Playing with a Photo Collage Maker

I've used these often over the years and always enjoyed arranging them and deciding on what goes where for the best Balance. The app I use most often is "Collage Factory Free" on my big Mac/. Here are a few I made today. One of this years flowers. And two of paintings done in the past full year. If you've never tried to make a photo collage, try this app for ease of use and a lot of fun!

And two more. Enjoy!

Last but not least, more wildlife.

Fun project for a lovely autumn afternoon.

                                                           Spring Cherry Blossoms 11"x14" wc

And once again, time has slipped away and my posting has been ignored throughout the summer. It's now close to fall so I'd better get back into posting!

It's been a complex year thus far with plenty of ups and downs occurring to shift our schedules about and shake up our emotions a bit. One rarely gets to our ages without the contrasting joy and sorrow, as well as a lot of other things, coloring our lives.

However, I have been painting as often as I have time to spend in the studio. I'll show you the most recent and then go back and recap some of the earlier pieces that are now completed. Watercolor is a fascinating medium and one I have grown to love. I'm attracted to colored pencils, stick and pan pastels, and lots more, but I always go back to my favorite, watercolor. This is my latest:

Hollyhocks  11"x14" wc

And the process is shown here:

My parents and grandparents both grew Hollyhock flowers in their gardens. They are so charming so I thought I'd try my hand at painting them. I had looked at how some artists paint very thin layers of different shades of watercolor to their paintings to provide a depth to the item. They often alternate the colors with an opposite color from the color wheel - very very thin watery layers. This is the first time I really worked with that in mind and I think that these flowers definitely are improved by this technique. Pink, blue, yellow, orange, purple - all layered in these flower petals very carefully.

Here are some of the other watercolors done since last March. Hope some of them inspire you to paint in watercolor!

  

  

That's it for now. Busy Busy Busy - a few more are drawn up and ready to go. I've started one already. Now just need more studio time and some artistic drive to get me going once again!

Happy Painting!

Painting At last!

Good afternoon from central Pennsylvania. We have a delightfully sunny spring day here, but no promises for tomorrow's skies!

I've finally returned to the studio to paint some of the many things I've drawn up and are waiting for my attention. A few foxes ( I did one for my younger sister at her request - that's above), a few birds, and some flowers, too. I generally start with the background on some of the larger works. But it's hard to visualize what the end result will be. Oh well, I'll make it all work out somehow! Here I thought I'd have lots of time to paint, now that our granddaughter and her delightful twin daughters have found their own place and have moved to it, a mere 2 miles away.  

Why is it that when we get older, everything seems to take so much longer to do that before? And why does my hair keep getting thinner by the month? And why is it that my fingers are warping in new, somewhat fascinating ways to make typing on my iPhone so difficult? Twisted fingers will do that - but who knew???

Anyway, between various weather types from rainy, windy, cold, snow, sleet and grapple, spring is making some headway. The early flowers have blossomed, much to my delight. 

 Not the trillium, which I'm painting from a photo of my sister's garden. Our grandfather always had white trillium on the shady side of the house, along with wood violets (yellow), and a few other precious woodland plants that he planted back in the 1930's, before it was illegal to do so. My sis just took some from our folks garden, which came from Pop's garden, and there you have it. I love them and hope I can do them justice. Also working on some blue violets in a glass jar. Spring is here, no matter what the weather does or doesn't do!

Pop's trillium transplanted a few times.

Happy spring everyone!

 

Current Inventory!

 It's been over a year since I've taken the time to continue writing here. I do apologize! The past two years have been super busy and suddenly, with the advent of 2024, there are a LOT of changes happening in our lives. All are good, but there are always down sides even to the positive aspects of change. Adaptation is key to moving through any change, let alone a host of changes!

Have I mentioned that our granddaughter and her twins moved in with us 2 years ago after losing their place in Vermont. That transition was tough for us, but much more-so for them. They lost all of their friends and support systems to venture in a new direction. Granddaughter eventually found a good job with benefits and has been saving up for the family to move to their own space.

That happened this January/February and plenty of turmoil has happened in all of our lives. The twins still come here after school, which we enjoy. Their mom picks them up after work so we get to see all of them almost daily - except for school closings and her days off from work. 

As of this week, my favorite shop, Art ala Carte in Bellefonte, PA where I've been selling for 4+ years is suddenly closing. The owner, another artist, decided she needs more time to create and sell her own work. She has mentored a large number of us along the way and always has been encouraging. We all are now encouraging her in her new life changes. We'll continue to see her work and watch her grow along with the rest of us. Here is her website: Elizabeth Hay Designs. 

Thankfully, I still have two other locations where my work can be shown and sold. The Gallery Shop in Lemont, PA and the Bellefonte Art Museum's gift shop, Twiga. And I will be exhibiting in May-June at the Elk Creek Cafe & Aleworks in Millheim, PA.

At the moment I have a fairly large inventory, since Art ala Carte is closing. She has some of my work on sale for the nest two week, but those not on sale have all come home to me. The header photo is one wall. Here are the other studio walls today!

