August 31, 2017

A FEW FAVORITE THINGS

Watercolor, 16" x 20"

These are just that, a few of my favorite things. (I can almost hear that wonderful tune from Sound of Music!) Flow-blue reminds me of the color of the Great Lakes. Blueberries...I just love! Love to paint them. Love to eat them. Love to pick them. Next in the painting is the antique Battenberg Lace tablecloth. This particular one was handmade by some dear lady more than 100 years ago. I treasure each stitch she made. The final element in the painting are the hydrangeas, with their dusty pink paper-like flowers. These are from one of my bushes, We haven't had rain for a while so those still on the bush to drying.

I hope the delight I feel for these items will give the viewer great delight also.

The painting PARROT and PEARS has won the Jeanne Haxie Memorial Award for watercolor, at the Holland Area Arts Council MI ARTS 2017 competition, Holland, MI.

The exhibition opened last evening and will be on view until November 4^th.

150 East Eighth Street, Holland, MI.

This past weekend, I was up in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, at Hessel, MI. It is so very beautiful there, as this photo shows. This is Lake Huron, in the Mackinaw Straits.

The workshop was about getting back to basics. I have so many people asking, how I get things to look so real, that I decided to create a new workshop that helps experienced painters do that...by getting back to the basics of really "seeing" as an artist.

A favorite quote from John Ruskin says it all, "If you can paint a leaf...you can paint the world."
Another quote is from Claude Monet, "When you go out to paint, try to forget what objects you have before you. Merely think, here is a little square of blue, here an oblong pink, here a streak of yellow, and paint it just as you see it looks before you..."

The final quote which has an effect on my work is from Ralph Waldo Emerson, "My profession is to always be on the alert to find God in nature...to know His lurking places."

It was a big success. This same workshop will be given at the Holland Arts Council in Holland, MI, on Saturday, August 19th, 2017. If you know of anyone who might want to refresh their thinking and the process of creating a work, please share this with them.

Colorfully,
Sandy
homer5@altelco.net