MORE REFERENCE PHOTOS FROM WALKS

At Lakeside Park/Campbell County Extension Center - the Cicadas have arrived in our county.  Brood X is here - many people will no longer be going outside due to their fear of these red-eyed bugs.  For now, just a few in the garden…but we did see many in our St. Anne’s Woodland trail walk. 

   

GATHERING REFERENCES

Although painting has been slow going lately, I’ve been out gathering a lot of reference photos to use when I feel the desire to paint full out again.  So here are just a few…have been on many walks and to the Cincinnati Zoo and gardens, woods, and swamps, even!!

Kangaroos at the Cincinnati Zoo, plus flamingos sitting on eggs, and even a section for beekeeping.  So green and wonderful and not too crowded - yet.  You still need to make a reservation to go there, even though it’s free for members.   

FROM SKETCHBOOK

 

Just a few sketches in the Arches watercolor sketchbook (my favorite watercolor sketchbooks until I discovered the Stillman & Burns watercolor books).  

LANDSCAPE IN THE WEST

 

Reference was a photo taken out west year’s ago.  Tried to eat the feeling of distance without too much detail. 

IRISES HAVE A LOT OF INTERESTING SHAPES

Started with wet paper and painted the flower on, paying attention to the ruffles and shapes. slowly.  No drawing.  Not too bad so went in and wet the paper a nit with a large flat brush and added to it.

NOT A CANDY PEEP

 

Peeps, but not the candy kind :)

GREEN AND GREENER

 

Since I felt this one was too blah and drab - not enough 3D look, I thought it couldn’t hurt to just go in and fiddle with watercolor crayons and more paint…see what happens.

Such playing does not always make the painting better but it is brighter and more colorful! 

MORE FROM OUR GARDEN WALK

 

A stormy sky but pretty clouds over the church steeple across from the garden.

And several plantings of false indigo - this is called Lemon Meringue False Indigo (and, yes, it can be used to dye clothing but it’s not as lasting as true indigo).

Every garden needs some cute statuary and this little piggie fits the bill!

 

NATURE PICS

Just some nature photos from our local Lakeside Garden - owned and run and planted by the UK Extension Center.  The volunteer workers there are always showing off great stuff.

Right now, the peonies have begun to bloom, as have the iris and some interesing columbines I’d never seen.  

Sweetie and I like to meet daughter, Jen and son-in-law Chris for a lunch meeting and a walk around to see what’s blooming in pretty days.  Every week something new is popping up so it’s always an adventure with lots of photos being taken.  

The garden has a small koi pond, too, and they always raise up their heads when you walk close to see if they are going to get food :) 

These are the columbines I’ve never seen.  I’ve only ever seen the skinny ones with one or two shooting-star flowers in orange.  This was a huge bunch.

Hope you enjoyed the walk with us!

GREEN

 

Did not get the depth and 3D look to this one that I wanted but maybe I’ll play with it a bit more with some watercolor crayons or pencils later.  

Happy Mother’s Day to all!

GOLDEN BEETS FINISHED?

 Finished version - would like to go back and make the cut pieces more 3D but I might just accept this as it is.  Washed a warm yellow over the whole white of the paper after I finished to give it more of a glow.  

GOLDEN BEETS

 

Started another veggie painting on Indigo paper (just less than fourth sheet).  Not sure why but I like this paper for the veggies due to the roughness?  I am getting the photos from seed catalogs showing the vegetables but not always using their photo (although this one will be from their set-up because I like it - so stay tuned and see where it goes).

I don’t grow veggies - so maybe I can just paint some!

SECOND SWEETPEA

 Finished the second version of the sweetpea.  Thought more about composition before I painted this one!

SWEETPEA

 

 Trying to show the light hitting the flowers.  Did not like the bottom so cropped it off.  I like the granulating of the colors I used in the light blue-green (cobalt teal + ?) and got some light.  Started another to see if I can do better.

The start.  Will go in the background more after I get the flowers the way I want them to be.  Darkening some areas later.

TINY PAINTING FROM LARGER PAINTING

 

Just a little scrap piece cropped from a larger painting - added the cabin by the lake.  Bookmark size.  

TREE

 

An old weathered, scraggly tree found during a walk in the cemetery last week.  

FIELD WITH COWS

 

Just outstanding in the field.  

GLAZING

 

Glazing color over color and trying to stay light.  Another “copy” of a painting in a book.  Had not done any glazing for a long time.  There used to be a prominent artist who was famous for glazing her scenes = was it Catherine Anderson?  Can’t find anything about her now.

I never had a patience to work this way - a lot of time spent waiting for the first layer to dry, then paint and wait for the second layer to dry - and I’ve heard of some artists who go as many as 15 layers??  

SIMPLE

 Simple take on a painting in a Jeanne Dobie book.  Changed colors but basic shapes the same.  So just playing with whites and seeing what goes well with the dark green I used for the background.  

BACK TO TURNER STUDY

 

This began as one painting.  But, in the Turner book, you needed to tape off the middle once dry and then spray one side to get more misty-looking work.  It didn’t quite work for me - maybe I used pigments that were more staining the ones in the book - so I made two different paintings out of the whole after cutting down the taped line.  

 Love the way the sky happened on this one.  Sometimes the pigment and water just do their thing in the right way and it’s best to leave it alone.  

CAW GIRLS DEJA VU

 

A few years ago, I was painting my Caw Girls series of paintings.  I found this first one that needed more work so painted and shaped a bit of that.  But wasn’t that happy with the outcome so...

Do over.

But this time, it looks like instead of a crow on her hat, it’s a raven because it’s so big.  

Still works.

First painting = Jester’s Pet/Caw Girl series

Second painting = Darkness Loves Company/Caw Girl series

Both are on 1/2 sheet Arches 140# cold press paper.

Did these before starting the Turner’s Apprentice book and exercises.

A LOT OF SMALL PAINTINGS IS GOOD PRACTICE

 

These are very small - one of the things the artist leading the Turner’s Apprentice demos/exercises says is that it’s more important to paint a lot of small paintings than a few large ones.  So we are told to tape off a sheet of paper (I used a block of Arches 140# cold press) and did 4 on each sheet.  I liked the one I enlarged at the bottom the best, using lifting with a razor to get the whites, lifting out the sun and reflection with clean water, and adding the darker reddish clouds on the gold-red sky.  

A MOUNTAIN CASTLE?

 

Painted this one first.  Then decided the left side didn’t do much so...cropped it off.  And look at how that changed the way my camera showed the color?

I also went in and took off some color in the “castle” and added some windows by just scraping off the color with a razor blade knife and leaving the white windows.  Muted some of the greens down, too.  

Not sure I did myself any favors by continuing to fiddle with this one.  

NOW WE’RE TALKING COLOR

 

Back to my regular color palette.  Still working through the Turner’s Apprentice book and enjoying the demos/lessons and suggestions on brushwork.  

These are both small - 1/8 sheet Arches 140# cold press paper.  

WATERCOLOR GRAPHITE

 

The color in the Japanese watercolor/graphite palette is very muted but you do get some color - esp. that reddish black!  I can see taking these out in the field and doing pre-lim sketches.  Nice quality.