"Wedding Gift"

This is what I did for a wedding gift for my granddaughter Ashley.
It's a half sheet of Fabriano Artistico 140 lb. cold press paper.

White Roses

Here's something I really like. I finished this last week.
"White Roses". This is a full sheet, Arches 140 lb. bright white cold press paper.

Cia

Softly

I finished this one yesterday. I thought that it was finished, way before I would have usually thought that. There is a great deal to be said about knowing when to quit.

This is a half sheet watercolor on Arches 140 lb. bright white cold press paper.

My Neighbor's Roses

I'm kind of pleased with this one. It was very hard to do. These roses were in my neighbor's garden, Mr. Prestridge, and he kindly allowed me to take lots of pictures of them.

In order to get these variegated roses, I blew up portions of the picture and printed them out on photo grade paper. The difference is amazing and everybody who paints from photos ought to try this.

Here it is, it's entitled, "My Neighbor's Roses".

Some more Roses

I was told by a student that this was another masterpiece, however, I am not totally pleased with it as of yet.

This one was a combo, by that I mean that I isolated 3 pictures of roses and combined them into a composition, and this is how it turned out as a painting.

Opinions please? Cia

Yellow Roses

My goodness, I got locked out of here for a little while. Geez.

Here's my latest painting, I finally decided to try some roses! I think I turned a huge corner with this one!

Here it is!

This is a full sheet on Arches 140 lb. cold press bright white paper. It was an absolute joy to paint too.

Cia

My book

A long time ago, I taught beginning watercolor through Auburn University's Outreach Program. In order to do it I had to take a portfolio to the Department Head of the Art Department, the regular curriculum one. I went the same day I found out I had to do that. I knew that if I didn't do it that day, I would talk myself out of it. I had barely gotten a few things out of the portfolio when he picked up the phone and called Continuing Education, (that's what they called it then)
and said "Let her teach! She can certainly do it!"

And so I did. The book started out just as handouts for each weekly lesson. The students were adults, coming from all walks of life, all the way from Deans to stay-at-home mommies. It was one of the most enriching experiences of my life. The students would stay with me all 8 weeks. Other classes did not have that kind of track record.

The first edition of the book was just typewritten pages, no pictures, no fancy anything.

But it was used by the students faithfully.

Then one day my son Kendall gave me Microsoft Publisher software as a gift. Suddenly the book took on more importance and had pictures in it. The first edition had some pictures of my students' work in it.

I bought a machine to punch holes and bind the book using the spiral or the comb method. And that's the way I publish it now.

At this time, it has grown to 43 pages. It is full of pictures and illustrations, and I have removed all the student pictures as I have lost track of those folks over time, and I wish to market it more, and I don't know how to get in touch with them to ask permission to use their work in a broader way.

The book is listed on my personal website at My Book.

More New Work

It's been awhile since I updated this site, I should be more vigilant! This one is called "Abstract Rhodies" and I really like it very much. I got to a certain point with this and thought, hey, this looks finished, I'm going to stop!

White Rhodies

Hello all, I'm so excited about this particular painting! I am making progress, after all! This is white rhododendrons, it's a half sheet, and I'm trying a new paper, Artistico Fabriano 140 lb. cold press.

I'm interested to know what you think about this one!
Cia

Pink Hyrangeas

I've tried to do some hydrangeas now. Wow, what a lot of work! Here they are though. Cia

Here's a slideshow of the lesson!

I've found a way to embed the slideshow of my online lesson in here. Let's try it!


Lesson1 Watercolor Cia Price

Cia

New! Free Online Lesson

Follow the link under the title of this post to see the online lesson.
If you decide to follow along, you should start here first, this gives
the reference picture and the drawing, etc.
http://www.artmaker.com/Lesson1

Let me know if you decide to do this, I'm going to post all the pictures that we do online.

Cia

Juried IN!

I'm so excited! I've finally been juried in to something. The site
artspace2000.com invited me to join, but I had to be juried in first.
I got word that I've been accepted!

Here's the link to see it.

http://www.artspace2000.com/fine_art/gallery_40.htm#Cecilia_Price

Cia

My Web Presence So Far

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Sign up for my Newsletter Here

My page at United Creators

My New American Frame Print Gallery

Featured Artist for March at American Frame

Now at Saatchi Gallery

Two of my paintings were selected for the Manresa Animal Shelter calendar and other objects. Visit Cafe Press/Manresa Shelter. Your purchases will go to assist the shelter!

