Central Park in Snow
by Jane McElvany Coonce

I would like to invite everyone to a reception this Friday night from 6 - 8 pm at Fort C.F. Smith.
It's ArtFest Week, and it opens Friday night with a spectacular reception.  I'll be there, and I'd love to see you there, too.

This is one of the paintings that I will have there.  "Central Park in Snow" is an oil painting.  I will have 2 hanging paintings there and 8 unframed paintings in the bins.  I will also have cards.  I have a new box of cards from my  series of boat paintings.

Ft. CF Smith is located at 2411 N. 24th St. in Arlington.  It runs from March 28 - April 4.
Hours are:
   Friday, March 28 :  reception from 6-8 pm
   Saturday March 29 from 11 am - 5 pm
   Sunday :  closed
   Monday:  closed
    Tuesday, April 1:  noon - 4 pm
    Wednesday, April 2:  noon - 4
    Thursday, April 3:  noon - 4
    Friday, April 4:  10 am - noon

Georgetown on a Rainy Night

Georgetown on a Rainy Night
by Jane McElvany Coonce

Here's another painting that will be in my series painting of Night Scenes at the April show at the Gallery Underground.  Mark your calendars for Friday, April 4 (my birthday!) That's the reception night for the opening of the "Series" paintings.  Every artist that is a member of the gallery will have up to 5 paintings grouped together that represent a series that they've done.  I decided to focus on my night series again.  However, all of these paintings are freshly painted and have never been shown before.   I'll be there from 5-8 pm with five of my Night Series Paintings.  The gallery is in Crystal City and there is plenty of free parking in any of the garages.

Night Series: Memorial Bridge at Dawn

Memorial Bridge at Dawn
by Jane McElvany Coonce

This is a painting I did for my night series.  The Gallery Underground is sponsoring a show for its members called "Series".  All the paintings that you put in for the month of April must be in a series.  I decided to do a night series.
I can put in 5 paintings from this series.  The show will be hung at the end of the month and will be up for the month of April.  I had a hard time deciding which of my series to put in.  I have my crab series and cafe series.  But I decided to put in all new paintings.  So the paintings in this show have never hung in public before.   I will be putting them up on my blog, but I hope you'll get a chance to see them at the gallery in Crystal City.

Complementary Colors

Afternoon  in the Cafe
by Jane McElvany Coonce

This is a watercolor painting I did that was done with 2 colors, Quinacridone Gold and Mineral Violet.
Quinacridone Gold is an yellow color and Mineral Violet is purple which happen to be two colors that are opposite on the color wheel,  and therefore, complementary colors.  Something exciting happens when an artist uses complementary colors next to each other.  It has a different look and can wake up a sleepy viewer.  I was amazed how many variations of color I got with just those two colors.  It was a fun experiment and perhaps I'll try it again sometime with different complementary colors.

Last Snow of the Year

Snow on the Grounds of Mount Vernon
by Jane McElvany Coonce

I'm hoping the snow season is over.  We've been having some nice temperatures for the past few days. On Thursday, the temperature is supposed to drop.  Let's just hope that there is no more snow in the forecast.

I sold my last snow scene that I put on my blog.  I guess people want to remember the snowy winter we had this year.  Snow is pretty.  And it's fun to paint.  But I think I'll put my lavenders and purples away and pull out some spring colors like lime green and the pinks and reds of azaleas.

I did some night scenes for an upcoming show, so stay tuned for those paintings coming to my blog real soon.

Snow, snow , Snow!

Snow Fall at Mount Vernon
by Jane McElvany Coonce

This has been a terrible winter with tons of snow!  Will it ever end?  I decided if I can't beat it then I might as well join it.  I did several snow scenes.  In watercolor, you have to save the white of the paper.  So, of course, the lightest thing is the painting is the snow and that's where there is no paint. It's completely opposite painting to oil paint.  But I'm growing to love watercolor more and more each day.

Creek in Winter
by Jane McElvany Coonce

Night Scenes- Part 1

Friday Night Traffic
by Jane McElvany Coonce

In my art class, we are working on night scenes.  I've been doing a demo each week on different aspects of the night scene.  There's the blocking in, the suggestion of buildings, and the cars and the people.  It's fun to see what my students come up with, and they are doing amazing work.

I have done a different scene in each class and I will be putting them up on the blog.  There is a show coming up in April at the Gallery Underground called "Series."  So my series is going to be night scenes.  This first one is called "Friday Night Traffic".  It probably had the most cars and motorcyles in it of all of them, but I liked how it came out.  The bright colors of the tail lights reflect in the wet asphalt and make for a dazzling array of color.  These scenes are fun to do and I think my students are enjoying it, too even though they complain through the whole process.  I guess that's human nature.