Mary B Spires Watercolor & Art Stuff

11" x 14" Oil on Canvas The warm tones is what the Impressionist were talking about, the light is different in the South of France.  I was there about 8 years ago....it's one of my favorite places.  Eze is a little village north of Nice that sets on the top of a mountain. I think I'm beginning to understand the Mechanics of Painting that was taught by Jerry Fresia..........

10" x 8" Oil on Canvas Board I'm still working on the commission, it's so close to being finished, so I hope to post tomorrow.......I attended the open studio at the Beach Art Center this morning..... great fun..........we have a model but I worked on a landscape scene from France.   Have a couple more hours on it....will post tomorrow also.....

8" x 10" Oil on Canvas Board If you haven't noticed I haven't posted the last couple of days.....I've been working on a commission that is 24" x 36" big blue vase of Poppies!!! It's just about finished maybe a  couple more hours.  This is one of the "stash" I painted at the beginning of the challenge.  This was painted  from a photograph I took of a still life set up at Jerry Fresia's workshop last fall.  The vase was beautiful, this painting does not do it justice. Just can't believe we have one more week!!!!! WOW!!! When I quit smoking the theory is if you do something for 30 days you can break a habit, or create a habit.  I think I've created a new wonderful habit of painting at least 5 times a week!

12" x 12" Oil on Canvas I started this one yesterday but didn't like the start, so I did my famous "wipe out".  The colors in this painting are much warmer and brighter.  Still working on the photographing the wet paintings. 

6" x 6" Oil on Canvas Board One of the biggest technique I learned in Dreama's Workshop was the use of transparent colors.  She "blocks" in the design covering the entire space with transparent colors.  As a watercolorists I understand the  use of these clean colors.  When you apply the opaque layer you pick up a little of the first layer.  Not only were the colors clean using this technique but you get a glimpse of the design.

8" x 10" Oil on Canvas Board As most of you know I'm not a landscape painter!  I took a workshop from Dreama  Tolle Perry this past summer hoping it would get me in a another zone so I can paint landscape.  Well, I'm still not excited about landscape, but I am excited about those little vignettes that we see on our daily walks.  While in the South of France a  few years ago I took a zillion pictures of those wonderful little landscape "still lives" we see everyday around us. This challenge was about stepping out of what is comfortable and into another world of painting.......so my final challenge is too paint 11 days of those wonderful little landscape still lives. It's all about practice!!!!!

10" x 8" Oil on Canvas I think this will be the last of the pomegranate....they're looking pretty bad!   The pomegranate's are tough to paint, all those colors of RED.  I can't believe we are on day 18....I didn't think I would be able to keep up but when you are so motivated by the group of over 200 artist...it's kinda hard not to paint.  I want to THANK all the artist that have left a comment.