BEES

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.  

BEE MY HONEY...

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).

FRUITY STAMPS

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 :)

GREEN

Another older, small painting.  Thinking about landscapes as the land becomes so green (from all the rain).

CHAINS

Rusted Chains




Another oldie.  
Watercolor on gessoed paper.

WATERCOLOR INKS

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).

NATURE

Fiddlehead Ferns.  




Another oldie until I paint something new that's good enough to share.

WOODS

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")

A LITTLE CARD

Using the popcicle drawing, I put this onto a blank watercolor card.  I changed the colors around a bit.


So now it's a birthday card for my stepdaughter, Jenny.  SWEET!!

We met her for lunch today to celebrate (even though it's belated because everyone is always soooo busy).

EVEN A STONE

I once had a book called
Even a Stone Can be a Teacher.

I don't remember anything about the book except the title.  I'm pretty sure it was coming from a Buddhist perspective. 


This is a little bit of a painting (about 5 x 7 inches) and I'm calling it
Even a Stone


Sometimes it's fun and invigorating to just play with textures.  

SOMETIMES STOPPING DOESN'T HELP

Remember this one?

I asked what colors to add to that final popcicle and got mostly comments on my Facebook page to use purple.  

So that's what I did.  


But I wasn't crazy about and and then I went in with the shadows and made ugly shadow shapes.  UGH!

So I used a strong spray bottle and washed as much of the color off as I could.  

Then it had to sit and dry before I could go back and try to "fix" it.

I reapplied the paint, changed the napkin color a bit and cut it down a lot.

Not great, but it is what it is.

BREAK TIME

Time for me to take a little break away from the computer and blogging and posting for a while.  Spring has sprung.  Maybe more time outside or in the art room playing with new printmaking supplies or techniques just to see what comes from that.  I'm going to practice a little voluntary simplicity.


"I practice saying no to keep my life simple, and I find I never do it enough."
           Jon Kabat-Zinn in the book, Wherever You Go, There You Are

TEXTURED BACKGROUND FOR FLOWERS

Worked a bit more on the whites - bringing in just a little color to shape them and make them more dimensional.  

SWEET

Almost finished - a small painting.  
Now, what color should I make that unpainted popcicle?  Any good suggestions?

When I finish the last popcicle, I'll put in the shadows.

FINISHED THE TEXTURING TECHNIQUES PAINTING

I thought it was finished, but I think the white flowers need a bit more work to bring forth the shape.  I'll save that for class to show them how to paint white flowers, I think.

ON THE WINDOWSILL

Begonia blooming out after cutting it down to the soil in the pot this winter.  Why are they so leggy?  When this was in full bloom it was scraggly and leggy and blooms were falling all over the table and floor around it.  But right now it's pretty so I'll see what happens - it may need a bigger pot?  Or supports?  Or...I don't know, I don't have a green thumb at all!

Happy April! 

TEXTURING TECHNIQUES IN WATERCOLOR

During watercolor class Tuesday, I had the students trace out the photo printout I used (from a watercolor book by Elizabeth Groves), and then had them put that aside and we played with learning some new texture techniques.  I showed them how to use salt, sea sponges, plastic wrap, splattering with a toothbrush and other ways to create texture in a background.  That took up the 2 hours.

Next time we meet, they will paint the background using any of the techniques they liked and then they'll paint the flowers.

Here is my version so far.  (Can you tell the two texture techniques I used?)

The photo in the book had yellow crocuses at the bottom, white in the middle and purple at top - but I wanted to change that so I'm going to do purple and white only. 

The book I used for the photo reference is 
Exploring Watercolor 
by Elizabeth Groves.  

PALM BERRIES FINISHED

I finally got to the shadows on these berries!  Done :)



This is a half sheet (15 x 22 inches) on Arches 140# cold press paper.


AMI Palm Berries

CARDMAKING

Here are a few of the cards I made for Easter and Spring - to mail or give to family and friends this year (or next).  

Once I got started, it was fun to cut and paste a lot of the watercolor paintings onto the printmaking cards or paint directly onto the watercolor cards.  

If you think you don't have anything painted for cards, look into your sketchbooks or small art journals and cut out some good things to glue onto a card = easy!

WHERE DID YOU GET THOSE WONDERFUL TOYS?

Remember that old Batman movie where Michael Keaton was Batman and Jack Nicholson was the Joker?  And at one point, the Joker asked, "Where does he get those wonderful toys?" 

Well, I got some wonderful toys last week in the mail.  We had a very belated birthday celebration with the family in March (the birthdays were in January and February but the family is BUSY), and I got 2 more gift cards.  One from Dick Blick and one from Cheap Joes.  So...drooling over the catalogs, I picked out some toys for printmaking.

Watercolor cards, Printmaking Cards, a Speedball Lino Cutter, 2 easy-cut blocks, a heat gun and moldable foam stamps (which is why I wanted the heat gun - you heat the block then press a firm stencil or item into the block which leaves an imprint that can be used again and again OR you can reheat the block and start over with something else).  Also got a couple of small stencils although they seem fairly flimsy - hope they work out.  

I need to do some planning for class so my students can make watercolor monotype prints without a press - we'll see how it works.  

Have you purchased any new art supplies this year?  What did you get?  How are you going to use them?