Painting and Poetry

Music and poetry inspire my work. I write haiku poetry in my sketchbook while working out the ideas of my paintings. I lay no claim to producing anything notable in my poems, especially when you read the words of a master. Here is one of my favorites. I hope you enjoy it.

Spring is like a perhaps hand
by E. E. Cummings
III Spring is like a perhaps hand (which comes carefully out of Nowhere)arranging a window,into which people look(while people stare arranging and changing placing carefully there a strange thing and a known thing here)and changing everything carefully spring is like a perhaps Hand in a window (carefully to and fro moving New and Old things,while people stare carefully moving a perhaps fraction of flower here placing an inch of air there) and without breaking anything. (from the website Poets.Org)

Edward Estlin Cummings was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, October 14, 1894. He began writing poems as early as 1904 and studied Latin and Greek at the Cambridge Latin High School.
At the time of his death, September 3, 1962, he was the second most widely read poet in the United States, after Robert Frost.

Watercolor Demonstration

8x10 Watercolor Demonstration
$100

This is the demonstration of painting a watercolor from your own original plein air oil. (See previous posts for watercolor step by step process of painting still life and landscape on location.)

It was truly a pleasure to present my program to the members of NWWS. If you were there, thank you for coming. Comments are welcome.

Demonstration at NWWS

8x10 Oil on Canvas
Plein Air painting from Lavender Hills Farm.

Typically, artists will make a watercolor field study, then take it to the studio to make a more finished oil painting from it.

In my demonstration for NWWS last night, I reversed the processs, showing how to interpret an oil painting in watercolor.

My topic was "Using Positive & Negative Space in Watercolor". If you would like a free copy of my handout, please request it by email to michelecooper@michelecooper.com

Presentation at NWWS tonight

Here is a section from a handout I am giving to the audience at Northwest Watercolor Society tonight. Click the link for times and location.

I am honored to have been invited to be the guest presenter and am looking forward to seeing friends, guests and colleagues. My program is on "Using Positive and Negative Space in Watercolor".

If you have an opportunity to attend, I would love to see you there.

Color with a little salt

8 x 10"
Still life demo


Another small demo from last week's classes.

We are SO ready for color here in the NW!

Orange and Blue

Small study of an orange.

This was a quick demonstration for one of my classes, in which the "direct" method of watercolor was used.
Charles Reid's work is typical of this technique.