Gate 3

Well. . . ANOTHER lesson learned! I had visions of a clean, crisp metal gate with wonderful golden rolling hills behind it. I very mistakenly thought my Sepia Pentel Brush Pen was waterproof. . . thought I'd checked it out months ago when I purchased it. The first step I took was to use this brush pen on the metal gate, after all it would make it so much easier to paint the rolling hills in the background if I could just paint right over that gate - LOL! As we can all see, as soon as I started painting that sky, I had BLEED!! Rather than trash this little scene, I decided to continue painting it anyway and to just chalk it up as another lesson learned. So here it is!!

Gate 2

My immediate goal with painting is to have fun. I'm not striving for perfection, I'm just "playing." As I started painting this gate, it occurred to me that I had goofed BIG TIME on the first gate and all of my online art buddies were too kind to point it out. Well folks, I realize now that I had mixed up my cool and warm placement and put the cools in the foreground and the warms in the background - Yikes!! What in the world was I thinking. . . or rather NOT thinking!! LOL!!

This gate is from a ref photo I found on Yotophoto and it is of a gate at Stevens-Coolidge Place, Andover, MA It is done on Lama li and I used all WN paints. One major flaw I see is the rock fence on the right looks like it's on the ground -- just didn't get the perspective right or something on that. Possibly it's fixable, but I'm ready to go on to the next gate!!

Gate 1

I've been away from my blog for far too long! Several reasons why. . . my daughter, who lives in Las Vegas, had her first baby on Oct 27. A beautiful little girl they named Katie after my mom. I stayed with them for three weeks to help out. What a joy it was!! Another reason I've not done art is simply because I ran into a HUGE creative block. Actually it was more than a block. . . I really questioned WHY I spend time on something that will not bring any financial gain and that I probably won't even use as a tangible gift to friends/family! While in Vegas, I had one of my periodical read-a-thons. I read 8 novels, which I enjoyed immensely. As I was reading, it occurred to me that reading is not going to bring me any financial gain and it's not producing a tangible gift! So, if I'm willing to spend time on reading, why is it that I'm guilt ridden with time spent on art? I learn things when I read, even it it's fiction. I learn things when I do art, especially when it is nature---intense observation brings knowledge. So I started looking through some of my art books with a freedom that it's OKAY to do something I enjoy just for the pure pleasure of it all! I got inspired to work through another book, then I got inspired to work on a series. I found some good reference photos for gates that got me excited and so this is my first gate. It's done on lama li and I used all WN paints.