First marks! New Landscape just begun...

This will be a 12 x 9" oil on canvas fall landscape.  So, what I've done so far is to work out an interesting composition with the 3 trees to the left, balanced by the dark stand of trees behind them.  I've tried to create an interesting network of values to hold the composition together and then I've done an oil sketch trying to emphasize where the values will be placed.  I'll continue working on this in the coming days as things dry.  Stay tuned to watch it's progress! 

Great opportunity! Cyber Monday and...

Its all in 1 place and easy to browse!  

Click here to go to my Available Works Blog

Visit today! 

Cyber Monday - Free Shipping on all purchases when shipped within the US.  (This could be a $20 or more saving!)

Here's how it works:   You make a purchase!  Paypal will charge shipping (I cannot disable that feature), but then, I will refund it right away... also through PayPal.  

Then, I package it and send it to you!
I always send an email to let you know it is on its way,  that way you'll know when to expect its arrival.   Easy and arrives very quickly through USPS. 

Also, here's another great opportunity!  We can partner together...
Its been heartbreaking to see the plight of so many refugees displaced and desperate for just the bare essentials of life.  We find ourselves in a delicate position of wanting to offer compassionate help and balancing that with the need for national security.  In the meantime, non profit organizations are able to provide essentials right now, where the refugees are.  So, now through December 18, I will happily donate 50% of all profits from sales to the needs of those in such desperate circumstances.
When you make a purchase of a beautiful piece of art, you can feel a sense of satisfaction knowing that purchase is also helping to provide needed food, medicines, and shelter for someone whose life literally hangs in the balance.  The need is great - so lets get involved and help!  

 

Sun and Shadows

Green Agave, 6x6" Watercolor and Acrylic on clayboard
©Helen Read

SOLD
From a few years back, I'm reposting this lovely little painting.  I loved the play of shadows against the brightly lit greens.  This one is ready to place in a frame and be hung on a small wall or on an small easel in a book shelf!

 

Learning from the Masters

It's important!  And I don't do it often enough --- tonight I'm looking at the works of master artists and making thumbnail sketches in order to understand the way they've composed their paintings.  It's a little tedious, but valuable. It makes me observe more closely and analyze what is before me. 

Autumn - Lake Ellyn

Autumn - Lake Ellyn,  8x10" Oil on canvas
© Helen Read 

 

Fall has had a late start this year!  In fact, the fall colors are just now beginning to come out when often at this time of year most of the leaves are already fallen.  I wondered if it had passed us by, but we have had quite a beautiful fall after all.  This painting was begun this summer as a value study, and then, I added the color this fall, just as the colors were beginning to show!  

Nearing the home stretch on this little painting!

I've been working along on this fall landscape, which I started in the summer! I just have a little more to do in the foreground.  

I'll post the final form soon! 

Reworking

Yes, this is the painting I started this summer - and since the colors have all changed, I'm reworking this for this season.  It's still got a ways to go before its done. I like the colors and the sense of fall... It makes more sense to observe and paint than to try to remember what it looked like 3 or more months ago! 

Finishing a landscape

This summer, before my big move, I started a watery landscape.  Now my studio is finally put together and I'm able to get back to working on its completion.  

It seems very green and lush now that it is fall, but when I started it- everything was very, very green! 

Summer's End

Withered Beauty - sunflower, 15 x 15" Watercolor/mixed media on paper

©Helen Read 

Looking back a few years, this watercolor painting is the perfect depiction of summer's end.  Its gotten a little bit chilly here these past few weeks.  I'm still hoping for more warm weather ~ just can't find much enthusiasm for ice, snow, wind and below zero temps.  I loved the dried and curled appearance of the petals and the leaves on this withered sunflower.  All rather challenging to paint! 

A Small Watercolor Landscape - watch it come together

I am finally able to use my new studio space!  It has been several weeks - moving, unpacking, getting settled, starting a new semester at work... just very busy.  But finally, I'm getting my brushes wet - and here's a new little watercolor landscape.  Look below and see how I progressed through each stage to a finished small painting. 

Field of Flowers, 4x6" watercolor on paper 

©Helen Read

A field of Black-Eyed Susans... pretty much as far as the eye can see! 

Here are its various stages of development: 

First marks of color - adding wet into wet ultramarine blue with some violet

Starting to faintly lay in the edges of trees - also wet into wet.

Progressing - looking more like a landscape. Trying to establish more contrasts in value. 

Putting in some foreground - while building the middle ground.  And working with greens; pushing the values back and forth - trying to achieve a good green without being too blue or too yellow or too bright green!

Just about done!  Adjusting values. Adding the suggestion of flowers in the foreground. 
Ready for matting and to find its new home! 

Throwback Thursday - Egret

Knee Deep - Snowy Egret, 7 x 11.5" watercolor/acrylic on paper
© Helen Read 

 

 I've come to enjoy egrets in a new way, just lately.  My new residence backs up to a lake and I get to see egrets almost every day.  Not too many days ago, I counted 6 on our little lake all at once!  I don't think I've ever seen them in that number before.  They truly are stately and beautiful.
This painting was done a few years ago.  I had been to South Carolina and really enjoyed watching them fish in the coastal waters.  This one is still available and would make a beautiful addition to almost any room!  Maybe it would look lovely in your home! 

Back to some drawing

Back yard drawing on this beautiful afternoon in September! My move has certainly slowed down my studio work - that and starting a new semester at work!  It's been a busy, busy few months. 

My studio is almost put together and I look forward to getting a new canvas prepared and beginning a new painting.  Today was a little warm up! 

Getting back to it!

     It's been a rather long resettlement process!  I've gotten moved and finally, today, I'm back online - its taken nearly a month to move and get all systems up and running.  The day after my move was complete, I started back to work in the new semester, so its been hectic and very disorganized.  I'm happy to be back, though.   And while I finish getting my studio functional (I've worked a lot on that task today), I'm posting some work from awhile back.  It's still available, and I would love to find its permanent home!  Perhaps it could come to your home! 

Swedish Birches,  7x10" Oil pastel on illustration board

© Helen Read 

 

Moved, but not yet connected

The move has happened!  What a task!  And school starts today, though I've been back at work all this week....hardly time to breathe and no time, yet, to unpack.  I have mobile devices connected online, but my computer is yet to be completely installed in its new space and my entire studio is still in boxes..  So, painting and posting remains a post-phoned activity!  

While I wait to get things up and running, here are a couple pictures from my back yard.  My new studio will have this view, which is rather exciting!  I am making progress as quickly as I can to get settled...but there have been many other demands.  I hope to be back at my artistic work soon - as soon as my studio can be unpacked and a working space organized.  Have I mentioned that moving is a monumental task?? 

.... It is!!