My challenge for this piece was to create a large sunflower design in a square format. I used my sketch of a vase in my collection and worked from my sunflower sketches done from life. I worked the warm colors against the cool colors and contrasted light and dark values. I decided early on not to […] more »
This piece was inspired by our garden sunflowers. I worked in a smaller design format than usual because I have been doing the Daily Paintings that are usually done in smaller sizes. It is easier to complete a piece this size in one day, as opposed to the larger pieces that can take up to […] more »
I enjoy working on larger collages, and this is an old barn in southeast Iowa. As always, I worked from my photo and edited the shapes. This is a close-up of just part of the barn. The shapes are simple and I try not to get too detailed — which is one of the reasons […] more »
My goal for this piece was to design an abstract collage in a small, square format. A lot of my colored paper scraps were accumulating on my art table, and I saw the possibility for an interesting composition. After arranging the scraps of paper on a piece of foam board, I tacked the edges down […] more »
This collage is a continuation of my popular train engine series. I have been doing engines for a number of years now. This one is a close-up of a Union Pacific. I used one of my reference photos for this. The details of the engine caught my eye: the shadow shapes, the numerals and flag, […] more »
This piece was inspired by some antique bottles my mother sent me. I love the shapes and colors of the bottles, but I did not use the original colors. I completed numerous drawings of the bottles first, then edited and designed the composition without adhering to the sketches. I allowed for changes while working on […] more »
I enjoyed assembling my paper scraps for this creation. It began with the background piece and I moved smaller pieces on top of the brown, and also cut shapes to insert papers behind the openings. It started as a rectangular composition, but when I started gluing the pieces, I decided it would be a stronger design […] more »
I have always loved the Bird of Paradise flower and wanted to paint it for a long time. It is a bold, tropical blossom and I tried to capture the saturated warm colors of it. I worked from my vacation photograph and challenged myself to use a different format, the square. The background was not […] more »
Sunflowers provide a never ending inspiration; I absolutely love these flowers with their huge heads and bold, bright yellow shapes. My challenge for this piece was the size. Larger paintings are my forte. This is scaled down to 5.25 by 7.5 — very minuscule for me. I edited the seed-head and just added a spiral […] more »
Looking through my sketchbooks, I decided to work from a sketch done around 2005 of my garden tulips. I used an archival matboard for the support, instead of watercolor paper. No background was planned initially; I worked with various paper scraps and color shapes to achieve an unusual background. Leaves are at the edges and […] more »