Friday, December 16, 2011

Welcome To My Lair

Well, as far as I know, I am done with my dragon on the door.  It has been a very process because it is so large.  Also since I did both sides of the door, it was an even longer process.  On the outside of the door where I was depicting the rock, I used light molding paste which I put on with a large palate knife.  Even after painting on it, that area retained a different texture than the rest of the door.  I used a transparent dark green and a quinacridone Crimson to mix the black background color.  The yellow underbelly is done with a textured yellow paper which I painted on as well.  I used a stencil that is the left over parts when sequins are made for the scale texture on the dragon skin.  I used some  on both the yellow (gold) and the red (copper)  The very last thing that I did was put a few patches of large mica flakes (gold flakes) on the "skin" to look like some of the scales were coming off.

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Dragon changed again!


I just couldn't leave my dragon as it was!  I forgot to add the wings and even though I didn't really want to have to do parts over again, I decided that I had to!  I have also been working on the back....another thing that I didn't want to do but felt I had to do!

Friday, December 9, 2011

"The Hole" in Elk River, MN

I finished a painting that was commissioned. It is of “The Hole” in Elk River. Apparently it is quite a well known place and this painting has been around for quite some time. It has quite the history with it. I guess at one time it was a pond and a child drowned there. Some men got together and filled it in and then it was used for a football stadium and now a skating rink. Pretty interesting!! I just copied it. Original is by Glen Quist.

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Dragon redone

I finished the front of my dragon painting and now am working on the back.  I had to change some parts of it from the last time I posted.  I just couldn't take it any longer.  I still am not sure this is how I actually wanted it to be, but.........  I am done with the front and started on the back.  I thought I should post the picture of how it looks now.  I should have done it before, but I have just been so busy with Thanksgiving that I just have not had the energy to do more!

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Dragon Painting Update

Just a short note to show what I have been agonizing over!  I really didn't like the back leg that was stepping through the hole and stepping on the front side.  I have been doing nothing but thinking of this for several days now.  Finally I came up with a solution.  It still isn't how I wanted it to begin with, but it is acceptable now anyway!

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Dragon painting


I know it has been much too long between posts these days! I swear that life just keeps getting busier! I am not sure why either! But since I have been working on a new piece, I thought you might like to see it in progress. I am sure hoping that it turns out. I still have some things that I am not sure exactly what I want, but as I go along, hopefully the dragon will find it’s way out! I started by rough sketching in the outline of the opening and the basic design I wanted to do with the dragon. I am changing somewhat as I go though, but it at least gave me a place to start. I then used modeling paste on the outside areas to make it textured. I used titan buff along with white and chromium oxide green and then added some areas of more green and also quinacridone nickel azo gold. I put a light brown under coat on the body of the dragon and then used a mixture of violet oxide with gel medium to stencil the scales on him. I used a textured paper that I tore into small pieces for the front of his torso. I used a combination of yellow, ochre, and gold for the main, beard, and tail. So far, I am happy with where this is going. I am doing it on a door and one of the big things I am wrestling with is whether or not to paint the back of it as well. I am thinking that might be kind of neat to do, but it would also make it harder to hang……or maybe just different! I am laid up today so I won’t get to paint, but hope to get more done tomorrow! I will try to post as I go along, if I don’t forget to take pictures!






Sunday, October 23, 2011

Finally able to Breathe again!


October has been such a busy month.  I  am so glad that I am almost done with it!  Only one more scheduled activity!  Or two!  Next weekend will be another busy one!  But the big two are over and now I can breathe!  Last week I was in Wisconsin for a weeklong class with Karlyn Holman!  I had a wonderful time!  I went with 6 others from the Bemidji area!  We all painted at least 12 hours a day and ate and slept the other 12!  I ended up getting a cold, which made it a little harder, but I still had the best time ever!  And we are all signed up for her class for the same week next year!  I can hardly wait!  Then I had to get ready for Bemidji's 4th annual (I think) Studio Cruise which was this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday!  I had a blast although I am now extremely tired and am going to bed as soon as I finish writing this!  I had about 200 people come through my studio and got to visit with most of them!  I did a demo on monoprints and told many about floor clothes which is something that I have been working on.  I believe everyone enjoyed both!  I also made a few new contacts and had some sales and had a great time in every way possible!  I sold one of my paintings that was so newly finished that I didn't have a digital copy yet, but the lady that I sold it to said that I could keep it until next week so I could do that.  Good thing too, because I sold three prints of the same picture.  I also sold one that was not yet finished!  I was so surprised!  The lady that bought that one let me keep it until I finish it, although she said she liked it just as it was!  It still has the masking on the birds and the ones that are flying have not even been painted yet!  I thought I would post of picture of both of those two paintings!

