Mary B Spires Watercolor & Art Stuff

Watercolor 11" x 14" on Paper with Tissue Paper I did this while we were in Florida........I'll be teaching this project at the HOOT (Heart of Ohio Tole) Convention in August.......the class is almost full! So if you want to join us, get going and send in your registration. This is a really fun project....you first paint the local color then add tissue paper with Mat Medium....let dry and finish painting.......the nice thing about tissue paper and mat medium is the color will life, so those mistakes can easily be fix!

6" x 6" Oil on Board I posted this yesterday, but for some reason it didn't get posted. I'm going to try and put it on the DPW challenge for this week. I love to paint vegatables that are still attached to their leaves.

Oil on Masonite 6x6 A few years ago Karin Jurick( http://www.karinjurick.blogspot.com/ ) had a blog for fellow bloggers to do a weekly challenge. This was a wonderful idea and had many participants. Carol & David Marine have now picked up the challenge. http://www.dailypaintworks.com/ Creating a new blog site for fellow artist to continue to participate in a weekly challenge. As a bonus, even if you are not a member of DPW, your challenge entries will be displayed with prices and links for purchase, in addition to description, painting media, and size. DPW will soon be offering membership - General and Featured - Featured Artists are shown on the front page and pay more for their membership. General members have same access to the features of DPW , as do Featured Artists, including being show on the DPW website personal Gallery/Store page, the art tracking portfolio management page, the traffic Statistics page, and the DPW Auctions. The only difference is

Our thirst for "the good life" we think others lead by acknowledging the good that already exists in our own lives. We can then offer the Universe the gift of our grateful hearts. Sarah Ban Breathnach

HOLLY HOCK 8x10 This is my first blog entry of doing the flower first in Watercolors then painting it in oils. I always say oils are easier, but after this project I don't know that this is true. I have been reading the book Simple Abundance, by Sarah Ban Breathnach. If you notice at the top of of my blog it says" The Canvas of My Life". When I set up the blog several years ago,I used this phrase as a focus of the blog and my daily life. Sometimes things happen that give you a "WOW" moment , well one of Sarah's quotes is "Pick up the needle with me and make the first stitch on the canvas of your life". This gave me a step back, take notice' great mother spirit telling me? Hope you all have a wonderful Mother's day tomorrow!

11 x 14 watercolor on watercolor paper This painting also has tissue paper on top.......I really like collage....I think my student in Florida were getting a little tired of the collage stuff!!!!!

Holly Hock 9" x 9" Dark backgrounds always give the flower drama!

Holly Hock 9x9 When I don't know what to paint, I always go back to my flower photographs. I guess I started painting 20 some years ago painting what attracted me most.....so when in doubt go back to what you know. I always put the painting into a mat at the end stage, this is my way of seeing what the painting is telling me. What do I need to do? This was the painting for a couple of days, this morning I decided to put in a dark background.