My dog ate the fairies.

Posted on September 22, 2011 by Between The Weeds: LRStudio

Today has been a real challenge starting with a painting I had sent last week to a friend and this morning delivered back to me marked insufficient postage. So down to the post office to resend my package. Oh and it was only 90 cents shy. Job finished and package back on the road. Not too bad just a hiccup in life I think I can cope.

Tucker the fairy eating dog.

Back to work and happily today I am painting some new small watercolors of thistles and flowers and fairies. Everything is just falling into place the colors the images even my little fairies looked like wonderful magical fairies. I was not sure if I could do fairies. I painted thistle fairies and coneflower fairies, field flowers and it flowed out onto the small pieces of rag paper I had cut for this project. I was so excited and pleased looking at what I had accomplished. My coffee was cold and it was time to take a well deserved break.

Tucker always sleeps on a loveseat while I paint. Whenever I leave he is usually right next to me, secretly wishing I will take him for a ride or walk. Today he stayed behind. I thought maybe he did not hear me head down the stairs and put it out of my mind. Nuked my coffee and called Tucker. No dog. Strange so I went to investigate and there is Tucker swallowing the last fairy painting. My heart sank all my lovely fairies gone. I screamed Tucker ran and as he passed me running paws flying everywhere, he lets out one nice burp.

I don’t know why I found this amusing but I did. I started to chuckle and Tucker stopped and looked at me quite confused. I guess he thought I had finally gone nuts. I can honestly say no. What I did do is to find the humor in this challenging situation. In my head I could hear the words you can choose happiness you can choose peace or you can get mad. Getting mad at Tucker still would not have made the paintings reappear and he was only doing what dogs do, they eat paper. He knows he screwed up just from my first reaction and chances are good he probably will eat more paper again. I have to make sure I do my part and do not leave things where he might reach them.

Tomorrow I will try to paint some more fairies.

Look what I found between the weeds.

Posted on July 8, 2011 by Between The Weeds: LRStudio

Just the other day as Tuck and I were out and about we found this precious nest between the weeds and leaves. The owners of the nest were very near and made sure Tuck and myself did not damage the magical cargo inside. I am convinced the fairies are very much at work pointing me in this new direction. Or better yet the universe is saying pay attention and I am answering you. Fortunately I have listened and carry a small notebook with me now so I made a quick sketch to later work on. I am not sure why I just know I must. I am certainly enjoying it.

My wonderful detailed illustration of the nest I found is available in my LRStudio Etsy Shop CLICK HERE

Nest No 1 Original Nature Illustration Painting

A wonderful new nest series of Nature Illustrations and this is the first of the nests. It is 8″ x 6″ in shades of blues browns and leaf greens. While exploring this past weekend I stumbled upon this nest tucked in between the leaves and grass. This is from a quick sketch I did.The illustration is on hot pressed fine art paper. I used graphite and watercolors/gouache and arrives unframed. You can easily mount it to matte board and frame it in a standard frame. The edges of the paper are hand deckle by me.Wouldn’t this look so sweet in a nursery?Ask about shipping internationally?

PRICE: $25

Landscape Watercolor Painting.

Posted on March 7, 2011 by Between The Weeds: LRStudio

Summertime on the Lamoille River

This landscape watercolor painting of the Lamoile River by Laurie Rohner captures the river that meandered in front of our home in Vermont. It is summer and the river is low but you can still catch a glimpse of a kayak being gently paddled down the river. The colors are soft and the painting radiates the heat of the day. To the right are the pines shading the water but I painted the water clear and calm showing the rocks under the softness of the water. It is in contrast to the sunlight shores on the left. I gave a focal point in the center of the painting that brings you back into the painting with the shoreline of the river and the hazy mountain in the distance. This is one of my favorite watercolor landscape paintings.

A few of my watercolors…

Posted on March 6, 2011 by Between The Weeds: LRStudio

White Lilies

The Pink Lady

Watercolor are my first love. My technique is a process that is long and labor intensive taking many days to complete. I use a technique called glazing. I paint my images several times building and layering the pigments with washes of color. I find it gives the images a quality of depth and realism which is not what you expect with watercolor paintings. Most of the time I work from a multitude of photos to sketch out how I want the painting to look. I choose my color palette and then lay the first washes down on a cotton rag cold pressed paper. Recently I have experimented with some other materials such as aqua-board and watercolor paper mounted on board.

This painting The Pink Lady is in my collection and it is the painting that started me on this path of watercolor painting in large format. I had just recovered from a serious car accident and had lost my job all within weeks. This is a very special painting and I keep it because it represents how fragile life is and even though things look bleak you can always find light in your life.

The Shaded Trees is on the Panel I had discussed and though I enjoyed the subject matter I found my style and technique did not work as well on this base. I love this painting because I expect to see some magical beings to suddenly appear popping out from behind the trees.

Black Eyed Susans in the Field

You have to smile when you see Black Eyed Susans in the Field and that is this paintings sole purpose. Happy and content and ready for what ever is ahead.