Tips and Techniques

    You win some, you lose some. The stakes weren’t too high; I missed out on ‘bragging rights and a free t-shirt.’ But I gained a whole lot more. The International Society of Scratchboard Artists (ISSA) just selected artwork for their commemorative 2020 Exhibition t-shirts… and mine wasn’t chosen 🙁 I created “Anna’s Fairy Duster” with realistic expectations. I knew anything I entered would be a long shot to win, with my limited experience of just two years doing … Read More

  Beautiful ruby throated hummingbirds – the most common species which migrates to Eastern North America – visit our feeders from early April through the beginning of October. I’ve done numerous paintings of them, in watercolor and acrylics, and it was time for me to try one on scratchboard. As demonstrated in my previous post, I created a border design on a 14″ x 11″ black Scratchbord™, using colors to match those I planned to use in the artwork. For … Read More

I’m relatively new to black scratchboard, having done my first one just 2 years ago. The lesson which follows does not adher to the purist’s guideline for scratchboard, as reflected in this definition by the International Society of Scratchboard Artists: “…Sharp tools are used to remove, or “scratch”, through the black ink, revealing the white clay underneath.” In this border I have not used any abrasive tools to remove the black layer (although I went on to do the artwork … Read More

Through the wonders of technology, here’s a quick time-lapse of the creation of my new scratchboard “Locked In Time.” ‘Hard to believe that it took weeks, not seconds, to create this artwork! Learning to add a mini-video to my blog is one of my many quarantine-time activities. Perhaps I’ll get more adventurous (and better) in the future and maybe even add audio. Click on the photo to launch the slide show. On this 10″ x 8″ panel I aimed to … Read More

Japanese Honeysuckle is an introduced, somewhat invasive, climbing vine which grows on my land. The frilly white blossoms are highly fragrant and last from April to July, and I don’t mind their intrusion. The red young stems are strong and used in traditional basket weaving. As it grows, the larger woody vine will grow in a spiral around a tree branch. When the vine is removed, the branch is left with a twisted appearance, which some woodcarvers prize for creating … Read More

My newest and largest in a series of paintings with blown bubbles has just been accepted into the 2020 Tennessee Watercolor Society Biennial Exhibition. International watercolor artist and juror Soon Warren selected “What A Wonderful World” as one of 72 paintings for the show. My painting “Eat Chicken” was the Best in Show winner at the Society’s 2018 biennial exhibit. Perhaps now I’ll become known as the bubble lady instead of the cow lady…?!?! This painting features my great-nephew Liam, … Read More

My recent focus on painting portraits has proven successful in eliminating most of my apprehensions, so I’m off and running. One thing I’ve learned is how much fun I have painting white-bearded males! Capturing white hairs is a challenge when painting in traditional techniques of watercolor on paper, where the white of unpainted paper is preserved vs. using any white paint – but a good challenge can help develop artistic skills. Recently I decided it was time to do a … Read More

Here’s my theory: the more people paintings I tackle, the more comfortable I will become with them. So I’ve started on a quest, creating small watercolor paintings of people who I have photographed in casual settings. “When He Was Six” is the first in this series, with the title harkening back to a popular painting of a little girl I painted in acrylics on canvas several years ago, titled “When She Was 3.” I’ve done other people paintings over the … Read More

  As a painter of animals, I know it is difficult to depict black fur. A big solid area of black just doesn’t cut it – you have to capture the highlights to make it look realistic and give it dimension. I was ready for the challenge of painting a black cow. This is my first cow art on Scratchbord®. My two previous cow paintings, Eat Chicken and Cow’s In The Corn, were both very colorful, created in watercolor on … Read More

I  created “Sweet Dreams” with a few new twists – not counting the twisted body of the cute little kitten: The reference photo is not one I took I selected an unusual palette of colors The application of paint was unconventional Watercolor pencils added some finishing touches From the first time I saw my friend Dawn’s photo of this kitty, I knew I had to paint it. Dawn had rescued her the middle of the road when she was ‘no … Read More