Some Nice Press and Finishing Hope is Home

It's been a busy and exiting week!  Being the featured artist at the Winter Garden Art Association's, 127 SoBo gallery I am in two local newspapers.  The latest edition of the The West Orange Times did a lovely half page featured article! I am very honored and flattered!

The Southwest Orlando Bulletin also put my picture in with a nice write-up about the exhibition

I have also been putting the finishing touches on "Hope is Home" the painting I have been working on for Hope City Orlando.  I will be posting the finished piece next week!

I am looking forward to a little bit of down time.  Spending more time with my daughter before she heads back to school, some beach time, and then I'll start preparing for the workshop I will be teaching this fall at the Winter Garden Art Association.  The summer is flying by!

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Work in Progress: Hope is Home and the Joy in the Process

Here is the latest on the painting for Hope City Orlando and Hope City United.  It is such an awesome feeling when you have down on paper the image that you have been seeing in your mind for so long.  I love the process of painting, and sometimes there are those paintings that seem to flow off the brush and are just a pure joy to work on!

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Work in Progress Continues for Hope is Home

Progress continues on the painting I am doing for Hope City Orlando.  The leaves, vines and tendrils are blocked in.  I'm really liking the mix of warm and cool greens and wanted to achieve a light  struck quality on some of the leaves.  The next step will be to paint the flowers and the background, the shape that symbolizes a home which is a background for the doves, and last but not least the doves themselves.

I hope my readers are enjoying the work in progress posts!  It's a great way for me to analyze the painting on the monitor.  Many artists do the same by also looking at one's work in the mirror.  I don't know how it works, I guess seeing your work from a different perspective,  but areas that need modifying  become glaringly more obvious.  I always enjoy seeing work in progress from fellow artists and the thought process and methodology behind a painting.  It fascinates me.  What do you think?

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Work in Progress, "Hope is Home," for Hope City Orlando

I almost have all the leaves of the vines blocked in since I last posted this latest painting.  While designing this painting I chose to  incorporate vines to reflect new growth, or being rooted or grounded in a safe place or new home. Vines are also very tenacious and can survive in some of the most adverse conditions, therefore they also represent the victims of human trafficking.

Hope City Orlando, or as it's known on Facebook as Hope City United, will make a new home and a safe place a  reality for victims of human trafficking.  If you are just checking in to my blog, I am doing this painting to be auctioned off at their fundraiser, "Hope is Home," in September.  Their goals are to raise enough funds to provide a safe home and a three-year reintegration program for victims of human trafficking in my community of Orlando, Florida.  I am ashamed to say that Orlando is a hub for this abhorrent circumstance.  If you live in the Orlando area, please think about supporting this cause.

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"Hope is Home" for Hope City Orlando

The past few months I have also been brainstorming and designing a painting that is for a special project.  I've been approached by Hope City Orlando to create a piece of art for their major fundraising gala in September.  Many of you may not know and, I was actually shocked myself, to learn that Orlando is considered by UNICEF to be one of the major hubs in the world for human trafficking!  Many women and children are abducted and forced into sex slavery against their will.   Not only is this shocking, it is very upsetting that this is happening in my own community.  Hope City Orlando is a non-profit that seeks to help victims who find themselves in this awful plight.  Their goal is to build a home that will be a safe haven and provide a three-year program for a healthy reintegration into mainstream life.  Through a combination of efforts including counseling, social work, legal assistance, social and personal skills training, victims will become survivors.  If you would like more information please visit their website here. If you would like to follow them on Facebook, please click here.  The “Hope is Home” cocktail charity event will be in Orlando on Oct. 2.  My painting will be auctioned to the highest bidder to raise money for this worthy cause.  If you are interested in attending the event I will be providing more details in the future.

This piece, which I’m calling “Hope is Home” for now, is all drawn ready for paint.  This was a tricky piece for me to design because this is such an unfortunate and terrible situation that so many innocent people find themselves in. However, I didn’t want it to be dark and foreboding.  I felt it needed to be up-lifting and represent the hope that will be given by Hope City Orlando to victims of human trafficking.  I have given a lot of thought to the imagery and the significance of each element in the piece which I will explain as the painting progresses.   Stay tuned for work in progress photos!

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"Gate of Reverence" More Work in Progress

After Clowning Around, (no pun intended), my latest painting, I'm back to working on Gate of Reverence.  I'm in the detail and value phase now.  Since my last post, I have added more detail to the central figure.  I've also tweaked the dark background on the sides just a bit.  I thought the darks were too uniform so I went in with some pure water washes to do some lifting of pigment at the same time adding some washes of color to bring out a green tone in the dark background to tie in with the gate.

Next I will be adding more detail.  This is depicting a stained glass window in the background, so I will be painting in the lead lines, maybe adjusting value a bit more and working on some hard and soft edges.  This one has been a challenge for me, because I'm painting a bit tighter than I normally paint,  but still painting representational and trying to  avoid a photo realistic interpretation.  Hopefully I'm achieving this goal!

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Work in Progress, Gate of Reverence, Watercolor

More progress on this new painting.  I'm approaching this one similar to the last painting, Paris Passy Gate, and also to how I would do an oil painting.  I'm doing a block in of all the color first, and then will go back and add details and value changes.  This is what I call the teenager phase of the painting!  I hope it grows up and turns out.

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Work in Progress: Paris Passy Gate Now the Magic Happens

The block in for this painting Paris Passy Gate is complete and now I’ll move onto the next phase, pushing and pulling value and adding the details.  I’m very happy with the initial washes and the texture I was after to convey the patina on this bronze gate.  But over all the values are pretty mid-tone.  I want to darken areas and lighten areas.  That is what I mean by push and pull.  I will pull lights out and forward and push darks back.  The details I’ll add will be more emphasis on shadows and elements of the design that come after an initial wash.  I really love this part of painting, it’s when the magic happens and it starts to come to life!

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Work in Progress: Paris Passy Gate

I am always fascinated with details, behind the scenes and the logistics of doing certain things.  I think that’s one of the reasons why I became a designer.  In the past I have shown some work in progress photos of a painting after I had completed it.  This time, I thought I would share them while I was actually doing it!  It’s great for me to actually see the progression too.  When you see the image on the computer monitor, it can be more obvious what tweaks or modifications need to happen!  I hope those that are following my blog are enjoying this step by step process.

This phase of the painting I call the “block in” phase.  I have not gone over very much of this a second time to make adjustments.  Watercolor artists paint with this medium in so many different ways, wet on dry paper, wet on moist paper, wet on wet paper, glazing, etc.  That’s what makes it so exciting to work with.

I like to try to get everything the way I want it the first time, however nine times out of ten that never happens!  Therefore when everything is blocked in, I go on to the next phase. That’s when all the magic happens.   Stay tuned!

If you enjoy following my works in progress, you might consider

liking my Facebook page

or sending me a friend request.  I tend to do a lot more posting as things happen there.

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