Today we scattered ashes.
A conversation with a hurricane.
A start and an end redux
Recently I posted a painting and asked for advice. This is how it is now. Half sheet watercolor on paper. A fall wedding popped up to me. Love comments, criticism and more. I think it needs sharper images in the center.
And this is how it began
A start in need of a middle and an end.
A few weeks and one spell of exhaustion ago I took a color clinic workshop with Nita Leland. Boy did I need the reminders. So here's the first watercolor start since then. All comments, ideas and critiques welcome.
And thanks.
Martha who still wants to be a painter if she grows up.
Sold
#worldwatercolormonth
#nitaleland
When I paint near Nita, I let loose. Selfie with cookie. SOLD woohoo!
Tell me, what would they see in your eyes?
The eyes have it, from my friend Jim MsKeever
On a downtown street in Lansing, Mich., a woman asked for our help. She was with her daughter, about 7 years old.
We could see in the woman’s eyes several things: warmth, strength, wariness. In the young girl’s, shyness. Perhaps fear.
The woman, about 30, wore a hijab. Her daughter had long, dark hair, uncovered.
There was a significant language barrier, but we managed to learn that they are from Syria and have been in the U.S. for seven months. They had walked from a nearby Catholic church, the woman said, to find Bus #5 to get to her appointment at a job-training agency.
She carried a folder with her. We walked, and I asked if there might be any information in it that could help us get them there.
As she pulled out a couple of forms from the job-training agency, I noticed a packet of penmanship worksheets, with…
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By the pool
For #worldwatercolormonth 
My love in the water
#worldwatercolorgroup
Playing catch up
#worldwatercolorgroup #worldwatercolormonth
I missed a a couple days of painting this week. Heat, doctor appointments, life…. So here are a couple older paintings for your enjoyment, I hope. Watercolor is great fun.
10 July 17
#worldwatercolormonth
9 July 17
Todays prompt was summer music. “Summertime” is my all-time favorite song.
#worldwatercolormonth
8 July 17 #worldwatercolormonth
It was 97 degrees in my studio today. So I’m posting an older watercolor. Cooling off is the prompt for the day. #worldwatercolormonth. #worldwatercolorgroup.
7 July redux, signed
#worldwatercolormonth
Friday night lights, WIP finished, I think. #worldwatercolorgroup
Day 7’s post is Friday nights. Parking with my boyfriend Michael under the trees. Headlights!
#worldwatercolormonth
6 June 17
#worldwatercolormonth
Today’s prompt is boardwalk. You’ll have to imagine the board. 🙂
July paint
#worldwatercolormonth #worldwatercolorgroup
4 July 2017
#worldwatercolormonth. #worldwatercolorgroup
Abstract, bunny-ish
3 July 2017
#worldwatercolormonth
#worldwatercolorgroup
Rising, QoR watercolor, Golden high flow acrylic on raw canvas.
Easel WIP
Quartersheet watercolor. Comments, suggestions?
coming back to painting a lot
I tried this over a gessoed-over disaster. I wanted a butterfly.
Then I got at it with Inktense pastel-like blocks and aimed for a swallowtail with an endless tail. Oh boy.
All help and advice. Welcome. Hoooooo
Thanks, as always. Madness.
Effects of water hardness on watercolour paints
Way interesting
For the past couple of years, my tap water has been curdling my paints.
It all started with a tube of Quinacridone Rust (PO48) from M. Graham. I was attracted to this paint partially because the pigment is listed as non-granulating, and I fell in love with the colour, but ever since I got it, the paint has had a tendency to clump and curdle when mixed with water in the palette or dropped into a wash, resulting in an incredibly pronounced granulation pattern. This pattern becomes even more pronounced when Quin. Rust is mixed with another dark valued, non granulating paint such as a phthalo.
Colour mixing experiments with Quin Rust (PO48) and Phthalo Turquoise (PB16)
I searched the internet extensively, and could find no other reports of quinacridone rust granulating like this. For months I was actually convinced I had received a dud tube, but avoided investigating…
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Cedar Key
Pinks, purples, aquamarines and sun collude and collide everywhere in this Florida city. We came up here airplane shopping, had dinner in a dog-friendly joint on the beach. Now it’s time to sleep, but I have these colors swirling around my brain. Here’s a sunset. Paint flinging tomorrow.
https://marthakeim.com/2017/03/10/on-today/
Sun sand water
On today
I like this one. Sun, sand water.
