Phoenix, Arizona - Color Variations for Jardin du Palais Royal

My recent work has been with a photo that I took a few years ago of a walk through the gardens at Palais Royal in Paris.  I created mine with bold colors but also created some color variations.  This idea came to me when I was showing the single colorful work at Parkwood Studios' First Friday event in Phoenix.  Several people favored other pieces, stating that they liked the colors.

These will all soon be available on Fine Art America.  This shop has more than prints. They have towels to coffee mugs to duvets and shower curtains.

Phoenix, AZ - 8/8 Last Session Painting Class

I let loose and just painted tonight. I used a faster drying acrylic and whatever color was on the pallets. I made a face with some flowers in front of it. I didn't use a reference photo as I wanted to see how much I actually knew about the structure of a face. Turns out not that much and so I now have a goal to do portraits in the next session and to improve on the look. Following are also a few of my fellow classmates' works.

These are creations of the classmates, ranging from first class session to advanced. 

Ladee

Travel info and photographs: 

ladeetravels.blogspot.com 

"Of all the books in the world, the best stories are found between the pages of a passport."

Fun stuff here: 

http://www.vivyxprinting.com/pros/ladeetravels

http://fineartamerica.com/artists/ladee+rickard

Phoenix, AZ - 7/8 Oil Painting Class

I have finished what I want to do now with these two paintings. I am going to allow them to dry for about a month and then put on one more treatment. I spent time putting shadows and highlights on and may need more next week. We shall see after the paint dries.  

The conversation is delightful. We often talk about Travels and where people are from and where they’ve been and where they would like to go. We talk about whatever and what would you do, do plastic surgeons have plastic surgery done and is a polite to ask? We talk about paint, famous artists, artist no one‘s ever heard of, And events around town. We have snacks, sometimes fine pastries made by one of the other students in the class and sometimes cookies from the box which taste just as delightful. We drink tea and contemplate a little bit of wine and if it would help. Music plays in the background and we listen to everything from French passion to blues and closed with the song last night song by Pavarotti and James Brown on the same stage.  Edna, our artist guiding light, gives advice and keeps the conversation going. 

One more night left for this session. We have critiques in the last half hour so I am interested to see how this goes. 

Ladee

Travel info and photographs: 

ladeetravels.blogspot.com 

"Of all the books in the world, the best stories are found between the pages of a passport."

Fun stuff here: 

http://www.vivyxprinting.com/pros/ladeetravels

http://fineartamerica.com/artists/ladee+rickard

Prescott, AZ - Watson Lake and Granite Mountain

We had dramatic skies and cold temperatures for this weekend's shoot in Prescott.  A meetup group (Beth Ruggiero-York's Arizona Night Photographers) decided to see what the winter day in Prescott had to offer.  We weren't disappointed.

Watson's Lake and the trees around the edge.

 These were taken from the pull-off.

 I turned around to see what was happening in the direction of the sun and saw the clouds behind the subdivision on the hill.

 Earlier in the day we took a drive to Granite Mountain and the horse corrals.

And we went to see sunrise on the lake.  This rowing team of five ducks came by several times. Karen Martin thinks that the white one was the crew chief because of the timing of "quack (row), quack (row) quack (row).  It was a fun day and worth the drive.  Stayed at an AirBnb that borders the forest at Thumb Butte.  Friday night dinner at Rosa's was very good with pizza.  Saturday brunch at Waffles and More before the crowds showed up.  And a quick soup and salad after tonight's shoot at Panera.

Phoenix, AZ - 6/8 Oil Painting Class

Last week I had worked on the underpainting of this piece. I let it dry for a week and tonight my job was to put the gold accents and shading all around to give it depth in three dimensions. It was a lot of fun. I think I still need to let it dry and try again next week for the finishing touches and I can bring it home to hang on the wall.

I spoke with the teacher Edna tonight and told her that I had two more things that I needed to learn in this session. Number one is how to paint fabric folds to make them look 3-D and beautiful. Number two is skin tones. I have a really nice photo of a fair skinned young lady along with a girl with darker tones.

Someone had asked where I'm taking the classes. I am attending Phoenix Center for the Arts on 3rd Street south of McDowell Avenue. There are a lot of classes listed on their website. I really enjoyed it and plan to consider and take another eight week course.

The first one is pre-gold highlights, followed by a completed version and close-ups. 

here are some close-up so that you could see the details.

Ladee

Travel info and photographs: 

ladeetravels.blogspot.com 

"Of all the books in the world, the best stories are found between the ladeetravels.blogspot.copages of a passport."

Fun stuff here: 

http://www.vivyxprinting.com/pros/ladeetravels

http://fineartamerica.com/artists/ladee+rickard

Phoenix, AZ - 5/8 Oil Painting

Tonight I started work to paint two black and white canvas prints. This has the first layer of paint. 

Ladee

Travel info and photographs: 

ladeetravels.blogspot.com 

"Of all the books in the world, the best stories are found between the pages of a passport."

Fun stuff here: 

http://www.vivyxprinting.com/pros/ladeetravels

http://fineartamerica.com/artists/ladee+rickard