I Have Gallery Representation!

Woo Hoo! The State College Framing Company & Gallery on South Atherton now exhibits my work for sale! The bird portrait series I've been doing for the past couple of years has found a wall where it can be seen and hopefully purchased!

Here is their web address, but be aware that it is so incredibly slow, due to the high quality images, that it takes for ever to load.

Meanwhile, here are a few of my photos from the gallery - not as good as their photos, to be sure!

Above: Artist Brienne Brown's lovely watercolors of the farmland in our county. They were still arranging this exhibit when I took these photos.
Below: Six of my birds

Above & below: glass artist, Susan Rosenthal's absolutely gorgeous blue glass vases

I'm delighted to be in such great company with other talented local artists! Thank you, John McQueary II, for including me in your wonderful shop and gallery!

Back to Watercolors

Last year I took a great class in watercolor portraits from Marie Natalie in New Jersey. What a fantastic experience! Marie is a wonderful teacher who explains what and why she does what she is doing as she is demonstrating. Here are some of the paintings that I did before, during, and after the class.

The first one is of a farmer - I got the image on-line somewhere when I was looking for some photos to practice from. Here is the photo and the drawing on 300# Arches wc paper.

This is after two or three early washes to establish the base from which to complete the painting.

And the completed painting.

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This little dancer is from a photo I took at the Penn State Arboretum, where many people have their professional photos taken for graduation, family events, etc. A young family of four were being photographed, and as the photographer was focusing on the parents, the daughter was playing with her iPhone. I love the back lighting in the photo and was anxious to try out this particular painting.

I finished this one at home. I'm not fully satisfied with it now that it is completed. I will paint her again one day - lighter, airier, and more ephemeral.

Next, is another image pulled off the net for practice. I haven't painted in watercolor for such a long time that I knew I'd need a lot of practice to get back into the discipline required for watercolor. The drawing and the finished painting. This was my third attempt in class. I love the faces of the elderly - they have so much written in the lines on their faces. Stories we will never know, emotions that became a part of them, memories that sustain them. This photo reminds me of a very alert, special woman.

After painting this, I found a similar painting in a watercolor magazine that must have been from a very similar photo! It is handled differently than mine,, to be sure. I like them both!

The Newest Bird Portraits

My painting was halted for much of the month, between the sprained ankle and opposite twisted knee! I couldn't stand and had to keep my feet up to reduce the swelling and speed up the healing. When I finally was mobile once again, I was behind in everything, of course. So I've been trying to volunteer at CentrePeace, Inc. an extra day per week - especially since we have so many snow bird volunteers who have flown off to Florida!

Today, I finally had a whole day off. I didn't even turn on the computer until after I'd been painting for a few hours! I'm getting proud of myself when I avoid Facebook and Pinterest in favor of painting!

Rose-breasted Woodpecker (c) Pat Dolan 2016

Eastern Blue Jay (c) Pat Dolan 2016

So two more bird portraits are now completed (above), and I spend the afternoon working on two more new ones (below).

Blue Bird on my porch

Yellow-Shafted Flicker

I'm appropriately tired of being on my feet all day, but am happy with all the work I did today!