FROM 65 DEGREES TO 15 DEGREES?

Sweetie and I returned Saturday from Anna Maria Island (two warm, sunny weeks) to a snowstorm.  Not a big snowstorm in our area.  But enough to drop 3 inches of snow and drop the temperature down to 15F degrees - Brrrrrr!!  So snow and ice covered everything for a couple of days.  But I have paintings to share which I did while in AMI.  And I'll get back to my series of 7 x 10 Rough paintings of birds soon.  Until then...

This one was done when walking through the Coquina Beach Market.  An artist had trays of shaving cream mixed with acrylic inks in various light colors.  You took a sheet of the cardstock and put it down in the mix, let it sit for about a minute or two; then lifted it up and you got a mix of colors.  This one looked like a turtle from the start but I did add a little watercolor to reiterate the form a bit.  Cute.  But it still smells like shaving cream! ha ha  

I'd never seen that done before so was pleased to try it - she had beautiful acrylic pour paintings, too (that technique lends itself to sea and sand scenes so well and there are many artists doing that in Florida).  (Didn't think I had the artist's name but I found her card.  Her shop is called Everglades Eclectic and the artist is Jeanne Dee Mason.  You can find her on Facebook and she sells on Etsy.)  

And while on the sea turtle theme, I did a couple others.  

This one is not finished - just a start - in my Stillman & Birn watercolor sketchbook.

And this one was done in watercolor in my 7 x 10 block of Arches rough.  Guess I had turtles on my mind for a while!  Plus they are easy shapes to do.  Just have to add some more detail for interest.

HONEYSUCKLE BERRIES ON STONEHENGE AQUA HOTPRESS

I like the outcome of this enough to try some more using this paper.


Have you ever tried it?  

STONEHENGE AQUA HOTPRESS

I bought a block of Stonehenge Aqua Hotpress after seeing a lot of work from an artist who uses it well.  I'm not usually a fan of hotpress paper so we'll see.  I want something that gives me interesting texture without being a fussy as Yupo and something that's still paper.  This might be it!

I like the texture it gives me and the way the paint doesn't soak in and can be pushed around.  I can also lift out a little and reshape areas after it's dried.  

Interesting so far...


And not a bird but some red berries (probably honeysuckle berries) beside the house.

OOPS, FORGOT THE THEME

I forgot the theme and painted this on the 7 x 10 Arches 140# rough block of watercolor paper.  Not a bird.  An interesting plant.  It was not this color, being just mud-brown and dull.  A printout that was running low on certain inks caused it to look blue and silver so I thought I'd use those colors and try for some pen and ink along with the watercolor.  


I'll get back to the birds on the 7 x 10 rough after this - but I also have some totally different and interesting paper I want to try - stay tuned!

GREAT BLUE

Again, part of the 7 x 10 Rough series of bird paintings for 2019...

The great blue heron is a beautiful bird, often showing blue-grey and violet, sometimes just a dull grey color.  This one (from a photo taken during my recent Anna Maria Island trip) was in the evening and he looks very blue.  He (or she?) was fishing for little things beside a running stream inside Perrico Preserve.  

I know herons and egrets are found in the Ohio River Valley area, but I've rarely seen great blue herons around here.

WOODY

Another in the series, 7 x 10 Rough...

The pileated woodpecker comes to our suet feeders once or twice a year, but never stays.  He's just passing through.  

This woodpecker is the model for the Woody the Woodpecker cartoons - you can see why with that red topknot!

THE FINCH THAT ATE CHRISTMAS

I think he ate too many Christmas cookies!


This is watercolor on an Arches block of 7 x 10, 140# rough paper.  


New Year = New Birds :) 

The next few will all be on this block of rough 140# Arches so I'm calling the series

FINISHED ABSTRACTION

I started an abstracted painting - just putting down paint and letting it go.  Then reinforced the idea of the water, sandy shoreline, and grassland.  And added the great white egret.  

Still have AMI on my mind.  

UNIDENTIFIED PLANT

While in Anna Maria, I often visit The Olive Oil Outpost for a scrumptious cafe con leche.  It's my routine to stop once a day - yes, I'm addicted and like the people there a lot.  

On the way to the OOO, beside the walkway between streets, was this strange plant that had red pods growing on a tall red stem (it stood about 4 feet high).  It also had a single white flower blooming, which I did not paint.  