As you can see, I'm full up with no spaces left! I will be delivering to The Gallery Shop in early March. And I will select the ones for the Elk Street Cafe and keep them here until it's time for the show. But still, I have a LOT of paintings that would like to find new homes where birds, wildlife, and plants are fully appreciated! And I can mail paintings to their new addresses. Contact me through the Facebook Messages at this website: https://www.facebook.com/pat.dolan.artist

Hope your year is full of wonder as we move forward into the unknown future ahead.

Updating the Progress Since the Last Post!

 The painting process varies from painting to painting - much depends upon the type of watercolor paper being used - and I used 3 different types of paper in the 15 drawings that I'd prepared.

The beginnings: the backgrounds for proposed paintings

It also depends upon the way I want the completed painting to be - super realistic, impressionistic, somewhat realistic, and more. And the techniques required for those choices vary in approach from very wet to very dry, depending upon the level of realism desired. 

As you can guess from the above photo, I usually prefer the wildlife to be quite realistic, perhaps with a bit of a flare on occasion. But I want the background to be just that - background! A vague background that compliments the bird or animal in color either with similar or opposing colors.

Here are a few images of works still in process - #2. Lynx and 5. Bobcat above. 

And here are a few completed: #1. Great Blue Heron

#3. Kingfisher and #4. Fox

And finally, the two loons #8. & 9: 

#8. Loon among the Rocks and #9. Loon in Grassy Water

And lastly, the finished smaller pieces on my studio wall prior to framing.

Hope you enjoyed seeing the process!

Preparing the Backgrounds for My Paintings

Kingfishers in process with watercolor

I rarely work on one or two watercolors at a time. It's far more often that I draw up a dozen or so subjects on the stretched watercolor paper, then when it's time to paint, I have a large selection of choices before me.

About 15 pieces are stretched and ready to paint

My  drawing/painting table setup

Yesterday I began the two Kingfisher paintings at the top of the post. I like to have light, airy paintings done in loose watercolors, allowing the viewer to focus on the chosen details that are supported by the more abstract background. Here is one of them, not yet signed.

So to continue, these are the new ones I worked on today - just laying in the abstract yet colorful backgrounds to feature the birds or animals I really focus on. This first one is actually an outdoor scene without any birds or animals to be found. I happen to love foggy days and often take lots of photos to capture the transient and ever changing nature of fog. Here is how I've laid in the background thus far. I'm not sure if I'll add to this or begin working on the trees... Time will tell!

The photo above the painting provides the inspiration for what will follow here. The fog had several layers that I want to capture before I add the detailing of the distant trees.

Next, I want to capture this winter Bluebird in the snow, a photo taken outside my porch in the cherry tree. It was so cold, windy and snowy, I wanted to create those elements as the backdrop for Mr. Bluebird. So I used two types of salt to absorb the color.

Flipping that one upside down, I had a second drawing of a House Finch in autumn. To create an autumnal background, I chose the warmer oranges, yellows, plus a bit of green.

Then is the fox - settled nicely in the foxy colors that they so well blend in with when out in the wild. Tall weeds and grasses in warm, golden hues.

This last  one for today is a darling little chipmunk. I'm not at all sure why I've chosen the blues for his background, but there you have it. Artistic license!

Tomorrow is another day - and maybe the sun will come out and warm up the studio! Hope you enjoyed seeing the beginnings of some watercolor paintings. Questions and comments welcome!

Happy New Year 2023!

Just a sampling of the 40 pieces of art created and sold this past year!

Greetings and salutations to all on this wintry day. The laundry is done, the dishes are done, the Christmas things are mostly down, my business taxes are filed - whew! The birds are snatching up the seeds as tiny white flakes spin down from above. And I'm free to play catch-up here, for a change.

2022 was a great year for sales of my watercolors. Over 40 framed pieces sold between the Bellefonte Art Museum, Art a la Carte, and The Gallery Shop in Lemont. That's truly exciting. Lots of prints were sold last year, too. So I've been able to keep my supplies coming in and my paintings going out - with a bit of a profit, to be sure.

And what are my thoughts about the coming year...?  Perhaps to broaden my subject matter to include more types of wildlife. And maybe to expand on my trial efforts using gold metallic paints/inks with the watercolors... Possibly to add some details to the background with pen & ink... and more mixed media, perhaps.

I chose a special frame with gold detailing to accent the gold moon behind this mockingbird

This is Merlin, a mixed media mounted on a panel, which then was varnished numerous times before painting. No glass is required when this method of finishing is used.

So far, I have limited myself to two sizes of framed work, making it easier to order bulk frames to meet my needs. I have experimented with a few new sizes - including a small square frame, which worked out nicely with some petite paintings.

My studio is in the process of returning to being my studio, after spending several weeks as the Christmas storage room for gifts, wrapping papers, ornament boxes - not to mention the bird seed, my indoor plant shelf, new frames waiting to be used, numerous drawings on 300# Arches watercolor paper awaiting my paint & brushes to come to life.

I'm looking forward to cleaning out the boxes and getting back to painting once again. May you all be looking forward to new opportunities for love, laughter, and contentment as we move into 2023!