Well this week Shirley finished her painting of her recent warrior dude.  She' now trying to come up with a name for it.  Got any suggestions?

 

Also, Shirley had some very exciting news this week.  Her painting she sent in for a critique to American Artist Magazine was accepted for a critique on their blog.  I didn't realize there were so many steps into getting them to do this.  You have to be accepted and sign a contract and it takes a really long time.  She received a wonderful critique from them too.  The only thing they said they would change is a little of the background by the edge of her face.

Go to http://forums.myamericanartist.com/blogs/ 

to see the full Critique.

 

Linney has finally recovered from the show and is now working on the Aaby fundraiser.  She never stops.  Today she showed up with tubes of new oil paint.  She couldn't wait to squirt them out onto her palette.  It's fun to see her buy or find new art supplies.  I don't think I've ever seen anyone get so excited about it.  She's gets down right giddy.  We love you Linney!

Last week on the way back from Austin I stopped near Brenham, like all the other nuts, to take pictures of the famous bluebonnets.  It gets down right dangerous through that area.  People will be going 70 mph and slam on their breaks on the highway to stop and plop down their kids in the middle of the bluebonnets and take pictures.

I didn't slam on my breaks but found a spot to pull over and took this.  Thought you might enjoy it.  I can't wait to get a chance to paint it.  You are welcome to paint it as well.

That's all for this week.  Hopefully I'll have my painting further along by then and show you the progress.  I was going to post a picture of it today until I realized her ear was way too high.  

Later,

Debra

Well, only Shirley and I showed up to paint this week.  Sally was the lunch painter this week.  Unfortunately she had a date with Microsoft Excel and getting the results to LSAG.

Here is the one Shirley has been working on and is making great progress.  It's coming along.  She was worried that it was all just too "red" and was trying to bring out the skin tones a little more.  I think it's looking good.  It just might be another Peoples Choice Award.

Here is the one I've been working on.  I wanted to get it in the show last weekend but since I was out of town I just couldn't get it finished in time.  As I was describing on my blog DebraLatham.blogspot.com , I laid in a gold color in the area of the details on the dress.  Let it dry and then went back and painted over it with the dress color and then scratched out the design.  I wasn't sure if it was going to work. I'm somewhat pleased with how it turned out.  I still had to go back and enhance the details.  I'm done for today.  I'm going to let it dry and then go back in and put more details.  As Shirley pointed out, I now need to go back and bring up the skin tone a bit.  She's right.  She's always right(:-p)

Well, next week hopefully we'll have a few more show up and we'll have more to report on.  We need to get to painting, the next show will be here before you know it. So get those paint brushes messy and create!

  

Even if you can't come to paint, come and join us for lunch we always have some crazy stories to tell that happened to us during the week.  

See you next week, God willing.

Debra

Hey everyone!  It’s good to be back!  I’ve been out of town unexpectedly for a couple of weeks and didn’t get to paint.   So this week will be a double whammy posting. 

 

We had our Spring Art Show and Competition and it was very successful.

Thanks to Linney , Shirley & Carol for doing all the hard work to make it successful.  It was bigger and better than the last one.  We had 30% more entries for our show. 

I wanted to say thanks to Steve Parker for being the judge.  He did a great job.  And Congratulations to Shirley for winning Peoples Choice Award (Again).  I think the thursday painting has paid off.  Several of us won ribbons and will advance to the Lone Star Art Guild Annual Convention.  Can’t wait to go.  It will be a lot of fun as it always is, especially since we are not hosting it this year. 

 

 

I also wanted to say thanks to Midway Companies for letting us use their retail space.  We couldn't do it without you.

 

 

  I love this one of Linney's "Jack the Bodice Ripper"

 

Well this week was Spring Break.  With only 4 of us there we had a lot of room to spread out.

This is one of Vanita's pieces that she was making for a customer from the St. Lukes show she did a couple of weeks ago.  She sold 18 out of 35 pieces.  Great Job!!

This week I thought I would talk about getting organized.

Many of you have a hard time getting out the door on Thursdays (myself included) and of course everything that can go wrong does.

Some of us have tried many different things to make it easier.  

But here's what works for me.  

Shirley and I both, as some of you have seen have these rolling carts we got from www.jerrysartarama.com  I have used this for over a year now and I wouldn't go to paint without it.  I love it.  I've teased her about putting cup holders on her SUV.

This is what Sally uses for her watercolor "stuff"

I think what is most important is that you find something to put EVERYTHING in and easy to get in and out of the car.   If you get organized, you'll have a better chance of getting out the door to paint with us on Thursdays.  

