PAINTING with PIXELS
Workshop

I will be teaching a two-day workshop January 4th and 5th, at The Art League School, in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia.

It will be covering some excellent apps for painting and drawing. Among others, I'll cover ArtRage, SketchBook Pro, ArtStudio, PhotoShop Touch, and Procreate for the big multiple medium programs, and specialists for ink (Zen Brush), graphite/charcoal (Asketch) , and watercolor (Auryn Ink).

From the catalog:

"This workshop introduces students to tablet and smart phone apps for fine artists. Discover helpful apps to improve traditional drawing and painting experiences, including useful tricks to help composition and visualization. Participants also learn apps that enable drawing or painting directly in various simulated media, such as charcoal, ink on paper, watercolor, pastels, or oils. Other non-traditional media and special effects apps are also covered. Participants must bring their own Apple iPad, iPhone,  or Android tablet."  

 Contact me with Questions, and check out the
APPS for ARTISTS heading.

Come see what you can do with this new medium!

High Light, October

I've been reworking some of my favorite Camera360 photos from this year, with a higher resolution and layers of controlled effects. Here's a before-and-after pair of a high street lamp back-lighting a spectacular October tree.

The original shot, below, uses a Cartoon filter at full strength, saved at low resolution. The final version uses the Cartoon and four other filters as well, mostly with low strength, and saved at full resolution. I liked the first one, but I like the new version much better!

"Early Spring, Early Morning"
Watercolor

This little watercolor painting was accepted into the "Small Works" juried show at the Art League Gallery.

About an hour's drive west there's a place where the Appalachian Trail crosses Rt. 7, near the town of Bluemont. It descends down the side of one mountain, crosses the highway, and climbs back up the next mountain on it's way to Harper's Ferry. There's an old lodge nearby that's a trail center called Bear's Den Lodge. Sometimes I go there for a bit of Nature time. I was on the trail very early one morning, it was still a bit foggy.

The painting is not very big, only a bit larger than 4" X 6".  It was painted with a teeny tiny little set of watercolors, and a brush that stores water in it's handle, (self-watering?).

"Blind Sunset"

In the evenings, when the days are short and the sun is low, the setting sun casts brilliant rows of color into the room. I sit and watch them creep up the wall.

This image uses parts of 5 different versions from Camera360

Now that I finally have access to the third floor, I can take advantage of the huge skylight over the stairwell. The sun pours in for a few hours at midday, and it's always wonderfully bright. When the sun is low, as it is all winter, it reaches all the way into the back of the wide stairwell up to the deck.
A number of key plants came inside just before the first cold night. (Coleus suffer even at 40 degrees). I could just pull the plant, pot and all, out of the ground, cut it back and clean it up a bit, and bring it in. The winter garden pansies, in their pots, were dropped right into the empty holes. Works like a charm!

As you can see, the plants seem to love it. Me too! Now there's a nice sunny spot to sit during the winter.