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Just finished another painting that is mostly watercolor.  I do have a little gold spray paint on it so I need to call it a mixed media.  It is 15 x 11 and started out as just an abstract.  From there I looked at it for a long time until I found a figure in it and tried to suggest that figure to all.  I don't want it to be too obvious, but hope you can find it if you look for a minute!  It was a lot of fun to do!

Sunday, September 18, 2011



This is my second pastel and I am happy with how it turned out.  It is a commissioned piece which will have another to go with it once the baby is born.  I really liked this pose and felt like it needed to be done with pastel on a black background.  I'm not sure why I thought that since the other pastel I did was of a swan, but I did feel that this would be best and I am glad I did it this way!  I think it is very striking like this!  I hope the people that I did it for will be happy with it as well!  Now I guess this means that I will be doing the next one in pastel as well!  Wish me luck!

Wednesday, September 14, 2011



This is the second painting in a series of boys fishing.  It is 11 x 14 and is mixed media (mostly watercolor).  It is one that I have had going for  a long time, but have just finally finished!  This is such a common sight in Minnesota each summer as so many of the "boys" spend all of their free time fishing!  My family is no different!  One boy would rather fish and the other would rather swim.  Minnesota is a great place for both to live!

I also wanted to say that I am the new president of Artists of Minnesota and if anyone is interested in joining, they can sure email me at honstead@paulbunyan.net

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Fractured

I have been working hard trying to get some paintings framed.  I have a show starting in Sept. at Bigfork, MN.  I also need to get a few more prints and  cards ready to go!  But I want to be painting!  I had one that didn't turn out so I will not be posting it, but I finished this one last night and I think I like it.  I feel like there is nothing else that I want to do so it must be done, right?  ;-)  I really had a hard time naming it, but think that "Fractured" fits better than anything else!  Hopefully that will work.  I wonder why it is so hard for me to come up with names of paintings?  It is harder than doing the painting itself!

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Veil Dancer

I finished the second one using several materials to direct your eye around the painting.  Veil Dancer is supposed to be very abstract and yet you feel the movement in it.  It is done in a cruciform design and even though I wanted it to be a horizontal painting, It just didn't work, so eventually I had to leave it in the vertical position and go from there.  This painting was a lot of fun to do because I got to use a lot of different techniques in the process and I let the painting show me what to do.  I did not know what I was going to paint until I was actually working on it.  It is a lot of fun to do paintings in this manner!

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Abstract.


I did post a picture of this one when I first finished it but thought I would post it here as well.  I did an abstract with a lot of different textures and then added to it to make more dark values.  I also added water soluble crayons on top of the watercolor.  They were so vibrant that it really made the rest of the work pop.  I have started another one and will show you what it looks like after the first step of texture making is complete.  I am working on this orange one now and hope to finish it tomorrow.  I will post it again when I do.

Saturday, August 6, 2011

Looks like I'm Back!

I have just joined several other blogs so, since they are on blogspot as well, I will be adding to this site more often again, along with my wordpress site and my new ones.  Quite a job.  I think I will have to do one per day and at least once each week on each individual site or I will never know where I am at!  I just hope I can figure out how to do this since it has been so long since I have blogged on this site, and I am used to the other one now....... Oh well, I will learn!  I have been doing quite a lot of painting in the last few days and I have a new one that I have not yet posted on anything else yet.  I think later tonight I will try my luck at posting on Daily Painters of MN to see how that goes!  Wish me luck!!  Just thought I would post a picture of one of my recent paintings while I am here.  This is a tribute to my new Granddaughter since she and her mother had so many problems before and after birth!  I hope you like it.  It is a 12 x 16 watercolor  entitled In The Beginning.