A Good Resource for Artists

I seem to be on a roll with my watercolor painting lately so I've been searching the internet for how-to info about watercolor painting and ran across this website www.wetcanvas.com.
It's a great site for artists that has tutorials, forums, resource guides, etc in almost any medium .
Check it out.

Longue Vue Magnolia

Here's my latest watercolor entitled "Longue Vue Magnolia" since that's where I took the original photograph.

I think I'd like to dedicate it to my mother, who was quite the "southern magnolia" herself and who would have celebrated her 90th birthday today were she still here

 with us today.

 She's the one who inspired a love of beautiful art and gardens in me.

Here's to you, Mom!

Completed Painting Projects 1

Okay, so here is the first of several watercolors that I have completed. I feel like a first-grader rushing home to proudly show off my masterful scribblings to a hopefully receptive audience.

Its amazing what a simple mat and frame purchased from the local craft store can do to elevate one's efforts to the status of "art".

This is my first completed efffort copied and enlarged from a photo of an existing painting.

My painting is double-matted in soft greens and mounted in a 16"x20" frame

.

This next watercolor entitled "Easter Liliies" is based on a photograph I took while visiting the Long Vue Gardens here in New Orleans, La.

This painting is double-matted in cream tones and mounted in a 14"x 18" gold-tone wood frame.

This last one is a study of a birch tree based on a tecnique I found on Youtube. It is simply matted in a dark blue 8"x10" mat.

 I'm really having fun with this and I think all-in-all they're not too bad for a beginner who has never taken an art class before now.

Let me know what you think.

Should I sign up for the next class session?

And Another Thought...

I think I need to add to the sub-title of my blog. It should probably read "Scattered Thoughts- In Pursuit of Creative Focus or My Version of Attention Deficit Disorder".

Seriously, I can't seem to settle on just one project at a time. Is this normal? I mean, I haven't finished my watercolor painting but I've been distracted by the need to work with my polymer clay again. I haven't really touched it much since we moved to Florida in 1995 but now that we're back home in New Orleans I've been itching to get to it again along with several other projects I have in mind.

Anyway, here is my progress on the poly clay front:

What do you think?

Refinements- The Second Step

Worked some more on my first watercolor in class yesterday...

The First Attempt - Baby Steps

Okay, I've jumped in with both feet so here is my first attempt at Watercolor Painting. I didn't know until I got to class and the teacher explained that watercolor is the most difficult medium to learn. I mean, isn't that little tin of dry paint colors one of the first art supplies you dabble in as a kid? Who knew?!

Anyway, its very interesting and fun to learn some of the methods behind the madness and I refuse to be discouraged, I intend to approach it with child-like wonder and see where it takes me.

First we started with a photocopy of a picture

Then we inserted the picture into a sleeve protector marked with a graph of 1" squares

Next we drew a light outline of the picture onto newsprint paper scaled to 2" squares in order to enlarge the picture. 

Then the enlarged picture is transfered to watercolor paper by using a piece of graphite paper under the newsprint and  tracing the enlarged drawing with a pencil

So here you can see the progression. The painting part is the most difficult for me because I never really had a good art class in school so I'm stumbling my way through learning about shading and how to blend colors to create a dimensional picture.
It really is fun though,

Here is the rest of my progress

Like I said... Baby steps...

Inspiration and motivation.