I took this snapshot of these orange tulips using natural light in my studio

I import these snapshots onto my computer and using Photoshop I delete the backgrounds, modify the colors and otherwise play around with the image. I print the images from my Epson printers onto matte cardstock papers.

Using Photoshop on my Mac, I play around with colors and composition

In this particular Art work, after making a completed tonal drawing which I discussed in my previous post, I traced the outline of the tulip onto 300lb hot press paper using a lightbox and a 2H pencil.

Then, using Winsor Newton watercolors, I put down my first layer of paint. Once dry I used my set of Prismacolor colored pencils to draw over the watercolor.

In this Mixed Media Art work I used colored pencil over watercolor

For some reason I find this process to be very relaxing and meditative for me. If I need some calmness in my life, I can go to my studio at any time and pick up right where I left off. No fuss, no muss, no bother.

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Snapshot of some Orange Tulips I used as the basis of this series of Art works

Since I’m not a photographer, I take snapshot of flowers I either buy or grow. I usually select them for color or just for form. I find myself attracted to large bold shapes rather than the more frilly inflorescences. I then decide what mediums I will work in and whether there will be one finished Art work in one or more mediums or whether the work will be part of a series.

I love creating tonal drawings so I often do a finished piece in graphite before I start a painting just because I like the feel of drawing. It also is a great way to work out values of highlights and shading.

Tonal drawing of a tulip. I use a pair of magnifying lenses which I hook onto my bifocals to help me see the details

If the work is part of a series, I need to imagine the size of each piece and the total overall impression I’m looking for. This ups the level of complexity considerably and actually makes for quite a nice challenge to my visual imagination and my technical consistency.

For a series of work I need to choose the size of each work and the size of the overall series.

I also need to create a composition that stands alone as well as works for the series.

I used my altered snapshots to help me come up with my composition in this series

My work must not only be accomplished to my own standards for each piece but it must be consistent across all the work. This can be tricky if you don’t create all the work during the same or close to the same period of time.

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You think I’m kidding? Well I’m not. I was lucky enough to visit the Jacqueline Penney Art Gallery & Studio in Cutchogue Long Island NY.  Now this is an Artist who loves sunshine! Take a look at her work at her website http://www.jacquelinepenney.net and then make an appointment to go see and collect her work.

Jackie is a real renaissance woman. She paints, she teaches and she writes books helping others to enjoy the experience of creating Art. She is a sharing and giving human being and it shows in her work.

Her beautifully re-designed 1840′s barn is at once her home, her studio working space and the gallery where she sells her work to the public. This seamless breaking down of boundaries defines a true creative person. There is no beginning, no end, just the all encompassing act of creating.

The way she lives and the way she lives her life describes a true Artist.

Jacqueline Penney Art Gallery & Studio

I think about what style I’m looking for, what colors will work together, whether the scale of the placement works for me. I think about the type of flower and texture of the leaves. I make decisions about the 3D composition of the garden much like the 2D composition decisions on a painting.

The garden adds so many additional layers of complexity since the artwork is moving in time with nature, the seasons, the elements, and time. The painting remains caught in a moment.

Capturing that ephemeral moment is so gratifying to me in my Fine Art. I control it, unlike my Garden which is usually out of control.

You can visit this Watercolor painting on my website in The Work or you can buy a print of it in The Store.

Life & Style Section – Art
Mary’s Garden
By Ellen Thompson

The Long Islander February 15, 2007

So this is my garden, these are my flowers,” Mary Ahern said motioning towards a frame-covered wall in the gallery at the Harborfields Public library. “I grow these, I paint them, I draw them, I design with them.”

Whether Ahern is designing the color, texture and focal points of a garden or the navigational structure of a website, she still goes back to her roots as a classically trained fine artist.

Color, composition, rhythm and attention to detail are the bedrock of all her art.

Long Islander article - Double Red Roses by Mary Ahern

In Ahern’s latest exhibit at the Harborfields Public Library, “Welcome to My Garden” running until February 27, (2007), the bedrock show through. Within each (digital) painting a colorful rhythm leads the viewer towards texture that is at most unreal.

“And then I produce them and market them, so other people can have them in their home,” Ahern added.

As a fine artist, Mary loves to awaken in others the awe of the world around us. “I seek to bring into sharp focus natural objects often overlooked or taken for granted in our everyday existence,” she explained.

With Ahern’s (digital) paintings that which is overlooked is certainly brought into focus, from a tiny grape Muscari to the petals of vibrant roses. The artist using digital graphic design, virtual painting and botanical accuracy creates digital paintings. The artist honed these techniques during her 25 years as a professional in the computer graphics industry and over 30 years as a passionate artist and gardener.

“I want to slow someone down for a moment in their life to take a close look at nature before they resume again their own activities,” she said. “Now more than ever our lives are moving at too fast a pace. We are too often losing focus and missing the details.”

Plucking the flower from her garden Ahern washes the mud from its petal and leaves to use in her compositions. Constructing the flower upon the screen the way it grew, but creating the work larger than life.

“How exciting is it that you can have something like this” Here look,” Ahern said with her nose nearly five inches from the frame. “The little bells they just curl out. Nobody would ever see that, they are this big” she continued pressing her index and thumb together, ” and its two inches from the ground. Its so exciting I mean, I just constantly get excited by it.”

Ahern works in her studio in Northport surrounded by her gardens. In these gardens she grows the source material for liftimes of art. It is where she pulls all her passions together to produce artwork meant to enliven the universe. Ahern’s prints are output to 100 percent archival canvas or fine art paper using pigmented inks. The combination of products has been tested by the firm of Wilhelm Imaging Research for archival permanence. Their published findings state that these products, when used in combination, will last a minimum of 90 years.

For more information on the  “Welcome to My Garden” Show contact the artist at: mary@MaryAhernArtist.com