A long way to go for a few pictures!

My hubby and I just got back from the East Coast. We were there for 3 weeks and let me tell you...that's just NOT enough time to see all the beautiful sights there are to see!  I can see many painting nights ahead in my future...
Here are just a FEW of the many  photos we took this weekend that will make for some good winter painting inspiration on those long cold nights ahead...

I'm home now and the final preparations are being made for some wonderful painting classes this fall. Come and join me! Check out my newsletter that I hope will be out by the end of this week!
Enjoy ...and have a happy week.

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Waterloo County Tole and Decorative Painter's Guild

The Guild ladies painting Memory boxes
at the Button Factory in Waterloo

The Waterloo County Tole and Decorative Painter's Guild - also known as Waterloo Painter's Guild and WCTDPG is closing at the end of June. BUT that's not the end of Decorative Painting in the Kitchener-Waterloo Region! There are a LOT of Art Parties in KW where people are learning to paint!  There will always be people - young and old who want to learn to paint! 

Painting pumpkins at Creativ Festival

(photo left) Guild members hard at work painting Memory Boxes for the hospital. These boxes are given to parents whose babies have passed away. They hold momentoes of that baby's short life and bring a lot of comfort to bereaved parents. The guild has been actively involved in this community project for many years and our members will continue to paint Memory Boxes as long as there is a need. 

Young and old, men and women, painting is one of the most rewarding and relaxing hobbies around. A few step-by-step lessons and you will be getting rid of your store bought canvases and replacing them with beautiful works of art you do yourself. The DIY movement is alive and well and painting is on the way back up in popularity these days!

A recent Silk Scarf class at Artwaves in Mississauga

What could be better than to make your own gifts for a special friend or family member? 

Wouldn't these silk scarves be a great Mother's day gift for your mom or sister or daughter in law or friend???  You can paint one of these in 2 hours! And they make a wonderful gift. Just send me an email and let me know you'd like to try this and I will save a spot for you on Mondays or Tuesdays!

We have a saying, "If it doesn't move, we paint on it!"  Fabric, wood, tin, glass, and canvas - the sky is the limit!

Debbie teaching at the Artwaves booth at a recent
Creativ Festival in Toronto.

Wouldn't it be great to add a new painting the matches your personal decorating style - in YOUR favorite colours with a subject you LOVE?  

If you have tried Art parties or Painting parties, and you'd like to learn MORE, you are at the right place! Just sign up for Keepsakes' newsletter and you will get announcements about upcoming Art Parties that I am holding and upcoming classes. Check out our Art Party Gallery and pick a painting you and your friends would like to do in our studio - Watch for upcoming Art parties in restaurants in Kitchener Waterloo area

Debbie has taught kids Drawing classes
for homeschoolers and will be having
Kids Art classes on some Saturday mornings in the fall

I'm hard at work preparing samples and getting organized for a new fall session, but if you can't wait until then, send me an email and let me know you'd like to start sooner!  I have class openings on Monday and Tuesday afternoons and evenings and you can start anytime. We can help you from beginner to advanced level. I (Debbie) am an experienced teacher and I can even help you paint from your own photos or develop your own ideas for what you would like to see in your home. 

You are never too young or too old to enjoy a new hobby! And painting is fun and easy to learn!! No talent needed - To begin, we trace our designs and learn how to paint them in a step by step way.   Start with Acrylics or Watercolour.  Give it a try!!

It's all part of the Process... Varnishing

Some days it's not about creating it's about FINISHING!!
I had some ornaments to deliver... so last minute varnishing was the name of the game today!

Some are for the grandkids, some for a cousin who won my 12 Days of Christmas draw :-)
Even the smallest projects have a lot of detail.
Handpainted by Debbie Eckmier
Designs by Jamie Mills Price  - hearts
Cindi Combs - Chickens
Holly Hanley - Bear with note

Baby it's Cold outside!!!

Once again I'm trying to get myself into the studio to paint every day in January! This is my Day One painting. It's a design by Golda Radar and handpainted by me :-)  I love how Golda incorporates zendoodles into her paintings. This will be a class in my studio in February. Come and learn to paint and Zendoodle with me!  Sign up soon on my website.

A Wildlife workshop with David N. Kitler

I just got back from a 4 day workshop with David N. Kitler. What a fantastic time I had!

