Category: painting

Posted in painting

Finished by Friday – a Farewell

Posted on by Laura Kate

Taking a break from packing boxes this week, I decided to attend Open Studio at my local art association for a class conducted by mentor Cheryl Bryan. This will be my last class with Cheryl before I move away. She sent us this sketch…..

……and told us we would practice painting with only two colors. We were to choose two that, when mixed together, created a neutral black.

I chose to make my own sketch instead of tracing Cheryl’s. I followed her general design but simplified the line work in the lower left area. My chosen pigments were Winsor and Newton’s Ultramarine blue and transparent orange. This is one of my favorites for a good black, as I discovered when painting Winter Chicks in 2023.

The following morning, I cleaned up my edges, adjusted a few values and added tiny and minimal details using Micron pens and a soluble graphite pencil.

This was a fun, easy class that produced a highly-stylized result. I loved every minute. I call this one Dancing with a Seagull. It is 9 by 6 inches on cold press Arches paper

I will sorely miss these Open Studio sessions, the people at the association and especially instructor Cheryl Bryan. It will be hard to find another group like it in my new home. I’ll check in with Cheryl periodically, in the spirit of Apprenticeship.

Posted in painting

Friday Finish: Dash for the Splash

Posted on by Laura Kate

A baby sea turtle, hurtling its little body toward the safety of the sea. This watercolor painting was made as a donation to the 2025 6 by 6 art sale for my local art association. The reference image was found on Unsplash – so many years ago that I lost track of the photographer.

Friends, I know that I have been inactive for three weeks. Life has been full of other stuff. But the turtle painting marks the start of what I hope will be a steady flow of new objects on Daily Fiber.

I liberally applied masking fluid with a toothbrush for the wave action, and with a tiny brush for the white shell markings on the turtle. Pigments were yellow ocher, burnt umber, burnt sienna, Winsor Green blue shade, alizarin crimson, ultramarine blue and white gouache. A few Micron pens stipples were added to suggest motion.

Posted in drawing, painting

Sketching Sunday and a Finish

Posted on by Laura Kate

My art association is planning to hold a second fundraiser by selling 6 x 6 inch artwork created by their members. To kick it off, there will be an open studio today. I want to support this worthy organization, so I will be participating again. Last year, I focused on small subjects for the small canvas. Going through my reference photos in search of suitable subjects, I came across this little sea turtle. It is something I dowloaded from Unsplash several years ago.

Cute and easy, I think. I like that the turtle has made it to the water’s edge. Just another little push and she will be launched.

To reframe it into a six by six size, I compressed the image and did this pencil sketch.

Today I will take this drawing to the art center and turn it into a watercolor painting.

On another subject, I managed to finish the landscape painting of a seaside cabin in Iceland. This painting was an exercise in water reflections.

Reference photo:

The weather is completely clouded over, so no shadows to paint. My painting:

It’s on a not-so-big piece of cheap watercolor paper (although it is 100% cotton.) So I didn’t fuss over the many windows in the cabin. I will need more practice on painting reflections, to get a more consistent effect over the entire water surface.

Posted in painting

This week’s watercolor work

Posted on by Laura Kate

Hi, Friends,

When I finished the 12 week Artist’s Way course, I made a commitment to myself to follow up with 90-day self-nurturing plan. It includes a concrete plan of action to write daily, take myself on an artist’s date once a week, and explore more fully my favorite creative practices. One of these is watercolor painting.

My “date” this week was to attend a workshop at the local art association, which took place on Wednesday. It included a one hour tutorial by Tony Couch. Today I am sharing the practice pieces that I painted as a result of the workshop.

Tony talked a lot about what the landscape artist paints. He insists that we don’t paint a tree. We paint a symbol of a tree. We don’t paint water, we paint a symbol. Symbols have specific characteristics that make the objects instantly recognizable to the viewer. For example, for a deciduous tree the characteristics are shape (round crown), colors (varies with the season) and textures (expressed by the leaves and the bark)

Painting the symbol of a tree.

Painting a symbol of still water.

To practice the still water technique, I painted a scene from Iceland. It’s based on a photograph published on Unsplash – a free use site for photographers and other artists. Here is the reference photo:

I started with the sky and worked my way down to the water.

Initial washes are complete. I will come back to deepen some areas and add finishing details. This was painted on a Stonehenge paper block using a palette of Hansa yellow deep, Winsor green yellow shade, ultramarine blue, pyrrol scarlet, quinacridone red, carbazole violet, burnt umber and Payne’s gray.

Posted in hand embroidery, painting, quilting

Friday Finish: Here Be Dragons

Posted on by Laura Kate

After eighteen months in process, my multi-panel quilt that explores the dragonfly is finally finished. The painting and the assembly of the quilt took place in 2023. Then it languished while I fiddled around with hand embroidery. Finally, I made the commitment in December 2024 to get this WIP done. It took an opportunity to display it at an exhibition to set me in motion.

I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge the role Bill’s photographs had in inspiring me. Here is a gallery of some of his dragonfly images.

I also did research into the creature, to better understand what I was seeing. I was always puzzled about the legs. In flight, they are not visible. When the insect is perched, one can see either one, two or all three pair of legs. Why is that? I learned that the legs are swiveled back and held flat against the body, just like an airplane’s landing gear. The dragonfly catches its prey in flight, grabbing hold with its legs. When resting, the legs have no function. Dragonflies cannot use their legs to walk. That’s why they seem so motionless when perched.

Anyway, the quilt is finished, except for the label and the hanging wire. It will go on display February 6, along with my Badlands quilt, at Prairie Moon Exhibition, The Center, Bartlesville, OK.