It is part of an artist's job to see more intensely than most people do. She must have and keep in her something of the receptiveness of the child who looks at the world for the first time or the traveler who enters a strange country.

 




 



 Watercolor Classes Planned

  • May ,2012 4 week class planned at Beech Cumberland Presbyterian Church, not sure about the exact day and time yet.


 

WELCOME TO SUSAN'S ART STUDIO


Today I finished a project that I started in the Cumberland Mixed Media Class. We have had 70 degree weather this week so it was perfect to paint on the front porch. This painting is a pastel on illustration board 30" x 40 ". The story behind it is reminiscent of times when I played tree tag with  the neighborhood children. I used photos of my grandchildren for references.


My latest mixed media project for the Cumberland Class is in progress. I have appliqued the top of the quilt wall hanging (36" x 40").  The next step is doing a satin stitch around each piece and then quilting it. I love the creating part but I'm not so sure about the quilting .



Here's the sycamore tree in my backyard from a different view. I was laying on the ground taking a picture up into the tree. I have used acrylic mediums and pastes to build up texture. The medium here is acrylic.



This is  the study painting for my first project for the Graduate Drawing Class that I am taking at Cumberland University. The size is 16" X 20".The focus of the class is mixed media. The first layer is acrylic. I painted over the acrylic with a pastel ground medium to give it texture and then I enhanced the composition with pastels. The subject matter is mostly from my head. When I was a child, the neighborhood kids would play tree tag in the evenings. The name of the painting is "Tree Tag".



The trees in the painting are in my front yard. I added the crow and if you look closely in the background there is a lady walking through the trees. This must have some deep meaning, but it doesn't. The medium is watercolor.


October through November, I will have my first painting in a juried art show in Danville, Kentucky. This was a painting that I worked on in the graduate painting class at Cumberland University.

Here's my latest painting. It reminds me of the trees on the hill in our backyard.

This is a portrait composition as opposed to the landscape compositions of the last painting.

This is the latest version of the painting of the landscape version..






Painting #2 Cumberland. I am not finished with the trees yet. I will post the completed painting next week. This painting has really been work. I have never put 30 hours into a painting before. But then I have never painted such large paintings before. This is a 30 x 40 canvas.


Summer 2011-Graduate Painting Class

Here is my painting so far. It is not finished as it will have a lot of trees in it. I am using acrylics, my least favorite medium. But I am learning new things and loooove painting all day. We paint from 8-3 and then we have homework.



Spring 2011


This is our project on aquaboard. God helped me with this one. I had it outside spraying varnish on it when it started to rain. The varnish was still tacky so the water interacted with the varnish, toning the color down and adding more texture.






This stone bridge is in Goodlettesville. I put a couple of photographs together. The leaf reference was from a photo from my back yard. The painting was done on watercolor canvas.


This was our last project. We painted a still life on masa paper. The surface is somewhat unpredictable.


The heron was painted on hot press paper with emphasis on negative painting.




The house is a historical house on Long Hollow Pike. It was painted on Wallis pastel paper with watercolor, pastel and watercolor. The directions that came with the Wallis paper specified that it was not suitable for watercolor, so of course I had to prove them wrong. It has a very nice tooth for watercolor pencils especially.







Summer 2010

I've been painting more lately, mostly on the weekends. I'm practicing some of the techniques from the summer workshop. I have two paintings that are in progress and finished up a couple last weekend. The old truck is watercolor on the aqua board. The inspiration was a photo that I took in Jonesborough when Charlie got lost on the way home from Rachael's house. This painting in in the Monthaven Art Show through December.

The  red house and barn was painted on cold press watercolor paper that had several coats of gesso on it. It's the second time that I painted the scene. This time the house and barn are larger and I worked on the tree foliage technique.



 Watercolor Paintings from Alexis Lavine's Workshop in Boone , North Carolina.
The theme was painting on surfaces other than cold press paper.
The last painting Friday was completed on masa paper.


On Monday the project was to paint on hot pressed paper, which is very smooth.



Tuesday's project was aquaboard, a textured surface on masonite board.The truck was painted on aquaboard (clayboard).


Wednesday: The barn with sunflowers was painted on watercolor canvas. Once I got the sky in, the rest of the painting was a breeze. I spent over an hour on the sky and cloud.

Thursday:The next painting was on cold press paper which had several coats of gesso on it. The paper was prepared several days ahead of time so that the dried gesso acted as a barrier to the watercolor.

This was the class demo project on gessoed cold press paper. I finished this at home yesterday.


A painting of "Old Brick" across from Worshams.

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Spring is finally here.

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I paint regularly and usually have a couple of paintings going at the same time. I post my paintings in the  "My Journal"  area as I finish them. All paintings are for sale so if you see something you like, contact me at susansstudio@comcast.net

LET IT SNOW

A winter scene for Inspire Me Thursday

This is my studio when it is clean (almost never)

Here is my studio the way it looks most of the time.