"Feathers of Angel Wings"

(SOLD.....8" x 8".....Watercolor on 300 lb. CP Fabriano.......Presented on a 2" Cradled Board)

"The feathers of angel wings cover me with protection." Everyone likes the idea of being protected from the storms of life. The association of a feather image to angel wings rustles my imagination in a very good way.

Well.....this is the end of the angel series. It's time to move on. The position of these last set of wings came to me just before I woke up this morning. They are almost touching and seem to be enclosing an area....very much like a shelter. (Psalm 91 provides more connections with this thought.)

Of course the piece was created much the same way as the others so there's not too much to add to those comments. I guess my big take away from this particular design in conjunction with watercolor techniques was the idea of color bands and the surrounding shapes. In this case, I am referring to the stripes in the feathers, but it could also be bands of strong color with negative space in between. It might be fun to create a small piece with a wide range of different sized stripes. Paint the bands of color  in a fairly saturated manner with blank paper in between. After drying the bands throughly, take a brush dipped only in water and wet each band and the area in between and allow the pigment from the saturated color to bleed into the empty band shape. It will soften the edges of the darker color and break up some of the surface of an extremely saturated color.

Most of the time, watercolors are layered to create a darker area and in most cases that would be the preferred technique, but this also offers up some possibilities. Contemporary watercolor is a wonderful segue into experimentation and simply playing around with different ratios of pigment to water. Close observation of what happens when you apply the watercolor in various stages of wetness is also instructive. For instance....applying different ratios of pigment and water to totally wet paper....waiting until the glisten of the water leaves the paper, and "bone dry" paper.

These are some of the techniques that will prove to be useful when creating a piece. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.

Please contact me personally to inquire about this piece.

"Seize the Moment"

($40.00....6" x 6".....mounted on 1/8" depth clayboard panel)


"Seize the moment before it flies away." I'm sure we can all think back on a moment of opportunity that slipped through our fingers. Sometimes there is a second chance to revisit something, but most often, it is gone forever unless we suspend what we're doing and seize the moment.  Seize a moment today before it flies away.

You may notice that the colors in this piece are the same as yesterday's posting. That's because they were cut from the same parent sheet of paper. There is the same emphasis on diagonals, but the shapes are quite different in this piece.

If you ever want to work in a series...one of the best ways to accomplish a seamless transition from one piece to the other is to work on a much larger sheet of paper and then crop two or more pieces from that larger sheet. A series can also be created by using the same materials and colors with each piece having a different composition.

Working in a series and presenting them all together is an excellent way of keeping the viewer engaged. The eye is always looking for connections, so by having several pieces that connect visually, the viewer will have much to consider.

One more interesting way to create a series is to use the same palette, but not necessarily use the same colors. Rather, a series can be united thematically. This could also be an open door for collaborative work with each person taking a part of the theme and then all of the pieces presented together. We did this one time on the art team at Open Doors Gallery by assigning 12 persons to take an element of the Last Supper and create a 4" x 4". The pieces were then presented together in the same piece.

Just thinking about a series can offer up many hours of creative study and fun for yourself and others. So think about that and perhaps you will be inspired to get started today.

Please contact me personally to inquire about this piece.