"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.