Mary B Spires Watercolor & Art Stuff

8" x 8" on Canvas Board This is another one of the workshop pieces from Dreama Tolle Perry' s workshop......of course it has a few Dreama's little brush marks!  Since we returned from the workshop I haven't had much time to paint, but all those wonderful tips she gave us is still floating in my head.  I have a thousand pictures from my trips to France over the years with Chris Curry, my first watercolor teacher.  I also joined the Ohio Plein Air Society again.  I was a member a few years ago, but as most of you know I HATE PLEIN AIR, but I still want topaint in plein air....you say why?  When you hate it.....I hate it because I am so bad at it....I fight myself the whole time I'm out there!!!!!!  I love looking at all those wonderful landscape of trees, rivers, barns, etc.  My goal is to paint those wonderful little vignette you see everyday, like the one above....it's not so much a landscape as it tells a story!

Girls taking a Break! Heart of Ohio Tole Convention 2012 was over yesterday.... I had so much fun visiting with old friends and making new friends.  I had three 6 hour classes.....what fun! Thanks to everyone who attended.....I hope you were as pleased as I was with all the wonderful paintings. Remember to email me about the FREE  Watercolor Theory Workbook and the famous  BAG!!!!!! Pattern....no bags in these classes.....

6" x 6" Oil on Canvas Board Another one hour painting......I will be at convention for the rest of the week.....but if I get a chance I'll post something....maybe a few pictures of my students at convention.......

6" x 6" Oil on Canvas Board Mint Chocolate Chip! Yum! Since the "paint around" at Dreama's workshop I decided to paint cupcakes in one hour or less! What fun!  No pressure! Just paint! 

Thanks to everyone who gave me a comment on the Pony Paintings..... . .

Orange 4" x 4" on Board Today was a big day ...... I purchased a MAC. .... Yea!  Yea!  I have been wanting one for years....so I bit the dust,  met my daughter (she has one) at the store and did the deed....  Microsoft has stopped supporting Windows XP.....so if you have XP you can't sign up to receive my newsletter or blog using Feed Burner....so please email me! I've signed up for classes..... so stay tune! 

8" x 10" Oil on Board My Little Pony I painted this a few weeks ago.   Then I took Dreama Tolle Perry's  workshop and I painted another one.  I approached it in the technique that I learn from her.  8" x 10" Oil on Board The difference in the painting is I have softer brush strokes, more diffuse color.  What do ya think? I would love some feed back.  It's always a learning process.  Always a student......

11" x 11" on Watercolor Paper Holly Hock Tuesday August 14th 11" x 14" on Watercolor Paper Swan Lake Thursday August 16th 11" x 14" on Watercolor Paper

8" x 8" Oil on Board Last morning of class Dreama challenged us to a "round about" where each artist starts a painting from a photograph that Dreama gave us.  We were to work on  each  painting for about 5 minutes, you got to take your brush but that was it!  What fun! Five other artist worked on this cupcake that I just love.....what a wonderful take away from all the new friends.  I got to work on a sunflower, a flower in a glass and another cupcake.  A couple of the photographs were upside down......they always say you can trick your brain into seeing the shapes not knowing what it is....next week is the HOOT (Heart of Ohio Tole) Convention. I will be teaching 3 classes, plus a demo on Wednesday on Color Theory.  This will be my 20th year teaching....where has the time gone?  Thanks to a wonderful lady and teacher Betty Denton. After I had been painting for about 2 years I got to take a class with her and it changed...

8" x  8" Oil on Board Dreama's Blue Ball Jar This was our first project in Dreama's Workshop.....I started this one in class but had to switch to another board....this was a masonite board, very slick, the second layer of paint wouldn't stick.  Surface too wet.  Dreama's process is to first add Transparent Paint, kinda mapping out your design.  Next you go back in with your opaque colors.  It was a total mess!!!!!  no drawing, just a few marks to show you placement of the subject.  Soooooo much fun!!!! I love the looseness of the process.....the intimidation of the white surface was gone.  I finished this painting the last day of the workshop when we had time to try out the technique on our photographs.  Everyone in the class got great paintings. Tomorrow I will post the "round about"?  What's a round about?  Stop by tomorrow to find out.

Dreama Tolle Perry with Class Project Workshop Dates were July 16-18th in Paris, Ky.  I can't begin to tell you how good this workshop was.  Dreama is a wonderful teacher, very sharing, wants to  give you all the tools so you can be successful in completion of your workshop painting.  I was blow away with just the first 3 hours of her demoing her first piece.  We had 18 wonderful students who also shared in put.   Dreama made sure she got to give everyone individual attention....it was the  BEST EVER!

Sold Green Apples 4" x 4" Oil on Board FYI - I had a few problems with my blog (internet explorer had an error that I still can't fix!!)  the last couple of months post did not post...... so to catch you up.....I will re-post what's been going on! I was in the German Village Art Crawl in July.  This is an annual event where artist display in residents garage.  Local restaurants also have samples of their menus.  I shared the space with two great artist and friends,  Annette Simon and Judy Hazen.