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"Mountain Memories"

I have finally completed my first landscape painting. It’s titled “Mountain Memories.” I was scared to paint it at first, but once the trees came into detail I couldn’t get enough! The scene I painted was from the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, NC. I took a reference photo from the back porch of the log house I stayed in and I fell in love with the serenity of the morning. Most of my best landscape photographs came from the Folk School’s 390+ acres. I went there for three weeks in November of 2006 and I consider those to be the best three weeks of my life…it was paradise! There is hardly anything in Brasstown besides the school and some local stores. It is a few miles from Murphy and very desolate - that leaves room for nature and the true peace that you can only get in the mountains. The entire school is made as in olden times and their motto is “sing behind the plow.” It is from those mountain lands that I found myself and the true potential of my abilities. I was 18 when I went there the first time and I have been longing to go back ever since. Even a simple visit there can create, or evoke, the best of mountain memories. I will certainly be expressing more of my memories from there in the near future.

Note: In every landscape painting I will also paint an animal that is hidden. In this painting there's a cat - it's not hard to find, but I can give you the key if you need it.

“Mountain Memories” 11x14” acrylic on canvas. © Cara Bevan 2008

"Fear of the Unknown"

This tester is yet another experiment that I call “Fear of the Unknown”. I tried to make a rainbow effect with the background dabbling technique, but ended up covering the other colors and making it gross in my opinion. So to spice it up I added a cartoon version of my cat Furby in fear of a mysterious something. The cartoon is actually called a chibi. It’s used often in Japanese cartoons and is characterized by large heads and eyes and small bodies. It’s meant to emphasize cuteness, but it can also be used to exaggerate expressions. So on a whim came this painting and so it stays. I actually liked painting the semi-realistic chibi, but I’ll stick to realism.

*This painting is currently for sale. Please ask me for more information or visit my other websites if you’re interested. I also allow similar commissions.*

“Fear of the Unknown” 9.5x12” acrylic on wooden panel. © Cara Bevan 2008

"Bubbler" and "Dragon of Fire"

Between working on my landscape painting and other art I play around with my testers, just to see what falls out of my brain. This time I have come up with these unique paintings. The backgrounds were done first in experiment - I have finally mastered the wash/dabble technique I did with "Mirror to My Soul." In the spirit of the colors of water and fire I painted what was appropriate. The first one, titled "Bubbler", is self explanatory. I did a lot of research on bubbles from having my sister blow them while I take pictures to close observation. Then I was notified that underwater bubbles are different from blown bubbles...so after some frustration I kept the painting simple. The bubbles are just rings of white paint, faded in the center to give it that transparent look. I did the circles by hand (not so easy, but easier than a straight line for me). The second painting is called "Dragon of Fire." I drew this with paint for the sake of painting a dragon - I wanted to make it have humongous wings and from there the rest took shape. I kept the painting warm in color to keep it in the spirit of fire. I may end up doing more dragons of different elements.

*These paintings are currently for sale. Ask for more information or visit the websites I’m a part of to see what other art is for sale. Not all art that is for sale is posted!*

“Bubbler” 9.5x12” acrylic on wooden panel. © Cara Bevan
“Dragon of Fire” 9.5x12" acrylic on wooden panel. © Cara Bevan

How I paint - step one, drawing and gathering

I started this painting of three carpenter bees as I usually do - collecting photos and drawing it on a canvas. I used three different photos and merged them together by hand to create the composition for this piece. The thought of painting flora intimidated me, but I was inspired to paint the bees and you can't have bees without flowers. The flowers I used were lavender salvia. They grow in large stalks with the tips covered in a small grouping of lavender flowers. Bees of all kinds love them. Thanks to my macro camera lens I was able to photograph the small flowers to draw for a good reference. Once drawn with a projector, I gathered my colors I would need. For this painting I collect several greens (forest green, lime green, olive green, and grass green), several shadow colors (prussian blue, dioxazine purple, burnt umber, raw umber, and burnt sienna), highlighting colors (white, cadmium yellow medium, cerulean blue, true blue) and an indian yellow as the midtone for the bee. I hand made the lavender color. Then I took a leap and started the basic colors - as you can see I got ahead of myself and started coloring before I photographed it!

How I paint - step 1.5, basic background

Backgrounds are always difficult, even though I usually paint them as smeary blobs of color. This background was particularly tough. I messed with it throughout the painting process to adjust the shadows, highlights, and color. This background was unique, however, in that I didn't use a brush to paint it. I used my hands. I discovered that 'hand painting' makes blending easier if you're painting in a larger area. With a mixture of forest green, lime green, white, and olive green I blended the background as I desired. Once the base layer dried I altered it for hours trying to tone it down, take away this, add that. I used washes forthe adjustments as not to completely cover what I had already done. By then I was using a brush to make the lines finer, but I still intended to make the background out of focus. Once the background was to my liking at the time, I had to do the basic colors for the subject. However, my wild handpainting left me with fewer guildlines than I had hoped...

How I paint - step 2, basic colors

The hardest part of this artwork came in painting the basic colors. When I was done painting the background I covered up a lot of my drawing, leaving me in the dark. Also, I was nervous going into the plant and flowers as I have never painted one in detail before. To keep from getting overwhelmed, I started at the stalk of the plant and the plant stem, then the bees, and lastly the flowers as they are in the front.

I used a combination of wet techniques to get a reliable basic layer for details. I splotched color with a splayed brush for the plant stalk. The splotching of light and dark greens would create the folds and holes needed to make the painting realistic. I paid close attention the to pink accent in the salvia's stem and leaves. For the tip of the plant I had to be even more careful - it was in layers and I had to paint them from tip to base to keep the layers overlapped naturally. The bees were striaght forward for me - I worked from dark to light, back to front to keep everything in perspective. I had to make sure the dark shadows had at least a tiny bit of light - no shadow is truly black. I used dark blue for the shadows in the entire piece. The flowers were challenging as they had a particular look. The salvia flower has an overhanging top piece with a tongue, two twisting side sections, and a broad lower section that is composed of two peices. This worried me, but I did my best to keep all the shadows and highlights in place to create the completed basic layer.

I finished the piece with details - they were more challenging to do because of the plant. I added shadows and highlights to the plant and bees, tiny dew drops to the flowers, some pink tints to the leaves, and hair to the bees to finally finish "Carpenters' Lunch Break."