Welcome to my little artsy creation! All images are copyrighted by Charlene Celio

Hello! Thank you for visiting my blog! Take time out to put your feet up, drink a cup of something hot or cold, and be refreshed. As you read, remember that You are God's amazing creation and He loves You!





Sunday, October 31, 2010

Wedding in Soquel Day 10- Complete

Presenting: The Wedding in Soquel.

After 10 days of blogging the step by step process (and more days before and in between), I have completed my assignment. There is a definite feeling of satisfaction and peace with knowing I tried my best at this job. I'm sure there is so much more I can learn, but for now this is the all I have and today I will rest. Till next time, God bless.

Baby Baby!



Painting break... Feast your eyes on this beautiful little creation. Evelyn smiled at me this week for the first time... aaaaahh.

Saturday, October 30, 2010

Wedding in Soquel Days 8 and 9- Flowers, Colors,Trees


Hello, changed my mind and I'm back blogging this step by step. You'll see lots of changes in two days of work. Hopefully today I'll get much more done since I stayed home this weekend to concentrate on finishing the painting. I did get slightly sidetracked so far with starting a new facebook group page for my business. I'm so busy with planning for new shows and classes coming up that I think it will be better if I told everyone from one page made for that.
The Group name is: Celio Arts and Friends on facebook.
and the email for it is:
celioarts@groups.facebook.com

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Wedding in Soquel Day 7- Back to the drawing board

Here is the painting taken in the daylight. I like how the Ott light from last night showed me the way it will look with more whites on the gazebo and tent, so I'll definitely do that today. This will be my last photo in the step by step till I show you the completed painting. Don't know when that will be, but I'll have other posts from my exciting adventures in painting!

Couldn't wait to show you what I've done since the regrouping earlier (that was around 4:30 pm and I've been working till now, 11:00 pm) This was taken with an Ott light, so I'll have to take it again tomorrow. I'm happy with how the barrels are coming out and that the path is fitting in better. Tomorrow, flowers, flowers, flowers.

Sometimes I reach a point in a painting where I really don't know what to do next, and I hit that point today. I thought I needed to change this or that, but after I went back to my original idea, and after I asked a friend to help, I broke through and have a clear path ahead of me again. I am about half way there so it makes sense that I'd re-evaluate my direction in how to complete this painting in the best way. By the way, the friend I told you about, it's her birthday today!
Happy Birthday Barbra Joan! Thanks for being a good friend.

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Wedding in Soquel Day 6- Adding more elements, highlighting and correcting




On to day 6 of this wedding painting. It's Saturday and I have the whole day to paint. I hope to get very far along with it. I love putting in the elements and even correcting things when they need it. Thanks to Rich for suggesting I measure the photos of the actual wine barrels with a ruler and then measure what I painted in to get the proportions right. Things are open to lots of change at this stage. You just don't know how some things will look till after you put in everything around it. I am liking the focal point though.

Friday, October 22, 2010

Wedding in Soquel Day 5- More Background



Today I painted at my house with Christine. It was drizzling off and on outside, so it was nice to stay inside and paint with a friend.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Wedding in Soquel Day 4-Background

Paint to canvas. It's a start. This painting will change so much from this, believe me and hang in there. Now I only want to paint constantly till I finish.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Wedding in Soquel Day 3- Sketch

Hello fellow bloggers! Yes, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and this sketch is almost beautiful to me. It stands for good communication, forward movement and colorful possibilities! I've sketched on a piece of watercolor paper I cut to the 18x24 size of the canvas. The placement of things may still change a little, but by this stage I'm really committing myself to where I'll put things in the painting. Tomorrow I plan to start the painting with acrylics.

Monday, October 18, 2010

Villa Montalvo Calenders 2011 are in!

Look! The Villa Montalvo Calendars are in! They have 2 different backgrounds to choose from, patterned and plain colors. You see them at Gallery Saratoga. I love the way they turned out. I think I'll work on another calendar of some kind for next year too.

Sunday, October 17, 2010

One Wonderful Field Trip








On the day before the birth of my grand daughter on September 4th, we visited The Birth of Impressionism exhibit in San Francisco at the DeYoung Museum. The height of the trip was having my talented niece who is assistant curator at the Legion of Honor of Fine Arts in SF , give us a guided tour of this exhibit! She helped set up this exhibit at the DeYoung and even wrote some of the information cards for the paintings! In some of the photos you can see Christine and me going back in time and space, dancing and making merry music right in the middle of our favorite paintings! Hoozah!

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Queen of the Night...Sold a Night Before the Show!

