Chelsea Exhibition- Dec 28th, 2013

A friend from my marketing group is part of M55 Gallery in Chelsea, NYC and she invited me to participate in this year end exhibition.  I will have four small paintings. Thanks Elaine!

Underpainting

Different color flower. Just saying...

Underpainting

Been under the weather with a stomach virus, but still have a few from last week to post.
This is yellow/purple palette with an underpainting of light yellow.

Underpainting

This was done with an underpainting using the red/green palette.
"Grapes and Cup", watercolor on board, 4x3 inches

Leisure Painter

The second part of my article has been published in December's issue of Leisure Painter. Leisure Painter is a British publication and available at some Barnes and Noble stores here in U.S. I am honored to be in the magazine!

Antique Cup and Lemons

This is a favorite still life prop; a cup and saucer that's been in my family for a long time. They kinda look a family, don't they?
"Antique Cup and Lemons", watercolor on board, 3x4 inches

lemons and white creamer

Played with an underpainting of light orange color. 

White on White

White on White, watercolor on board, 4x3 inches 

Yellow/Purple Palette

I wanted to try using two of the same objects and the yellow/purple palette.
"Two Creamers" 3x4 inches, watercolor on board.

iBooks Now Available on Mac Computers!

We can now read iBooks on our Macs! Once you install the newest operating system, the icon for iBooks will be on your dock and you can search the store for books to read! Updating to Maverick is free. (They have finally run out of animal names!)
You can download sample copies of my books. The link to the watercolor book is https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/watercolor-harmony/id556969201?mt=11
The link to the oil book is:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/oil-painting-harmony/id591120796?mt=11

There are lots of movies and slide shows in each book to go along with the lessons. 

Happy Painting!

6 colors

Used only six colors (all primaries).
Floral Study 1340, watercolor on board, 4x3 inches

Complements! Yellow/Purple

Here's the third one in the series. At some point I will do this same set up with primaries. Gotta wait to feel it though!

Palette Quandry

All of a sudden I started missing my three complementary palettes! Right in the middle of working on a book of primaries! Oh no! What to do? I just dove right back into my comfort zone of twenty odd years of complementary palettes! Feels so good! I suppose I will get back into my project, but a girls gotta have fun too!

The top one is the red/green palette and the bottom one is orange/blue. Miss you guys!

Working from paintings (that aren't yours)!

Kate brings up a good question about working from someone else's painting. Read below:

Hello Joyce,

 I wanted to let you know how much I enjoy your book 'Big Art Small Canvas'.

It is one of my favorite instruction books. Your work really is wonderful.

 

Friends are encouraging me to sell the paintings I have finished from your book.

 

I am not sure if this is legal or not and have seen many differing answers. Some instructors say yes, some no.

 

What do you feel about this?

 

Thank you,

Kate

I told her it was the biggest complement anyone could give me! As long as she's not signing my name!
I've used other paintings as inspiration (and even my own paintings). What I usually do is title it "In Homage to " or "After". Since I work really small, it's obvious that I'm not trying to forge their work.
Does anyone have another way of handling this situation?

Leisure Painter

There's an article in November issue of the English magazine, Leisure Painter that I wrote on complementary palettes! I was worried that I didn't have the mandatory number of words but ended up with too many; they had to make it a two-parter, so rest of article will be in December issue! Magazine is available in some Barnes and Noble stores in the U.S. I have yet to see it!

Big Art Small Canvas review

Here's a review that I recently received that made me feel so good. It's an honor to be able to help other people on their artistic journeys! Thanks Lionel!

Among all the books I purchased in the last few years, this is the one that influenced me the most. The book has 2 parts. The first one explains every detail of the painting process from mixing the colors to putting highlights on an object. It is full of concise and clear instructions and every idea is illustrated with a painting and notes e.g: "the sky color is dragged into the mountain making the value lighter and helping it recede into the background". It is as close to a live class as you can get. In the second part, the author demonstrates her 4 step process with almost 20 of her paintings. Before this book my paintings were too horrible to even gift them to my family! I started with the simple lemon painting in the book and 4 years later, I had the confidence to make a painting exhibit! Thank you Joyce! 

