Watercolor Self-Portrait

I really wanted to paint today and this happened sort of spontaneously. There are several watercolor portrait artists who I greatly admire and who have and continue to influence me. One is Roberta Carter Clark. She is an amazing portrait artist who is comfortable working in just about any medium. I love her watercolors and was going to copy one she had in her book Painting Vibrant Children's Portraits. Instead I decided to just try to emulate the style which isn't far off from the way I paint but lately it seems I've gotten back to being tighter and I want to get back to being looser and letting the watercolor do it's thing. It's a test of willpower to mix up a puddle of paint, lay it down and then let it dry without going back in! 

Portrait Swap

I teamed up with Mark Satchwill, a watercolor portrait artist who I have known for several years through some online groups for EBSQArt's annual portrait swap. I posted his a couple of weeks ago and here is the one he painted of me. This is actually the first watercolor portrait I have of myself. Didn't he do a great job?

Blogger of the Week on EBSQArt & Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!

 This week I am being featured on EBSQ as their blogger of the week.
http://blog.ebsqart.com/2010/11/23/ebsq-blogger-of-the-week-kathy-jurek/#comment-5049

Self portrait

I thought I was going to do a self portrait in watercolor today. I got carried away with my drawing instead. Too bad it's on tracing paper. :)

You Decide (M & M Series)

I've done a series of paintings in front of M&M machines over the last several years and this is one I painted over the summer for a local show. I had it professionally scanned and found the disk on my desk this afternoon and remembered I had never posted it. So here it is! This painting is on Aquaboard and measures 18 x 24. If you are unfamiliar with Aquaboard - it is a board with a textured clay surface that will accept watercolor. It doesn't have to be framed under glass and it's a board so you don't have to mat or stretch it. You just finish it with a spray fixative and frame it.

EBSQArt Annual Portrait Swap

This is my painting of Mark Satchwill for the EBSQArt.com annual portrait swap. Mark is also a watercolor portrait artist and we've been in a few online groups together. You can see his art at http://www.marksatchwill.com/.

Illustration Friday - "Afterwards"

This is my illustration for Illustration Friday's theme "Afterwards".  This is the sick mind of an artist although I would say this is still rated "G".  This is my first finished painting since I completed my pumpkin project 5 days ago. If you missed it, I put together a slideshow to your right. I learned that it pays off to have some kind of project or firm painting schedule to keep you going. Five days without painting went by so quickly. It is so easy to get distracted with other things!

October Free Print People....

For all of you following who commented on this blog during October and would like a free print of one of my pumpkin paintings, please help me out and send me your name and address. You can add your information to my mailing list on my website www.kathyjurek.com or you may send it to me directly by emailing me through my website or through this blog. I have approximately 30 people to get in touch with and this would speed things up and help me out a lot.

Please get this information to me by November 15th.  Thanks a bunch!