This is one of my "Connections" series. It was chosen by and is being loaned to Mercy Hospital to be displayed. Media is acrylic paints and it is 22" x15" on paper and matted and framed. I really enjoy painting in this style.

This is a watercolor painting of the old Lookingglass Store. It is one of seven paintings on loan to Mercy Hospital for an indefinite time. I aspire to represent a building as accurately as possible but do not try to realistically render a piece as if I were using a camera - I want the viewer to know this image was painted by an artist.

Lakeside Trees - watercolor, 11"x15" - this painitng was a demonstration for the watcolor class I teach. It was created by using direct painting and spray bottle with liquid watercolor paints, an interesting technique with amazing possibilities.

Ukranian Egg Decoration

Decorated this goose egg by the Ukrainian method using wax-resist and dyes. It takes a bit of practice, but the system has amazing results. My friend, Nancy Wolf, teaches this method each Easter and has taught many people how to do it. I had a wonderful afternoon at Nancy's house making this design and enjoyed meeting eight other artists.

                                      "Tori" - watercolor - 11 x 15 inches
                                                         copyright JLynn Peterson

This is a demo for my watercolor class. The challenge was to do a painting in gray using only red, yellow and blue pigments. I was not concerned with creating a perfect likeness of my granddaughter but concentrated on mixing grays without a color bias leaning toward any of the three colors. Working with the great hues produced by modern manufacturers students can get distracted and forget about values while painting - sometimes it is great to just get lost in COLOR but, one should find out what VALUE those colors are if they want to have a successful painting...very tricky stuff.

                                                 "Computer Doodle"

I'm wondering why few visitors leave a comment? At first this blog had a problem with comments but I thought it was resolved - some go to my facebook page to make a comment about this blog - it seems to me it would be easier to leave a comment while at this site. Any information about this would be appreciated. Thanks, as above, JLynn

Victoria

"Tori"  - digital photograph - copyright jlynn

This is my reference photo for my next painting - she is my granddaughter, Tori, when she was little. I worked with the photo in Adobe photoshop. Can't wait to start this but have a few thing to do first...

Okay, I was a day late, sorry! Two more of my series: the top photo was a demonstration for my watercolor class with the challenge being "patterns" and the bottom photo was a demonstration with the challenge being "texture". The next challenge for the class is to paint in values using only red-yellow-blue to create gray. That should be interesting (I've got to stop giving them such difficult challenges because I have to do them too! HA.)

Experiment - taking one image and painting it again and again with certain challenges in mind. I began this quest in a workshop with Ruth Armitage and I am still adding to it. Painting the same subject several times makes you very familiar with it - it becomes intimate and you will find you no longer need reference material to do another. I have two others after this and will post them tomorrow.

                              "Little Brown Wren" - watercolor/ink - 9 X 12
                                                            copyright Jlynn Peterson

I am painting a series of birds. This little lady is my version of a little brown wren. Emily Dickinson called herself "small, like a wren" and a hundred-plus years later we all know that Emily was anything but small!

Painting without splotches...

                           "Street Scene" - transparent watercolor - 16 x 20
                                                         copyright Jlynn Peterson

I painted this watercolor some time ago and have never framed it or shown it anywhere. I like the painting but I now use stronger colors when painting. Perhaps I should paint more scenes such as this as the "big-guys" showing in competitions (and running away with the prizes) paint similar things......only they blur parts of the scene in a manner that makes me think there is something wrong with my eyes! HA! To Blur or Not to blur, that is the question.

                                 "Messages" - watercolor - 11 x 15-inches                                                              Copyright - JLynnp

This painting will be shown at Oregon State University in March as part of the annual cultural show. The theme of the show is primative art of the Americas. When I observe Mayan, Inca, Aztec art and images I am able to decipher little of the thoughts they were putting into visual concept. Here I have invented my own visual message and, perhaps, someday someone will wonder what it is saying.

                                   "Jilska, Prague" - watercolor/ink - 8x10
                                                                                           copyright JLynn

Another watercolor and ink painting. this one was sent to Virtual Paintout when we were in the Chez Republic in 2010. Virtual Paintout is a very interesting website by Bill Guffey, a talented oil painter who coordinates the program that anyone can join and enjoy. Google maps gave Bill permission to use the google site so we all go there and walk around until we find something we would like to paint - google sent their car around taking photos and you can now move around the streets virtually and turn in any direction - how's that for an inexpensive trip!!

