Well, its been a while.  I have been very busy planning our next Kingwood Art Society Fall Art Show coming up Nov 7th.  Go to my website DebraLatham.com or KingwoodArtSociety.com for all the info and registration forms.

This is what I've been working on lately.

This is Gus our newly acquired Shih Tzu.  He's in trouble right now.  Does anyone have any pointers on house training a Shih Tzu.  I have read they are very stubborn.  I believe it.  But how can you stay upset with such a cute little face.

This is Fonzie, Gus's little buddy.  Not sure if Fonzie is in complete agreement with that.

I showed you in an earlier post of some of the places I went out to in Austin with PleinAirAustin.org  I decided to repaint that bridge again and bigger.  Tweak it here and there.

This is the sketch.

Here I have put in some of the darks.

This is almost complete I have noticed that the rocks line up too much in a straight line.  I'll work on varying that up a little and add a few more highlights.

Until next time.

I went out again with the Plein Air Austin group again a couple of weekends ago.  We had a wonderful time.  Although it was very muggy even at 8am.  

This was on Lost Creek.  I would have never known this was here if it hadn't been for this group.

I'm still trying to get the hang of it.  I think I need to take a workshop on plein air painting.  Practice, practice, practice.

It is absolutely beautiful here.  I'm sure there are some pretty parts of Houston (where I live) but you really have to search them out.  In Austin (and surrounding areas), any where you look is scenic.  ( I may have already mentioned this but its worth mentioning again.)

This is a lady in the group doing water color.  I'm still trying to get all the names down.  I think it was Jane. Nice work.

I think it will be a couple more weeks before I can go out with them again.  

So until then,

God Bless

What a weekend!  This was my first attempt at true plein air painting.  I recently joined the Plein Air Austin group.  We go to Austin a couple times a month anyway so I decided to join and go out with them as much as possible.  This was a little bridge in the middle of the down town Austin area that we met at.  It was beautiful.  You don't really see it from the street as you drive by and would never know it was there.

There was a homeless man on the other side of this wall.  He looked perfectly content.  I think this is where I would chose to be if I were homeless.

This was my attempt at painting the bridge.  You could tell the others were experts at this.  I stayed toward the back of the group so they couldn't tell what an amateur I was.  At one point I was going to move my easel across the creek to get a different view.  A rock I stepped on moved and my foot went into the water I finally caught myself and saved the easel and paint box from going into the water.  I know I looked like" Lucy" trying to paint.  Anyway we had a very good time.  It was fun, peaceful and educational.

I started another one while I was there but everyone started packing things up and I didn't want to be the only one there so I took a few pictures and I'll finish it first chance I get and show it to you.  (If it turns out O.K.)

Well, my cows aren't pigs anymore but my husband said they are starting to look like horses.  So I've got a little more work to do on them.

Till next time.

"Lone Pepper"

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Here's todays painting .  Peppers are interesting to paint with all of the angles and crevices.  It has it's own terrain.

"One Lump or Two"

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Boy is glass a challenge to paint.  

"Plump Trio"

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Here is my latest Painting a Day listed on ebay.  These three little tomatoes were begging to be painted.  

6x6" oil on Ray Mar Panel

Wow! It's been a while since I posted.  My life was off track for a while.  Unfortunately we had 2 deaths in the family.  So there has ben a lot to take care of lately.  I have also been working on our Art Society's new website.  It looks great.  Take a look at it and see what you think.  www.KingwoodArtSociety.com  Even if you can't come to our monthly meetings, you could still join the Kingwood Art Society for $40/yr and then you're able to get the Gallery membership for $20/yr.  which would enable you to post 9 photos of your work, have an artist's bio and contact information.  All for $60 you could have a web presence for your art and you don't even have to manage it.  Where else can you get a deal like that?  If you are interested in your own site, contact me.  I can get you a discount with FineArtStudioOnline.com   I have used them for 2 1/2 years now for my own website and love them.  To get the discount, I have to send you an email with a special link in it.  O.K. that was my sales pitch for the day.

I also wanted to show you the commission I've just finished.  I was pleased with the way it turned out.

 

This is the original sketch of "Sydney".
 

Here I just blocked in the color and got the structure of the face down right.

The finished painting!  I think I redid the face at least 4 times before I got it down just right.

Close up of the precious little angelic face.

Hand detail.

If you are interested in commissions, please contact me at debra@debralatham.com

That's all for today.  And hopefully it won't be that long before my next post.  If all goes well,  I'll tell you about a new project I'm starting to work on in the next post.

God Bless,

Debra

Here's the latest on my painting I'm working on.

  I finally got the hands to come out right. (Now if I can just leave them alone).

Tomorrow I hope to finish it.  I am going to put in a dangling, ornate, Spanish looking earring then I'll be done. (I hope) 

I think I'll call her "Isabella".

Well this week was Spring Break.  With only 4 of us there we had a lot of room to spread out.

This is one of Vanita's pieces that she was making for a customer from the St. Lukes show she did a couple of weeks ago.  She sold 18 out of 35 pieces.  Great Job!!

This week I thought I would talk about getting organized.

Many of you have a hard time getting out the door on Thursdays (myself included) and of course everything that can go wrong does.

Some of us have tried many different things to make it easier.  

But here's what works for me.  

Shirley and I both, as some of you have seen have these rolling carts we got from www.jerrysartarama.com  I have used this for over a year now and I wouldn't go to paint without it.  I love it.  I've teased her about putting cup holders on her SUV.

This is what Sally uses for her watercolor "stuff"

I think what is most important is that you find something to put EVERYTHING in and easy to get in and out of the car.   If you get organized, you'll have a better chance of getting out the door to paint with us on Thursdays.  

I try to take it a step further and make sure I've got everything in my cart the night before.  So all I have to do is get grab it and stick it in the car.  Of course there have been times it slips up on me and I forget to get it all together the night before.  Especially when I walked out the door, got to our painting place and realized I left my cart and my paintings sitting at the front door of my house. So I had to turn around and go back and get them.  How stupid.  Oh well.  I know I'm not alone. Huh? 

So, find something with wheels on it that will hold all your "stuff" and come paint with us.

Hopefully everyone will be back next week.

Don't forget to turn in your forms for the Art Show & Competition on April 4th if you haven't already.  The deadline is March 31st.

By for now!

I woke up early one morning this week.  I couldn't sleep.  I was inspired by a dress I saw and a technique I wanted to try.  So I started my sketch.

I want to paint the underpainting of the dress in a yellow or red and then let dry and go back with a very dark color I will make the dress and while its wet, scratch the details into the dress.  This way the colors will come through that are underneath.

We'll see if this is going to work.

I decided to block in the basics first before I put in the colors that will show through in the dress.

That's all I'm going to get done today.

I'll have an update on my progress soon.

By for now.