Necklace in Hot Pink and Black-and-White

I worked on this necklace for several days, and finally finished it on March 18th.  I started the striped black-and-white beads, and put them with wooden beads in hot pink. I added black stone beads and silver metallic spheres. This is my kind of color scheme!  I think it would look good with a black or black-and-white outfit.

Double Circle Pendant with Red Bead on Black Cord

Open Studios is coming up at Porter Mill here in Beverly, MA, so I thought I would make some more jewelry.  Here is another necklace that I made recently (March 14).  I left extra cord so the length can be adjusted.

Necklace with Wood and Red-Orange Stone

After painting so much for my recent show, it was time to shift gears and make some jewelry.  I was looking through my beads and found an unfinished necklace.  I decided to start with that. This is how it looked when it was finished, back on March 12th.

Hopeful Sunflower (Acrylic Mixed Media)

On March 15th and 16th, I painted this hopeful sunflower  for Galatea Fine Art's art show and fundraiser for Ukraine. The fundraiser, called "Art for Ukraine," is now posted on Artsy.com.  Galatea artists were asked to contribute their work.  Here is a link to the show on Artsy: https://www.artsy.net/show/galatea-fine-art-in-solidarity"  You will see lots of sunflowers. Mine is 8 x 10 on canvas, created with acrylic paint and pasted paper.

Two Paintings at Galatea Fine Arts

Time for one more post: two paintings on display at Galatea Fine Art.  Top image: Rising Road: (To Estes Park) and bottom image: Near Colorado Springs.  The show will be up until 4 pm today., last chance to see it in person.  But after that, you can still see it online on Artsy.com: https://www.artsy.net/show/galatea-fine-art-randa-dubnick-back-to-the-mountains-memories-and-daydreams 

Three Paintings at Galatea Fine Arts

Still one more day to see my show at Galatea Fine Arts.  Here are three of the paintings;  Top: Towards the Mountains.  Middle:  Lake Estes  Bottom: Near Garden of the Gods.

Four Mixed Media Paintings at Galatea, March 2022

My solo show is still up at Galatea, but will come down at 4 PM Sunday. I hope local Facebookers will stop by. But there is still time to show you a few photos. This is a group of four paintings, all mixed media (acrylic paint and pasted paper). Top Left: Mountains of Home (Near Pueblo). Top Right: Sunrise on Pike's Peak. Bottom Left: Front Range Thunderstorm. Bottom Right: Front Range Sunset (Near Fountain)

Wedding Cake (on Zoom): with Prisma filter

The one year anniversary of our son and daughter-in-law's wedding is today. The wedding took place over Zoom, and one of the wedding guests took the original photo (seen via a laptop).  I added the Prisma filter.  Here are the bride and groom cutting the wedding cake, as friends and relatives offered advice and good wishes. Great memory of a very happy day.

"Back to the Mountains": Video of show after installation

On February 28th, we drove down to Galatea Fine Art in Boston. It was time for my show to go up on the walls.   Marjorie Kaye, along with fellow artists who are members of the installation committee did a great job decided where to hang what. After the work was hung, I took this video, although I was way too excited to have a steady hand.  I edited the video afterward, but it is still a bumpy ride. .

Back to the Mountains (Heading West from Denver): Acrylic Watermedia Painting

This was the last painting that I did for my show, "Back to the Mountains: Memories and Daydreams,"  at Galatea Fine Arts this month. I finished this painting on February 20th, doing most of the painting all in one day, which is very unusual for me.  I used a bright blue for the sky, and created some of the textures in the mountain ranges with acrylic paint used with water wash-off and table salt. Perhaps because this was my last painting for the show,  I pulled out all the stops.  I mixed some pearlized irridescent paint with titanium white for the snow.  I mixed silver metallic paint with blue to get those blue-gray areas on the mountains.  And I used my old favorite "hot pink" for the sun, and for the a subtle outline on the tops of the mountain range.  This painting combines some of my "old standard" techniques for acrylic watermedia landscapes, but also reflects some new things I have learned in preparing for this show: an emphasis on a strong shapes and  textures, thanks to my work with pasted paper. Despite the time pressures and stress that come with getting ready for a show, I really did enjoy it.  It has been lovely to get back to the mountains.

Back to the Mountains: Heading West from Denver (Painting as of February 18, 2022)

Here is my painting as it looked on the first day, which was February 18th.  Using my photo reference (posted here yesterday(, I roughed in the lines of the composition with blue paint, and then indicated areas of light and dark.  More to come. . .

Back to the Mountains (Photo Reference for Painting)

I needed just one more photograph to serve as a reference for a painting, the last one for my show. I found what I needed among photos that I took during our most recent trip to Colorado,, in 2018. I cropped the image seen here from a photo that I took as we were headed west from Denver, back to the mountains

Mountains of Home (Near Pueblo): Acrylic Mixed Media

This is the final version of this painting, finished on February 18, 2002.  I made some minor changes to the foreground, and added an area of darker blue to the mountains.  I added a bit more gold paint.  And then it was done.

Mountains of Home (Near Pueblo): Painting as of February 17

Here's my painting as it looked on February 17th.  I began painting into the pasted paper, trying to bring the colors a bit closer to my reference photo.  I lightened the mountains and the clouds with some pale blue paint.  I added lime green paper and darker green paint to the foreground.  I also painted into the brightest part of the sky with pale orange and pink paint  And I experimented by adding touches of metallic paint, sometimes by itself, and sometimes mixed in with other colors.  At this point, this painting was not quite finished, but it was close.

