Painting

Wood Duck painting & photos: FFA & LAPC

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Today, I’m sharing a Wood Duck painting I created. I used acrylic paints on mixed media paper that is slightly grained.

wood duck painting

Wood Ducks, Aix sponsa, are one of the most beautiful ducks in the world. They are colorful and have unique markings.

drake duck

Wood Ducks look like someone couldn’t decide what they should include when they created them. They threw in multiple colors, dots, stripes, iridescence, and striking bill patterns. They’re like something out of fantasy novel.

drake duck

Creating my Wood Duck painting, mistakes and all

When I created my Wood Duck painting, I used A LOT of colors. Here’s a picture of my palette and the paper l use to try out colors. I brushed iridescent gold over parts of the head, but it’s hard to see in a photograph.

petal paint palette

wood duck painting colors

For the duck, I used sharp lines of color with a little shading. For the water in the background, I took advantage of the paper’s watercolor characteristics. I did a wash of pale green and layered on darker green and patches of pale yellow. I hope it conveys the ever-changing appearance of water.

Before painting the background, I accidentally dropped my paintbrush loaded with black paint onto the unfinished painting. It left a black spot over the duck’s head. Oh no! 😮

wood duck painting

I tried an ink eraser and an electric eraser. Nope, those didn’t work.

erasers

What did work was a small pumice file meant for fingernails. They work for several purposes, including cleaning stubborn stains in sinks and toilets. Fortunately, the file helped erase my paint mistake. 😁

pumice file

If you use a pumice file on paintings, be extra careful. It will sand off part of the paper if you press down too hard.

Do you have artwork you would like to share? Be sure to include the First Friday Art tag.

First Friday Art (FFA)

All my posts this week are related to water. Two show things in the water, and two show things on the water. I included a link to this week’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge in the two posts showing things on the water.

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge – Looking back to #155 – On the water (LAPC)

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Waterlily paintings & photo: First Friday Art

/ SoyBend / 3 Comments

Today I’m sharing a couple waterlily paintings and a photo I created. I attempted to paint the waterlily using a traditional Chinese style. Artisans train for years to perfect this type of painting. My first efforts at Chinese brush painting pale in comparison.

In the first painting, I used watercolor paint on a smooth cold press paper. Since I like showing a lot of detail in my artwork, this type of painting, where less is more, was challenging. This was my third attempt at doing this style of painting.

Waterlily watercolor

In the second painting, I used acrylic paints on a mixed media slightly grained paper.

I worked from the photo shown below of a waterlily blooming at Petersen Rock Garden and Museum.

waterlily

Before doing the waterlily paintings, I familiarized myself with the brushes using black ink. The quality of brushes varies, but sets can be purchased online at low costs.

Chinese brush set

Here are some of the exercises I did with ink using hard and soft brushes. I really enjoyed doing these exercises. When using some of these techniques, you hold the brush straight up and down instead of at an angle. I used The Chinese Brush Painting Bible by Jane Dwight as a guide.

brushwork

Inkstones and Inksticks

I recently decided to purchase an inkstone and an inkstick. You grind the inksticks on the inkstones with a little water to make ink. In the Chinese period dramas I’ve watched, they frequently feature characters grinding ink. The inkstone I purchased is of a simple design, but some are elaborate works of art.

I bought an inkstick because you can vary the density of color more than you can with traditional bottled ink. To see the ancient method used to create inksticks, watch this FASCINATING video. The oldest Chinese inkstick artifacts date back to the 12th century BC.

Do you have artwork you would like to share? Be sure to include the First Friday Art tag.

First Friday Art (FFA)

Bend Branches always appreciates your comments and likes. Comments may not appear right away since they’re screened for spam prior to posting. Thanks!

Cedar Bear: Monday Mural

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I saw this Cedar Bear Herbal Supplements mural while visiting Vernal, Utah. I especially liked the blue and green colors in this mural. The artist did a great job of painting liquid, not an easy thing to do. The light outlines of cresting waves filled out the space and gave a good sense of movement.

Cedar Bear mural

Monday Mural

Succulent mural in Bend: Monday Mural

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This succulent mural is at River’s Place, a food truck pod on the east side of Bend. We are lucky to have at least seven of these “pods” where trucks can hook up to water and power to serve customers. Each pod has indoor seating with numerous beers on tap. They also host musicians, trivia nights, and other events.

This mural was created by Nicole Fontana, of Fontana Painting. Succulents are one of my favorite types of plants because they have so much variety. She captured that variety well.

I have featured Nicole’s work in a previous post featuring whimsical doors in Tumalo. I loved the detail in those paintings and in this succulent mural.

succulent mural

Monday Mural

Lone Pine Coffee mural: Monday Mural

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This painting is in the eastside Lone Pine Coffee Roasters business in Bend. The mural was painted by artist Megan McGuinness and it wraps around three walls. I like how she outlined almost everything with white borders.

This scene shows a fox in the foreground and a snowy owl in the upper corner. The mountain on the right is Smith Rock, a local rock climber’s favorite. Crooked River wraps around the edge of the mountain.

Lone Pine Coffee mural

Monday Mural

The Bend Wall: Monday Mural

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You’ll find The The Bend Wall mural on the side of Newport Market, a neighborhood grocery store in Bend, Oregon. The bright painting covers a 100-foot long wall on the side of the building.

This impressive piece of artwork was created by Bend artist, Kim Smallenberg.

The mountain in the center of the mural is Pilot Butte, a dormant volcano. On the right side near the peak, you can see a small fire. On the Fourth of July, commercial fireworks are launched from Pilot Butte, and sometimes, it catches on fire. Our Fire Department is always there and ready.

The Bend Wall

A large metal sculpture of a bear sits in front of one end. The mural behind the bear shows dogs around a campfire. Bend is a dog-centered town. Many residents own one, or two, or…

Bear sculpture & dogs mural
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Tiger painting in acrylics: First Friday Art

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Here’s a tiger painting in acrylics I did on a small wooden box. I liked how the eyes turned out on this piece.

It’s time to share artwork since it’s the first Friday of the month. If you have something you would like to share, use the First Friday Art tag.

Tiger painting in acrylics by Siobhan Sullivan July 2020

Dinosaur rock: Finding my calm

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Dinosaur rock, Siobhan Sullivan March 2020

I was looking for things to do around the house and decided to paint this dinosaur rock. This 8″ x 12″ Tyrannosaurus rex is the bigger version of this rock that I painted several years ago. Maybe this one will find a place in my garden.

In these chaotic times, I was looking for something to bring a sense of calm. Who knew I could find my calm by painting a dinosaur rock.

Art, in itself, is an attempt to bring order out of chaos.

Stephen Sondheim

This morning I found this article – Soothe Your Soul With An Arts Break. It features a wide variety of artwork from diverse artists. The site features six short videos. I hope some of the art in these videos will soothe your soul… at least for a little while.