US Bank Celebration of the Arts 2020

My painting, Creek Tyme, at the US Bank Celebration of the Arts 

at the Kentucky Museum at WKU

Last night Frank and I attended the lovely US Bank Celebration of the Arts show 2020 held at Western Kentucky University's Kentucky Museum. It had been a while since we'd attended, and it has really grown! With over 150 artist entries and the public invited and with each artist bringing a plus one....or two....or three it was a BIG crowd. As always, the hard working staff at the Museum put on a wonderful reception. We so appreciate all the work that goes into pulling off an art exhibit of this size.

Oh.....and the best part of the event was Frank won 2^ndplace sculpture for Reach!!

       

         

          

Here is a blog about the making of Reach

http://lyneartblog.blogspot.com/2019/08/reach-by-frank-lyne.html

Busy French Market

Busy French Market

11 x 14 acrylic paints on gallery wrapped canvas

This painting came about from a summer time visit to a farmers market. I wanted to play a bit with composition and “near and far” aspects of the busy market. 

I began with various folks in the market, capturing their gestures with broad strokes of colour and little detail, since they were essentially “background”. I loved the blue “French Market” umbrellas over the attractive veggie laden tables. I took many pics of the luscious veggies, and “stacked” them in my painting with the warmest colors (oranges, yellows, fire engine reds) in the forefront of the painting. Layered behind were less warm colors of onions and red cabbages. I couldn't resist adding in some little price boards with a bit of French. Choux is french for cabbage! 

All The Angles

All the Angles

11 x 14 inches acrylic paints on gallery wrapped canvas

This painting came out of a photo shoot at the Clarksville Montgomery County Old Courthouse building. The angles produced by the gables and turret towers were were just too lovely to pass up. I got to play with “bouncing” sunlight, (cool on the top and warm in reflected shadows from underneath), when I worked on the statue of Blind Justice that stands atop a pediment on the roof. 

When I looked really closely at the statue's base I saw a flood light fixture. Well to my “bird sensitive” eyes (I am, after all, married to an avid birder.....), the floodlight looked like a red tailed hawk perched on the pediment overlooking the justice building. For whimsey's sake, I immediately painted in a red tailed hawk silhouette, imagining the hawk providing his vision for the use of “Blind Justice”. 

Market Colors

Market Colors

8x8 inches square acrylic paints on gallery wrapped canvas

This bitty painting, only 8x8 inches, was sparked by busy market goer, striding briskly thru the open air market. She had already gotten her market items, and was walking along with her little girl on her hip. 

I represented the swirl of market activity going by at a fast pace,with colourful paint blurs. Until you stop and look at a specific booth, the people and items for sale seem to be a colorful festive jumble. Just part of the charm of an open air market visit.

Balcony Seating

Balcony Seating

11 x 14 inches acrylic paint on gallery wrapped canvas

This painting grew out of a rainy grungy day that I really wanted to paint a pop! of a bright colour.

I had in my photograph stash, a photo of a grey unremarkable city building that had a awing over the rooftop and I let my imagination run amok with details. I added some people in the background, some greenery on the bitty balcony and a couple of lovely girls waving at a friend on the street below.

My favorite bit of all is the fun contrast of the orange facade against the contrasting pale blues of the doorways and the deep blue of the shadows in the rooftop awning. It sure brightened up my day....and I hope it does yours too!

Art Tip-Three Ways to Reserve Your Whites in Watercolour

Three of the many ways you might keep your whites.....well, white.....in watercolor are:

1. Use a colored pencil wax resist
2. Keep the colors “corralled” with a water “lasso”.To see more about this technique please see this blog post: http://lyneartblog.blogspot.com/2019/10/watercolor-play-day-at-library.html
3. Use a fluid mask to hold back the watercolors. To see more about this technique please see this blog post: http://lyneartblog.blogspot.com/2015/06/winterglow-or-pouring-it-on.html

For the first technique, a colored pencil wax resist, you are using the wax in a colored pencil to keep your watercolor from soaking into the watercolor paper where ever you have drawn your line. Use of colored pencil, especially without erasing it, is not really an American Watercolor Society accepted practice.....but if following a juried show rule is not an issue.....I've found it does the job quite nicely.

This is a bitty sample of how it works:

First I drew a small circle using a white colored pencil, and inside of the circle I drew the letter A. I'm not including a photo of this step.....'cause you wouldn't actually see anything!

At the bottom of this bitty test sheet you can see the actual circle containing the watercolor paint. I brushed inside the white wax colored pencil circle with water..... then floated in deep blues and a yellow and let them mingle and then dry. 

After the watercolor was dry, I took a brush with water only.....and brushed the dried watercolor off of the letter drawn with the wax colored pencil. This revealed the white wax colored pencil “A”. It's not a perfect brite white.....but it should blend in with the rest of your painting. It's especially useful when you just need a bit of white detailing. 

The little flower study above has a pink colored pencil outline and the white petals of the flower are a mixture of the water lasso effect and a bit of colored pencil on the tips.

I did a watercolor of a building that shows off a bit about this technique when used in a painting, in this blog post:  http://lyneartblog.blogspot.com/2015/08/window-studyor-new-coat-of-paint.html

I recommend a book Paint Radiant Realism by Sueellen Ross for more about this technique.

Watercolor Play Day at the Library

Watercolor Play at the Logan County Library

Today I got to lead a bitty guided watercolor play date at our lovely Logan County Library. 

It was open to the public and I planned a couple of watercolor exercises that would suit folks who had never held a brush before.....or folks that were looking to learn how to expand their watercolor techniques.

I decided to show folks about primary and secondary colors by making a color wheel using just three colors....the primaries red, blue and yellow. I also wanted to show we could “corral” watercolor by just painting a circle with water and when we filled it with the watercolor paints......the colors wouldn't go beyond that water circle. We then “encouraged” the watercolor paints to mix when they touched, to make the secondary colors green, orange and purple.

For the second part of the “play date” we drew an apple using my photo (noting the shadow side and the high lit side.)

Again using just water to outline and fill our apple. Then we dotted in yellow for the sunlit portion of the apple, then filled up the rest of the outline with red.....and let the colors mingle.

For extra points we drew the apple's shadow and finally joined the two together.

We worked on some light weight smooth watercolor paper and on some thicker rough watercolor papers, so's folks could see the differences in each kind of paper. 

For folks who might be interested in my experiences with watercolor, here are links to other watercolor technique blogs I've posted in the past:

http://lyneartblog.blogspot.com/2017/07/reading-greek-or-book-fair-moment.html

http://lyneartblog.blogspot.com/2016/08/green-glow-or-grass-is-different-than.html

http://lyneartblog.blogspot.com/2016/07/watercolor-playdate-or-watching-paint.html

http://lyneartblog.blogspot.com/2015/09/windowsill-of-leaves-watercolour-with.html

http://lyneartblog.blogspot.com/2015/08/building-studystretch-and-staple.html

http://lyneartblog.blogspot.com/2015/07/wet-paintor-how-i-learned-to-luv.html

http://lyneartblog.blogspot.com/2015/06/winterglow-or-pouring-it-on.html

Thanks to everyone that attended and to Logan County Library for hosting.

I had a blast!