Mary B Spires Watercolor & Art Stuff

12" x 12" Oil on Canvas Painting in the impressionist style is soooooooo much FUN!  I've been studying William Schultz, Brackman, Frederick Carl Frieseke and my all time favorite  Frank W. Benson all American impressionist.  I have discovered that they all talk about " The Mechanics of Painting"  the 5 Steps that Jerry Fresia uses.  Each having a different twist.

11" x 14" Transparent Watercolor Beach Buddy My little beach buddy will be taught at the Beach Art Center on March 15th, Thursday morning Make it Take It class This little guy was my first one of many kids on the beach.  What fun!  He could be anyone's grandson!  Hope to see you in class......

11" x 14" Transparent Watercolor on Paper I just finished this one!  Reminds me of my Great Granddaughter, Haddie Girl...... so that's where the name came from.  This project will be taught at  the Beach Art Center the first two weeks of April. Just love all the primary colors.....

8" x 10" Oil on Board As many of you know I'm schedule to take a workshop on Lake Como next fall with Jerry Fresia ( http://www.fresia.com/  ).  He also has a 3 minute video on You Tube and a wonderful instrucitonal book, plus two small books of his  paintings.......Wednesday afternoon in the Pumprey's class I copied one of his paintings .....just to get the feel of what his brush strokes felt like....what an eye opening experience.  I painted it in one hour on a Masonite board with a soft hair brush.  I first scumbled in the dark and middle values per his instructions. The squinting thing is sooooo important......this morning I actually used my computer to blur the image.....this is a great help in seeing the dark, middle and light shapes. 

The Birds will be taught the last two weeks of March......I think I'm having tooooooo many senior moments!!!!!  Sorry!!!!!

11" x 14" Watercolor on Paper This is a new class projects that will be taught at the Beach Art Center the last two Wednesday in March.  My friend and student Nancy took this photograph and wanted to see how I would go about deciding colors, composition and how to paint the overall painting.

11" x 11" Transparent Watercolor The scheduled Make It Take It for Thursday, Feb 23 has been canceled due to scheduling at the Beach Art Center. This will be the project for Thursday, March 1, 2012.....