Finishing

I love teaching at the Home Link art classes, but, since we only have an hour to paint together, I brought this Blue Heron home unfinished. The kids and I painted it in watercolor. We concentrating on creating a dark background while reserving the beak, face and curved neck area for the next layers. The careful blues and feathers with a bright yellow eye. I took the liberty of finishing this one at home and also added some pen & ink to give it some kick. I hope to inspire my students to take their work home and finish it too.

This one is entitled, “Walk Thru the Woods”. I have been painting non-stop in both my studio, and in the classrooms each week with home school kids but there has not always been enough time to finish. So, there is a stack of paintings in the studio that are now calling my name, “Come finish me Val…”. My goal is to concentrate on completing them.

This is a cottage on the water started from a workshop with Michael Holter that I was blessed to take during Spring Break. It was fabulous to learn new ways to approach landscapes. I started this one in the workshop but was not able to get even close to halfway done. To finish it, I decided to not use the photograph from the workshop and see what I would do if I just finish it on my own. I am pleased with with the way it came out. I could see myself climbing up the steps and walking inside to check it out this beautiful historic old place.