Spring Tree

14x10 watercolor on Stonehenge 140 lb hot press paper done over last weekend, thinking of Spring and counting the days.  With a predominantly blue abstract leaves background the tree slowly comes to life.
COPYRIGHT 2019 Kay Smith

Birds Flocked Together

12x18 watercolor on gessoed Crescent white matboard, drawn yesterday with Magic multicolored pencils then painted today.  First the birds were painted as the most realistic shapes, then a loose abstract background with same hues.  Allowing for surprises in this high key work, I searched for suggestions that could be leaves or flowers.  Bird colors are not real. Tree branches and twigs however, are all positive lines.  It was a bright sunny day here and birds were singing, saying that Spring is just around the corner!

Songbird

22x30 acrylics on Strathmore Gemini 140 lb cold press paper, a reworked image from a week ago, and I hope this image experiment is better than the pastel blah that it was.  After using the cut-out filter in PhotoShop I printed it, but my printer was low on ink because it sure didn't resemble the monitor much.  So I used my iPhone monitor and the print to totally repaint the bird.  I did let the leaves remain as I enjoy those stamped ones.  This is a different look and way of painting for me, so please let me know if you like it or don't.  Now to post it on Art Colony blog for the pros to comment.

Popping up Poppies

11x15 watercolor done today on hot press paper on the backside of a failed dog portrait, so this one was an old dog for sure.  This scene is largely pure fun of orange poppies using Daniel Smith's transparent pyrrol orange and new gamboge, and was featured in a timed contest on WetCanvas in the Weekend Drawing Event.  My time was 55 minutes using direct painting of darks first on dry paper.