Mary B Spires Watercolor & Art Stuff

6x6 on gesso panel I'm doing a series on painting the onion and the skin.....it's a fun one! Only 3 more to go! This one is a little too red, so I will go over it with a glaze of Burnt Sienna. I have my last class in the morning at the Beach Art Center...........

6x6 on Gesso Panel I tinted the board with a light violet mix. Sketch the drawing in a burnt sienna.

The is the photograph of the onion.......I placed it on glass so I would get the reflection that the glass creates.....

Click here to bid 6" x 6" Oil on Panel It's so good to be home! Nothing like painting in your own space......Of course no fresh fruit in the house, but you can always paint a vegetable. I'm still trying to find the right spot to shoot the photograph......I think I'm going to have to try to make a light box.......

I made it back to Florida, my mother is doing better.....it will take some time to get over the surgery......as we get older our bodies don't heal quite as fast. I have one more class this week at the Beach Art Center. My plan today is to get things back in order, so I can start getting the new web site www.adailypaintersgallery.com up and running. This will be a group web site with a few painting friends. I will post more on this later in the week.

6x6 on Gesso Board I finished this yesterday evening......I don't know about these water mixable oils!!!! Of course I don't have cadmium red......It's a about traveling on airplanes, so I want to get used to them...they are so much easier to clean up, plus the turp thing is not healthy~!

The workshop was great fun!! Meet new friends, and got to see a few old ones. Haven't had much time to paint, but hope to get a few in this week.

Click here to bid 6x6 Oil on Gesso Board I had fun with this one! Painted it in my Wednesday Class with Judy & Larry Pumfrey oil Class at Indian Rocks Beach Art Center. I leave today for Minnesota to teach a 3 day workshop in watercolors......of course I'm taking my "New Water Soluble Oils". I also will be visiting my Mother in West Virginia......she's recovering from surgery. This will be my week to work on my new website "A Daily Painters Gallery". I also will be working on my new"eBay Store" where I will be posting my small daily paintings for sale! Check back for an update!105

6x6 Oil on Gesso Board This was painted from a photograph that I took a couple of weeks ago. It was one of those bright perfect spring days in Florida. 104

6 x 6 Oil on Canvas I did this one while set up at the Art Market a couple of weeks ago. The wind blew it into the dirt!! So I had to scrape it, let it dry and re paint.....I still need to work on taking the photographs, this one really has great color.....I have a light box in Ohio, so I think I'm going to have to make one here!!

6x6 Oil on Canvas Board One of the best things in Florida during the Spring is the Gardenia Bushes.....they smell soooo good! Of course when I started this one the sun was just right, well with in 10 minutes, by the time I had the drawing....it was gone! I did several wipe offs, plus several others, but these are the only two that are worth posting!!!! Maybe someday I will get this Plein Air Thing!!!!

6x6 On Gesso Board This is one of the plein air painting during Paint the Town.

Yesterday started the St. Pete Paint the Town Plein Air Event. Judy, Larry and I spent the day painting at North Beach and Salt Creek. I will post a few paintings from the event on Sunday.........It was one of those perfect days in Florida!

Just thought I was getting close to painting 100 paintings since I started blogging, February 26, 2007. I can't believe I made it!!!!!! I'm going to celebrate and go to the BEACH today!!!!!!!

11 x 14.5 on Watercolor Paper I worked on this one yesterday & this morning. My students at the Beach Art Center wanted to do a landscape, but as most of them know I HATE landscape. So this was a compromise! It seems a little blue, but watercolors are soooooo hard to photograph. The water and the rocks are more gray.

6x6 on Gesso Board I painted this one at the St. Pete Artist Market on Saturday, the first one I painted was tomatoes slices on green, but the wind blew and it ended up in the dirt. I did scrape some of it off, so maybe later today I can salvage it. I just love the Gessoed Board, you can move paint around and see the brush strokes.........I think this surface maybe my favorite.

5x7 on Gesso Board I started this one on Tuesday morning, but finished it today. I've been playing around with the slick gesso board, it give you more texture, but sometimes it's hard to get the paint to stay on. I like the way it looks once the paint is dry.......I ordered about a dozen of canvas board and gesso board, so I'm sure I will know when all are painted.

6x6 Oil on Canvas Board I had these peppers left over from the Pumfrey's workshop this past weekend. The big one looks red but it's actually bright orange. I still have to work on getting a good photograph.

6x6 Oil on Canvas Board This is other small Plein Air painting I did at the Pumfrey's Workshop. There is a wonderful color reflection on objects when painting outside. You do get some reflection from indoor spot lights, but it's nothing like the out door reflection.

6x6 Oil on Canvas Board My friend Chris Smith is here from Ohio, she came down again this year to take the workshop with Judy & Larry Pumfrey......she has to go back home today. We painted yesterday in the studio, lots of fun.

6 x 6 Oil on Gesso Board This was number 4, after I wiped off the first 3........I did this outside in Plein Air. Boy could you see the reflections. I was going to wipe it off because I wasn't happy with the lip of the cup, but Judy took it!!!!