And the winners are...

There was a whole lotta lookin' going on.. and we had several "almost right" guesses. The winners of a pack of postcards are Diann S., Karen G., Debbie M., Tracy M., and Pat S.P. Congratulations! I am also giving out another pack for the most effort to Brittany S. for her determination :-). Brittany is an artist and I think every red mark she saw looked like a ball to her... but after several attempts, she finally found it. (Brittany, you know I say this all with an understanding smile on my face.) Thanks for playing everyone! See www.artonunionstreet.blogspot.com for the red ball.

Art card pack give-away!

Find the RED BALL on this site and be one of the first FIVE people to send me an email with the location. I will post the five winners on this blog on Monday night. Your search may require a little clicking around... but there is no mistaking the RED BALL. It really is a ball... not a flower, not a button, not a logo or an icon... not any other circular object :-). The winners will receive one 10-pack of my Rose Bryant Postcards with envelopes. Have fun! And see you on May 6 and 7 at Art on Union Street.

A splash of color

This little painting is 3x3 on a thick chunky canvas frame. It is perky and bright, and stands up on its own. It makes me feel happy. I painted two more with this color and theme. Now I feel happy two more times. How far can I take this?! I don't know :-). Stop in for Art On Union Street, May 6 and 7 and find out. You may feel happy three times, too!

Spring in New Hampshire

Finally! Yes finally! We can see buds... and crocus... and starts to green. This is my laundry, which I line dry (or rack dry in the winter). We got rid of our dryer since we didn't use it. This kind of day reminds me of the things I know will come... lunch on my picnic table, neighbors in the street, concerts in the park, less clothing and of course, art. I have lined up more shows this season than I have usually done in the past. The first one is this Mother's Day weekend and one of the participants is Donna Jensen. She will be here discussing all things for the garden. She'll have a worm composting unit, a honey bee observation hive, and answers to your garden/environmental questions. See some of her latest published work here. And join us May 6 and 7!

An inside look...

Sometimes people ask me how I go about starting a painting. There are so many answers to this. In most cases, I first have an idea of subject matter... but sometimes it actually starts with a color that I am dying to use. The picture above shows a stage of the process when I create tiny paintings. Sometimes my larger works follow a similar path... especially if I am working on a theme for a series, say. In the case of the tiny ones above, I took a great winter photo of my back yard. Then I cropped the photo in an editing program and turned it into black and white. I see the values a lot better then and am not distracted by what the color "should be". (Those "should be" expectations can really put a kink in my day.) And I chose a rich ground color that will really create excitement as the paint gets layered on top. Then I created compositions on the canvas in another bright color... red in this case. Some compositions show the photo "as is' and some are variations... and some are completely made up. Each composition is different, making each painting different. But the paintings all tie together with similar color applications. As I apply color to the canvas, I try to leave hints of the gold ground and red line showing. I love to work in groups of similar color choices, as shown here, because it gives me a basis for color decisions from painting to painting. Hope this inspires you to pick up a brush and make a start. Have a great day in color!