Sumi-e

This old Japanese style of black ink painting was new for me today. It was all about how to load the brush and hold the brush to make the strokes you want. Much more challenging and interesting than I thought.

Palette knife work

These abstract works came from the need to use my art supplies before buying more, and it kind of freed me to do what I felt. This is what emerged on one, and I like it.
I had old, used canvases that I spread paint on. A therapeutic exercise. Then I would spread on another color that would not cover every thing in the previous coat. Then another, and some scraping to highlight and perhaps an additional color until I felt I was on to something. Layered abstracts are like people in that we have many layers. You may wonder what lies beneath.
Not everyone will like abstracts, but I think they are fun to paint. And people look at them as if they are thinking...what in the world is that!

From photos to paintings

Occasionally an ArtWorks neighbor will use a photograph that I took and paint a nice piece of art from it. Here are two photos you may recognize that Jo and Cathy used as reference for oil paintings.
That pleases me to no end!