Sunflowery Seeds

16x20 watercolor and ink on 140 lb cold press paper painted back in November. This work featuring the deep inner properties of the mighty sunflower and its seeds is meant to draw the viewer in. Lots to see and explore with all the detail. Sunflowery Seeds is currently on display in Alto, NM, for the summer shows COPYRIGHT Kay Smith 2025

Sunny Seeds

15x11 watercolor using White Nights paints on 140 lb cold press paper, done in December. This is more of a fun sunflower take on the flower versus my usual realism. COPYRIGHT Kay Smith 2025

Overgrown Sunflower

8x8 mixed media using White Nights watercolors, ink with STA 0.8 black pen, and black Sharpie on 140 lb cold press paper. This is another of the many I painted in November before the holidays hit and is one of my personal favorites. COPYRIGHT Kay Smith 2025

December Sunflower

8x6 watercolor on handmade rough 140 lb cold press paper finished today. This is from an earlier photo taken from a fresh sunflower in a bouquet of mixed blooms. COPYRIGHT Kay Smith 2025

Black Sunflower

9x7 watercolor, ink, and white gel pen in sketchbook done last week for WetCanvas online floral challenge hosted by Virginia. I used STA Lictin 0.8 pen, pencil, Daniel Smith pigments, and a white gel pen on 80 lb sketchbook paper. COPYRIGHT Kay Smith 2025

Tall Wild Sunflower

9x2 watercolor using White Nights paints on Canson 117 lb cold press paper done over the past 2 weeks. This is from an earlier painting of the wild sunflowers seen along roadsides. It can be matted and framed or used as a simple vertical bookmark. COPYRIGHT Kay Smith 2025

Sunflower Ambience

9x9 watercolor on Canson 117 lb cold press paper done week before last; inspiration was seeing a field of sunflowers showing the last of summer's sun upon their majestic heads. COPYRIGHT Kay Smith 2025

Sunflower Style

9x12 watercolor on Canson 140 lb cold press, a demo from yesterday's art class that I didn't quite finish. After sketching various sunflowers using a black watercolor pencil, the paper was wet and washed across using a 3" hake brush. Black lines were encouraged to blend into a gray and fill petals, leaves, and stems. Quinacridone burnt orange was put into the centers and all over water misting done with a fine spray mister to move colors. Undersea green by Daniel Smith was added as was quinacridone gold and raw sienna. Vertical shapes were added top right and bottom left for balance; I continued to put more black wc pencil leaves, stems, etc. at random. COPYRIGHT Kay Smith 2025

Sunflower Bouquet

4x6 watercolor (Rosa paints) with black India ink applied with a chopstick to dry paper done last week of January, a quick floral study using fresh flowers in Joggles sketchbook (80 lb. paper). COPYRIGHT 2025 Kay Smith

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

Bright Sunflower Collage

8x5.5 mixed media over partially gessoed page in new junk journal done last week, using acrylics and paper collage. Lots of fun with this one. COPYRIGHT Kay Smith

Midday Sunflowers

6x6 watercolors over ink pen using STA Lictin 0.05 in Masters Touch sketchbook done last week, a bit early to see sunflowers so used my own photos of them. So bright and cheerful I'd like to plant some. COPYRIGHT 2024 Kay Smith

Sunflower Petals in the Wind Woven

9x12 watercolor using two almost identical paintings from my sunflower photo done last month. To create a woven piece such as this you must paint a pair of duplicate works. Then cut one in vertical strips and the other in horizontal strips which are woven as one piece. I adhered the back to another 9x12 sheet of Canson 140 lb cold press then matted and framed. COPYRIGHT 2024 Kay Smith

Sunflower Synergy

8x8 watercolor on 140 lb cold press paper by Masters Touch done last week of one of my many sunflower refs. With this one I have tried to focus on its relationship with the sun, the reason for its existence. Look closely to see some sunflower seeds poking up in the center. COPYRIGHT 2023 Kay Smith

Sunflower Petals in the Wind

9x12 watercolor on Canson 140 lb cold press paper, a painting demo done on Monday for art students. Roughly I sketched in pencil the sunflower petals and stem in almost a blind contour method (to remain loose), then laid in colors in 15 minutes. Background was added after this dried with a 1" flat brush. Reference was one of my sunflower photos. COPYRIGHT 2022 Kay Smith

Sunflower Fantasy

9x12 watercolor imaginary sunflower floral using plastic wrap pressed onto wet paint and let dry. Negative painting was done for this unusual design. COPYRIGHT 2021 Kay Smith

Kinky Sunflower

12x9 watercolor and ink on Canson for mixed media paper done over last week from a previous version, intensifying color value, and line design elements. COPYRIGHT 2021 Kay Smith

June Sunflower

11x15 watercolor on Strathmore 140 lb cold press block done this past week, working on its composition for about 3 days. Lots of negative painting of the leaves and in the background. Daniel Smith paints were used. COPYRIGHT 2021 Kay Smith

Connie's Sunflower

11x8.5 colored pencils and watercolor on Canson paper in sketchbook done last weekend. Ref courtesy of Connie, the artist who provided it in an online event. I used multi-lead pencils in three colors to sketch the flower first. COPYRIGHT 2021 Kay Smith

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