Visit my Blog!| Enter Artmaker Studio!

My site at Boundless Gallery! | My print gallery!

I now have my own shop at Cafe Press. Click here to see that.

Landscapes

I would like to exhibit some other watercolor subjects with this post. There is a link to the page where you can really see them. I'm including some of them here. This first one is a full sheet done of Helen, GA. The gentleman is Charlie, my late husband.

This one is called "Road to Glory". It's not a full sheet, almost. This painting was selected by American Frame as their print of the month for March, 2007.





This is called Old Mill Stream. This painting was featured on the cover of a magazine called "Alabama Living". This is a scene I photographed near here down stream from a dam site where there had been a waterwheel type mill. The mill has since been restored.



Tubing Stream at Helen, GA. I photographed this scene standing on a bridge overlooking the tubing stream. I developed this painting from that photograph.

Backlit Irises

Good Morning! Here's another in my series of irises. I like this one because it's backlit, which is my favorite lighting condition.

I also like the color harmony in this one.

Loose Women

I may change the title of this at some point. I just finished this one, it's painted loosely because the picture was so tiny I could not see the details. Here it is! Cia

Cascade

Dear Readers, I seem to be stuck in an iris mood. I don't care though, these complicated flowers have much to teach me. So I'm going to persevere, regardless of criticism as to why I don't paint something ELSE. Here is the one I called Cascade. I've done another one that is really loose but I need to finish it before I post it.
Cia

The one before that one, Happy Dance

I haven't put this one up either. This one came before "Iridescent Petals" and it's called "Happy Dance". The title refers not only to the way the painting turned out but also due to the fact that it went well from the start and had me doing the happy dance. I really love this one. Hope you comment!
Cia

I'm still here!

Hello! I've been so busy I haven't even been here to talk about what I'm doing!
I've been painting, and framing. Does anybody despise putting together frames as much as I do? I seem to be constantly screwing in those tiny screws only to find I don't have the corner tight enough and have to do it all over. Anyway, here's what I have just finished.

I'm very pleased with this because I have figured out how to paint an iridescent look without the use of iridescent paints. I did add a little metallic gold watercolor to the leaves but those translucent petals are just plain watercolor.

Comments?

Cia

Sold!

Hello everyone! This is a painting I sold the other day. It's called Spring Vision, it's a full sheet. The lady is very pleased with it. I was surprised because I did not even think it was finished!

Textures with Iris in a Field

Hello everyone, this is something I did in one day the other day. It's very loose and textured. I really like it! It's a full sheet. I've entered this one in an online juried contest.

Cia

"Sundance"

Good evening readers, I'm here right now to post my latest work. I just finished this a while ago. I really like it too! It's called "Sundance" and it's watercolor on Arches 140 lb. cold press paper, a full sheet this time! It's been a very long time since I tried to do that! Let me know what you think! Cia

Please sign up for my Artmaker Studio Newsletter!

If you go here: Newsletter from Artmaker Studio you can sign up for my exciting new newsletter!
I hope to see you on the list!

Seeya, Cia

Clicking on Images

Dear readers, I just figured it out that if you click on the images, you can see a bigger version! I did not know that!
Cia

"Here's My Heart" Irises

To my readers, I'm so happy with this painting. It represents a new phase for me. This is something I have longed to accomplish a long time. This is called "Here's my Heart", and of course, it's irises! This is done wet-in-wet for the most part. The secret here is how you apply the colors, you should always separate blue and yellow with red. Hope you like this one!

Yellow Double Hibiscus

Well, this is a yellow double hibiscus. I don't like it as much as the orange one. But on we march. I'm feeling like I need to paint something else next, not flowers. But it's probably the way I feel about this picture that is affecting me.

Cia

Orange Double Hibiscus

This is my first attempt at a hibiscus. Well, the Confederate Roses are a kind of hibiscus. This one is a beautiful orange double one. I'm really liking this one. It's a combination of watercolor and watercolor pencils. I hope to do more of these!

First painting painted in 2007 by me.

