"Study of Jazz Musician Stormy" 2017

In January of 2017, I had a great gift of being able to take a 3 day workshop with master portrait artist, Mary Whyte, in NOLA. We had a family of three musicians. Each day she would do a demo of one of them and then we were given 2 hours to paint our own study of one chosen for us. This is the better of my three sketches. It was very challenging but I learned a great deal.

In April, my husband Marty and I traveled to Hendersonville, NC, to participate for our second year in a row at the Kanuga Watermedia Workshop. I took from master figure watercolor instructor Don Andrews. We had a live model for 5 days to work from. It was very challenging; and, again, I learned a great deal.

Marty took from Sandy Maudlin. He learned so much about painting on Yupo paper. When he is ready for me to post photos of his paintings in my blog, I will gladly do that. You will be amazed at how accomplished a painter he is! He has been painting seriously on Yupo with acrylic and watercolor for only a few months!

"Grand's Love"

Here is a painting of two very special people in my life, Hailey and my mother Shirley. Hailey was two at the time of the photo taken. She is now turning 17 next month. My mother is now 92. This photo showed up recently and tempted me to do a painting of the two of them. 

  

"The Court Runner" 

It has been about 3 years since I updated this blog. So much has happened and I am pleased to be back. I had two right elbow surgeries and a fire that jumped to our home from a lightning strike that destroyed the house next door. Thank God, no one was home next door. This was May 19th, a year ago tomorrow. Our home was damaged but not seriously. But we did have to live for the entire summer outside of it while it was restored. We are truly blessed to have escaped just in time and to have had the firemen arrive in time to save it! We have a neighbor's son, Tyler Dillon, to thank for being up late that night and seeing the fire and calling 911 right away! 

There have only been a few major paintings that I have completed since my last post in 2014. This one of "The Court Runner" is presently hanging in the 47th LWS International Exhibit, https://louisianawatercolorsociety.org. In the Fall Member LWS Exhibit in 2015, it was awarded Best of Show. 

The story of the subject of this painting is very interesting, I think. I met Maxwell Smart, yes, the same name as the famous character portrayed by Don Adams in the show, "Get Smart" (1965-1970).  Max was sitting just as you see him in the painting outside of St. John's Coffee Shop in Covington, LA. He is a court runner for the St. Tammany Court System. He runs papers for lawyers to and from the Courthouse in Covington. 

It was a cold day and He was reading a novel and waiting for his call. He told me that he usually had his dog with him but did not have him this day. I would have loved to capture that picture with his dog. He is a character and I met him again at the Fall Member show in 2015.