Woody Woodpecker

Not sure why he is called a red bellied woodpecker when it's his head that is red, but a thrill to see all the same. The contrast of colors in these birds always makes them fun to look at. Painted on 300# Bristol hot press; it's really great paper if you want to wipe out an area and correct or start over.

Need Flowers

We were very lucky to have a getaway to Florida to warm up a bit this month.  Talk about instant gratification! It was 0 degrees here and 80 degrees there! They have the most beautiful orchids everywhere just thriving in that climate. 

 The centers were a starting point with Alizarin Crimson, cad yellow pale and winsor violet, then painted some of the negative spaces around the petals. I think I could have left it this way, unfinished and somewhat charming.

But I went on to finish-they were a pale yellow color and I was quite enjoying the painting time on a nice warm porch with ocean breezes. Sigh....back to cold weather but the flower images help cheer things up!

Brusho workshop

It was a very successful Brusho workshop, organized by our local art guild that I'm a member of.  It was my first teaching this and was a little nervous only because I wanted everybody to have at least one nice sample to bring home after spending a whole day exploring this new medium.  Turns out no worries-everyone had a great time and we learned so many ways to use it from each other. Lots of inventive ideas were played with and each as individual as the person doing it.  I just showed them how it works and we spent the morning playing around with it. After lunch I did a  couple short demos, including how to mask off tree shapes and create winter birch trees and cardinals, but emphasized it could be any kind of tree or season. One lady did a beautiful fall scene background with birches, and another did just abstract colors behind the trees. Fantastic!

Proud participant with no previous                        A row of engaged students.

painting experience!                               

                           

                                                                                   

This person does journaling and taped a little Brusho sample to her entry. She also had a butterfly stencil and made little Brusho butterflies with it. (shown next to journal here)

Flowers were a favorite, so nice and bright. I can't even show all the great things people came up with! Someone did a batik style fish using wax resist, another did a frog that somebody else bought!  And when all was done, everyone went home happy and many ordered their own Brusho to play with to continue the fun.


The group and I were also interviewed by the local paper!  You can see the article and pictures in the link below:

http://auburnpub.com/skaneateles/news/bit-of-excitement-skaneateles-artist-christy-lemp-introduces-brusho-watercolor/article_728cd883-9b02-5390-b9a2-11d8ce67a2e1.html

This fox is finished! I used all my tricks of "seeing" if it was finished-looking in the mirror, upside down, and taking pictures on my phone. They all help see the picture from a different perspective and mistakes , or room for improvements, are more pronounced. And I also finally figured out watermarks!

Foxy Play

I've been fascinated by the red foxes that have been dashing through our yard lately. They're just a quick blur of red and that foxy face, off to maybe find food (the neighbor's chickens!) I don't have chickens so I continue to like their elusive charm.

I spent a whole morning sketching little studies-they turned out to just as elusive to me to capture the face; it's kind of triangular looking and the ears have to be just right. And the colors took experimenting also. Finally decided on raw and burnt sienna, and Schminke transparent orange instead of the new vermillion I bought. ( the top to the orange was hopelessly stuck on until my teeth held it firm to twist it off. Must remember to get a little pair of pliers!) Cobalt turquoise light to contrast and highlight the white fur.

 Letting him rest today with one eye and will continue tomorrow. Also want to try him with Brusho!

Very excited to get the word out about this fun way to paint!

Brusho is very new to our area and I think it will open up a lot of possibilities to anyone who wants to try painting for the first time, or experienced artists who want to try something new.

                   Try a colorful fun loose painting medium!

                    Instructor: Christy Lemp

                                 

Friday, January 16

10 AM-3 PM

Marcellus Library $50 ($40 for MSAG members)

Call Jill Newton 685-3388 or email jillsy46@yahoo.com for details.

All levels-no experience necessary (Maximum 20 spaces)

Looking Ahead....

Looking ahead to January 2015-I'm very excited to participate in the Wash a Week Challenge with a group of 7 artists from 7 countries.  Many of us did the 100 Washes a couple years ago that Maggie Latham had started and we became online artist friends since then. ( Maybe I need to clarify that this is watercolor washes, not laundry that my husband thought it was!) We will all experiment and publish our washes with a few explanations of how we created them, so everyone can learn along with us.

How cool that art can be shared so globally! It's really my favorite thing about the internet.

Go to the Wash a Week link on the right if you'd like to follow along. Once a month there will be a public challenge if you'd like to try that!