Watercolor Commission Almost Completed

Scottie, the Green Man

I have almost finished this large commission which will be framed at  approx. 25" h x 41" w. You may remember a small study I did of this over a year ago of the central portion. This represents a beautiful stone carving in front of the RJW Stone Mason company in Ottawa. I have completed commissions of two other carvings on the facade of their headquarters ( Pierre, the Green Man, and Angus, the Green Man).
I took over a year to finish this commission and ran into problems because of this...the masking would not come off, glue from tape was transferred to the paper etc...Fortunately, I managed to fix most of the problems The painting has a few small resulting flaws, but I hope the client will still be happy with it.
One of these days, I will redo this painting and do it within just a few weeks and not procrastinate the way I did....as I often do for commissions.

What about you? Do you rush to finish commissions, or like me, do you procrastinate?

Neptune's Sea Horses - Finished...for now

"Neptune's Sea Horses, Florence" is finished for now. It measures 15" X 31" and I will take it to the framer's this weekend. It's from my own reference photo taken last fall in Florence, Italy, and it represents, at least partially, three of the four marble horses of Neptune's fountain started in the 16th century.The horses seem to be jumping out of the water and pulling Neptune's throne.

I now have to go back to my large commission of a Green Man and hopefully some smaller pieces for three upcoming shows in March, April and May respectively.

I hope that you like this painting. Take care.

Parliamentary Dragon: Carving from Canadian Parliament Building

Here is my third watercolor in the series of carvings from the Gothic facade of the Parliament Building in Ottawa, Canad.

This little 8" X 8" dragon is on paper-covered gallery-wrapped canvas and has been varnished for display without glass. It is square, but on my wide monitor it appears absolutely regular...I certainly hope that it will show properly on most monitors:-(

This is my third experiment with the paper-covered canvas and this one is getting close to the results I want: at this point, I can feel a very slight warping of the paper at one spot.. in the middle of the dragon where there is little paint. Strange, since the paper was totally wet before stapling and the paper was tight as a drum while I painted...Perhaps as the varnish dries more, this minuscule hill will disappear. I hope so! The colors are very vibrant, the texture is nice...I like the option I now have even for varnished watercolors: I can wrap the paper around a canvas or I can continue to glue the paper to a wood panel as I have done several times.

This is on Arches 140 lb CP natural white. I think that I now prefer the whiter Fabriano Artistico ..I hope that I am right since I have just bought an 11 yrd roll of the Fabriano SP in extra white.

I hope that you are all doing well and that your month of September will be great!

Lion King -Completed for Now

The Lion King : Canadian Parliament Building Carving

My Lion King, a painting of a stone carving of the Parliament Building in Ottawa, Canada, is finished for now.  It was a very enjoyable painting to work on. It's on Fabriano Artistico 140 lb CP and is approx. 14.5 X 14.5 before matting and framing.

I like it ( I don't say that very often) and I hope that you do too:-)

New WIP: Parliament Building Carving II - The Lion King

I've been working on a painting of a second Canadian Parliament Building carving. I am calling it, at this point, The Lion King. It's certainly a lion, but with very human eyes! It's on Fabriano Artistico 140 lb CP paper and is about 14" X 14". I am fairly pleased with it so far even if I used more darks than usual in the botton sections - I am always afraid that layers of darks will look too heavy or chalky.

The picture was taken inside with a flash...the colors are not absolutely exact: the top portion is less red IRL than it appears on my monitor.

I hope that you will let me know what you think of this so far....

Have a great week.

NEW WIP - Whimsical Carving

This is my first post of 2012 although we are almost halfway through January! My daughter spent time with us and then, since the beginning of this week, my mother is here recuperating from carpal tunnel surgery. This does not mean that I have not painted at least a bit every day.

I am currently working on a 16" X 16" watercolor of a most fascinating stone carving I discovered, not in Venice this time, but in my own city of Ottawa:  a new building housing a well-known stonemason company boasts 3 whimsical, but beautiful,  heads carved in stone. Here are images of my WIP depicting, with artistic license, one of them:

I am finding it very challenging, but I am enjoying the process, especially trying to show the tool marks in the stone. This is not something that is still visible in the old Venetian mascaroni that I have painted.... I am somewhat hesitant to attack the other eye which is mostly in shadows...I think that it will make or break this painting.

The paper is 140lb SP Fabriano Artistico. I like its bright white color and how easy it is to lift on this paper...as long as it's not glued down to a wood panel as I sometimes do.

Thank you for having a look and do leave me your comments...I always appreciate so much your feedback!
Enjoy your weekend!

Mascarone 2 and plans

I posted a Venetian mascarone ( carved stone head on  a keystone) a few weeks ago. It was a very quick sketch and I wanted to paint another one. Below is a 8"X 10" watercolor of the same mascarone, but from a different reference photo.. I took this one from a different angle and on a sunnier day. This painting started much larger, but I got tired of all those perspective lines and decided to keep only the focus on the mascarone itself. As a result the mascarone is too much in the center of the page...but that will have to do:-)

I think what attracted me to this reference photo was the little pigeon that I discovered as I looked at the photo more carefully...

I now really want to return to my florals...I would like to paint some orchids: I don't especially like these flowers usually, but I would like to submit a painting to the artist section of a large Orchid Show in Ottawa in April. I have not painted regularly in the past few weeks and when this happens I always have a hard time  starting something new: insecurity? an equivalence of stage fright? painters' block? Do you sometime feel this way?