It caught my eye and I had to try to paint it when I came home.  

Some impressionistic greenery around it and another stem without the pods.  


Wonder what this plant is called?  I was going to ask someone, but forgot to do so while I was there.


This is painted on a scrap of 140# Fabriano Artistico cold press paper.  

ANNA MARIA AGAIN

Another on the slick mixed media paper using watercolors.  

Blue skies, sunshine, walks to the beach, and the date palms outside the house where we stayed on AMI.  

LIVING ON ANNA MARIA TIME

This was painted, while I was on Anna Maria Island in December, with watercolor on a slick paper (actually, a mixed media block of paper I thought I'd try).  The paper causes the paint to sit on top, creating some interesting textures.  It's not like Yupo since it is paper, but even more slick than hot press watercolor paper.  

Playing around with, but still using watercolors (tubes, crayons, pencils).


This is my impression of the two weeks in Anna Maria and all I saw there in December.

And Happy New Year 2019!

LAST POSTING FOR THE YEAR

Started a poinsettia for the last painting of the year.  I prewet the leaf shapes and the dropped in the colors, letting them bleed and blend.  

After that dried, I went back and put in the black using Lunar Black by Daniel Smith (it granulated so I added some dark red to it in places and made sure it was pretty solid around the leaves).  


I let that dry before going in with Sap Green and Bismuth Yellow for the middle buds, and put in the hint of colors in the red/green parts behind other leaves.

Finished up by wetting and dropping in more color in the leaves and letting the black bleed into the red in places to push some leaves back.  






After this, I’m going to ruin a month’s worth of paintings and see where it takes me :). 


Have a wonderful holiday season and I’ll see you in 2019!!!

WINTER MOUNTAINS

Still working on wet-in-wet and sticking with it.  This one wasn’t so great and you really had to do the mountain shadows using dry brush, but it’s okay.  Not every one will be a winner.

FROZEN AUTUMN POND

Just a frozen autumn pond.

TEENY TINY

This is a little scrap, just bigger than a postcard.  I was trying to copy a painting in the book and it’s supposed to be paler yellow mountains and a misty look at the bottom using blue, but it didn’t quite work.  Oh, well.  

I received a recent newsletter post from an artist who said take a month and ruin a lot of paintings as a way to explore and grow - maybe this is painting number one? ha ha. 

ODDS AND ENDS

Still playing with shapes and blending colors.  With the pots, you lay down the shadow shape only and then, using clean water, you move out and around to create the shape of the pot.  I like the bottom left one the best.  The top right bled out too much creating a feathered edge and the bottom right just looks dull.  So - fun to try and play with.  

The red/blue is just laying down colors with white space in between and then bleeding them together with clean water without touching either color again.  

Just a pear and leaves, lifting the white veins, trying to keep the pear highlights soft.  

A LITTLE STUDIO?

Come into my studio, it’s very wet outside!

IT LOOKS EASY BUT IT’S NOT

This simplistic cup and saucer looks so easy, but it’s really not.  The technique is, you lay down the color on the whole page and then, before the paper dries, you start lifting off the color.  Your goal is to get the shape right and to get back to white (or close to white).  So don’t use a staining color!  In the book it says to try this 10 times and then, if you haven’t gotten it yet, try again :). Isn’t that always the way = just keep trying.


I didn’t get the saucer right (can never seem to master those ellipses free-hand).  But I like the cup well enough.  

And this little flower on a scrap piece of paper is pretty saturated and full of color (not too much lifting here), but I do like the way the Bismuth Yellow (Daniel Smith) dropped into the center created the little star-shaped stamens.  

LAST TOMATOES

No more tomatoes at the Farmer’s Market, but I can still paint some.  Very wet and loose - I may just be getting the hang of this technique!

LITTLE LEAF EXPERIMENT

Trying to work on the iPad and update some blog posts.  I’ll be talking to the local tech guy about the photo all disappearing from the desktop and what can be done to try to retrieve all those - I hope!!!  

Until then, this isn’t as quick and easy (or familiar) to do on the iPad but it’s do-able, so...

Hope you all are having a better November than I.
I’ve had 4 migraines (which means 8 days) of pain or aftereffects of pain so far this month :(. And that was before I lost all the photos on Sweetie’s computer!!

