Divas Antique Head Vases

15x22 watercolor on 140 lb hot press paper drawn and painted from antique china women head vases.  Popular in the 40s and 50s these elegant divas are decked out in pearls, fine dresses and hats and can hold a small bouquet.
Image COPYRIGHT Kay Smith.

Beach Beauties

5.5x8.5 watercolor and ink (Micron 01 pen) on Masters sketchbook paper done today as an exercise with Sketchbook Skool's Boot Kamp.  We were to quickly do at least 12 people in a crowd but all I could squeeze in of these beach babes was eleven.
Image is COPYRIGHT 2015 Kay Smith.

Beach People

5.5x12 watercolor and ink line on old ledger paper done recently. I took a photo then cropped into it to isolate the three figures in the foreground heading to the beach.  Other figures populate the distant horizon. This one is featured in Watermedia forum on WetCanvas.com.
Image is COPYRIGHT 2015 Kay Smith.

Girls Just Wanna Shop

8x5.5 watercolor and ink done yesterday on Strathmore Watercolor Journal 140 lb cold press paper and Daniel Smith pigments.  Drawn with Pigma Micron 01 pen this is another in my wild women series of girls and their handbags hustling toward the shops in an imaginary town scene.
Image is COPYRIGHT 2014 Kay Smith.

WIP boy and girl children portrait

I began painting the girl's hair, wet on dry watercolor using quinacridone gold and raw sienna for blond highlights.  Her yellow dress colors are Winsor yellow and quin gold.  His hair is light brown using quin burnt orange, carbazole violet and ultramarine blue; her hair has touches of the blue as well.  Masking dots are places where fireflies, or lightning bugs are.  He is placing a firefly "ring" upon her finger and the setting is twilight.  Flesh colors are burnt sienna and cadmium orange and the time setting is in the mid 1950s.  Stay tuned for more to follow later.
Image is COPYRIGHT 2013 Kay Smith.

Fishermen Catch of the Day

15x22 watercolor on Saunders 140 lb cold press paper, painted wet in wet from one of my old photos taken when I lived on the East Coast.  Catching and cleaning fish is a common sight along the coastal margins as is shown in this vignette.  Daniel Smith paints were used:  Alizarin crimson, quinacridone burnt orange, gold, and violet, aureolin, new gamboge, UB, Prussian blue, phthalo green, and mauve.

Flour Power

22x15 watercolor of one in my series of chefs, on 140 lb cold press paper. He's already made it into 2 major exhibitions.

Polkadot Dress - a quickie watercolor

9x6 on Strathmore, American Journey paints, of a blonde at a street fair having a good time (photo courtesy my friend Joanna). I left out the other woman dressed identically...both were obviously singing to the crowd. This was a quickie in less than an hour. I used a black & white copy of the photo, so no color reference at all, just my imagination.

Finished Red Bow

A few finishing touches to the background balanced this figure study of Carol. I added darks to the viewer's left as it was too light.

Class Work featuring Sue Ann and Joy Cowan

Here are two of the workshop students from yesterday. The first photo here is my Amarillo cousin Sue Ann who is getting her feet wet learning watercolor. Bottom photo is Joy Cowan of Odessa. Our lesson was on funtastic figures, doing a continuous line drawing of our chosen references. Their supports here were watercolor paper and matboard that had been partially gessoed. This is Sue's first time to do watercolor as she enjoys acrylic abstract work. Both appear to be proud of their day's efforts and we all had fun. NEXT WORKSHOP WILL BE JUNE 2011.

Demo Today's Class: Red Bow

24x18 watercolor on Canson Montval 140 lb block, contour line with watersoluble colored pencil to draw in about 15 minutes, then painted. I used my photograph of a woman named Carol, and this was my demo for the class workshop today.

Fashion Plate

22x15 watercolor on Saunders Waterford 140 lb cold press paper with primary colors underpainting. The manikin's hair and face were drawn first from an unusual viewpoint below the figure's waist looking upwards. A number of these lifeless models were fashion plates, wearing the finest women's clothing, from a Margaret's store exhibit in Lubbock, Texas. The store was an icon of quality couture for many years. Of course I exercised my artistic license and changed her dress from red and black to these magenta and purple/pinks.

Joy in St. Ives

22x15 watercolor on Saunders Waterford 140 lb paper painted today; photo was of my dear friend Joy walking down a rough cobbled narrow street in Cornwall.

Life Drawing in St. Ives

Drawn and painted from life in about 10 minutes at the Tate Gallery painting school in Cornwall a few weeks ago. Paper is handmade purchased there, A4 size (11 3/4 x 8 1/4 inches), American Journey paints.

Basket Sellers Nassau

22x15 watercolor on 140 lb Saunders hot press paper, painted wet on dry. The photo I used is one of many taken on our last Nassau, Bahamas trip and loosely rendered. These women sat on boxes in street corners daily trying to market their wares.

Fashionistas

22x15 watercolor collage on AF gessoed matboard. Other media: Ink, metallic acrylics, newsprint, paper doily. Figure design was drawn first then flipped, pears and tulips added last before paint applied. This painting was a demo for the Abilene arts group last year and will be part of the Caboose Watercolor Society's traveling exhibit in a few months.

Image copyright Kay Smith 2009.

Strolling

15x11 watercolor from a photo by Emilia in the Hamilton Gardens, New Jersey sculpture garden. The sculptor used French Impressionist painter Gustave Caillebotte's work entitled Paris Street; Rainy Day (1876-77).