Well, THAT was embarrassing!

Today was the first day where there was absolutely NO excuse for not going out and doing a bit of plein air. All I can say is that it's a good thing I took pictures. Today's results will not be posted, however, before I went out I did a little painting as a result of watching a National Geographic documentary last night:

Egyptian Afternoon

There was one shot in between some of the scenes, only there for a moment, but it captured the feeling of the burning heat of which the desert is capable. This is a 6X6 watercolor.

Now this one:

Mother Hubbard's veggie bin

This was done as the result of an Art Challenge last month. Somehow I managed to delete that post. Don't ask. This is an 8X10 oil. It's a yam, the pale thing is a slice of cantaloupe.

American Persimmon and lace, 11X14 acrylic

Looks like  there is some "flash" on this from the camera. These acrylics can be a bit shiny. This is one of the Paint and Draw Together challenges of which I am so fond. This is one is 11X14 so it wouldn't fit on the scanner, but I don't think I could have avoided the flash that way either. Anyway, I am trying to work on a little bigger format because I'd been concentrating on miniatures for so long it was certainly not helping me loosen up. Of course I WOULD pick LACE on which to loosen up. That could have been counter productive, hmm?

Using magazine photos

This is a little guy I found in National Geographic from last January(2010). There is a whole article on clownfish with wonderful pictures. In one of my rare streamlining binges I pulled the pages out that I wanted and recycled the rest without getting the photographers name! My apologies to that artist. They were amazing. It brought back lots of memories of diving in the waters around Okinawa too. Tropical fish in the wild can be so much bigger than the ones in the tanks.
Anyway, I used the full page of the largest Arches block for this, it didn't feel right to do my usual small format. The results are that it's too big to fit in my scanner so I snapped it with flash and downloaded it. It's taped to the front of a frame that was on sale at Michael's that looks like will fit OK. I noted the source with my signature, but I'll have to do some research to get the actual name of the photographer. I should because I'm going to have to paint some more of those amazing photos!
The background on this is very subtle, providing perfect contrast to my finny friend, but it doesn't photograph too well. At least by yours truly. I ended up using little more than a "dirty water" wash for most of them, some orangish to catch the reflection and others blueish for contrast. Like Christmas in Thailand!
ADDENDUM: Got it, the photographer is David Doubilet.