A link to my floral page

Visit a page I created for my florals. Hope you enjoy it!
Cia

Yellow Glads

Hi Y'all, this is a painting I've just finished in the last day or so. This one took more time. It's called, simply "Yellow Glads".

Cia

Some More Glads

Today I'm posting another gladiola picture. This one is a WIP (Work in Progress) and I know some things I want to do to it. I liked this one because of the backlit thing, as usual, and it does seem to glow! I think that I have a new motto: If it doesn't glow, it doesn't show. Cia

I painted this yesterday. I really like this one, I think I achieved the goal I had of getting these glads to "glow" because of being backlit. I find that backlit lighting is my favorite sometimes. I might do a little more to this but doubt it.

You could say that I'm on a "glad" kick right now. I'm already planning the next one!

This painting is 11 x 15 inches on Arches 140 lb cp paper. I used some watercolor pencils a little bit in some places.

It's called "Backlit White Glads"

I'm Glad!

Seems I have found a new flower to paint! This gladiola seemed to say "paint me!"
So I did. I think it needs some finesse, but here it is.

Well, here we are at almost the end of November. I don't know whether I'm coming or going!
I will show you the latest things I've done though. This was my first attempt at painting on 140 lb. Arches hot press paper. I like how vivid the colors are!

This is the one before that.


This one was done on 140 lb. cold press Arches. Both of these are from pictures I took of my Confederate Rose blossoms recently.

The Manresa Animal Shelter Calendar!!!!!

Hello all, I'm pretty excited right now! Two of my paintings made it into the Manresa Animal Shelter Calendar. This one: On the site, it's called Rebel Rose instead of Confederate Rose to shorten the name for reasons of the way the site is done. This one is in a collage on the cover of the calendar.

The second one is this one: Luminous Rhodies. It might be shortened to just Rhodies. I want to get these on some postage stamps, for one!


Please visit Cafe Press/Manresa and if you purchase anything, the proceeds will go to the Manresa Benefit Shelter in Spain. I heard that they need a new roof!
Please help this wonderful place continue to operate!

Manresa Animal Shelter

There are many items, such as stamps, calendars, T-shirts, baby items, note cards and other things with these images on them.

Thanks in advance for your assistance! Please let me know if you decided to do this so that I may thank you on their behalf.

Confederate Roses High on a Bush

This is what I did yesterday and day before. It progressed from a wider picture. After Pauline Healey said the design wasn't good, I began to progressively tape off parts of the painting until I got to this place. I thought this was a good design. The main flower is not in the center and I left the space on the right for a resting space. Here I employed the method of laying down 3 primary colors on a wet petal to get an iridescent look. To do that, one wets the petal, waits for the shine to go away, then again, and then paint yellow first, beside that pink or cool red, and then blue beside that. This prevents the color from becoming green! The other thing that I remembered is that the under side of things reflects a warm light bounce from the ground. I think it worked to create a 3D effect, especially on the flower on the right. What is your opinion?

I know, I know, the sky wash is flawed, I'm trying to decide how to fix that.

Observations of late

Hello my friends, I've been deep into attempting to learn some new techniques, and I have painted two new florals using said techniques. I will post them here. The thing that I have learned is great! How to paint petals with a smooth look.

The other thing that I learned is that these very light paintings do not "carry" from across the room. I must figure this all out.

Maybe making the backgrounds darker will help.

Here they are. The first is a white confederate rose. The second is a dahlia.

Any help would be appreciated.

Cia

My Art Activities

Got Some New Books!

Just a quick note to say that I'm going to take a little time to read my two new books. One is Penny Soto's book, and one is Nita Leland's new book. Names elude me at the moment. I'm pretty excited though!

Cia

Confederate Rose Blossom

Here's the one I just finished yesterday. This is 11" x 15" and it's a painting of a confederate rose blossom that I photographed in my yard. Without further ado, here it is:

Sold One!!!!!

Oh happy day!!! I just sold a painting at the online gallery who represents me!
It's a 12" x 16" oil, and right now it's being shown at one of our local restaurants!
Will have to go and get it and ship it off! YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!

This is the one!

Cecilia

Exploring Painting Florals in Watercolor

I think it's time to write some more. I'm still exploring florals in watercolor. I think I may be only beginning to get the hang of it.
Here I will post some of the recent ones. This is a quarter sheet of Arches 140 cp. I discovered a remarkable tool yesterday with this one. It's the lowly Q-tip, store brand. Really helps lift out those smaller light areas, and when it's got some paint on it, throw it away and get a new one!

