Mary B Spires Watercolor & Art Stuff

I'm sure you think I've fallen off the end of the earth!!!! It's been a very busy time. I just returned from Canada with a week of fun in the sun and painting. As most of you know I'm not the greatest landscape painter......after a week of painting I'm still haven't painted anything I want to post. (sorry) Next week is the Heart of Ohio Tole convention in Columbus, I'm busy getting ready to teach a couple of classes. Hope to be back to a regular schedule in a week or so!

It's been a crazy couple of weeks.........not a good time for painting....I've been framing, matting and general business stuff to get ready for the Lancaster Art Walk...I will have 33 Oil paintng at ADAMAH and 22 Watercolors at Main Street Gallery....hope to see you Friday Night! All the "art" will be up for the following week....check with the various location for times the business are open.

Click Here to Place Your Bid 6" x 6" oil on canvas board Painted this one at class on Tuesday......what a fun class!!! I'm getting ready for the "Lancaster Art Walk" Friday, July 18th.......hope to see a few of you there!!!!

Click Here to Bid 10" x 8" Oil on Canvas Board Susan Carlin wanted me to talk about the "glow" around the objects in my recent still lives. I've been studying Gregg Kreutz book Problem Solving for oil Painters, he says: To keep a picture from looking static there must be a sense of the light increasing and decreasing in intensity throughout. The light area of each object must contain a lighter and a darker part, and the picture as a whole should have a sense of orchestration from either dark to light or light to dark. As in this painting, I've added a lighter value (white, yellow or orange) into the background mix going around the objects in the painting. If you look at artist that work in the "Chiaroscuro Style" such as David A. Leffel or J Legg they always have a glow around their subject matter. I've always loved "Chiaroscuro Style", but never tried to paint that way, but the last few paintings have been so much fun I think I...

8" x 10" Oil on Canvas Board I worked on this one for a couple of days....I like working with the "Chiaroscuro Style" it's truly a big challenge to get the light traveling across the painting. My lighting is still not quite up to par....but when you live in the woods the north light is hard to find!

14"x10" Oil On Masonite I'm not completely happy with this one, but I like the reflections on the table.....I have to keep reminding myself these are the exercises for learning!