Meetup at Carriage Hill MetroPark July 12

I don't think I've specifically mentioned that I started a Meetup group called Draw, Pardners! for artists or wannabe artists in the Dayton area.We meet on the second Saturday of the month to draw, sketch, and/or paint at various locations. The painting of Cemex Reserve was done during a Draw, Pardners! Meetup. (See earlier post.)

This Saturday we're meeting at Carriage Hill MetroPark in Huber Heights, OH. If you are reading this post and want to join us, feel free. See the meetup site for information.

"Spring Rain" demo

Misuk Goltz recently asked me to do a demo for her Thursday Paint-In at the Fairborn Art Assn. "Twenty to twenty-five minutes," she said. And this is what I came up with.

The subject has been one of my favorites since my first watercolor class. I love the way the paint flows down the page to create the illusion of rain and wind. And I've loved painting small trees since that first instructor showed me the wonders of liner/rigger brushes and how the small branches grow out of the big branches wherever there is a convex curve.

The ivy growing up the left tree trunk was the result of an accident. My paper wasn't quite dry, and the paint bled when I painted the trunk. I couldn't clean it up without it being obvious, so I overpainted with some Terre Verte (a fairly opaque green), et voila! -- ivy.

Third Place in the En Plein Air Exhibition

My little watercolor took Third Place in the 2014 En Plein Air Juried Art Exhibition sponsored by the B-W Greenway Community Land Trust and Fairborn Art Association. The challenge this year was to paint on location at the Cemex Reserve in Fairborn. This is a restored wetlands, and I was continually serenaded by the many birds who have made a home there.