With florals, it's all about luminosity I believe.

I've begun a new one today, and I think that my shadows look muddy, I will continue to work on it and hope I have not already ruined it!

Cia

Theories on color from a mind full of it

Hello all, I'm going to bore you with all this expounding on color that I'm about to do! There is a picture that I've done as a project for a watercolor group that I belong to. When I first did it, I hated it so much. It was not colorful, only having about 3 colors to it, and it was dead to me. I almost threw it out.

Then, last night, I got started on it, and it went where it wanted to go.
Now I find myself sort of defending it among my fellow groupies, but that's ok!
Here's what I wrote so far about this.

I had to work on this project a little more. I was way over there into it
tonight. Here's what I did. I took a little inspiration from Gina, and
from my daughter, who said, "Why are your backgrounds so dark?"
And my granddaughter who said "Why don't you ever put some colors back there?"
But more than that, it took on it's own look. I did not look at the photo again.
That's something I often do, when I get to a certain point, I put away the photo,
then let the painting be what it wants to be.
Here it is. I could have taken a better picture outside in the sun, but that was
not available to me tonight! I'm going to take another pic tomorrow if the sun shines.

(Then somebody wrote they thought it was overworked.) My reply:
Artmaker wrote: Well, if you saw it in real life I think you would like it. This photo does nothing for
it having been taken inside way after dark! Anyway, I felt very uneasy with it.
But after I worked on it, I began to like it. The leaves came toward me, the blue
receded, I was able to make some highlights where the sun hits the leaves, (Although I'm
still not satisfied with that) and toned down the light value on that post, Cheryl said it
was a post because she has seen lots of grapevines and they put them there as a
support for the vines. I did that to make the highlights on the leaves show up better.
There is actually some depth in this one, whereas the dark background (which was
hard to get rid of) was flat to me and dead. So that was my rationale,
and now I like it very much! So there's no accounting for taste, right? I will try to
get a picture outdoors so you can see the thing right.
Cia

and more:
p.s. I think that I have this wierd vision problem when it comes to my paintings,
where I want to see something, and I have to get that out of it or I'm unhappy and
uncomfortable. It's something about the relationship of colors. I love to see
violet, blue and yellow and gold and green in a painting, for some reason, no painting
seems right without that. There was almost a monotone about the first version,
and it was making me feel sick, does that make any sense to y'all? And there must
be some touches of orange in there too. After I lifted out that awful dark background
and put in some cobalt and some permanent magenta and let it run together, I felt
better, the stone on my heart began to lift. Then I began to approach my visual joy.
I began to see that relationship that my heart longs for. I know, I know, I'm getting
wierd on y'all. So I'm sad that nobody likes it but me and my daughter.
Cia

In response to that person who didn't like the changes I wrote additionally,

Oh I didn't! I knew in my heart and soul that it was my vision! I was a little bit
disappointed because you didn't see it too, but you know, to each his own vision!
Ha Ha...

There is more to my lengthy prose about this topic. I majored in music in college,
I wanted to be a choir director. So I took two years of music theory, (forgot it all
but still retain the feelings) and you know how you feel when a chord is unresolved?
Well, then when it resolves on the next chord, you feel satisfied, less uneasy, complete.

That's how I define the way I feel when I get the right balance, the right harmony,
etc. I don't really care about what other people think that much when it comes to that;
now if somebody says, your composition is off, your drawing sucks, your values are not
right, you don't have your light source clearly defined (and that is something I've been guilty of,
as well as the other things) then I will take another look and go right in and try to do something about that. But when
it comes to colors, I have my vision, and it has to be there, or I'm very, very unhappy.
Some people say something about the edges. Now I may need to think about that, because
I don't see any problem with those, I'm not looking at that as much as I am color, and depth.
I want the subject to come forward, the background to recede, and the values to be correct.
Perhaps in some future lifetime I will worry about edges. LOL

However, I still feel there is something else that this painting needs. I have to figure it out though,
if I don't, then I will call this a lesson well learned, and leave it at that. At least I feel like I
rescued this one out of the trash can! Ha Ha...