Reposting: Ring of Kerry (Watercolor)

I painted this watercolor some years ago.   My friend Herman asked me to paint this scene of the Ring of Kerry, in County Kerry, Ireland, as a gift for his wife, whose name is Kerry.  I had a lovely time painting this. We are all Irish on March 17th, so I decided to re-post this.

Reposting: Hamantaschen Again (Video)

Reposting this little video that I created on my iPad a few years ago,  and my drawing program captured the action.  These are hamentaschen, triangular filled cookies eaten on Purim.  The cookies are triangular to represent the three-cornered hat of Haman, the "wicked, wicked man" who plotted to kill all the Jews, but was foiled by Queen Esther, who saved the day. We celebrate this with funny costumes, cookies, and laughter. Reposting this today because Purim started at sundown, and because in the face of yet another "wicked, wicked man," it is good to have a reminder.  

Mountains of Home (Near Pueblo): Painting as of February 16, 2022

Here is my painting as it looked on February 16th.  I started to modify the basic shapes with more pasted paper and with acrylic paint. I added some light blue paper to the sky, and used lime green tissue paper on the foreground, pasted right over the brown paint.  I also lightened the sky a little bit.

Mountains of Home (Near Pueblo): Painting as of February 15, 2022

Here is my painting as of the night of February 15th.  I had worked on it off and on during the day.  I put down an undercoat of brown for the foreground, and started working on the sky with pasted paper and paint.  At this point, It looked pretty rough, but  I was still happy with the basic composition.  More to come. . .

Mountains of Home (Near Pueblo) (Painting as of February 14, 2022)

Here is my painting, "Mountains of Home (Near Pueblo) as it looked on February 14.  Using my photo reference (posted here yesterday), I started to define some of the main shapes with pasted tissue paper.  My technique is to paint into the tissue paper, so these are not the final colors.  More to come. . .

Mountains of Home (Near Pueblo) (Reference for painting)

To create this painting reference, I cropped this image out of the original photograph, another photo that I took from the road during a drive between Pueblo and Colorado Springs, on a visit home in 2011. I added some posterizing effect with Painter.

Near Garden of the Gods (Acrylic Watermedia)

On February 13, I painted off and on, returning to this painting until I finally finished it, sometime after 9 pm.

Near Garden of the Gods (Painting as of February 12, 2022)

Here is my Garden of the Gods painting as it looked the day I started it, February 12th.  I roughed in the basic shapes of the mountain ranges, rock formations, and part of the foreground, and put in the shapes of the clouds in the sky.  

Near Garden of the Gods: Sketch for painting (February 12, 2022)

Back on February 12, I was getting ready to start my painting of Garden of the Gods.  I used blue conte crayon to sketch the composition right on the painting surface.  To be continued. . . .

Near Garden of the Gods (Digitally Altered Photo for Painting Reference)

I love Garden of the Gods, and over the years, during visits back to my home state, I have had a chance to visit there with  friends who live in Colorado Springs. The rock formations are spectacular, but I have never tried to paint them. But recently I  came across a photo that I took as we drove toward Garden of the Gods. I liked the way those odd  rock formations seemed to be layered between the blue mountains in the background and the sage green hills in the foreground.  I decided that this would be a good approach to painting the Garden of the Gods, and that made me happy. But in the original version of this photo,  there was a tree or two blocking the view, so I used Painter's cut-and-past and digital pastel to move things around a bit. The result, my painting reference, is posted here.

Glenwood Canyon Memory (Acrylic Watermedia)

Here is the final version of my painting of Glenwood Canyon.  I thought it was finished on February 12, and I put it aside to go on to another painting.  But I finally went back to it on February 21st, and made a few changes to strengthen some of the lines.

Glenwood Canyon Memory (Painting as of February 12, 2022)

Here is my painting of Glenwood Canyon, as it looked on February 12th, when I thought it was almost finished.  I was wrong.

Glenwood Canyon Memory (Painting as of February 11, 2022)

Here is my painting of Glenwood Canyon as it looked on February 11, 2022. I started working in the foliage, using my photo reference as a guide.

Back to the Mountains: Memories and Daydreams (Invitation to Show)

 

This is the flier I made for my solo show at Galatea Fine Arts, Boston, opening tonight (6 to 8 pm). The image is my painting, "Mountain Road: To Breckenridge."  

Glenwood Canyon Memory (Painting as of February 10, 2022)

Here is my painting, "Glenwood Canyon Memory", as it looked on February 10th, the day I started painting.

Glenwood Canyon Memory (Sketch for Painting, February 9, 2022)

Here is the sketch for my painting of Glenwood Canyon. I got this painting started by drawing directly on the painting surface with conte crayon. 

Glenwood Canyon: Painting Reference (Digitally Altered Photo)

Yesterday's post was a photo taken during a family trip to Glenwood Springs.  I wanted to use it as the basis of a painting, but the dimensions were wrong.  it was vertical (portrait) but I wanted it to be horizontal (landscape). So I opened the image in Painter, cropped it and made it wider by adding more cliffs (using digital pastel as well as copying and pasting). Here is the digitally altered version that I used as a painting reference.