Porch Scene

11x15 watercolor on 140 lb cold press paper, Daniel Smith/DaVinci paints, another in my series of porch scenes. This one was done after a trip to Jefferson in east Texas and all elements have been altered and/or imagined.  It is painted wet in wet with 1" flat sable brush.

Garden Center Rabbit plein air vignette

Top image is 12x9 watercolor on Langston 140 lb cold press paper, done this morning plein air during our group paint out (Watercolor Horizons in Odessa, TX).  I took about 1.5 hours to sketch then paint with travel palette and outdoors gear.  Bottom image is a photo of the statue which was quite large.  Afterwards, we had lunch amongst the flowers and plants at Alldredge Gardens beautiful environment.

Sherbet Lilies

15x22 transparent watercolor on Arches 140 lb cold press, a demo done today for Snyder, TX Palette Club, located at their airport. They had requested a floral, and I was only too happy to oblige with this sherbet-hued daylily composition.  It was painted wet in wet with 1.5" brush for the most part, beginning with darks first, then midtones, then lights last.  Daniel Smith/American Journey paints were used.

Red Orange Poppy Garden

15x11 watercolor of loosely painted poppies spilling out of the garden in a wild array of colors; this is painted wet in wet on 140 lb cold press paper with Daniel Smith pigments.

Purple Garden Bench

23 x 15.75 watercolor on medium weight Yupo synthetic paper.  A pot of bougainvilleas flanks the purple painted wooden bench at my studio.  A yellow windowbox holds white and red petunias and vinca beneath the red trim of the pale yellow house.  My favorite has to be the purple shutters guarding the windows.  I used DaVinci, Daniel Smith, and WN paints.

Birds and Blooms

15x22 watercolor of fresh flowers in my studio basking in a sunny south window. The window is fake stained glass I made with a craft kit years ago.  On its top ledge sit china and glass birds collection.  This painting is SOLD.

Gardener's Bike with Poppy Patch

9x6.5 watercolor, a daily painting, of an old garden shed and the worker's bike and basket.  Photo ref courtesy Susan (WetCanvas Weekend Drawing Event).  I edited lots of the photo out such as foreground, middle ground, paraphrenalia on the bike and clutter around the shed's entrance, and top right I added blue sky.  Foreground I added multicolored poppies.  This was done within the 2 hour time limit of the WDE contest.

Cow Skull

15x11 watercolor on Kilimanjaro 140 lb cold press paper of an old cowskull I photographed on my brother's ranch in O'Donnell, TX. It was propped against a tree and had rocks below and beside it. Daniel Smith paints used: Quinacridone burnt orange, quin gold and magenta, raw sienna, UB, aureolin, and Carbazole violet, all done wet on dry. Yesterday I drew it and today painted it. These icons of western art always sell pretty quickly.

Zebras and Leaves

15x22 watercolor featuring zebras painted positively and some negatively; I did use masking fluid in this particular work as seen in the white lines amongst the leaves.

Golf Clubs

15x11 watercolor on Saunders 140 lb cold press paper of my and Les' golf bags and clubs and my shoes.  This flat shape method of painting is fun to do in which you decide warm or cool colors.  Then you choose 3 shapes:  Small, medium, and large and those will be one cool color.  You try to never repeat a color.  With either cool or warm compositions, you may use a couple of neutrals or couple of warms or vice versa.  Mostly blues and greens here, I did use black and soft grey for neutrals and my 2 warms were red and quin violet DaVinci paints.  At the end you can add patterns of Xs, Os, dash lines, etc. using a silver marker for cool paintings and a gold marker for warm themes.  This painting is SOLD.

Daffodil Hill

11x15 watercolor of naturalized daffodils enjoying the early spring sunshine and blue sky.  This is painted on Italia 140 lb cold press paper wet on dry with negative painting for stems and foliage.

Mister Mystery male figure

22x15 gouache watermedia over charcoal drawing of a mysterious tall, dark, and handsome man on Arches 140 lb hot press paper.  I collaged 4 large phone book yellow pages onto the watercolor paper with half matte medium, half water, then applied 3 strips lengthwise of 1" masking tape, waited 10 minutes then pulled off various parts of the pages that would remove (use a wide palette knife to make sure the tape sticks).  After drying, I began drawing over the collage then applied gouache (watercolor with white added).  The phone book pages collage was taught to us by instructor Liz Hill of Houston last October.  Thank you Liz! Check out her blog Irreverent Art.

Garden Gate Roses

24x18 watercolor on Canson Montval 140 lb cold press block finished yesterday after working on it over a week.
Love the combination of old heavy gothic style ornamental gate paired with soft velvety roses.  This is for an April WetCanvas garden gate challenge in which we must include flowers as well as a gate on the Florals/Botanical forum.  Daniel Smith paints for the most part were used painting wet on dry.

Bermuda Brunch

15x22 watercolor on Saunders 140 lb cold press paper, Daniel Smith paints of a brunch table setting in Bermuda.  After painting this best of show winner I sold it to some of our dear friends a few years ago.  All the lines and keeping whites pure was a real challenge in this ocean side still life.

