"Having Fun With Red & Green"

When I was asked if I would like to donate one of my pieces to Nationals this year to be included in the silent auction my response naturally was "yes". I had previously taken some pictures of a green apple on a red plate and decided to do one of those. I think I really wanted to play around with red and green. Anyway, I had fun and I was very pleased with how the piece turned out. Now the photography is not too great, it looks a little blurry to me. Since I was having fun with red & green I thought that would make a neat title. It was done on Uart sand paper, 800 grit, with Prismacolors and blended with the brush. It measures 10 3/4 x 6 7/8.

A quote by watercolor artist Steve Hanks...

"As an artist you might get into the medium you are working in and then just get into a comfort zone and stay there," say's Steve Hanks. "However there is something to be said about working outside your comfort zone, something about the mystery of trying to figure it out or not knowing how it works. As accurately as I paint, I need to throw myself out of the comfort zone... " Hanks finds that it's essential to his own idea of creativity that he changes his style periodically so that he won't get stuck doing a certain type of painting over and over. American Art Collector January 2008

THE PORTRAIT IN FRENCH GRAY - Tampa Bay, Florida - March 14-16, 2008

Some had to leave before the group shot was taken.

In the beginning, at least on day one, were the value scales...

Ah those dreaded value scales. No one ever seems to want to

do them but as you can see by those smiles they were not that bad

after all.

Pulling everything together....

Developing nicely...

Betty and the portrait she was working on..

Somehow I failed to take a picture of Betty while
she was working on her portrait so I thought I'd
just show you the finished piece along with a picture
of Betty working. Ordinarily I would have cropped
the purple tape out of the picture but since it was
not taken straight on, cropping and straightening
the picture distorted it so I left it as it was.