Oranges and Grapefruit

Oranges and Grapefruits.
Watercolor.  

Yesterday, I got together with a group of fellow artists for critique.  It wasn't the whole group, but Marilyn Bishop, Rama Desai, Nancy Wisely, Sherry Stoffer, Margie Carleton, Diana Marra, Andrea Chemero, Barb Smucker (fearless leader and organizer), Roxanne Brett, and Taylor Bush were able to be there.  Many of them aren't online, but if they are, I've tried to include links.  A lot of them read this blog--big grin.

This group is particularly interesting because of the diversity of media (watercolor, acrylic, fiber, mixed media, you name it, and these women have tried it or plan to try it....) and styles, but also the support and encouragement they bring.

We encourage each other to try new things and push our art, which you can really see is making each of us better artists.

One thing that came up quite a bit yesterday was cropping or making changes.  Sometimes, you have to take away to make better art.  Here's a
painting I was working on that's sort of an abstraction of grapefruit and oranges (below) and above is how I would crop it with in a mat. (Approximately.  I keep messing with it.)  The original still life was set out on a chair that I was looking overlooking, a kind of bird's eye vies.

Painted on 140 lb Lanquerelle cold press with Daniel Smith Watercolors:  Hansa Yellow Medium, Phthalo Blue GS, Indigo, and Quinacridone Rose.

I may have mentioned that I'm trying to use up the paints in my palette so I can rearrange the palettes--this painting cleaned out the yellow, rose, and blue.  Progress.