Porch Scene with Cat

15x22 watercolor, another imaginary porch scene with shutters, white wicker and potted daisies and geraniums not to mention the lovely kitty relaxing on the cushions.  An underpainting was done first, allowed to dry, then design was drawn, with a stencil stamp of old cardboard used to make a woven wicker pattern.

Fishermen Catch of the Day

15x22 watercolor on Saunders 140 lb cold press paper, painted wet in wet from one of my old photos taken when I lived on the East Coast.  Catching and cleaning fish is a common sight along the coastal margins as is shown in this vignette.  Daniel Smith paints were used:  Alizarin crimson, quinacridone burnt orange, gold, and violet, aureolin, new gamboge, UB, Prussian blue, phthalo green, and mauve.

Irresistible Irises

15x22 watercolor on Italia 140 lb cold press paper, that I posted last year, and have now done more work on the piece.  I used fake paper irises in a decorative pot to draw them from life as mine now are not blooming due to Texas' continuing drought.  So for now will have to look at my art instead of outside for inspiration or wherever it can be found.

Yellow Lab Puppy in Flowerbed

22x15 watercolor on 140 lb smooth/soft press paper painted a few years ago of a yellow lab puppy playing in a flowerbed of lilies.
Paints used are Daniel Smith and DaVinci.

Figure in Watermedia with Collage

15x22 watermedia figure on hot press paper 140 lb; charcoal drawing was done after old phone book pages adhered and dried.  My demo above was in gouache.  Collaged paper cocktail napkins made up her sweater top.  Accents added using ink, watersoluble oil pastels, Caran D'Ache pastels.  Reference was my photo of a model named Karen and of course looks nothing like the real Karen. If you look closely you can see a tooth image from a yellow page dental ad above her left eye at her hairline.  Too much fun with this type art which may not be for you but it is for me.  The title of the painting is "Shasta Daisy".

Workshop Watermedia Collage participants

Here are all the 10 smiling faces from yesterday's all day workshop at my studio showing their work.  Our purpose was to learn how to apply pages to hot press paper using old phone books, draw a charcoal subject, then paint in gouache, watercolor, or other watermedia such as acrylics.  From L to R:  Janie, Clara, Pat, Joy, Jan, Kathie, Jay, Ellen, SuzyPal, and Annalee.  Each did an awesome painting and some did more than one.  Later in the evening Jay informed me she had done another one at home.  From pineapples to people all had a good day, and I could not turn off my brain till midnight.

Spring Fever Daffodils

22x15 watercolor demo of lightly spritzed background of primary colors, and the negative spaces brightly colored sections around the daffodils and pots.  Paper is Saunders 140 lb cold press; Daniel Smith paints.

Apples and Teapot still life

15x22 watercolor of old teapot and apples surrounded by white vase of mixed sunflowers, carnations, etc.  This is about the 3rd or 4th time to paint variations of this still life.

Pleasures of the Porch

15x22 watercolor on Italia 140 lb cold press paper, Daniel Smith paints of an old southern style wrap around porch I found on a trip to Mississippi years ago.  Wish I had the house, porch and lovely garden!

Texas State Flower Bluebonnet

22x15 watercolor on Saunders 140 lb cold press paper, drawn and painted from life in this macro view of our state flower the bluebonnett.  With little water last year not many were seen covering our hills but am told this year the blues, purples, whites, and pinks are stunning.  This painting is SOLD.

Splash 14 Selection for 2013

It's Official: Splash 14 Notifications!

http://www.artistsnetwork.com/medium/watercolor/announcing-the-winners-of-splash-14-best-of-watercolor

The above link was announced on WetCanvas! home page of the 106 watercolorists who were accepted and of that number Chris Beck and I are the lucky Art Colony blog gals.  Last August I painted a lovely white domestic shorthair cat with blue eyes named Sinatra, who lives in Tyler, TX, at an antique store called Special Effects on Old Bullard Rd.  Mollie Jones, another Colony artist, will tell his owner, Polly Hitt, about it.  The original has been sold to a collector in Bangkok, Thailand.

This 15x22 watercolor was featured as a step by step work in progress here on my blog during August 2011 if anyone wants to see its inception and progression.  The new book will be published in 2013 by North Light Books, F+W media.

Christy's Zinnias

15x22 watercolor of my dear sister-in-law Christy Smith's zinnias, painted from photos awhile back.  I loved her vividly colored summer annuals and could not wait to draw and paint them in a much larger format.  She follows this blog so hope she will remember the flowers and the painting.

Cay Island Woman Kaye - finished

15x22 gouache and charcoal over hot press watercolor paper (Fabriano) with a few finishing touches sorted for the final version from yesterday's post.  I smoothed out the dog image that appeared on her cheek under her left eye by adding a gouache mix of white, orange, and fuchsia.  Hopefully it reads better now.