Coneflower Mixture

5.5x8.5 watercolor on 80 lb Master's Touch paper in sketchbook done last month, a mixture of various coneflowers, etc. Good to see some blooms in this cold winter weather. COPYRIGHT Kay Smith 2024

September Sunflower Trio

5.5x8.5 watercolor in Master's Touch sketchbook 80 lb paper done last week using White Nights paints and my photo of off white faux sunflowers. COPYRIGHT 2024 Kay Smith

A Daisy Day

6x6 watercolor of imaginary daisy and its greenery done last week on Masters Touch 80 lb paper in sketchbook. With each white flower theme painting I try to introduce new colors, shapes, and design. COPYRIGHT 2023 Kay Smith

Sunsplashed Hollyhock

10.5x8 watercolor on 140 lb cold press paper done over last weekend using White Nights paints. I featured my photo reference on this month's Watermedia forum challenge on WetCanvas. The pink hollyhocks amongst other colors were grown in my studio backyard. Light values indicate strong sunshine on its leaves and darker values are present for cast shadows. COPYRIGHT 2021 Kay Smith

Butterfly Zinnia Garden

11x15 watercolor on 140 lb cold press paper completed yesterday of summer annual zinnias with monarch butterfly, an imaginary scene from one of my photos. This was painted wet on dry using Daniel Smith and White Nights paints over a couple of days. Zinnia leaves are rough and scratchy. COPYRIGHT 2021 Kay Smith

January Sunflower

9x7 watercolor and ink line with Micron 01 pen on Canson 140 lb cold press paper done today.  I started it yesterday and it was only a rough ink sketch for this month's floral challenge online.  So decided to add color and this is what resulted, a basically white sunflower and leaves as it is January and cold, and it is surrounded by its promise of sunny days ahead.
COPYRIGHT 2018 Kay Smith.

Posies

8.5x5.5 India inks/Micron 01 pen on Bienfang for mixed media sketchbook begun yesterday and finished today.  These watermedia flowers could be poppies, roses, or tulips hence the posies title.  I only used blue, yellow and red inks and mixed the green using blue and yellow.  Not too bad for a 20 minute imaginary exercise.
Image COPYRIGHT 2016 Kay Smith.

Heat Wave Sunflowers

15x22 watermedia on 140 lb cold press paper done in 2011, a work in progress of various sunflower faces.  I showed the WIP stages on this blog HERE.  It began with loose yellow acrylics and coffee filters and gauze were used.  Curious? Click on the link and see how it was developed.  Paintings can be purchased on www.dailypainters.com in my gallery or contact me directly.
Image COPYRIGHT 2011 Kay Smith.

Sleepy Susans (Blackeyed Susans)

5.5x8 watercolor and ink line on Strathmore Visual Journal for mixed media done a few days ago.  Blackeyed Susans, or rudbeckia, are tough to beat color wise.  They brighten up any corner of the flower garden with brilliant golden yellow and dark brown caps.  Photo courtesy Li Newton for WetCanvas current weekend drawing event in the All Media Art Events forum.
Image COPYRIGHT 2015 Kay Smith.

Gladiolus Bouquet

22x15 watercolor of fresh red gladiolus, white and multicolored flowers painted from life wet int wet.  A careful pencil drawing was done first then paper was wet and painted with quick strokes.
Image is COPYRIGHT 2015 Kay Smith.

Viv's Hydrangeas

9x14 watercolor on partially gessoed matboard, drawn this morning with colored pencils then painted. I only used a black and white photo so all color is imagined.
Image is COPYRIGHT 2015 Kay Smith.

Sunflower Sizzlers - WIP

 22x15 watercolor beginning stage yesterday of a work in progress, a group of red and yellow sunflowers in a glass vase I first painted awhile ago.  This is on Arches 140 lb cold press paper,  On dry paper, I first laid down my darkest darks for their centers (quinacridone burnt orange, ultramarine blue, carbazole violet, quin gold, violet) and let the paint mix and mingle.

 I lightly wet the top background area with most of the same colors plus olive green and blue bice (American Journey); those areas are soft and out of focus and could be flower shapes, stems, or leaves.  Since I don't have my original photo reference I'm using the original painting.

In this view, I've added a couple of petals with top sunflower and the very large leaf front and center using UB, quin gold, arylide yellow, alizarin crimson, sap green, being careful with any tube greens being too harsh so I add a touch of any red.  I wet the leaf with my 1" flat brush first then lightly blotted it.  Fully loaded with two colors I quickly laid in the different pigments.  These steps show my direct method of painting wet on dry watercolor.

Zinnias and Butterfly

22x15 watercolor of my studio zinnias with a perfect butterfly perched on top doing his daily routine.  The title of this older painting is "A Summer Day", and as today was cold and windy after a first fall freeze last night, I thought of butterflies and blooms with longing. But still do have pansies and ornamental kale to keep some color going in the windowboxes.  This was painted on cold press 140 lb. paper.

Nasturtiums and Poppies

10x8 acrylics on wrapped canvas done today.  These two types of blooms you don't see in compositions together usually.  The sides are also painted with overlapping design elements.

Red Sky and Sunflowers

Finished! With the addition of partial black India ink line this gave the flowers and leaves some added strength.  All shapes appear more integrated using this common design element.  Size is 11x15, medium watercolor with ink.

Garden Nook

10 3/4 x 16 inches, watercolor on 300 lb Saunders paper, a totally imaginary scene of a quiet place to sit, read, or rest awhile.  My basket of roses and straw hat are on the old concrete bench while a trellis supports other garden plants and flowers.

WIP sunflowers continuing

Continuing on across and down I work the background and begin petals and sunflower centers weaving warms and cools as my brush progresses, not knowing how it will end up.

WIP Watermedia - Line Drawing over Abstract Background

Now over the wild background I've laid one of my old line drawings to get an idea of what to put where.  I'll add a third bloom and rearrange the flowers by lowering the right top one to right side below and omit the small ones.  A medium sized flower will go top left and center of interest will be the largest diagonal sunflower face as you can see here on its profile.  Stay tuned as I'm off to the light box to put drawings on tracing paper underneath.  Now comes the hard part.

Flowers of Passion - woven watercolor

15x22 work is actually two identically painted scenes of pink roses in front of a house. The original was ho-hum boring (I'll post it soon for comparison) so a few years later did another exactly like it as I'd saved the drawing. I got the idea of weaving them together after seeing the work of Nancy Maas, which is much looser and not as tightly woven. One painting you cut wavy strips horizontally, and the other cut vertical strips, then weave in and out. When done I vacuum mounted onto acid free matboard to frame it. Now it looks much more interesting!

Hollyhock House

Finished! After a couple more hours I can say it is done and was a joy to work on this simple cottage garden scene.
Now on to the next one whatever that will be as only my muse knows.