Mission Tower

12.5x10.5 watercolor and black India ink on 300 lb cold press Saunders paper; an imaginary southwestern architecture scene. COPYRIGHT Kay Smith 2025

Ocean Front Property

9x7 watercolor on Masters Touch 80 lb sketchbook paper done a few days ago for the Watermedia forum in WetCanvas! ref courtesy Valri/Stock Cake. Imagine owning or even renting this spot with the ocean just so close, swaying palms and balmy breezes. COPYRIGHT 2024 Kay Smith

Yucca Trees

8.5x5.5 watercolor in Masters Touch sketchbook using White Nights paints in this simple landscape with sturdy spiky leaf trees. Not sure what they are so call them yucca trees. COPYRIGHT 2022 Kay Smith

Three Palms

5x7.5 watercolor using White Nights paints in Moleskine for wc sketchbook (140 lb cold press paper) done over this past weekend for an online WetCanvas challenge. COPYRIGHT 2021 Kay Smith

August Palms

8.25x5.25 mixed media in junk journal done on Monday, playing around with palm tree stamp, a semblance of water to indicate ocean, sea, or island, and sand along with rocks. Stencil was used for the shapes indicating rocks. I used watercolor, acrylics, and ink in this summer landscape. COPYRIGHT 2021 Kay Smith

Sea Sand Summer

11x4 mixed media on 140 lb cold press paper done today, the first day of August, a day I like to think of water, lakes, ocean, the sand and enjoy the rest of summer. I used acrylics to make marks on the paper then used a small palm tree ink stamp, and watercolor to fill in the background. More acrylics used at random with stencil. COPYRIGHT 2021 Kay Smith

Tropical Scene

22x15 watercolor on handmade paper 140 lb cold press paper done wet in wet of a building I photographed in Phoenix, Arizona.  To me the tall palm trees looked tropical so you can imagine water beyond the brick building with its red tile roof.
COPYRIGHT 2020 Kay Smith

Island Palms

12x6 watercolor on Strathmore 140 lb cold press paper done this afternoon using 1" flat brush only.  As part of an online timed event for WetCanvas, I used 45 minutes of my allotted 2 hour time limit.  Photo courtesy Tanya/LoganArt.  The scene is at an island in the Gulf of Mexico.
COPYRIGHT 2018 Kay Smith.

Tropical Trees - negative painting

12x9 watercolor on 140 lb cold press Canson paper, a negative painting exercise I began to demo last week at the Florida workshop. First lay in light value wash of varied colors, let dry, then take the next value and paint behind in between spaces to form tree shapes, going darker each time.  No pencil drawing was done.  With this imaginary scene, I've put the setting sun on bottom left with water.
Image is COPYRIGHT 2014 Kay Smith.

Marina

15x22 watercolor wet in wet of a marina scene complete with boats, fishermen, docks and bait houses.
Image is COPYRIGHT Kay Smith.

Laguna Beach

5.5x8 watercolor on Strathmore Visual Journal 140 lb cold press paper, a beach scene I painted last week in my hotel room while everyone else was in the bar or gambling.  I don't paint that many landscapes unless the area is interesting and familiar.
Image is COPYRIGHT 2014 Kay Smith.

Palm Breezes

30x10 watercolor of the very top side of a Florida palm tree completed today. I was going thru all my tree, Florida, Bermuda, and Nassau photos, and selected one to do a detail of instead of the entire trunk and all those fronds. Since Mollie Jones and I are going to be in Indian Rocks Beach in August teaching watercolor, this one got me into the tropical mood. It was a chilly day here and a sandstorm yesterday, so why not dream of the beach and its charms?! Daniel Smith paints:  Quinacridone burnt orange, magenta and gold, Undersea Green, Gamboge, UB, Manganese, arylide, Prussian blue on 140 lb Canson paper cold press.
Image is COPYRIGHT 2014 Kay Smith.

Tropical Buildings

6x6 watercolor over Pigma Micron 01 pen sketch; some tropical setting buildings I photographed in Florida and Puerto Rico. I enjoyed the warm coral and cool turquoise colors of these coastal hotels.
Copyright 2013 Kay Smith.

Beach Umbrellas

12x18 watercolor of various colorful beach 'brellas on a sandy beach complete with palm trees and warm temps.  I drew this with Pigma Micron 01 pen.

Scarlet Macaw - torn paper collage

10x10 torn paper collage on wrapped canvas, my demo from yesterday's class.  I drew the parrot with black felt tip permanent marker after gessoing the canvas, then began tearing, not cutting, paper from quality magazines and adhering with matte medium.  Today I spent 2 more hours getting him done.  There's a frog, a paintbrush, a butterfly, bracelets, rooster, red jalapeno pepper, steamer pot, trivets, a green colander, apple, chair, etc., within the square composition.  Tomorrow I'll apply varnish medium to seal it and make it shiny.

Coconut Crazy

20x22 watercolor on Kilimanjaro 140 lb rough paper, done today in under 2 hours, spritzing color, splatters, and water as I was adding paint.  Coconuts are negatively painted as are most of the palm fronds.  Now I want a pina colada and a trip back to Florida!

Cockatoo Karma

15x11 watercolor of white cockatoo named Karma that I painted today from black & white photo ref of my friend Valri in Florida. The bird was in a kitchen setting  so I took artistic license and changed that to a tropical scene and jazzed her up at the same time.  Paper is Canson 140 lb cold press, Daniel Smith paints, done wet on dry.

Coronado Beach Chairs

15x22 watercolor painted wet in wet with lots of hot colors. This patio scene was at the Coronado famous hotel on the beach in California; no idea where the people were, just empty chairs with wet beach towels.

Chickadee Migration

15x30 watercolor on Fabriano hot press paper that was coated with heavy gel medium. Three 6" squares were blocked off and covered. After stamping into the gel, I let it dry, then drew shapes and wrote words 'chickadee migration', covered all with blue and gold watercolor, then wiped off all paint. Next I carved out tree branches and limbs. Into the middle square I painted a bird's nest with eggs and let the painting tell me what it needed. A black crow appeared in the left square and far right a speckled leaf that uses repetition along with the eggs.

Citrus Sky

22x20 watercolor on Italia 140 lb paper painted earlier this year of a palm tree and coconuts. Maybe with winter coming on I am thinking of citrus skies.