Guess I haven't been here in a while....  lots of good things happened! The painting show above "She Wants to Play" was awarded first place in Northwest Watercolor Society's 72nd Annual Open Exhibition, juror Thomas Schaller, AND Charlene  Collins Freeman interviewed me for an article in their newsletter:
http://www.nwws.org/dnn/Portals/0/newsletters/JulyAugust2012HotPress.pdf

"Progressions" was awarded the Silver Medal in the Red River Watercolor Society's 19th Annual National Juried Watermedia Exhibition, juried by Donna Zagotta.

 "Gold Coast Shoppers" was accepted into San Diego Watercolor Society's 32nd International Exhibition, juried by Nicholas Simmons.

Needless to say, it's time to get painting again -- feeling pumped!!

3rd Attempt: Cafe Navona

This is at the ugly adolescent stage, and yet not that far off from getting done. Got too picky too soon, before some of the larger things were resolved. Too much detail in the middle ground folks, when they should really only be vague shapes supporting the front 3 figures. Color also needs some attention, but not sure what. Let's see if I can pull something out of this.

Cafe Navona on 2nd go-around

Just walking through, picking out negative shapes, trying not to work too hard at it. I am always surprised at the colors things end up; I certainly did not intend to use quite so much purple or for this to be a cool painting. But since this is a warm-up practice piece, I can't be worrying about all that. My goal is to aim for a fuss-free application, put it down an leave it alone and move on.

Starting to Paint again........

I tried to simplify this drawing, but there are still too many little fiddly shapes and a lot of "itemization" going on. I've tried painting this image many times (because I really like it) but not very successfully (those who know me know how I feel about layers and glazing). So, I decided that this would serve as a warm up exercise to get back into painting after my long sojourn as a mosaicist. No worries, no pressure and no expectations. I'm just going to work my way through, doing whatever, and see what happens. So far so good.

This is a waiter at an outdoor cafe in Piazza Navona, where Bernini's Four Rivers Fountains is located, and where there is a street fair of sorts just about every evening.

Pre and post grout

This is a quick and dirty posting; I'm using less than perfect pictures taken at different times of day in different lighting conditions.


Both of these panels were driven down to Sioux Falls and installed on the 2nd floor of the Sanford Heart Hospital, between the cath lab and the atrium walkway. The drive home was much more eventful, involving a marathon phone call with one of my children, Ipod running out of charge, high winds, running out of gas, a temperature drop of over 30 degrees, and hitting a bird.

BUT-- the mosaic is done, after months of 16 hour days, thanks to efforts from Gin, Bobbi, Cathi and Liz.

Many mosaic artists working with this kind of tile do not grout, but I like both the visual unity and the structural strength that grout gives a mosaic.

Can you find the ("hidden") heart?

Baby Got Clothes!

Never could figure out the placement of photos on this thing..... tried to do a "before and after" but instead it has come out "after and before."

Cowboy Vest and Guitar

Librarian or Professor?

Gardener has an Apron & Sunglasses

Here's a shot of the gardener with apron, shirt, geranium, hat, hair and eyeglasses completed. All that is left is her scarf and gloves.

Mosaic Progresses...

My helpers Cathi T and Bobbi S are amazing! Pants and tie above by Bobbi, hat by Cathi. I think maybe I will just take a nice winter vacation and let them finish things off -- clearly, they are capable of doing so.