Queen of the Night... Sold! Guess where? At Aaron Brothers to a very nice lady who was getting a frame at the same time I was reframing this (the glass got cracked while transporting it from the Garden Party sale in August this year to my home). She saw my painting and heard I was entering it into a juried show the next day for sale and said it matched the colors in her living room so well. So I sold it to her, and as they were taking it into the framing room I said goodbye to an old friend who found a loving new home. What a road this painting traveled: the subject matter started in Peru (its a Peruvian Tree Cactus Flower), then went to Melbourne Australia where my brother found it on the cover of a Sunday newspaper and sent it to me, to America (where I painted it), back to Australia to my brother who personally thanked the photographer (who grows the cactus in his back yard) with a print, and finally to a woman of East Indian decent who thought it would match her home. Maybe it will go to India some day?

Friday, October 15, 2010

Garden Party in August and EVA Juried Show in October




Here are 2 more shows I've been in this year: the Gallery Saratoga Garden Party in August, and the East Valley Artists Juried Art Show in October. At the Juried Art Show I brought only a few of my paintings for jurying, but at the Garden Party I brought every single painting I still own! I'll never do that again. I won an honorable mention for my Yellow Rose of Filoli for watercolor. It still is one of my favorites and instead of selling it, I think I'll retire it to my living room for good.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Wedding in Soquel Day 2-Collage

Remember all the photos from day 1 of this project? I had time to cut and tape them together how I saw them in my mind. And I feel like I made a breakthrough today. I can see the end now and very very excited about it. Now I'm free to paint! After I come home from driving on a field trip with my daughter's graphic design class (an international quilting and textiles show which should be fun) I'll put some paint to that blank canvas and away we'll go!

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Wedding in Soquel Day 1- Reference Gathering


I'm starting a new wedding painting which I'll do in beautiful 'Golden' acrylic paints this time. As you can see I have plenty of reference materials and a lovely canvas. Now I just have to translate the photos into paint on a blank canvas! Again, I'll take you through the process step by step. Notice my doggie Caspian in the top photo? I had to get a closeup of that sleeping position. He makes me laugh.

Saturday, October 9, 2010

Cabin in the Snow - Day Three

And... Voila! Presenting: The Cabin in the Snow . The newest watercolor/pen and ink painting from the Cabin Series, by Charlene Celio. Enjoy!


I painted this last night and will continue today. I love the way the trees cast the long shadows across the snow. I also like the happy surprise of how the trunk on the right came out. Makes me want to go back to the cabin.

Friday, October 8, 2010

Cabin in the Snow - Day 2

So, not so hard after all. I didn't wreck it, and I found that I actually really like it and that's why I keep painting! (amazing for someone who has to relearn this fact every new painting!)
Now I'll work on it some more and take a picture of it in the morning light. Let's see how far I get! Oh, did I mention this is our family cabin and it holds a special place in my heart?
Day 2 of making the Christmas Card. Last night I went over all the pencil lines with different colored artist ink pens. The next step was to paint it, but this is usually the hardest time for me. I look at the drawing and think that I may just mess it up and waste all the work I've done so far.
Then I think, "How in the world am I going to do this? What colors should I actually use, how should I put in the light, how much white should I save..." After taking way too long to set up my painting area (procrastinating) I then stare at it for a long time, getting up the nerve to put paint to paper. Then I try out paint on a scrap watercolor paper. Then I take the plunge! (ask my friends and family, it's the same drill every time.)

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Cabin in the Snow

Today I started a new addition to the Cabin Collection. I'm calling it, Cabin in the Snow, and eventually it'll become a Christmas Card. I'll take you step by step and then show you the finished card after it comes back from the printer. Hang on tight since it's going to be a whirlwind creation!

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Beth's Window Seat




Every time I go to my friend's house I'm inspired to paint it. She's so good at arranging each room that her house is like a still life ready to be painted.

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Sitting Room at Beth's House

Going back in time, here is one of my first attempts at watercolor painting in 2002. I call this one
Bethany's Butterflies. Our friend, Beth, gave Bethany and me watercolor lessons at her house. The subject was from Bethany's tee shirt she was wearing. Bethany was only 8 then.


Here's another room at my friend's former house. Right after we painted the butterflies, I tried to paint the living room in watercolors using my oil painting techniques and some pointers Beth had just taught us. At this point I realized that I could paint in watercolors by using what I know of drawing and painting. After this, Bethany and I took more private lessons in watercolor together from another artist. This all happened during the years Bethany was home schooled.

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