Exhibiton Acceptances!

I've had a great couple of days!

Yesterday I received a letter to say that 'MEH!' has been accepted into Watercolor West XLIII International Exhibition in California. I guess Alexander likes visiting California :) The painting 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang We Love You' which is of Alexander too is already In Northern California ready for the CWA exhibition!

and today I found out 'Identity' has been accepted into the Pennsylvania Watercolor Society 32nd International Exhibition.

I will need to get more art boxes  :)

Ona

Honorable Mention from John Salminen!

I had some good news yesterday evening. My painting of Grandpa "Finishing Touches" that is currently on exhibition in the Pikes Peak Watercolor Society International Watermedia XVII was awarded an Honorable Mention by the juror John Salminen.

 

Unfortunately I was not able to be at the award ceremony but a very good friend of mine Jan was able to be there to represent me. Here she is accepting the award on my behalf with John and Loren the president of PPWS. Thank you Jan for everything you have done for me this week. You have really made me feel part of the events of the week as well as the exhibition itself.

Thanks too John for the award and the thumbs up!

Ona

Heron Fishing

Last weekend several artists got together for the Ontario meet. It was a wonderful weekend in which we shared both laughter and tears. There was a workshop on the Saturday led by Shelley Prior using a photo taken by Alan Wilson. Unfortunately I wasnt well enough to attend the actual worshop so I decided to paint my own version this weekend at home.

I have been working with one of my students on adapting reference photos to help convey different messages so I decided to use this as an exercise to show how to create a totally different interpretation of a reference photo. As a result my painting is completely different to those done in the workshop but it was enormous fun to create. I added in a fish using some other reference photos as guidlines and also completely changed the lighting both in the background and on the heron itself. I decided to use similar colours on the heron and in the background to help to create that calm early morning feel but  intoduced  different compliments to paint the fish to create drama and edge in this area.

So here is my version....

As the glow of the sunrise shines through the morning mists that linger on the calm waters of the lake, a heron wades through the water creating ripples that glisten in the muted sunlight. In his beak he proudly holds his first catch of the day pinioned on his razer sharp beak.

Its only a small painting, about 10.5 by 15 inches and it is painted on Arches 140lb cold press. It is painted using all transparent watercolours and the whites were either preserved using masking fluid or lifted using a magic eraser or craft knife.

Ona