Chinese White

Used only three colors and Chinese White. Took a lot of glazes!

Limited Palette

Only used three tubes of paint! A warm red, warm yellow and a warm blue. I'm psyched! Is this the beginning of a beautiful relationship?

"Brooklyn Vase and Silver Sugar Bowl" 3x4 inches, watercolor on board.

Magazine Article

I've been busy writing an article for an English magazine called Leisure Painter. Don't know when it will be available but I thought I'd include a link to an article that was written a few  years ago by Watercolor Magazine. Hope everyone is having a great summer!

http://www.artistdaily.com/blogs/watercolor/archive/2008/03/07/joyce-washor-still-lifes-on-a-small-scale.aspx

How to Get Gallery Representation with Small Paintings

Here's some personal advice on how I got gallery representation using my small paintings. I think this could help everyone!

You may want to consider getting together a group of small paintings for submission to galleries that hold Holiday Shows or Small Works Shows that may occur at any time of the year. Even if you never have painted small, it may be worth setting some time aside to amass a grouping specifically for this purpose. You may be able to increase your exposure not only in your immediate area but state and countrywide.

I needed to downsize my canvas size because of a rotator cuff injury but you may downsize out of choice. Entering Holiday Shows led me to year-round representation in many parts of the U.S. and even in Japan! Since small paintings are so easy to ship international galleries are no longer beyond your reach. Japan and other densely populated countries are a great marker for small paintings since their living areas tend to be small.
There is also a daily painting movement that is very strong, so you might find yourself involved in online sales! Carol Marine gives workshops and has been contracted to write a book for Ten Speed Press which is under Random House. It’s due out in a year and a half. There are quite a few on-line galleries open to anyone who cares to meet their guidelines.
There are two basic things you need to do in order to get gallery representation: assemble a body of work and then research which galleries you’d like to approach.

You want to make sure that you put your best efforts into these small works. They represent you, even if they are not the same size as your usual work. One way to start painting smaller is to gradually decrease the sizes of your canvas. Lets say you usually paint 20x24 inch canvases. Try doing the same composition 12x 16 then 8x10. If you want to go even smaller you can try 6x8. You can take a photo of the regular size painting and then print it out in smaller increments to see how it will look. Since artists are so visual, talking about it might not do it. Seeing it smaller makes a world of difference.

I remember one day wandering into a gallery that had a holiday of show of small paintings.The gallery owner suggested painting smaller pieces for possible inclusion in the show the following year. At the time, this seemed unlikely since I was experiencing shoulder pain and wasn’t sure if painting was even a remote possibility. Upon returning home to my studio, there was an old show announcement tacked to the bulletin board. The postcard was 4x6 inches and the reduced image size taught me to look at my work in a whole new light. (Painting small doesn’t require any shoulder movement! Yeah!) You too may have some old invitational postcards of your work, or you can scan or photograph your paintings and see how they would look at a smaller scale.
Some artists use just portions of their compositions, For instance, if you usually include everything but the kitchen sink in your still life, you may just paint one cup and saucer with a piece of fruit. Look at Qiang Huang to see how he does this. If you want more detailed information about painting small, check out my ibooks, Watercolor Harmony and Oil Painting Harmony which include many small painting videos and my hard copy book Big Art, Small Canvas.
The second part of using small paintings to get gallery representation is to do your research. The internet has made this extremely easy. Google “holiday art shows” or “small works art shows” to start. Then add your state, or if you don’t mind shipping fees, you can go wild and include all the states. Using UPS or FedEx is very reasonable for small boxes. Just remember to pad and insure them.

There are art magazines that have a section devoted to artist opportunities. Be aware that they may start advertising during the summer. Southwest Art Magazine is one of may favorites along with Professional Artist Magazine and the newspaper Art Times. You can get it by subscription or may be lucky enough to see it displayed at a gallery or museum in your area. Be sure to make note of the galleries that advertise their Holiday Shows in November or December. It may be too late to enter that year, but you can be ready for the next season.
Once you’ve been accepted to either a holiday show or a small works show you can use it as a stepping stone to gain representation by the gallery. At this point you can use the same methods that you would normally use for approaching a gallery. There is much advice for this online. You now have your foot in the door because you’ve already had somenpersonal contact, they’ve seen your work and hopefully sold some!

