally located Four Freedoms Park. Across the street from the Park is the impressive County Courthouse. The most well known historic home in the district is probably the Wardlaw-Smith-Goza House, also across from the Park, which dates from about 1860 and served as a Confederate hospital during the Civil War.