Window Amaryllis

24x9 inches, watercolor on Strathmore 140 lb paper, Daniel Smith paints, completed yesterday during a timed exercise on a weekend drawing event with WetCanvas.com It is definitely time for seeing red and peppermint hued amaryllis for Christmastime!

Vineyard - negative painting

15x11 watercolor on Fabriano 140 lb hot press paper, no pencil used. Negative painting was done on top of dry underpainting of yellows and blues to establish groups of grapes and leaves. I used a palette knife to add twigs at the last.

Copyright 2009 Kay Smith.

Sedonascape

15x22 (half sheet) watercolor painted wet on dry with large brushes only, no pencil, in Francese's class last month. I named it for Sedona, Arizona as it reminds me of that area.

Painted Ponies demo

22x15 watercolor painted today as a 2 hour demo during Old Railhead Trade Days in downtown Colorado City, TX. This photo is from www.wetcanvas.com reference library images. I drew it in pencil on Fabriano 140 lb hot press paper then madly applied American Journey paints: Coastal Fog, Midnight Blue, Copper Kettle, Harvest Wheat, Royal Amethyst, Gamboge, Skip's Green, Andrew's Turquoise, Orchid, Periwinkle, Taylor's Pink Flamingo. Daniel Smith: Moonglow, Raw Sienna.

Fashionistas

22x15 watercolor collage on AF gessoed matboard. Other media: Ink, metallic acrylics, newsprint, paper doily. Figure design was drawn first then flipped, pears and tulips added last before paint applied. This painting was a demo for the Abilene arts group last year and will be part of the Caboose Watercolor Society's traveling exhibit in a few months.

Image copyright Kay Smith 2009.

Marina

15x22 harbor scene on 140 lb Saunders cold press watercolor paper, one of the fast and furious works done last month in Francese's workshop. No pencil used, just painting color on top of color and negatively carving out shapes with 1" and 2" brushes, wet on dry in about 1.5 hours.

Branching Out

15x11 quarter sheet watercolor on Italia Acquerello 140 lb cold press paper, drawn in 10 minutes, 1.5 hours painting, wet on dry. I added kosher salt to background colors, encouraged backruns, and did some negative painting of branches. American Journey paints, direct painting style, usually with only 1 application. Spattered titanium white when dry for snow effects. Thanks to Alain for the photo reference!

Sandstorm

22x30 watercolor, another one painted wet on dry, American Journey paints, in Francese workshop mid-October. Now these colorful skies are exactly what we see in West Texas! Even the greenish tint in the clouds perfectly complements the reddish glow of that awful hot sand.