Work in Progress: Beauty Queen (Finishing Underpainting of Leaves), and Great News from Juried Shows

It may not seem that a lot has been done since its last WIP, but believe me, many hours of loving labor has gone into this little painting between then and now, carefully strengthening the intensity and value of the shadow shapes of the background leaves, and modifying the colors of the light-strike areas. More than once have I completely lost in the middle of this big puzzle of light and dark shapes, wondering where the shape I am currently delineating is located in the reference photo. (I even cut out inch-sized square shapes on white paper to isolate the area I am looking at on the reference photo so that I can get back to the same area every time I leave the painting table... That really helped) I think the underpainting of the leaves in the background is almost finished at this stage. Right now the entire background seem very hard-edged but to me there is a easy-to-identify structure of color temperature and clear structure of light-middle value-dark shapes, which would allow me to do a wet-into-wet overpainting easily -- at least I hope so :-P

Beauty Queen, Watercolor on Arches 140# Cold Press Paper, 7"h x 5"w, WIP 6

And I got great news when attending the reception in the Haggin Museum for Stockton Art League's 57th National Juried Exhibition yesterday -- my painting, High Summer Dream II, was awarded the Iona Hepper Memorial 1st Place Award for Water Media! What an honor! Adding to my joy of the day, I was approached by the client who just purchased this piece from the show... It is just like a big happy dream...

High Summer Dreams II, 

Watercolor on Arches 140# Cold Press Paper, 10"h x 14"w, 2012 #33

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