Bennett Fine Art Studio

Happy Mother’s Day to all the loving and dedicated mothers who have placed their children as a priority; wiping away tears, making a special peanut butter sandwich, doctoring boo-boos, driving kids to special events and all those mornings preparing your children for school.  The duties are endless but rewarding when your adult child says he/she admires you and thinks you are the most amazing woman in the world.

Happy Mother’s Day!

I have been accepted to participate in the 2013 36th Annual International Watercolor Exhibition at the Watercolor Artist Society Houston (WAS-H).  This is an honor and a very prestigious event to be chosen out of hundreds of artist’s entries from around the world.  One painting is chosen from each artist accepted.  Below is an image of the accepted painting.

Last year’s participation gained me the honor to earn the status as a Signature Member.

“Redemption Series: Blessing”, watercolor on archival Crescent watercolor board, 34″ l X 29.5″ w

“Redemption Series: Martyr”, 13.25″ X 18″ w, watercolor on archival Crescent watercolor board
This painting was submitted, but not accepted.

The studio is finally completed!  I have plans for many future painting series.  One side of the lower level is available for use as a gallery, party room or whatever we wish.   I am so blessed and filled with gratitude to have my dream fullfilled.  I see sharing my studio space with art students, art collectors, my dear friends and family.

This is an interior view looking north. I had skylights installed for the maximum amount of light. During the day no lights are needed.

This side of the garage faces the street. The bottom garage is divided into two separate sections. Each has its own side door entrance. The left side of the garage will be used as the workshop and the right side will be a gallery, classroom and social room as needed.

West facing side of garage. The back looks onto the Marmion Park and my garden.

View from the staircase entrance into my art studio. I can view my backyard garden and the neighborhood park.

This is the new interior of the art studio. The ceilings are vaulted so the room seems quite large.

The art studio construction is making more progress every week.  We are hoping completion will be the middle of January.  The galvanized steel staircase is in the final stages of fabrication.  All the other jobs (plumbing, electrical, structural) have passed the city’s inspections.  The holidays will slow things down a bit, but we are hopeful the construction will be done very soon.  Check out Harvard Heights Construction on YouTube (ths is a garage built across the street from our house – way more detailed than my art studio):  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BALWyrU5BM4

Today, I have made some major changes with my still life set ups.  I have three set ups in place and I am currently painting my first of the series called “Redemption”.

I have decided to do all in Watercolor.  I love painting in watercolor.  I like the fact I can walk away from the brushes while the interruption of the backyard construction is taking place.  I only paint during the day with natural sunlight.  A night, I will draw or concentrate on future paintings.

I am also experimenting with egg tempera and casein with the watercolor.  The rythm of painting with all these water-based mediums seem to flow beautifully together.  I am not mixing them together with the same paint brush.  I am using the other mediums as the final layers ontop of the watercolor.  When I use the egg tempera and casein, I will indicate I am doing so.

I have taken a class with the nationally known artist Koo Schadler and have never pursued painting exclusively with egg tempera.  It will be my next project once I move into the new studio.

In the meantime, I will stay with my beloved watercolors.

This is the first watercolor underpainting layer. I have many more layers to build with color. I paint around all the areas I want to leave white.

This is the drawing before the watercolor.  I work out most of my problems with this first stage.  For example, I am free to reposition certain objects in the drawing to make it work in the composition.

Alot of new construction has taken place at our residence.  We are anticipating the building of our new garage with a second story apartment/art studio.

The downstairs garage will be divided into two spaces with a wall and two separate garage doors:  the left side of the garage will house all tools and a workshop area.  The right side of the garage will overlook the garden area and be used for art shows and private painting classes.

The garage/art studio project will be completed around the first of January.  We are making alot of progress with the building this month because the weather has been beautiful.

My current artwork has taken a different turn in the subject theme and I am focusing on the idea of “Redemption”.  A recent personal incident has caused me to reflect on this idea of redemption.  I have set all previous shown on this blog aside and I am drawing from different still life set ups.  I will post some of the drawings later.

In the meantime, see the progress of the construction site below.  Blessings to you all and follow your dreams with love.

Old 1920s carriage garage house before removal.  The old wood was riddled with termites and the old roof was rusted.

New framing and the walls are added.  The roofing is next once the wood is delivered.

Here is the latest still life set up in my studio.  I am carefully building up the watercolor layers on the archival Crescent watercolor board.

As you can see, I am at the initial stage of adding color.  I worked on the Sea Fan yesterday.  It took about four layers to achieve the rich color.  Some areas of the fan need more layers of paint for the shadowed area.  Yes, it means repainting the same areas.

Here is a close up version of the painting.  Some of the pencil lines are still visible.  Once the area is painted, I will erase my pencil guidelines.  I have alot more painting to do to build up the layers of color.