I have been doing some home decorating recently. I have a very neutral house that has bright art work on the walls but I was really missing a pop of color. I found some great designer fabric and had these pillow covers made. I do enjoy a good color dab theme. If you want to know more about this fabric email me and I will share how I found it and manipulated it to suit my space.
In the meantime I am painting every day and concentrating on painting people who have had a positive impact on my life. Some of these people I know personally and some I do not.

What I have learned so far :
Painting and creating on my own time table is the most rewarding work I have done. I am learning this late in life but am grateful to know it now. What  I do share .....I put on my Youtube channel to pass along any information that might be helpful to others. You can join me there . The name of my channel is Jo Mackenzie......am I not a marketing genius? Clearly ...not !

I have started a series of videos about the colors on my palette. If you enjoy this one please hit the subscribe button at the end of the video and you will not miss any of the upcoming color videos. 

Watercolor and marshmallows. How does that make sense? Watch this video and you will see how it all makes sense in the end. 

 I am rolling out a new way to study with me. As you know you can already book lessons both online and offline in my studio but now I am going to have specific lessons  for each individual skill you might want to focus on. You can find out more about these new offering here. 

I hope you will be excited sign up for one of these classes and start making better paintings this Fall and Winter.   This is offered on a first come first serve basis and I have limited slots for teaching . Come and join me and spread the love of watercolor all around. 

They say the eyes are the window to the soul. I have been painting faces non stop and I think there is a lot of truth in that. I am now interested in painting more regular faces. Nothing is more regular than my own in the middle here. If you have a face you think I might enjoy painting ...please send it to FB messenger. I am interested in keeping this series going for a bit more. There is such an infinite variety in the human face and my eyes do not tire of trying to capture the likeness. 

This video is just for fun but on a serious note. I am offering Friday morning group session in my home studio . I am charging 45 dollars for each session. These sessions are running from Aug.-Nov.  People have contacted me thinking I am charging 45 dollars for all those sessions....Um no. 
I find that amazing but as much as I am willing to work for 0.003 cents on Youtube...I am not willing to do that in the "real world". In the real world a woman needs to know her worth. Rant over! 

I have been painting my favorite BBC actors and actresses for portrait practice and I have been watching a program from the UK on Youtube called The Best Portrait Painter of the Year. It really helped me with my painting but today they took them all down and made them private. This makes me very sad. I plan to still paint on with my choices but am sad that the inspiration was taken away. Meanwhile you can see endless images of "Forky ". 

But it is hardly the same. They also took down the companion program about landscape painting so I missed out on seeing that altogether. I am a bit broken hearted but not broken. I will keep painting on and I hope you do too. 

This week I am painting BBC actresses who have appeared on the Best Portrait Painter of the Year program now airing on Youtube. I have watched the last four seasons and that is a lot of painting. Now I want to try my own version in my studio. I am painting people who have appeared so far. 
This fits in with my goal this summer of simplifying heads. This is being done for my own learning and enjoyment. British actresses have much more character than our American ones do. To watch the progress please subscribe by hitting the subscribe button at the end of this video. 

This is why I love watercolor so much. It creates harmony when you put colors next to each other. The water bonds in friendship and I become a delivery system but not the boss. Watercolor teaches me so many life lessons about patience, perseverance, love and growth. It teaches me without words or judgement. I hope it does that for you too.