Feline Groovy

12x9 watercolor on Strathmore 140 lb cold press paper, Daniel Smith paints.  After doing a loose splashy underpainting I let the soft pastel hues dry, then drew over that an outline of my grey tabby Chuy.  The abstract underpainting can be seen within the cat's body while in front he nestles against colorful patterned pillows.

Hollyhocks Over the Fence

5 3/4 x 7 watercolor, an imaginary made up scene of multicolored hollyhocks spilling over white picket fence posts.

Watchful Eye of the Cat

7x10 watercolor on Langton 140 lb cold press paper block, using a combination of several refs into an entirely different scene.  I was using a new paper and working on it while in New Mexico this past weekend.  This painting is SOLD.

Lilac Chair

22x15 watercolor on 140 lb cold press paper, Daniel Smith paints.  This is an older painting featuring a rather worn wooden chair with chipped paint stuck in the garden to hold plants.  I have painted other versions changing the direction and adding other flowers such as geraniums to the wire basket.  I painted this wet in wet and did negative painting on background and foreground.

Sunflower

15x22 watercolor from a bowed head sunflower photo taken in Odessa, TX.  I first painted it in acrylics on canvas years ago and now have done in another medium.  Its title is "Sun Worshipper" and is largely yellow and blue.

Mission Landscape

15x22 watercolor imaginary landscape that put a southwest mission into its rolling hills.  This was painted wet in wet on 140 lb cold press paper.

Stray Calico

6x9 watercolor on Strathmore painted today for a weekend drawing event; photo courtesy WetCanvas! This little stray looked so forlorn that I just had to paint her lovely eyes and face.

Jacque Rabbit reworked watercolor demo

22x15 watercolor, gouache, over failed watercolor painting of a too detailed floral.  One of my line drawings was placed over the old one and the shape outlined in fine tip Sharpie.  I placed a full sheet acetate over and began laying in large areas with paint to see what worked and what did not.  There was lots of negative painting in the original piece and I wanted some of that patterning to show in the finished rabbit.  This was begun as a demo last Monday at the Palette Club in Midland, TX.  There are tiny touches of line emphasized with Caran D'Ache watersoluble crayons.  I will be back there in June 7-9 for a short workshop teaching this method; email me to find out more:  kay1971smith@aol.com

Here is the old failed painting, an imaginary floral which shows what was in my brain at the time last year, mostly nothing! I did like the warm coral, pink, gold, yellow, magenta, and orange colors accented by the dark hunter and lime greens, and cobalt teal blue.

BEFORE:

Fruit of the Spirit

22x30 watercolor of pears and apple still life that includes a mission front.  The apple is cut indicating Eve has been busy while the entrance to the church is open for all to partake of the fruit of the Spirit.

Applecations

22x13 watercolor demo done a little over a year ago of apples drawn from life then stacked vertically with overlapping shapes, different colors, and negative painting.  The demo was for my studio workshop group.

Lounge Lizard

22x20 watercolor on Kilimanjaro 140 lb cold press paper.  I took a photo of a regular cat and made him pink, green and yellow on a red orange lounge chair.

January Snow

5x7 watercolor of first of the year snow along a country road.  The sun has come out and promised clearer skies for those who wait.

Peppermint Blossom

10x14 watercolor of a white peony and its variegated red and pink petals.  This was painted wet in wet on Saunders 140 lb cold press paper.  This painting is SOLD.

Old Goat Cart

22x15 watercolor painted wet in wet on Saunders 300 lb cold press paper from an old New Mexico scene in a southwest style patio.  The cart was loaded with potted plants and vividly colored annuals such as geraniums.  I particularly like the long diagonal shadows of the vigas.

Last One in's a Rotten Egg

12x24 watercolor imaginary scene of myself far left and two cousins playing in the lake when we were younger.  Those were the days!
"The last one in is a rotten egg!" you could hear us yelling as we ran to jump off the dock into the cold water of Lake JB Thomas.

Pauline's Teapot and Peonies - still life

15x22 watercolor on Canson 140 lb cold press paper, a still life set up with china teapot, a gold pitcher of white peonies, and green gold scarf on a dark grey blue table.

Nature's Daisies watermedia collage

15x22 watercolor that had color dropped on its Saunders surface then negatively painting around to save whites.  Multiple leaves and stems followed then collage rice paper elements added last.

Moth Orchids - phalaenopsis

15x11 watercolor on Arches 140 lb hot press paper of white moth orchids against a splashy abstract background.  I tried to incorporate stems and petals into the direct washes or just a suggestion of those forms.

Peppermint Parrot Tulips

15x22 watercolor painted wet in wet on 140 lb cold press paper; this peppermint red & white tulip and the red ones were in a hotel floral arrangement I photographed on a trip to Dallas.

Little Mollie kitten

5.5x9 inches watercolor pet portrait on Strathmore 140 lb paper, Daniel Smith paints.  This is Elaine's kitten from WetCanvas and she is featured on this weekend drawing event.  I used a black and white copy of her photo to paint this in about 45 minutes.

Old Buffalo Resting

7.5 x 9.5 gouache and Caran D'Ache over ink sketch posted a few days ago.  This is on matboard and ink is Elegant Writer pen.  I decided the old bull needed color so added it in a vignette style.

Sierra Shadows

5.5 x 7 watercolor on Strathmore 140 lb cold press paper from one of my Lincoln National Forest Sierra Blanca photos.  It was started yesterday and finished today.  This was an autumn snowfall a few years ago and I'd hiked to the top with my camera looking for subjects to paint.  Plein air that morning was too cold!

Las Palmas

22x15 watercolor of the palms at Arizona Golf Resort and building; this painting is SOLD.

Green Wicker and Clay Goat

15x22 watercolor of my old pale green wicker patio chair with clay goat planter from New Mexico.  It held a pot that made fascinating shadow patterns across the chair back.  This painting was one of the first ones published in a book by Christopher Willard on color mixing, the 12-hue method by Rockport publishers.

Resting Buffalo sketch

7.5 x 9.5 ink sketch of a resting bull, on tan Crescent matboard drawn this afternoon.

Cactus Jack

12x9 watercolor on Strathmore 140 lb CP paper, Daniel Smith paints.  I started with a limited palette of quinacridone gold, permanent rose, and manganese and cobalt blues, doing an underpainting first.  This is from my photo taken on the Tucson VA hospital grounds where was lucky enough to see a still jackrabbit posing for my camera.  The saguaro stands tall, the guardian of the desert, over all living creatures.

White Pansies and Bunny - Happy New Year!

11x15 watercolor of my last spring's pansies and old rabbit head in my windowbox.  As the first painting of the new year, have a happy one!