This is another small scrap of paper wet-in-wet trying to vary the colors of the leaves.  This could be a fun experiment, just playing with any colors, doesn’t have to be found in nature :) 

AUTUMN SEEDPODS

Autumn seedpods.

SOFT LANDSCAPE

Long and soft landscape.  Lots of green

Still practice practice practice to get it right.  Sometimes I think I've got it, and then it eludes me again.  

Watercolor takes a lifetime to master!

GREEN LANDSCAPE

Square landscape. 

Lots of wet-in-wet and waiting for the right time to darken (and getting it wrong and trying again).  
When this wet-in-wet style is done well, it looks so easy and beautiful and fresh.  That's what I'm aiming for with this practice practice practice.

YELLOW

Just  playing with yellows and what works to shade them without getting too green or brown.

What do you use to shade yellow?

RAINY STREET

Rainy street in autumn.



We certainly are having enough rain.  So much that the little Halloweeners were few and far between last night.  Now I have to eat all this leftover candy!!  So sad! ha ha  

WET-IN-WET BERRIES

Wet-in-wet.  Light and washy.  Need more variety in the greens but not too bad on the berries.

BULLY PUMPKIN FINISHED

Glad I got this one finished by Halloween.  He was really giving me fits until I finished it :)

Now on to something else...

BULLY PUMPKIN

Well, he grumbled so much, I had to do a portrait of him, too.  Just a light wash and shaping of the crooked features before finishing.  Not sure why the blue background looks violet here - maybe something to do with the orange against the blue?

WATCHING YOU FINISHED

A grumpy old pumpkin.

BLOGGER GLITCH?

I have been following and commenting on some blogs without the comments ever coming up.  Not sure what the problem is - a blogger glitch?  So if you aren't hearing from me in the last week or so, it's not because I'm not watching and trying to comment.  My comments just aren't getting through for some reason :(

Sorry, Chris, Jennifer, Bruce, Laura, etc.  I haven't forgotten you all!

WATCHING YOU

Started a little pumpkin painting, using an outdoor ornament as a model.  This guy wants his portrait painted too, after I finish the first one.  He's such a bully (as you can tell by his gruff expression), and he's not too impressed with my small pumpkin painting - or maybe he just wants to know why I started with the small one and not him?!? ha ha

VASE AND MUG

Vase and mug.  



Almost through the Ewa Karpinska book on the wet-in-wet style of watercolor painting.  Still have a few books to go to get me through the autumn.

LEAVES IN THE WINDOW

At the window.  Still wet-in-wet and shaping the leaves after they are more matte dry.  

ROSE LEAVES

Third time's the charm with this one.  I think I'm finally getting it.

CHICKENS

Blobs of color become chickens.  
Just playing with shapes and colors.

JUG AND FRUIT

Began with the background, very wet and letting the colors flow.

Dropped in some more color in the background "cloth" and then made blossoms for texture by dropping in clean water when it was drying.

Painted the jug and fruit wet-in-wet, leaving some whites on the fruit.

LITTLE WOODEN BOAT

Wet-in-wet, background sky first.
Foreground wet on dry paper.
Boat painted last.

LEAVES

Still playing with wet-in-wet style of watercolor painting.  A good time to play with leaf shapes and colors.

LIFE IS JUST A BOWL OF CHERRIES

Very wet-in-wet start and then waiting for the paper to dry to a semi-matte finish to add the cherries inside and shape the bowl; then put the last three cherries outside the bowl when the paper was almost dry.

FLOATING?

All it needs is a shadow shape underneath so it's not a floating vase of autumn foliage and berries.


Still slowly working my way through the Ewa Karpinska book and still have to go through the Jean-Louis Morelle book, too.  So much to learn!

JEAN-LOUIS MORELLE'S BOTTLE ON TABLE

A homage to Jean-Louis Morelle, who must be, like Ewa Karpinska, a true master of this wet-in-wet technique.

Apparently, Jean-Louis liked to paint all the things around him, including this bottle on a table.  The painting is my version but it's from his painting of the same thing (and he uses some great blossoms in the background which I did not create as well).  I do like the misty look, though.

TIMING OF WATER

I could do more with this one, but am going to keep it as is.  I like the misty look and the way blotting the leaves created some see-through areas and some dark areas.  


In Ewa Karpinska's book, she talks about the importance and timing and learning when to add pigment and when to wait.  Yep.  It's definitely important!





Happy October!