Judge's Pick Winner - May 2015- Daily Paintworks juried monthly contest

 

I have been a member of the international online gallery "Daily Paintworks" since it was created a few years ago. However, this month, for the first time, I entered one of their monthly juried contest. The work submitted was my  "Neptune's Sea Horses - Florence" a 15" x 31"  ( before framing) original watercolor....( see detail below) .....and I found out this morning that I was one of the Judge's pick winners!

Check out the winners and entries of the May competition and the previous ones :http://www.dailypaintworks.com/contests#previous

"Neptune's Sea Horses - Florence"- detail of watercolor by Christiane Kingsley

What a nice way to start the week!

Two miniature paintings

I am currently dividing my attention between two types of painting: a large commission and small miniatures that I want to include in a three-week, three-artists show to be held in March.

Here are two small watercolors I have painted in the past 10 days. Both are on  6" x 6"  X 1.5" paper-covered wood panels and will be displayed without glass. The first one is already varnished, the second one will be as soon as I give a last coat of black on some of the lines.

Pond Queen

For "Pond Queen" , I used a reference by Stephie on WetCanvas. On my monitor, it really looks like the colors could have been turned up a bit more...

It's Lunch Time

The butterfly painting has not been varnished yet. I will go over some of the black lines again, although they are darker than they appear under the lights used for the photo.  I was pleased by smooth  my background. Thanks to Jacqueline Gnott for her great tips on painting smooth watercolor backgrounds.

Working on paper that has been adhered to a wood panel requires getting used to. The paint does not flow as it usually does on watercolor paper; the water dries very quickly and the paints don't mix on the paper very well. Nevertheless, if I want a varnished watercolor painting, I prefer to attach the paper before painting rather than risking ruining the finished painting when it's time to glue it to the board. Believe me, it hurts when you ruin a 16" x 16" painting at that stage.

I hope you are all doing well and are having a creative and healthy January.

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:-)

Pierre, the Green Man -WIP part 2 + fun mixed media

"Pierre the Green Man" is progressing. It is slightly more than 50% done.

Since this is a commission, I really want to get the best resemblance to the original carving. Here is one of the photos that I am working from...

Do you think that I am close enough to the original on the left hand side of the painting?

 Working on commissions make me tense, so to relieve tension I have been doing some fun mixed media: here is one that is almost finished of an Inukshuk.

It's 8" X 10" on a 1.5" cradled board; it has an acrylic background with texture and design of tissue paper, molding paste, metallic foils, metallic paint.  I think it's cute:-)

Into the Lion's Den - finished and featured; also, upcoming show

Into the Lion's Den ( or, as my daughter calls it, Stephen King's Door Knocker:-) is finished. I accentuated the shadows and darkened some areas.  It is 12" X 16" and I will probably frame it under glass rather than varnishing it.

The background color is closer in real life to the color in the previous post. I hope that you still like it.
It has already been featured on the Red Bubble site:

Now, it's time to move on to another project:-)

I have a new show starting next Wednesday at the Foyer Gallery. It is a holiday show of smaller pieces and it's called: Art to Go.  I will be displaying 5-6 paintings in that show until the first week of January. This will be my last show of 2011.

Enjoy your weekend!

Top Ten Challenge Winners

I was so pleased to find out a few minutes ago that my latest painting, Love that Lace, has just been voted in the top ten of over 80 entries in the Red Bubble Impressionism Cafe challenge for watercolor still life paintings.

Southern Belle - In top ten in Impressionism Cafe Group Challenge

My "Southern Belle" watercolor has just placed in the top ten in the Impressionism Cafe Group challenge on Red Bubble. Check out the 22 great entries.

Southern Belle - original watercolor by Christiane Kingsley  -

SOLD

Lace WIP, Artalee and Red Bubble

I am back from a beautiful  short trip to NYC to visit my daughter.

