More of Mrs. Glenn's summer work

Good Evening!

Here are two more pieces that I worked on over the summer, both pieces are 10 x 14 watercolors.  The one on the left is the first piece I completed during the Summer Institute with watercolor artist Rusty Jewel.  I was drawn to this house (as I mentioned in an earlier post, we went around the historic area of Seneca around Blue Ridge Arts Center and took pictures.) with the red door and red flowers at the end of the walkway.  I love Impressionism but my work has always been more realistic.  This project really got me to become more observant as to how the light was effecting the subject matter.  I took risks with this piece with the color combinations such as using complementary colors to dull a color and then putting watercolor in a spray bottle to add dots of colors.  This was so much fun and scary at the same time.  Although I was pleased with this piece, I felt that I could do better from what I had learned while creating this piece.

Following this course I began the AP Certification course at USC Upstate.  This was a two week course with 15 other art teachers from all over South Carolina.  An exercise for our sketchbook one day was to go outside and pick items of interest and bring back inside to create a still life.  I kept picking leaves.  But I more drawn to how the light would hit the ground as it came through trees.  After various other one day projects we had to complete a final piece that will be on display during the SC Art Educators Conference in Greenville in November.  I couldn't get my earlier watercolor off my mind, therefore I went back and started over.  Here you can see the final piece on the right.  I am so much happier with it than the first.  I was very pleased with the feeling that you get that at any moment someone will come to the front door to welcome you to their home.  And although you can not see the big oak tree that was to the right off of the picture plane, the suggestion of the tree is there because of the highlights on the grass and house that have come through the openings in the leaves and branches on leaves.

I prefer the arch and the green of the flowers at the end of the walk in the first picture, but was much happier with the overall craftsmanship and intensity of the color in the second.