I have also been planning for my solo art exhibition in June at the Old Ipswich Courthouse building.

This month I have paintings going into the QT Ipswich Annual Art Show, the Brookfield Art Show, Woolam Waltzing Matilda Outback Art Show and the 1770 Captain Cook Festival Art Show at Agnes Waters.

Misty Mountain 14" x 18" oil on canvas

Original artwork "Bush Shack" Oil on canvasboard

This artwork is 12″ x 16″.  It shows an adorable old bush shack set in the countryside. I have used soft hues to highlight the peacefulness of the setting.

"River Sunset" oil painting

This artwork entitled “River Sunset” is an oil painting on stretched canvas. It shows the lovely reflections of gum trees and the bright sunset in the river.

It is available for sale at my Gallery Worldwide Store.

"Tranquility" Oil on canvas. 90cm x 60cm.

“Tranquility” is an oil painting on stretched canvas, 60cm X 90cm in size.
With this artwork I was trying to capture both the tranquility and beautiful colours of the landscape. If you would like to add this artwork to your collection, it can be purchased from my Worldwide online Gallery store.

"Blue Mountains" by Debra Lohrere 20" x 30"

This recently painted artwork is available through my Gallery Worldwide Store.  For international art collectors it will be detatched from the stretcher, rolled up and sent in postal tube for delivery.

Portrait of Kirsty. Winner of Third Prize at GreenBank Art Show 2010

Winner of First Prize at Jimboomba Quota Art Show 2010

I am really pleased to announce that I have recently won two art awards. My oil painting “Farming Acres” won First Prize at the Jimboomba Quota Art Show. A week later I won Third Prize at Greenbank Show for my portrait of Kirsty.

Oil Painting for Sale

New

Original Oil Paintings

I have been on the road with work way out west to Chinchilla, Roma, Miles, Condamine and several other little towns in that area. I was hoping to get a chance to drop in at the Art Gallery in Roma on my lunchbreak, so was disappointed to  find that it was still  shut after the Christmas break and doesn’t open again until next week.

I am waiting for an application to come in the mail  for a show in March in Brisbane, which is dedicated to works  in black & white in any  medium. In preparation I have done a painting entitled Moonlit Street, one called Horse &  Rider and one called Doing Her Hair. I will upload pictures of these paintings shortly.

Australian Oil Painting

This is a recent original oil painting for sale of the beautiful Queensland countryside with a waterfall. It is a very large painting 90cm x 120cm in size. It was my impression of where the tropics meet the bush with the river in between.

A dark sky is often associated with late in the afternoon, a light blue sky with the brightness of the middle of the day and a purple sky with approaching sunset.

A common mistake with novice artists is to use too few color for their skies. A mixture of dark blues, light blues and plenty of white makes for a far more interesting looking sky. There are various techniques that can be implemented. Brushing on a good thick coat of oil paint, with light blue on one area and different shades in other areas then using a 1” wide brush to pull colors from one area to the other in quick left to right strokes can be very effective. Another technique is to use plenty of thinners, a mix of 50/50 linseed oil and artists turpentine is good. Cover you entire sky area with very thin paint and then use your fingers with the white and various shades of blue to construct your clouds.

If there is going to be any water in your painting ie: rivers, dams lakes etc, then make sure you use the sky paint to roughly paint in your water areas for good color symmetry. Painting beautiful skies helps keep up the motivation to paint a beautiful picture. Some artists spend a lot of time painting the clouds into various shapes to depict other objects and add symbolism to their works.

Using palette knife for skies can be effective, but does require a lot more paint to be used. Interesting clouds can also be created with the palette knife.

Unless you are painting a seascape, where it is imperative that the horizon is dead straight, it is usually not critical to have your skyline dead straight. Most often in landscapes you are going to have mountains or hills are other varying landscape components directly in front of your sky which will be at various angles that hide the straight line of the horizon.

It is a good idea to mix your sky colors with yellow to create the greens for your painting, as well as using premixed greens such as sap green, viridian etc. This helps add color uniformity to your painting. The same goes for your mountains, mix reds with your sky blues to give you various shades of purple for your mountains. Even the rich dark undiluted blues can be used for mountain peaks.

Try to avoid painting a sun directly. If you want a sun then have it behind clouds with the bright sunrays in whites and yellows showing through. Use thick brush strokes for this. It may be best to let the blue of the sky dry before painting the whites and yellows for the sun beams over the top, to avoid them mixing with the blue and ending up with a green tinge.

If you are painting the sky at sunset, then a huge range of colors from red, to yellow, to purple as well as blues can be used. Again if there is going to be water in your picture it is a good idea to paint the water at the same time as the sky to get the consistency of colors and then paint the landscape components afterwards.

Debra Lohrere is an artist and author http://investmentpropertybooks.com/artwork.html

Prints of her artwork can be purchased from http://www.redbubble.com/people/writeinvest/art