                                   "Oregon Fields" - watercolor/ink - 8.5x11
                                                      copyright JLynn

I use this this technique quite often. Making the decisions on what to outline with ink becomes a challenge that I enjoy working through. I like the way just a little black line can make the colors come alive and define an area that may not have been apparent with watercolor alone. It's easy to get carried away with the ink lines so one should pay attention to what they are doing and what it is they were talking about when they painted the image. What do you think of this technique?

        "Pond on Celebration Ranch" - watercolor, plein aire painting 12x15-inches                                                 copyright: Jlynn Peterson

In October I took my watercolor class to paint plein aire at my neighbor's Celebration Ranch several times. There are several lakes on the ranch and lots of wildlife - we set up a "Trail-Cam" and caught the portraits of bobcat, coyote, black bear, raccoon, fox, deer and several men on atvs! The ranch backs up to the Callahan Mountains and the boundary of BLM land so there is much wild country for these critters to roam. It is a lovely place to spend hours painting and the owners enjoyed having the class there. Painting water with reflections is a challenge. Painting trees and landscapes with a variety of greens is a challenge. But challenges were met and some very nice work was the result. We plan on plein aire painting again this spring when the weather is less wet.

"Panda" -3-plate Lino block print -by Jlynn Peterson (copyright)

I love printing methods, etchings, lithography, lino, woodblock, mono prints and sidelines like painting with a brayer. I used to use oil-based inks but switched to non-toxic water based inks which are not quite as rich in color, but are lots safer to use. My professor in grad school had used all the chemicals required in printmaking for about 35 years; one day they told him he had cancer and he died within a month. Moishe Smith was internationally known for his fantastic and very large etchings and the art world lost a wonderful artist too early. Some of the media we artists use are very dangerous and most of us give little thought to our safety....be careful! (last painting I was working on my young cat, Sherm, bounded up on the table landing right in my palette and of course what he put his paw in was alizarin crimson! I yelled at him, he took off and I spent the next 1/2 hour cleaning cat, table, floor, etc. NOW when I paint, Sherm resides behind the bathroom door until I let him out - he hasn't yet figured out how to unlock the door but he's working on it!)

"Fall Colour" White-line mono print by JLynn - watercolor - 10x12-inches - copyright jlynn

This printing technique is very simple using lino or woodblock and watercolor. The paint has to be altered with gum arabic so it will stick to the plate. Each print must be "inked" again after each pulled print, so it is fairly labor-intensive, but the results are outstanding and can be achieved no other way. When finished this technique can still be classified as transparent watercolor. Questions?

Title of painting: "Green Tea" by JLynn Peterson - 22x30 watercolor.copyright jlynnp

After a trip to Japan with Roseburg's Sister City, Shobu, I painted this image of my host, hostess and friend, Eileen, from a photo I took while we were all having tea. The house was a traditional Japanese home, divided by shoji screens and even the exterior walls could be slid open to let in air and sunshine from the lovely garden. Mr and Mrs Ozawa were wonderful hosts and we enjoyed being with them. A year or so after we took this trip to exchange art with the artists of Shobu, Eileen retired as Director of Umpqua Valley Art Association and this painting was purchased as a gift for Eileen. A reminder of the fantastic experiences we had in Japan, it's nice to see this painting now and then.

We're ALL Rocket Scientists now!

Yep - I have heard "well. you don't have to be a rocket scientist to do that" most of my life. However, after setting up a new "Blog" yesterday (wasn't that difficult) I came back this morning and there was no way to add anything else to the page! Worked on sorting it out for at least an hour and ran out of time.............so, I went to teach my (wonderful) class and had a great time. Arrived home with absolute determination to "Fix" this dog-*&^%%-gone blog problem, turned on my computer, went to the page and VOILA!!there it was with a blue band at the top that WAS NOT there earlier - simple as that!!! Pressed the correct button and actually got a box for new stuff.....typed, no letters appeared......thought, aha, keyboard didn't wake up! Shut down computer, waited, restarted computer, followed the path and (again) VOILA! here I am typing away. With all the new technology we have absorbed in the past 10 years or so, it is my opinion that we are ALL rocket scientists now.  And look at all the new language that has been created along with the technology......LOL! If I had time, I would delve into that language development......maybe another day......

Starting a new year.......yahoo!