I have been working on more paintings..and finished one so far.  There is a story with this one.   The artist I was studying under  lives across the country which makes it hard to get critiques and ask questions.
     SO,  I  decided it was in my best interest to look for another teacher.   A friend takes lessons from a local artist.  I checked her out and thought I would go to a lesson and see what she was like.  Turns out she is a nationally known impressionist (my interest), sells world-wide, and has her own gallery here in St. Augustine!  Alright!!   I LOVED the lesson!  She teaches small classes, lets you work on your own material if you want, and has class critiques at the end of each lesson.  Exactly what I was looking for!  She is also reasonable in what she charges!  Thank goodness!!
     The painting is one I did in her class.  I was going to do another seascape..but she had photos of a butterfly on a flower for the students to do.  So, hey, I thought why not?  It turned out I learned a lot from it and really enjoyed doing it!  I have both the reference photo and the painting below.  Enjoy!


reference photo from class







First painting attempt. Nice, but the flowers compete with the butterfly! So back to the drawing board, so to speak!  I decided to change the flowers to the complementary color of the butterfly.  Purple is the opposite color on the color wheel from yellow, thus making it the complement.  Works nicely, right?  I also decided to try my hand at painting beads of water on the flower.  Not perfect, but not too bad either. I found a photo of a flower with water drops and studied them carefully.  They were really just tiny  lines in the shape of a "U" with  the flower color away from the light and white on the side of the light.  Study then and you will see for yourself!  OK?  Well the finished painting is below.  Enjoy!



"Monarch"
8 x 11
Acrylic



Next, I haven't been happy with this painting below.  I kept looking at it and decided there was too much white, making it look chalky and fake.  So, again, back to the drawing board!  It is now looking MUCH better even though it's not  finished.  Stay tuned for that...Thanks for looking!

"Rogue Wave" under construction









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