Sir Basset

Sir Basset

12 x 9, pastel

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Love basset hounds, those sad eyes and droopy ears.  I have been wanting to paint this guy since I saw him at a Farmers' Market. He had a buddy (another basset) but he just wouldn't cooperate with the camera.

I took a hint from Rita Kirkman and under painted the non-white areas of the dog with Azo Gold acrylic paint (diluted). You can see it peeking through on the body, ears and head. I tried really hard not to go heavy with the pastel and leave it showing through. Thanks, Rita. Without the under painting, I don't think I could have covered the Wallis white paper without using heavy pastel . You can see below that with the layers of gold acrylic, I had a head start on completing the painting.

I also added green and violet in the white shadows--who knew! What they say holds true--value is more important than color!  If the value is correct, almost any color will work and it is way more interesting than gray!!!

Study #11

Study #11

6x6, pastel
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I really have been painting. There have been multiple minor catastrophes in the Beard household this week, so painting has been my calming force. The good news is the college kid survived his ski trip to Taos and made it back to TAMU, the reception for the Austin Pastel Society at the Corridor of Art was great yesterday. The art will continue to hang there until April 21, so drop by if you are in the area. Also, I have been invited to hang art in the Arthritis Association in San Antonio. That will be up around the first week or two of April.

So even though this past week the bathroom heater burned out, the refrigerator died Friday and the upright freezer died last night, it's all minor. Life is good!

Workshop production

Orvieto, the Ratindra Das Way

15 x 22, watercolor
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Well, there is a little bit of normalcy returning to the household following the new addition. So it seemed like a fine time to take a workshop! I was able to attend the workshop because the Wimberley Fund Raising event did not have enough interest, unfortunately for them, but as they say, "When one door closes, another opens." That just might be what happened to me. I wasn't just chomping at the bit to take this workshop, but very glad I did.

I had a wonderful time exploring a new way (at least for me) to complete a watercolor. The paper was saturated, but as you can see I could still get hard edges. The opportunity to play with color, a number of them I rarely use was a freeing experience. So the weekend was a great time for learning.

I have been working on pastels of a most interesting Italian lady I encountered on my visit there. Will hopefully post one of those soon.

Bundle of Cute!

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Spinner

8x14, shih tzu

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As if I didn't need another excuse not to paint on a daily basis! Dan named him the day we test-drove him, because he goes in circles when he is nervous. He is 8 months old and a joy! He loves to play, something our sweet rescue Yorkie was too brow-beaten to ever understand. We try to play and she cowers so all we do is give lots of love. 

I did paint a portrait of an Italian woman, just a head shot. It looks like her but not thrilled with it. I plan to try again. She is going to be the subject of several paintings. She played the hand accordion and had marionettes attached to her feet! She made them dance as she played the music! It was too cool.