Well, it is late Thursday, and I have had another most pleasant day with my painting group. There are 6 of us that meet every Thursday to paint and help each other with our problems. We get a lot of work done, and have developed deep friendships with our painting times.
I am presently working on a full watercolor sheet of a forest scene. I'm having a little trouble incorporating sunlit areas in with the rest of the dark foliage. I can't decide whether to leave the areas sunblasted with very little detail, or to just make the painting very light in the sunny areas. When I finish it, I will photograph it and put in my next entry.
Currently most of my friends are really involved with the coming election. Mixed with this is the latest report on how many Iraquis killed in the war so far--800,000. I have a poster I painted very early on in this conflict, I will pull it out and add the new data and will photo it and put it in the next blog also. I have never produced a poster about a subject like this before--think I have been able to disconnect myself with world events until now. Must be my increasing age!! makes me more reverent about life.Allene
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Monday, October 20, 2008
Well, finally----
Yes, well finally I am back. Sorry for the long interval of silence. Life interferes with painting and art.
I have hung 20 paintings in the Arts of Snohomish Gallery for a featured show. We had a lovely reception, too bad you weren't there! The show continues until November 2. I tried a new way of finishing my watercolors--mounting them on canvas with Golden soft gel, spraying the surface with a UV protective acrylic varnish, and painting the edge of the canvas with a paint. I really like the appearance of these, no glass between the picture and the viewer. I will definitely do this again.
The art show attendees really liked the look of these also. And, yippee, no frame needed.
I'll put a few of my paintings in this blog so you can see that my favorite subjects are from nature.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
More Totems
Hi--Well, here is the mostly completed photo of the totem painting I was working on in my last note. I have been "fighting" with this totem for about four different tries now, and finally realized that I needed to cut out most of the surrounding foliage and concentrate on the image instead. I then decided to add some more NorthWest Indian images to give the painting more interest. Here is my third try:
I still wasn't too happy with it, so tried a new approach. Here it is--I think I like this one!
Anyway, it is going to be framed and put with the other totem paintings for now. I may try another approach later, but this one is the last one of the group for now. I am not through with totems and have still more totems I want to paint in this series in the future.
I am going to be working on a sketchbook project with 10 other artists. We each choose a theme, enter it in our sketchbook, then hand the book to the next artist who draws in it something relating to the initial theme. This artist continues handing the sketchbook to the next artist, etc., at one month intervals. It will be interesting to see how others depict each others theme. This same group wants to start exchanging artist's cards. I am not sure about how interesting that would be, I will try it though.
I still wasn't too happy with it, so tried a new approach. Here it is--I think I like this one!
Anyway, it is going to be framed and put with the other totem paintings for now. I may try another approach later, but this one is the last one of the group for now. I am not through with totems and have still more totems I want to paint in this series in the future.
I am going to be working on a sketchbook project with 10 other artists. We each choose a theme, enter it in our sketchbook, then hand the book to the next artist who draws in it something relating to the initial theme. This artist continues handing the sketchbook to the next artist, etc., at one month intervals. It will be interesting to see how others depict each others theme. This same group wants to start exchanging artist's cards. I am not sure about how interesting that would be, I will try it though.
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Painter's Progress with an apology to John Milton
Hi, I am Allene Soshea, and I am (mostly) a watercolorist who paints realistic scenes, subjects and other things that intrigue me. I paint in my studio in my home. I also teach watercolor to several students of varying skill levels. I presently show my paintings at the Arts of Snohomish Gallery in Snohomish, Washington. I plan to use this blog to inform you what I am currently painting and what I have done in the past.
I have been working on a series of totem paintings. Most of these are totems, found in various spots in British Columbia. Some are abandoned in the woods on various islands. They were abandoned after potlatches and left to return to the earth. I have entitled them the “Forgotten Ones”, numbers 1,2,and 3.
I am presently working on this painting of Totem # 3 in the “Forgotten Ones”series (19” x 20”’) . In this painting, I have used pen and ink to draw various N.W. Indian motifs found on totems and carvings and have arranged them into a border on the top and bottom of the watercolor painting. After some considertion, I have decided to bring the painting down and around each motif. I will do the same on the top motifs. Although I usually work on Arches 300# cold press, this painting is being done on Arches hot press paper.
I have just begun to paint the totem itself. It is made of wood as are the other two in this series. The wood probably is still damp from the frequent rains in this part of B.C. and so looks like a very dark wood. I will most likely finish this painting in the next few days, and will reproduce it inhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif my next blog.
Please view my website and contact me if you would like to purchase one of my paintings or discuss a project.
I have been working on a series of totem paintings. Most of these are totems, found in various spots in British Columbia. Some are abandoned in the woods on various islands. They were abandoned after potlatches and left to return to the earth. I have entitled them the “Forgotten Ones”, numbers 1,2,and 3.
I am presently working on this painting of Totem # 3 in the “Forgotten Ones”series (19” x 20”’) . In this painting, I have used pen and ink to draw various N.W. Indian motifs found on totems and carvings and have arranged them into a border on the top and bottom of the watercolor painting. After some considertion, I have decided to bring the painting down and around each motif. I will do the same on the top motifs. Although I usually work on Arches 300# cold press, this painting is being done on Arches hot press paper.
I have just begun to paint the totem itself. It is made of wood as are the other two in this series. The wood probably is still damp from the frequent rains in this part of B.C. and so looks like a very dark wood. I will most likely finish this painting in the next few days, and will reproduce it inhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif my next blog.
Please view my website and contact me if you would like to purchase one of my paintings or discuss a project.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