A Few More Brushstrokes!

Thought it needed to be connected more so I added a few more white brushstrokes. 

Happy Fourth!

I titled this Red and White; just needed some blue to be truly patriotic!
"Red and White", watercolor on board, 4x3 inches

Painting Habits

I recently read a post by Robert Genn about the different habits artists have regarding their work. I don't have any particular habits. Rather I have strategies. I like to end the day either with a concept for the next painting or stop at a point knowing what I need to do next. That extends the painting session into the next day. By having a concept I mean something like; what would this painting look like with a dark background instead of a light one? Or I need to make these brushstrokes looser!!
What are yours?

Summer Solstice II

Here's another shot at the same set up.
"Summer Solstice II" watercolor on board, 4x3 inches.

Summer Solstice I

I was up in plenty of time to see the sun rise. Too much apartment realty stuff in my head!
"Summer Solstice I" watercolor on board, 4x3 inches.

DVD Sale!

My husband and I have found a townhouse complex that we love in Woodstock, NY ! We used to live there as weekenders but now that hubby is retired, we can move back full time! Yippee! Can't wait. I will have a studio again! (I now paint in our bedroom; good thing it's mainly watercolors and that I paint small.) I haven't posted because we've been involved in all this real estate stuff which takes my mind away from painting.
I have a limited supply of the oil and watercolor DVDs that I would like to offer for $20 each which includes shipping in the U.S. Other countries would be a bit more. Europe is about $5.00. Please send me an email at joycewashor@joycewashor.com and I will send you a paypal invoice or you can send me a check. If you click on paypal buttons that are on blog opening page, I can refund the difference of the original price. Each of these DVDs are 60 minutes and show the progression of the paintings shown below.

White Watercolor flowers (Daisies)

I hardly ever use black but I did use it here as one of the washes for the background. first wash was raw umber, then blue black then mix of alizarin crimson and winsor green. I like the contrast of the white of the paper against the chinese white.

White Watercolor Flowers and Robert Genn blog

Another version of previous set up.
As I've mentioned before, I receive twice weekly emails from the Canadian painter, Robert Genn. (You can sign up too!) One recent post asked the question of how do you know when the painting is finished?
Someone said, when the painting is sold. That may put an end to it for most of us, but there's a story about Inness who sold a painting to a NJ museum and then slipped into the museum in the middle of the night  to work on it some more. Hah!
Another story is that someone bought a painting and then let the artist "add a few strokes" and was then presented with an entirely different painting! True!
I wrote:

It's finished when you've put all you know about yourself AT THAT POINT into the painting.  The reason paintings are never finished is that you keep learning.  (I knew someone who worked on a SKETCH for a painting for years.  Really!)  

What do you think?

White Watercolor Flowers

I reworked (or should I say finished working) on a painting that was done a few weeks ago. After learning more about how I want to portray white flowers, it became clearer to me how to finish this one.

White Flowers with Touch of Red

Tried some red in with the whites.

White Watercolor Flowers

Done with yellow/purple palette. 

White Watercolor Flowers

This is the yellow/purple palette. Every time I switch palettes, I feel like I'm working with all new colors and the mystery stays alive for me!

White Watercolor Flowers

Tried one with a dark background. 

White Watercolor Flowers

I've been feeling like the only thing to do is paint white flowers. A red and pink one slipped in somehow! 

White Flowers in Watercolor

This was actually the first of the series (will post another one tomorrow). It's the cool version.
4x3 inches, watercolor on board

John Singer Sargent

Had a choice between going to see the Sargent show at The Brooklyn Museum and staying home and painting. Since I can go over the weekend, opted to stay home.  Sometimes I think it's better to stay in your own zone than enter into someone else's. 

Inspiration from an older Painting

Do you ever find inspiration in your older work? Not only that, but I find it's a continuation of your process. When I've been away from painting or I've gotten off on a tangent, it can be interesting to look at older work to be inspired. The top one is older piece. There are different things I like about each one. Anyway, I'm painting and it's fun!

Steps for Daisies

Here are the steps for the painting I did in '08.  I used these in my book with more details. (Aha, a plug for the book!)