A WARM UP BECOMES A NICE PAINTING

 

Well, I like this abstract.  It began with some colors on a small sheet of 140# cold press paper and then turned into something I like - it has an energy I wasn’t expecting.  Sometimes these warm-ups and pieces to play with turn into something - which is way you should always use good paint and paper.

HOW ABOUT SOME TREES

 Watercolor on a 140# rough Arches block of paper.  Just playing with textured bits and minimal colors.  

This one is on Yupo and I liked the texture when I blotted off some paint with a rough paper towel.  (It’s hard to find my favorite Viva Signature style soft towels.)

Again, minimal colors and just playing with texture and shapes.  

What are you doing these days to keep yourself painting?

MINIMALISM

 Two colors playing together, making a bit of bare brushes in a foggy morning.  

ORGANIC SHAPES ARE MORE PLEASING

 

I seem to be getting the hang of just putting color and shapes on paper.  I like this one, maybe because it seems very organic.

PRETTY COLORS

 A piece using pretty colors :) 

Needed to be just a bit darker and, for some reason, sap green is calling me to put some limbs on...but I’ll wait and see about that.  

IT DIDN’T START OUT TO BE AN OCTOPUS

 

But it seemed an octopus showed up in this small painting.  

JANUARY ABSTRACTIONS

 Abstracted pieces.

Working with color and shapes.

COLD AND SNOWY

 

This first one is my own.

The second one is a copy of a demo/lesson given during my recent Angela Fehr watercolor (online) course.  

Both are just small eighth sheet size paintings/warm-ups.

GOT A NEW ART BOOK FOR CHRISTMAS

 After starting on the new art book, The Artist’s Journey (by Nancy Hillis, M.D.), I did one of her exercises.  There are some exercises in the book worth trying, in my opinion, and others...not so much.  

A  goal every year is to delve into my art practice again and try to find new gems - and sometimes books written by others about the art journey or process helps lead me.    

Anyway, one thing she wrote about is defining what “ugly” means to us and why.  I came up with greens.  What I think are ugly greens.  This is just my opinion.  Someone else may love all greens.

I pulled out a bunch of green pigments and began putting down color, trying to vary the shapes and values as I moved along.  This is about a fourth sheet watercolor paper.  I didn’t have much faith that it would turn out to be anything but using greens.

And yet...I don’t totally hate it.  It does have some interest (not sure why the top painting looks so much lighter but I did darken some areas in the second version and add some more marks).

What do you think?  Want to try to paint an ugly painting and see where it takes you?

The book has some useful information, but if you’ve read a lot of art books, there is nothing really new in here - just a reminder to put the miles on your brush and other tried-and-true “rules” of working.  I did like the instruction to paint a lot of starts = so they are less precious and you can return to them later to work more and make more of them, if you choose.  Painting starts (unfinished, not even half-way-there paintings) gives you a bit more freedom to play and not get too caught up in what to do next.  But her suggestion that you paint 5-20 starts each day seems a bit much even if they are just small thumbnail sketches.  

At 123 pages and $20 for the book, I’d say it might be worth it.  I’m about half-way through right now and going slowly.  When you purchase the book, you get access to 4 free, short videos (I’ve watched them twice now just to get the most out of them).  They are about process and composition in her own painting (acrylic on canvas or large paper), and they are in short bites.  

Did you get any art books for the holidays?  

A FEW SMALL ABSTRACTED PIECES

 

 Just playing with color and shapes and coming up with some abstracted pieces - about postcard sized paper or slightly bigger.

UNDERLYING STRUCTURES

 

No planning, just painting and came up with this.  I kinda like it.  

RED BERRIES

 Loose and juicy red winter berries.  

A BIT OF PLAY AND REWORKING

 

A revised painting - some of the reds and yellows and greens are because the back side colors (watercolor inks) bled through and created interesting shapes and colors.  So I lifted and shaped a bit more of the berries and cropped it down some and called it done.  

HAKE BRUSHES - TOOLS OF THE TRADE

 

A few hake brushes I have, but rarely use.  One was sent to me from Vancouver Island, British Columbia, by a dear painting friend years ago.  He made magic with the small hake brush in the middle and a small palette and homemade pochade box he took out to the beach for his plein air paintings.  The magic wasn’t in the brush, but in him, I found, when I tried to use the same brush he used :). RIP, Mohan.  

BROWN THRASHER

 A brown thrasher comes through in fall, then moves on.  Sure does have a sharp beak and a long tail.

BIRDS FOR THE NEW YEAR 2021

 

 This bluejays seemed a bit fat so I made her do some Pilates and that toned up her tummy quite a bit.  I need to follow her lead and stop living on chocolates and pastry and/or do more Pilates!

She’s a bit trimmer in this version.

I cannot tell a male bluejay from a female bluejay so I’m calling this one “her” because, well, because.  

Happy 2021 - here’s hoping for good news throughout the year.