I have been neglecting my painting lately with my two recent holidays. I have also been spending a lot of my energy thinking about my life at work: my organization is going through a reorganization, and  I am trying to decide if I will resign from my full-time job and retire in December. These thoughts are not conducive to creativity:-)

To get my brushes wet again, I  have started a new painting with fruit and lace. The approach is a lot less realistic than my previous lace work. It will eventually represent 6 small cherry tomatoes from my garden on another beautiful lace piece that I have borrowed from my mother. I have tried  to increase the effect of shadows across the battenburg lace and those created by the tomatoes: I am not sure that it will work, but it's a nice way to get back into painting after the short hiatus.

On another note, my strawberry painting, "Let's Talk"was featured this week on Red Bubble:

Last, but not least, I have just added a new feature on ARTALEE: this one is about our blogging friend Deb Ward who, among other artistic achievements, is a true master at painting lace! I hope that Deb will approve of the paintings that I have selected for the post about her beautiful work.

As always, I am looking forward to your comments.

Update

In Canada, this is Thanksgiving weekend. I will be flying to NYC to spend a few days with our daughter who is on a one-year assignment there. I am bringing a small painting to work on...but , I'm not sure how much I will get done. However, admiring Kathy Wirth gorgeous posterized portraits of her grandchildren, reminded me that about three years ago I had done my first ( and only) posterized portrait: it is of my daughter ( she is much better looking IRL) and was done in poured monochrome watercolors. It would be fun to try this again.

I am slowly working down my blog roll to feature my great blogging friends and fellow artists on the Artalee site. Today, I invite you to have a look at the beautiful whimsical world of Ross Lynem: I think that one of his paintings would cheer me up any day!

Update: Maine, Red Bubble and Artalee

We returned home last night from a most relaxing week of vacation in Ogunquit, Maine. The weather did not cooperate very much: we had only one sunny day and came back in a downpour. Nevertheless, I had a great time: walking on the beach...in the fog, eating sea food and taking pictures. I find that the sound of the ocean is music for the soul and it simply washes away all tension. The only downside of our week is that somehow I did not paint very much and my laptop was too slow for any blogging.

I was pleased to find out that my watercolor "Southern Belle" had placed 3rd in a challenge on Red Bubble. This painting is already sold and I recently posted a new version of it which I probably prefer, although the background is less dramatic. 

In "Southern Belle II",  I really like the plum highlights in the dark background and the more detailed painting of the petals and the stem.  This painting is currently hanging in a group show at the Ottawa Little Theatre.

My slow laptop did not allow me during the week to post any new features on ARTALEE. This morning, I was so happy to return to my regular computer! I have just posted a feature of a watermedia artist we all know and love, Sandy Maudlin.  I hope that I have done justice to Sandy's versatility and talent.

Follow the Leader...Finished for now

I am spending a restful week in Maine, right on the ocean. Unfortunately, it has rained all day today and we are expecting more of the same tomorrow. Nevertheless, I am enjoying my vacation away from work.
I spent a few minutes this afternoon finishing my Cherry/Crab Apples painting.  It probably needs a few more finishin touches, but I will call it finished for now at least.
The picture was taken inside with my small camera - the colors may be quite off on your monitor.

If we have a sunny day before we go back home, I will try to get pictures of waves ans seagulls to share.

Discover Krista Hasson on ARTALEE

For my second feature as curator of ARTALEE, I have chosen a fellow Canadian artist blogger, Krista Hasson, whose work I find simply breathtaking. I have posted a few of my favorites by Krista so that those who don't already know her will have a idea of the range of her talent. I hope that you will go and have at the post then go see what Krista is painting now.

Cherries and Lace I

Here is my first small painting of cherries and lace from the numerous photographs I took last week. I painted it yesterday and I kept  it very simple: no background, a small portion of lace only with a bit of my hardwood flooring peaking through.  It is about 8" X11" and matted at 12" X 15"; it could also be cropped for a square look of 8 X8", cutting out the white on either side of the lace.

 

For purchase information, please click here.

I enjoyed painting this and will definitely paint some more complex one with the same elements. 

What do you think?