Trying Something New-Aquaboard

"Trying Something New"

Watercolor on Aquaboard

The Dixie Girls Paint Challenge this past month has been "Favorite Things".  One of my favorite things is to try different things, go to new places, etc.  So for this painting challenge I used a different substrate.  Instead of painting on watercolor paper, which is what I typically do when I paint with watercolors, I painted on aquaboard.

I had seen some work by Kara Bidga as part of the Hurricane Sandy Relief Auction on Daily Paint Works and actually purchased one of her painting "Up Front".  This little jewel of a painting was painted on aquaboard.  It is a wonderful painting that makes me smile.  If you aren't familiar with Kara's work, her website is 

http://www.karakbigda.com

One of the interesting thing about Kara's painting was that it didn't need to be framed under glass.  I was intrigued.  So I got some aquaboard to give it a try.  "Trying Something New" is my first attempt with using aquaboard.  It is not for sale- it is going to take awhile to get use to this surface.  I'm not going to count the first attempt as a success.  There will definitely be a second attempt.

So here is to Trying Something New!

Best of 2012

2012 was a very good year for me in the art department.  One of my  goals was to paint at least two paintings a month.  I exceeded that one - so only a few of my paintings are represented here.  Some of them were firsts for me - like painting the rainbarrel for the North Alabama Land Trust Auction.   I also had my first show in October.  Thanks to everyone that came out for the reception.  I wanted to find a way to get my art out to folks that were not local to Huntsville and where looking for things besides an original painting.  So I set up a site for folks to purchase prints of my paintings   http://www.joanfunk.imagekind.com

And for notecards and other products with my art images I site up another site at  http://www.zazzle.com/joanfunk

For 2013 there are many things I would like to do.  And I've already started off with a bang- I ran a logo tournament to develop my logo which can be seen on my website and also on facebook.  (Thanks to Tere Parsons of Magnolia Texas for the winning design).) There are several paintings in progress- one in oil, one in pastel and two in watercolor.  Two of them have been hanging around for quite awhile but they will get finished with in the next month or so!  I managed to paint in plein air for the last three months of 2012- a couple of times after dark which was challenging.  So that's on my list for 2013 as well.  As a member of the Dixie Girls Paint Challenge group I expect to get outside of my comfort zone on a fairly regular basis- with new themes or painting materials.  All and all 2013 is setting up to be a year full of learning, painting, and fun.  I'm hoping 2013 brings you what you are wishing for as well.