Drawing bees (on tracing paper) to add to the honeycomb background...will figure out how to best place them over the honeycomb and trace them onto the painting, then paint them. A work in progress that is progressing slowly.
But in the meantime, I am working on some single flower paintings on dark backgrounds.
A few weeks ago, Sweetie and I went on a walk with a few university folk. The walk was about Birds and Blooms so it was in a nature area looking at spring flowers and birds nesting. Also, there was a downed tree and inside the tree - a honeycomb that had been deserted. I brought a large piece home (there was a lot inside and one other woman took all the rest for beeswax candles) - it looks like a heart to me.
So that got me thinking about bees
and honeycombs
and possible paintings.
I had a couple of small (6 x 6 inch) stencils I'd purchased somewhere - one has a honeycomb pattern and one has numbers. I also carved my own honeycomb stamp from materials I'd gathered earlier this year.
Drawing the shape, stamping the honeycomb stamps and number stamps, I am thinking about the bees and colony collapse and what will happen if we don't save the bees...how much of what we eat on a daily basis will just be gone?
Now I'll take some time and draw a few honey bees and trace them onto the paper - or maybe paint them onto watercolor paper and glue them onto the honeycomb?
Obviously, I'm still at the thinking stage on this one and unsure where it will go. But one cannot just disregard such a great reference as the honeycomb (and it smells so wonderful in my little art room, perfuming the air with the scent of honey and flowers).
Using fruits as stamps for watercolor stamping on paper. Then cut out the shapes. Makes a cute card or small painting to send to a friend.
You can try apples, pears, even the base of a celery stalk - use your imagination and see what you can create :)
Another older, small painting. Thinking about landscapes as the land becomes so green (from all the rain).
Rusted Chains
Another oldie.
Watercolor on gessoed paper.
Just using the 3 watercolor inks I have (red, blue, yellow) to make pseudo-flowers that will get pasted onto cards. One even made its way to a Mother's Day card...
And while these were drying, I saw this mystery bird who had shown up from just ink drips and wipes on the foamboard. I guess the birds are still calling to me (we have been having a few pretty ones coming through to the feeders lately, including 5 male rosy-breasted grosbeaks and 1 female).
Fiddlehead Ferns.
Another oldie until I paint something new that's good enough to share.
In the middle of this road we call our life
I found myself in a dark wood
With no clear path through.
--- Dante Alighieri (Divine Comedy "Inferno")