ALA MOANA FLOWER BOX

Sometimes things just don't click. This was painted from a really nice photo Shannon took at the Ala Moana Shopping Center in Honolulu. I didn't do it justice. The perspective is off, the colors don't work and there is just something off about it. I modified the composition to simplify but lost the beauty of the photo. On to the next painting!

FARMERS' UNION MARKETPLACE

(Click on image to see larger view)

The Farmer's Union Marketplace is located in downtown Eugene, OR just across the street from the county jail on 5th Street. It began it's life back in 1923 as the Lane County Farmers' Union Cooperative. The purpose was to process grain in it's wooden structure. The farm families built it themselves, as they would have their barns or out-buildings, with used materials and never taking out a loan to do it. They added two main additions to the building in 1932 and 1940. It has been used to process grain and sell farm supplies for over 65 years and, although the grain doesn't rumble through the chutes anymore, it hasn't changed much. It is currently the site of a number of shops including Down to Earth and Paul's Bike Shop.

I took the picture for this painting from the south side of the building looking up at what appears to be a grain hopper. The sun was coming from the left casting nice shadows.

The painting is 10.75" x 13.75" 140 lb cold press watercolor paper.

KOI POND

(Click to enlarge view)
We recently attended a family wedding in Honolulu. While wandering through the Ala Moana Shopping center we came upon a pool of koi. The foliage around the pond was casting shadows into the pond. The tiles on the floor of the pond were a beautiful sky blue.

Kelli and I both took lots of pictures of the fish and this was one of Kelli's pictures with the foliage from one of my pictures.

I started by masking off everything that wasn't going to be blue. Then I put on a very wet light blue wash. After that dried, I masked off everything that was going to stay light blue and added another wash of a darker blue. I darkened the shadows under the fish and then took off all the masking.

Next I painted the fish layering in a bright orange. I shaded the lower sides of the fish to give them depth and I added black spots and highlights. I painted the leaves on the right in a variety of light, mid-range and dark greens. Finally I added some highlights on top of the water to help make the fish look like they are under water.

We're going to hang this painting in our house as it represents a wonderful family vacation.