Mary B Spires Watercolor & Art Stuff

8 x 10 Oil on Canvas Board Painted this yesterday in class (Pumfrey's). It's not quite finished yet, need to darken the fence, lighten the shadow on the fence.....My friend Rita from Ohio is coming to visit so I probably won't get much time to paint.......PJ party time!!!!

This is the project I've worked on for the past couple of days. Sometimes you have to let it dry, before you can go back in. With so much white on the "Cup" it was beginning to get "chalky". The strawberries were blocked in, so I will need to work on them also. My husband said that I like to work on complicated pieces, but I think the attraction is the reflection on a shinny surface that I'm attracted too. Maybe it's like my granddaughter that loves that "Bling Bling".

After seeing Carol Marine Still Life Stand on her blog, I showed it to by husband and this is my new Still Life Stand that he made for Valentine's Day......It's made from a Light Stand that you buy at Home Depot or Lowe's. He removed the lights, which left a bar with 3 screw holes. The plywood is made from plywood 20 x 20. The "U" Shape is made from PVC pipe. We did not glue it together so it could be portable or broken down for storing. I've been playing around with landscape painting, haven't had anything that I didn't rub off!!! Going out to paint in Plein Air today.....my Friday morning class with Robert Somone.....we're moving to a new location ......one of these days I'll get something worth posting.

8 x 10 Oil on Canvas Board This wasn't one of the most successful paintings......I'm not too happy with all the detail.....I like it more when there is more paint in a painterly manner. As John Denver said in a song "some days are diamonds and some of stones". This was not a diamond painting. I still have to keep reminding myself this is a quick study. Just for practice!

8x10 Oil on Canvas Board Take note of the lines on the drawing that have been restated.......in the painting process you are always correcting the shapes and their relationship with the other shapes.

8 x 10 Oil on canvas board When setting up the still life I like to have strong light source with hard edge shadows.

8 x 10 Oil on Canvas Board After taking Michael McEwan Color Class at Capital University this past fall I decided to use the color wheel to make my paintings have more color harmony by using a set color theme. On this painting I took the natural color of the "Orange" the skin is orange and the meat is yellow orange. Looking at the color wheel I decide to do a "Tetrad" which is a double complementary contrast. Yellow Orange, Green, Blue Violet and Red. Complementary means colors that are directly opposite each other. A way to remember this is nature's own way of creating complements: Red & Green: Christmas Colors; Blue & Orange: Bird of Paradise; and Yellow & Violet: Purple Iris (has a yellow beard).

8 x 10 on Oil Canvas Board This is the photograph of my still life. Take note of the light source, the cast shadow and the little orange/yellow reflection on the cloth in between the 2 slices. Also note the edge of the cast shadow on the bottom right.....it just takes time to make the right brain see these little gems!

8x10 oil on Canvas Board I've been going through my old landscape pictures. I'm hoping by painting from the photographs I will do better painting landscape in Plein Air. The last three Friday's we had cloudy days.....so the light is pretty flat. I have been working with three primary colors and it's TOUGH. St. Petersburg Paint the Town is schedule for April 10-12, 2008. The deadline for submitting your application is February 15. For prospectus go to http://www.sprra.com/ I have been painting daily, but have been wiping them OFF! It's been a very frustrating week.... I teach 2 days and take two classes. So you know I'm painting at least 4 days!!!!! I doing what I tell the students not to do......."Don't paint expecting to get a great painting, paint for the practice!" I need to remember this!!!!