Red day, all reruns, no work
On easel now
Still recovering from the bug but painting almost every day. Work is changing, not necessarily better. Lemme know what you think. And thank you for your words to me.
‘They never asked to be extorted, raped, threatened and beaten’
Banner in Oaxaca City, Mexico, Jan. 20. Rough translation: Migrants are workers everywhere. No human being is illegal in the world. Stop the xenophobic policies of Donald Trump. Photo by Theresa Barry.
“She was told that if she failed to pay again, they would first rape her once more and then kill her son.”
My brother recently returned from a 10-day volunteer stint representing women and children who have crossed the border from Mexico to seek asylum in the United States. They are being held at a detention center in Dilley, Texas, euphemistically called a “family residential center.”
My brother is an attorney and represents these families in “credible fear” interviews that ultimately lead to a judge’s ruling that decides their fate.
There’s more to the legal process than that, but I need to share the stories of three women my brother met this month. These women, and potentially their children, are at…
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Groundhog Day
We had our first–soon-to-be-annual–event today. Watched Groundhog Day streaming. Ate salad from close by. Held hands.
Interview with Charlie O’Shields – Creator of Doodlewash and founder of World Watercolor Month and World Watercolor Group
Follow them for fun and learning
I am so excited to turn the tables and interview Charlie O’Shields! Charlie has been featuring other watercolor artists from around the globe since he started painting and blogging. Charlie has built an amazing and supportive community of artists who love watercolor.
Charlie O’Shields is the Creator of Doodlewash and founder of World Watercolor Month (July) and World Watercolor Group. He currently lives in Kansas City, Missouri with his Parisian partner, Philippe, and a temperamental basenji named Phineas.
What made you start drawing and painting AND posting?
Well, my partner, Philippe, decided to try watercolor and it looked fun so I started doing it with him and I was immediately hooked. I began by Urban Sketching, which was super fun, but ended up just learning many fast sketching techniques, as I didn’t often want to sketch only what was in front of me. I also use a mixture of reference photos and bits of…
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It begins
Noonish Friday
Blah blah blah
Trying to get well… paint on paper.
Since December I have been haunted by a mysterious bug plus cold. Hauled my as into my studio to at least play a bit. Imaginary flower with Inktense blocks on paper. Way fun with intense color. More drying on my board today.
Good Sunday to ya
I’ve been sick for more than a month. Sitting out here in the 70-degree sunshine. Helps a lot. Paint today I hope.
Winter solstice
IPad. ArtRage app.
WIP watercolor on Yupo
Using my beloved QoR watercolor, this is Michael in his element
Hail to the Chief
Thinker, writer
NBC News photo.
Ladies and gentlemen, here is the President-elect of the United States of America.
God help us all.
please
And more
Feeling better these days and publishing some older stuff for sale. Watercolor quartersheet, $200 sale.
Once more with feeling
This painting won me a finalist position in the Artist’s Magazine annual. i still love it so I’m showing it off again.
Feeder fodder for the birds
October is breast cancer pay-attention month
I always paint a pink one for this month, but Florida’s man many colors have kept me busy. So here is my 2013-14 edition. Sunflowers ending their run. Sennelier watercolor and ink on WC paper.
For your consideration
And for sale, just ask. I have a bunch of watercolors that I would like to sell. Some are older and some are current. Would love comments, critiques too. Thanks. Martha Keim.
Today
#worldwatercolorgroup
#Inktober
Watercolor, coffee, ink on WC postcard (Arches, QoR)
I voted today
Another one from a few years ago
Cazenovia, NY: Valley from Toloa’s house
For #inktober
Here’s the fifteenth ink drawing from a live model session. It took two hours of intense practice, practice, practice to get to here. Pen and ink is great for learning form, while splashing paint (tomorrow’s post) is for learning color.
And another
North Carolina treeline from a previous life
The flowers that bloom
Matthew is here.
Posting oldies till I can shoot some newer ones. Keep your brushes wet. Red, my treeing walker coonhound rescue.
Tonight we wait for Matthew
Eye of the storm
The heat, the colors, oh boy
This is a shot at sunset on Lake Lowery, Florida and below is a watercolor-in-progress, i.e. What I did to it.
Happyhappy buzzbuzz coffeeeee
