Bayfield, Wisconsin Fishing Boat

Time to get back to watercolors.  This is a fishing boat we saw in Bayfield, Wisconsin. A sweet little coastal town right on Lake Superior.  You can take the ferry over to Madeleine Island, which is where all the rich people go--similar to the Hamptons.  Anyway, here's the result.

Have a wonderful, peaceful evening.

Commissioned Painting of a Lake Home

I'm feeling fortunate.  My third commissioned piece in two weeks. Client wanted me to paint her parents lake home--the before--as it has now been renovated.  She asked for some color, but not too much (which is hard for me as I love to add the color.)  Anyway, here's the before and after.

Have a great day!

Painting of a Little Boy Golfer

I've finally completed the second part of a commissioned project--it's printed and mailed.  Received this order via my Etsy shop.  This is the photo selected to paint providing I could change the club head from a putter to an iron.

This is my painting of this little cutie golfer.

Here's a closeup.

Have a wonderful day!

Wedding Painting

I've been busy.  I just finished a commissioned Wedding Painting.  Here's the result.  The customer actually preferred the full length image, but I actually like the cropped painting better.  So, I've decided to send her both.

They both printed out nicely.  However, I did have some issues with the printer at first which had me in a panic.  But, I was able to correct the problem.  I hope everyone has a wonderful day!

Floral Watercolor's and PhotoArtFriday

I thought I would enter Photo Art Friday, a site dedicated to Photo Art. This week the focus is on abstract photo art created with a design from nature.  Since my recent posts have been about birds and flowers, I thought I might qualify.  Be sure to check them out by clicking on the button at the bottom.

I hope everyone has a lovely day.

Watercolor Paintings, Landscape Arboretum

I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother's day. The Hub's and I went to the U of MN Landscape Arboretum for Mother's Day.  The Azelea's and lilies were in full bloom and I was able to take quite a few pictures.  Here are just two which I hope to get printed.  Both were painted in Photoshop CS5 using the Art History Brush.

Watercolor Painting of a Blue Bird

It's so nice to hear the birds singing again.  It's almost time to start planting again as well.  I'm continuing my bird series and hope to have enough to print soon.

I hope everyone has a beautiful day!

Two Cute Kids

My co-workers children.

Before and after.

I hope everyone has an awesome day!

A Bird and a Trailer

Continuing with the bird theme.

A little while ago, the hubs sent me a photo he'd taken while traveling.  Apparently there was this dilapidated trailer just sitting not far from the side of the road and he thought that this is just the kind of photo that I like to paint.  He was right!

Have and wonderful day!

Our Last Day in Sunny Florida

Boo Hoo.  We leave tomorrow to go back to Minnesota, well rested but sad to leave just the same.  I thought I would post the last two paintings I did for the Open Studio class I was taking.  I'm also posting a photo I took of Joe Mauer during warm up, Minnesota Twins Catcher, that I took when we went to a spring training game on Wednesday.  I haven't had a chance to paint any of them yet, but I did clean this one up.

A Beautiful Day In Sunny Florida

Here we are again for our annual venture to sunny Florida.  I've been remiss in posting, but I have been keeping up with the class at Digital art Academy--this being the last week.  I've put together a couple of paintings, one of which I posted to the class.  However, I will be working on another, more comprehensive painting hopefully incorporating everything we've learned so far in class.  Hats off to Karen Bonaker another wonderful Open Studio.

The second painting is for a Mini Challenge at Retouch Pro.

I hope everyone is having an awesome day.

Weeks 2 and 3 Class at Digital Art Academy

I just realized that I forgot to post the second week, so today I'm posting weeks 2 and 3 of class at Digital Art Academy.

Record high temps here, but in two days we'll be going for our annual trip to Madiera Beach, Florida.  Hope to take lots of pics to use for new paintings.

Hope everyone is having a great day.

New Watercolors

The hubs just got home from a Golf trip--a well deserved trip--in Palm Desert California. He didn't take many, but there were a few images that he snapped that I thought would work well painted in watercolor. 