He's a great teacher and an inspiring artist. He lives in Calgary and travels all over the world to study animals on location. Here's his website so you can check out his work. http://www.davidkitler.com/ WOW is all I can say! I'm looking forward to taking more workshops from him in the future.

I'm not showing the painting I'm working on til it's finished. (It's in the "early ugly" stage) But I will show the reference photo that was taken in Africa by my son David on one of his trips.

Hopefully I will get some more time this week to work on it. Do you like the idea of learning to paint wildlife? Let me know below!

September is done!!

Oh well! Best laid plans and all that jazz!  Life really happens sometimes. I have been painting regularly but haven't finished any of the projects I've been working on so the 30 paintings in September didn't happen.

There was a website that had to be launched and several things that had to be fixed up after the launch...Check out this site I was working on for most of the summer. www.kwsa.ca  It's a website for our local artist's society.

And I got sick and didn't feel much like picking up a brush for a while!

But that's enough excuses - I am looking forward to really launching my new website and launching a couple of different ventures.

Keepsakes Coffee and Canvas Parties
The latest thing to hit KW! So much fun! How it works...

You invite some friends to your home or office and I teach you how to paint a painting in 2 1/2 to 3 hours. Simple, contemporary designs. You don't have to know how to be an artist, I teach you how to paint step-by-step.  You can also come to my cozy home studio.  Check out the Coffee and Canvas parties on my website for more details.

Beginner Acrylic Classes
I have a new Beginner Acrylic class starting on Nov. 14th. It's 4 weeks long and all the supplies are included in the cost. You will complete 3 to 5 small projects and learn all the basics.

Check out my Beginner Class page to find out all the details!!

Treasured Teapots

Our local Sketchclub that meets at the Button Factory went on a field trip to the Antique Market. Our challenge was to sketch items that we could "collage" into a painting. I chose teapots and managed to find quite a few different shapes and sizes. So these are 'Treasured Teapots' from yesteryear.

Watercolour in my Sketchbook 10x14"

Tiger Swallowtail on Dandelions

Tiger Swallowtail on Dandelions. 7x9" Watercolour and Ink.
I'm a little behind because I've had a bad cold and haven't looked at a brush for a couple of days!
So much fun to do all the black with pen and then see it come to life when you add the colour :-)

YOU can do this!!

These two lively sisters were students of mine.  Suzanne and Ricki. They are sisters. They didn't know how to paint at all when they started in September, but by the next fall they were painting like this! And loving it!

Inch by inch, it's a cinch!

My very first painting

My next door neighbour, Sylvia talked me into going to a Decorative Painting class at a nearby craft store.

Decorative painting - for those who don't know, is a painting style where you paint decorative designs on useful objects like wooden items, fabric, glass or non-useful surfaces like paper or canvas. It may include stencilling and faux finishing as well as many other techniques that are also learned in a step by step process.  It's a great way for people to learn how to paint.

I had already seen many painted projects in craft magazines but at the time there were no wood pieces in craft stores to paint on and I didn't have a way to cut wood myself, so I had just looked and wished I could paint. After this class, I found supplies and borrowed a bandsaw from my dad to cut the wood pieces, and I painted all my Christmas presents that year! This is the cute angel I painted in that first class many years ago - the beginning of my artistic journey. I probably painted this angel 5 or 6 times after that first class - a great way to practice.

I'm not sure now who the artist was who designed this angel (Rita Martin?) - nor the name of the teacher - but I am sure grateful that she gave me a start. 

I will be starting to teach painting classes this fall so if you would like to learn how to paint just send me an email and I will fill you in on the details. 

You can get started any time in my Open Studio classes and you can choose from my extensive library of samples and designs so if angels like this aren't your thing we can find something you DO like that will tickle your fancy. Styles have certainly changed over the years...but the techniques you learn can be applied to any style or design. If you've heard about Painting parties or maybe even attended one, we have the same thing going on in my home studio every week. Most of the supplies are included so it's simple to come and make it and take it!  This makes for a fun, night out for you and maybe a friend or two!!

Don't wait! Treat yourself, and maybe you will even have some paintings to give to your friends and family by this Christmas - something you made yourself!