Cia

Double Azaleas

Hello again, I found out somebody has visited here and didn't even see my latest azaleas! So I'm putting them up right now! Finished these yesterday!

Cia

This is what I've been doing today..

I don't think this is finished, but here it is anyway. This is my first azalea ever!
Cia

OK, ok, here's the picture, Iris Lights

My New Direction

My New Direction

Hello, it's been awhile. I've come around to believe that I must stop regretting that I quit watercolor and find a new direction.
I think I've done it! This is a watercolor of an iris that I did very loosely and I like it. I call this "Iris Lights II". (First one didn't turn out, and you ain't gonna see it!)
Cia

My Art Activities

My Art Activities

Hello, I'm back.
I am so happy, I sold that painting, "Stained Glass Pansies"! So it seems like maybe I've found some kind of niche. So I'm planning another one. I've looked at hundreds of floral pictures. I realize that it has to be a big, graphic look, with "pieces" that look like "puzzle" pieces. If that makes any sense.

Found several, and I'm about to start on one, it's to be called "Stained Glass Purple Iris"
and I think it qualifies, if I can only get it going. I realize that looking at the picture on my monitor is much better than looking at the photograph. So I plan on putting it on the screen, and I'm going to look at my computer screen as I paint instead of a photo.

Of course, as always, after I'm about half-way through, I will depart from the photo and
then begin to try to make it have the qualities I saw and that I'm attempting to depict.

Stay tuned!

Cia

My Art Activities

Early Morning Ride

I have not been doing much with this blog in a while! But somebody else's blog inspired me to work on this one.
There is one new painting that I feel is worth putting in here... right now, I'm helping my granddaughter with a brand new (3 wks old) baby, and it's amazing how much time that can take.

Here's the newest one. It's on Arches 140 lb cp paper, it's about 22" x 30", and it evolved.
First the picture I had showed a bicycle rider where you see my maiden and horse. I took out the biker and put this in instead. I've never done a horse before either!

It's been awhile... some new work!

Well, it's been about a month since I was messing around in here.

Since then I've been working on other things, like designing a logo for a local
restaurant, menu design for same, and they also have 4 of my paintings hanging there now.

The last watercolor that I did is there, here's what it looks like framed.

Cia

Another Version of the Previous Hollyhocks Painting

This looks different. This painting is a repeat version of the previous scene, but this time I just did what I call direct painting. I didn't use any fancy techniques. Just painted it. I could not believe how much difference it made when I looked at the old one beside the new one.

Also, my eyes ain't what they used to be. I saw lots more in the ref photo this time because I used a magnifying glass and saw things entirely differently.

Hope you like it!

Cia

Latest Watercolor Painting

This is a picture of the last thing I did. Just stopped on it last night. It's a rendition of a photo I took of my hollyhocks, backlit.

Nothing doing today yet

Lots going on, and nothing going on.

I must make myself get some painting done!

Artmaker-Cecilia-Price

Next in the Series - SG Hollyhocks!

Here's the next one!

And this may be my favorite so far! I've discovered a secret weapon in my arsenal of lifting color tools.

And so I said "Let there bnt Light!" And there was.

Artmaker-Cecilia-Price

What I'm going to do today... I hope

Going to start on a new watercolor today. This one will be Stained Glass Hollyhocks.
Everybody loves my iris one on the group I'm in. I bought some framed prints and
trying to get into those things is a major project, but I have at least got two framed.
I broke the glass on one of them though, so have to get new glass.

This time when I do the hollyhocks, before I begin to paint, I'm going to think carefully
about the entire design. I have just been going with it, not planning that much the end
result. I'm going to do it differently this time.

If I have some time, will work on the oil painting too.

Stained Glass Iris Revisited

Well, I've been playing around with this all morning.
I learned some valuable lessons. I'm still not totally happy
with it, but a lot happier. One of the things I learned was
not to leave out the RED. It makes it work.

What do you think of this? I think to leave a comment, go
to the very bottom of the page, and click on the comment
link.

This picture is a little dark for the real thing.

Cia

Today I'm worried about this one.....

I have worked on this one for awhile. Several days, anyway. I'm not at all happy with it yet.
If anybody has any thoughts or ideas, please comment on this and I will take your ideas into consideration.

Here's the picture.

Cia
Artmaker-Cecilia-Price