I got some good news in that I sold a print in the Art Shoppe.  For those of you who are local, it's located in the old Sears Building on Lake Street and Eliot Av, now called the Global Market. 

We are having wonderful spring weather here--up to 67 degrees today and the snow is melting.  Hope everyone is having a wonderful day.

Week One Assignment from Open Studio at Digital Art Academy

I've completed my second painting for our Week 1 assignment over at Digital Art Academy.  The Theme for Open Studio this time is Street Scenes.  I had two takes on this first assignment, both painted in two completely different ways. 

New classes are posted for anyone who is interested in some very affordable awesome classes with Karen Bonaker.

Hope everyone has a beautiful day.

Today's Painting

We are coming out of a snow storm.  More snow in the last two weeks than all winter.  It's a very pretty snow.  The kind that coats and sticks to all the tree branches.  Looks like a winter wonderland out there. Luckily, I didn't have to drive anywhere and spent the day making prints for an upcoming boutique. 

I hear snow plows as I'm writing this. Have a nice day!

Watercolor Painting of A Beautiful Lake Home

Busy day today. Watched the grand kids play soccer and had lunch at Noodles.  I'm reorganizing all my small delica beads so I can catch up on some bead weaving projects. And making more prints for an upcoming boutique.  Had a chance to do a little painting, too.

The only bothersome thing is that I woke up this morning with a very painful crick in my neck. Ouch!  Hope everyone has a great weekend.

Watercolor Painting of a House On The Lake

Three inches of snow over night.  It took out our Direct TV for 4 hours!  Of course, the problem is not that I didn't have TV, it's that last year we had over 60 inches of snow and didn't have a problem.  This year we've hardly any this year and we lose reception.  No help from customer service, sorry out of luck, just have to wait til is melts a little.  Can't climb up there myself!  It makes me think...what if there is severe weather and we need to stay on top of it....hmmmmm, no TV and by the way, too bad!  May have to call Comcast again.  Anyway, wishing I was on the lake right now gazing at this lovely home.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful day....and that you have TV.

Commissioned Portrait Painting

I wanted to share my recent portrait painting and how I went about creating it.  A previous client contacted me and asked if I could paint a portrait of her best friend, her fiance and their dog.  This was a very special assignment as her friends fiance has terminal cancer, so I wanted to make sure I did the very best I could.  She sent me several images, some tiny and very pixelated, but out of all the images she sent, these are the ones I selected to create the portrait.

I went about extracting the subjects and tried different positions and finally came up with one that I could work with.  After making several adjustments in photoshop, I opened the image in Corel Painter 11 and began to paint.  This is the result.

The client was very happy with the the way it turned out.  I hope everyone is having a wonderful afternoon.

Watercolor of a Sail Boat on the St. Croix

I awoke this morning with the stomach flu, but at this posting, I'm feeling much better.  I had some time to visit my forums today and I received some great advice about my post headings.   It seems that having titles like Busy, Busy, Busy are not good for the key word seeking bots on Google.  That, in fact, my titles need to be descriptive of what people out in the webworld might ask about.  I'm not completely clear on all this and will probably need to tweak it as I go, but the correct title of what I need to be doing is called SEO or Search Engine Optimization.  If anyone understands and would like to give me a pointer or two, I'm an eager student.  Anyway, here's my painting for today.

And another one.

This second one is an image from the PublicDomainPicture.net.  I hope everyone has a wonderful evening and weekend.

Busy, Busy, Busy

I haven't posted in a little bit, although I've been painting.  I recently got a commission to paint from 6 different photos and I'm in the proof stages.  I also spent yesterday training at the new store I have my prints in.  Although it's owned by one person, it will be operated by 60+ local artists.  The store is in the St. Anthony Park neighborhood and is called "Something New In The Park".  The address is 2301 Como Ave. Suite 101, St. Paul, Minnesota 55112.  The hours are  Monday - Saturday 10:00 - 2:00, Sunday 12:00 - 4:00.  I would love for those who live locally to stop by.  We have some exceptional artwork available.

Still trying to perfect those watercolors.

Love being able to reuse photos!  I hope everyone had an awesome week.