I'm thrilled that my painting "Dreamscape" sold in the silent auction! Yay!
I celebrated with artist friends Denise, Cynthia, and Deanna!
Then we moved on to talking about Palettes, such as Limited, Classical, Warm, Cool, or Chromatic. Color Schemes came along next, with a new assignment of picking a Color Scheme and sticking to it for a painting of our choice. I once again revisited this favorite peaceful place that I posted about a couple of weeks ago. I have alot to learn about working with acrylics.....not only about mixing colors, but also about applying the paint to the surface. I used a canvas board for this study, and used a palette knife and a brush to apply the paint. I worked at staying with an Analagous Color Scheme.....Red Orange, Orange, Yellow Orange, Yellow, and Yellow Green.
It was a great workshop shared with a warm group of artists! Thanks to Salem Art Association!
I started "Acrylic Boot Camp" this week. it will be a fun journey exploring acrylics and all those gels and mediums. Here's my shades and tints excercise that I did today.
For something new to challenge myself....A streetscape.
Liquid acrylic underpainting on Belgian mist Wallis paper....
then on to the first layers of pastel....
It was an Art Day today...........We explored scratchboard techniques
I chose a vintage engraving to use as my inspiration, and first tried it on scratchboard paper.
Leslie and her reference photo....again trying out the scratchboard paper first
then on to the Ampersand scratchboard.... 
Deanna exploring the scratchboard paper, with her reference landscape photo
Denise's delicate Bleeding Hearts, she added watercolor....
A wonderful day of Art & Friendship!
Silverton's Scenic Wonders
Reference photo taken August 2009
Yesterday was a day off for both my husband Robby and I. We decided to take a drive and found ourselves revisiting a spot that seems to be a peaceful place to pause. I seem to revisit this same spot in my painting as well. It's was fun to take time to search through my picture files and find reference photos and paintings from the last few years. This one was taken yesterday......February 7, 2012
Reference photo taken October 2011
Studies done in January 2011
Reference photo taken May 2010
Reference photo taken May 2011
This photo was taken just a few feet down the road. If you look close, you can see the same vista in the distance through the woods. Here is the painting inspired by this photo......
Spring Woodland
I'm grateful for this peaceful place, and I will look forward to revisiting it many more times in person, and in my paintings. One of these times I will take my easel out there and set up to paint it plein air!
I spent the day with my granddaughters Lily and Gracie today. After playing several games of UNO, we headed for the art room and worked on making color wheels. The inspiration was this color wheel made back in the 70's by my older brother Jim. 
We decided to cut up our paper and paint each square it's proper color, then use a template to cut out the shapes and glue them on the background, using Jim's color wheel as an example.
It was fun mixing the colors to get just the right hue. We found the oranges to be the hardest to get the proper variations.
We traced our shapes on to our color swatches. Gracie chose triangles, Lily and I recycled templates from our last Grandma day art project. We got them all cut out, then the arrangement decision came of how to lay them out.
We were happy with our results.....What a fun project.....A fun lesson in creativity and color!
Jim, I thank you today for your inspiration. I have a new sense of gratitude for the artist you were. I remember you spending time with your art when you were struggling with this life. I look back now and have a better understanding of what it must have meant to you. It must have given you a sense of yourself that the schizophrenic mind couldn't or wouldn't allow. I hope a sense of peace for a time.....
Tree Study by Jim Kallis