I try to take it a step further and make sure I've got everything in my cart the night before.  So all I have to do is get grab it and stick it in the car.  Of course there have been times it slips up on me and I forget to get it all together the night before.  Especially when I walked out the door, got to our painting place and realized I left my cart and my paintings sitting at the front door of my house. So I had to turn around and go back and get them.  How stupid.  Oh well.  I know I'm not alone. Huh? 

So, find something with wheels on it that will hold all your "stuff" and come paint with us.

Hopefully everyone will be back next week.

Don't forget to turn in your forms for the Art Show & Competition on April 4th if you haven't already.  The deadline is March 31st.

By for now!

Well today we had some cold nasty weather and kept some of us at home.  But there were of few of us art nuts that still showed up.  

This week I will try to get the rest of us on the blog so you can see our work.  It's amazing how we all have our unique styles and do our "Own Thing".

Here is Sheila after the umbrella fiasco.  (You had to be there) Sheila vs. the Umbrellllllla!

        

This is a collage that sheila is working on.  Very colorful! Maybe it portrays the fight between her and the umbrella.  

           

Here is ShirleyQuaid  starting her next indian.  Not sure when she started it but she sure made some progress today.  Gosh she's good.

             

It's me, Debra Latham, having a bad hair day because of the rain.  I couldn't sleep and woke up early and sketched this out this morning and blocked it in.  Hopefully 'll get to make some progress on it this week before next Thursday.

         

This is Sally & Ann working away at their watercolor paintings.   The one above is the one Sally is working on.  I wish I could master watercolor like she has.  I'll have to get her to give me some pointers one day.
          
Ann finished up her barn she was working on and had it matted It's gorgeous!   This is the one she's working on now.  I love how dramatic her colors are.  It's going to be beautiful as well.

This is Jim's latest masterpiece he's working on.  We'll have to get the low down on the story of this one next time he comes.  He didn't come today.  He must have been at IHOP having the waitresses pose for his next painting.

Still need to get a picture of Liz.  She was a "Lunch Painter" today.  I'm just giving her a hard time.  She's been working her booty off planning and organizing and art auction for march 28th for the HereComesBetterDays.org  She has pulled this together so fast.  I'm sure it will be very successful.

Well, Don't know how many of us will show up next week because of spring break but we'll have an update to let you know.

Check back to see what's up

See Ya!

We had a full house this week!  I unveiled our new blog to everyone today and they were so excited.  We took a group picture although we were missing a couple of regulars.  

(From left to Right) Linda(Linney) Hamilton, Sally Kullman, Yvette Holzbach, Shirley Quaid (Yes, as we found out today she is a distant relative of Randy & Dennis), Ann Treadwell, Carol Showalter, Linda Dumas, Jim Grygier & myself, Debra Latham.  

There are so many of us that I will only be able to feature a few artists and their work each week.  I will try to spread it out as evenly as I can to get around to everyone.

I'll start with Carol's little masterpiece.  I don't know if she named it yet.  I love how loose it is.

      

Here is the one Linney is working on at the moment.  "Mer Girls"  I'm not sure if that is the official title or not.  But I like it.  There is no telling what she will do to it next.  But I'm sure it will be fabulous!

              

Linda's is very close to done. (I think)  Put down the brush and back away!!!

     

I'll feature some of our other artists the next time.

In the mean time, paint away!

In The Begining

About a year ago, some of my artist friends and I got together and decided that we needed to find a place to paint on a regular basis.  We are all members of the Kingwood Art Society, but we needed something more.  We all complained about needing to set more time aside each week to paint on a regular basis.  So, after about a month of looking we finally found a place that suited us.  Our local craft store let us meet there free of charge every Thursday for as long as we wanted.  It's to the store's advantage to let us paint there.  Half of the time we are wandering around the store buying up paint or supplies.  They look forward to us coming I'm sure.

We paint until 11:30 am and then break for lunch (some of us get cranky if we go a minute past).  We walk over to Luby's and eat, laugh, and vent.  Then we go back and paint for however long we want.

Some of our group shows up a little before lunch and never even picks up a brush.  We call them "Lunch Artists".  

There are usually around 5-7 of us that come on a weekly basis.   Some days we come with every intension of painting but for some reason, our heart is just not into it that day.  We all have those days every now and then.  But the important thing is, that we came.  We make it a habit to set aside every Thursday to paint.  

We paint, we critique each other (when asked for), we bounce ideas off of each other, laugh until we cry, or some just come to visit.

We have planned and went on a painting retreat with our group in the Texas Hill Country at the Bunk House.  That was terrific.  And we plan to have one about every 3-4 months in various places.  (I think we are due another one soon!)  

I hope to encourage more people to attend our group or start their own.  I can't even explain how wonderful it has been this past year to have been blessed to be able to do this.  I pray we get to do this for a long time to come.