Bleeding Hearts Step #4 Final painting

For the final stage of my Bleeding Hearts watercolour, I deepened the red on the hearts, and added some very light shading to the white parts of the flower along with adding seeds. Then I toned down all the lightest leaves - adding yellow-green where the light was shining on the leaves and adding more violet shades and darker blue-green shades to add variation to the leaves. 

I gave it a rest and took some photos. I noticed some leaves that were advancing too much into the foreground so I toned them down a bit and tidied up some edges - softening others. When I was happy, I signed my name, framed the painting and framed it. 

I entered it into the KWSA member's show in June and I'm thrilled to say the original has sold already!!

I will arrange to have prints that you can order online and those should be available soon.

Bleeding Hearts Step 3

Step three...

I decided on the placement of the main leaves using the colours of the background so there would be a variation of interesting colour in them. I transferred the leaves onto the paper, and started to darken some of the areas where I want lots of contrast. 

Wetting the paper in sections I dropped in paint to make darker green and green-blue and yellow-green areas around the leaves. I used the background that was already there as a starting point. Using 2 brushes, one to apply the paint and another damp brush to soften edges so I didn’t get hard lines I worked my way around the outside of leaves. I prefer a softer blended look for my watercolours. 

It was quite a fiddly job painting around the little hearts but I want to see all the areas of the painting progress at the same time. I was trying to darken the edges but keep light in the centre to draw your eye to the main object which is the flowers. 

The background hearts are there as background so I purposely make the red bleed into the green and fuzz the edges so they disappear a bit more. This step of negative painting probably took me the longest since I had to put on several layers to get some of the areas dark enough. 

Adjust this… adjust that…make some of the edges softer and some more crisp. I still want to try to keep the colours that I started with since I love this combination. Play time!  

Oh I’m so pleased with how this is going…

Can't wait to show you the finished painting tomorrow!

I hope you can make it to see the KW Society of Artists show if you live close. It's on until June 25th at the Button Factory on Regina Street in Waterloo. 

Bleeding Hearts Step 2

Here is the second step-by-step photo of my "Bleeding Hearts" painting that is entered into the KW Society of Artists show that opens at the Button Factory in Waterloo on Friday from 5 - 7pm.

After the first layer of light pink is on to show the shape and overlap of each heart, now it's time to really brighten up each flower. Using quite a bright red colour I wet each flower and touched the colour to the areas I wanted the strongest colour to be - keeping in mind that I wanted to leave some white areas to show the puffiness - and give each little heart some form and shape. 

With watercolour you can't paint two wet areas side by side or else all the colour bleeds into the wet area next to it. So I had to skip around quite a bit so so I could always be working on a flower that was beside two dry hearts.

You'll notice some hearts in front, some behind and some hanging sideways because they don't all face the same way as they hang from the stem. To show one heart was overlapping another heart, one edge was kept lighter and the one below (usually) is a bit darker - or vice versa - this way you don't have to outline each little flower with a line. The edges are kept crisp and the colour variation separates each one. I kept glazing more colour and more colour on the hearts until they were almost as dark as I wanted them. On bleeding hearts the older little hearts are lighter than the newer ones. I'm not quite done adding the layers of colour to all the hearts.

I'm loving how the hearts are turning out. Now is the time to sketch some leaves from the plant in my garden and figure out placement using tracing paper that you can see the background colours through.

Bleeding Hearts are one of my very favourite spring flowers. What spring flower is your favorite??

Watch for step 3 tomorrow.

Bleeding Hearts Watercolour KWSA show

This painting is called  "Bleeding Hearts" it's 11x14". For a few days I'm going to be sharing step-by-step photos so you will see my watercolour as it progressed. 

It's entered into the KW Society of Artists show that opens at the Button Factory in Waterloo on Friday from 5 to 7 pm.

The first step is to draw out your design onto watercolour paper. I used a combination of photos and also drawn from life using my own plant in my garden as reference material. When you are pleased with the design, you paint over all the little hearts and stems with masking fluid (thin latex) to save the white. 

When that's dry you wet the paper on both sides and drop multi colours into the water and watch the colour do its thing. It's magic! Watercolour dries much lighter than what it looks like when it's wet so you never really know what you're going to get until it's totally dry!

After it's dry you can remove the masking and you can start to put some pale colour on the hearts to define the shape of each one.

I'll share the next step tomorrow. I LOVE the colours in the background. I hope to keep some of that bright green to show the dappled light falling on the leaves. What do you think?