Donna Pierce-Clark Fine Art

  FIGHTING THE ELEMENTS!! WINDY DAY ON THE CHANNEL 11 x 14" Oil ~~~ On this warm breezy day,  I had to fight the strong winds and employ some unusual anchors for my easel!  After setting up, and with a few strokes of wet oil paint on the canvas, the wind grabbed the panel and hurled it off the easel! So I knew some creative measures were necessary! ~~~ First,  I used a small bungie cord on the canvas panel attached to the easel.  You can see it on the back of the panel above, and in front of the panel below: ~~~ I also attached a second small bungie cord from the easel to the front tire of the car! ~~~ All of these new anchors kept the canvas in place, but the wind blew my hat, my apron, and just generally made painting a definite fight . I fought through nearly two hours of this, persevered, and ended up with a halfway decent painting.  I say decent because this is not one of my favorite paintings. More time and energy were spent fighting the elements, rat...

  SEMINOLE ISLAND CHANNEL 11 x 14" Oil We had such a pleasant early Spring day at Indian Lake! Above you can see there are no leaves on the trees yet; but, there were many other colorful and interesting things to see on this trip. While painting, I was serenaded by the geese flying and swimming in the channel area. A sweet Red Winged Blackbird stopped by to see me too! ~~~ On the trip up to the lake we were treated by a few Amish in their buggies. One in particular was downright friendly and thankful we were driving slowly around him.   See his friendly wave! ~~~ The minute we arrived at the lake, Dennis stopped in to one of his favorite bait shops. I managed a few photos. This was my favorite: ~~~ While waiting for him, I was also graced by a sweet kitty in the parking lot.   His eyes were so pretty. I didn't get a good photo of them. Hopefully he will be there next time and I can catch his pretty eyes! He was friendly though! All in all, this was a friendly, warm spring...

SPANISH LACE Spanish Lace is quite a large painting. The cream colored teapot is from Spain. The blue and white mug next to the teapot is from Mexico. I wanted this to be the largest size watercolor painting allowed by Ohio Watercolor Society and is 36 x 23," painted on 300# Arches watercolor paper. I have entered this into the 2025 OWS competition. I'll let you know how it goes! In the meantime, I thought you might like to see the progression paintings of this one: I began with a light pencil drawing, then added some color to the top of the painting: the background fabric stripes and the teapot. ~~~   After completing the teapot, the mug and the upper background fabric; I began with the lower patterned fabric (all the time avoiding the most challenging part of this painting, the lace). ~~~ I continued this lower fabric, painting around the lace. By doing so, the lace began to appear! By more "negative painting" (painting around the lace, but not painting the lace it...

Afternoon Tea 30 x 22" Watercolor  ~~~~~ How This was Painted; it's a long story! ~~~ Photo Reference for Afternoon Tea I set up hundreds of still life possibilities, and finally decided to start this one.  Little did I know, until I began the actual painting process, and had been at it for several weeks; did I realize how extensive this one would be. "Why?" I asked myself! "Why did I start this!?"  I can honestly say this process has been a love/hate relationship for nearly a year!  But love wins out in the end!  While painting this, the name began to form in my mind.  The painting process in "Afternoon Tea" was greatly enhanced by daily enjoying the series from Brit Box: "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" (starring Jeremy Brett), wherein many scenes involved tea being served in delicate porcelain cups such as you see in the reference photo.  Follow along below, as I recount the steps in this very involved still life. ~~~ THE BEGINNIN...

  YELLOW DOCK 11 x 14" Oil ~~~ Yellow Dock went through a few changes!  My palette "en plein air" (on sight) for beginning this painting was basic. The less I have to carry out into the field is best. Less weighty! Paints weigh more than any other thing I take with me! Titanium White (Gamblin) Cadmium Yellow Lemon (Gamblin) Permanent Red Medium (Rembrandt) Ultramarine Blue Deep (any brand) Naples Yellow Deep (Rembrandt) Cold Gray (Rembrandt) ~~~ Unfortunately, I had left my bright yellow (Cadmium Yellow Lemon) at home! This is a strong, bright, opaque yellow. This particular yellow is strong and mixes great greens; however, the only yellow I had with me was Naples Yellow Deep which is not bright, and very transparent, so when mixed with other colors, Naples Yellow Deep barely affects the other color. So, unfortunately, when I wanted to mix a nice green, I could only mix very blue-greens. No green trees! No green water. 😞 I began my session as always: I took a photo and ...

  EARLY AUTUMN ON PEW ISLAND 11 x 14" Oil ~~~ The trees are just beginning to change; however, I'm not sure if this is due to the quickly approaching Fall season, or if these early whispers of autumn are actually a result of the current drought we are experiencing in this part of Ohio. What do you think? When I looked out across the channel toward the lake,  my eyes were particularly drawn to the colors of the leaves on the far trees.  I saw touches of orange!  I've been noticing these changes where we live also.  So, I mixed these colors: several greens,  some sky & water colors: blue and pale yellow  AND some of that orange I was seeing! ~~~  ~~~ As I normally do, I started with a photo of the scene  overlaid with grid lines and the 4 dots to indicate where those grid lines crossed. ~~~ As I began applying these mixes.  my intention was to emphasize those lovely trees, and to  purposefully downplay the sky and water.  So,...