Odessa Sunflower

15x22 watercolor on Kilimanjaro 140 lb cold press painted previously for the Odessa, Texas Art Association live demo program. I photographed the sunflower in 2003 in that town as Leada Wood and I were traveling for an art meeting; many other photos from that day have been painted but not this one. About 1.5 hours was the time limit. This is wet on dry using 1" flat sable brush and these pigments: Quinacridones burnt orange and gold, Prussian, ultramarine and Bice blues, arylide and cadmium yellows, and new gamboge. A very wet Blue Bice (American Journey) hue was the main background color. As an opaque, it had to be thinner. Note the two small lavender and brown shaded moths. COPYRIGHT 2021 Kay Smith

Sunseeker

15x22 watercolor over partially gessoed matboard sketched in pencil in a rough outline. The gesso gives a slick finish upon which to work and also lends textural effects to the finished painting. This was one of my sunflowers planted awhile back. COPYRIGHT 2021 Kay Smith

Yellow Daisy

6x6 watercolor done a few days ago, my last sheet in Masters sketchbook #2.  The first book was a gift from friend and fellow artist Leada Wood.  It had 80 pages I painted on as did this one for a total of 160 images.  Most were done daily.  Some were drawings or sketches while others were ink line, mixed media, dry media or watermedia.  Lots of them have sold and make nice small works to frame and put in that little spot where you need 'something' to go.  But alas! I have bought another Masters from Hobby Lobby so will commence to opening it and drawing something interesting.
Image is COPYRIGHT 2014 Kay Smith.

Spent Sunflower

9 x12 watercolor on Canson 140 lb cold press paper, drawn yesterday and painted today from a photo I took years ago.  I've added more color to its head as the photo was more white after birds had picked seeds.  Since we got snow today, a sunflower and blue sky were just perfect subjects to paint.