Sudderth Drive

12x9 watercolor on 140 lb cold press paper painted last Monday, the first day of our Florida workshop at Indian Rocks Beach Art Center.  This is from my photo of our last trip to Ruidoso, New Mexico.  Sudderth is the main street of the village and I was excited about the women shoppers and the red pickup truck in the composition for this townscape.
Image is COPYRIGHT 2014 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.

Tiger

11x15 watercolor and India ink on 140 lb cold press paper, done last week in Florida workshop; photo courtesy Stephie Butler. She taught us how to cut a drinking straw at an angle, dip in ink, then apply to black areas.  When dry, apply paint to dry paper.
Image COPYRIGHT 2014 Kay Smith.

White Cosmos finished

12x9 watercolor of white cosmos finished today by adding stems, leaves and background to a WIP.
Image is COPYRIGHT 2014 Kay Smith.

White Cosmos WIP

12x9 watercolor work in progress or WIP, on 140 lb cold press paper, a new support I bought last week in Florida at Michael's arts and crafts store.  These three freehanded cosmos blooms are from my own studio flowerbeds that were so lovely before the drought.  Now all that I can get are a few roses and hollyhocks.  The fun in rendering white subjects is all the unexplored color nuances within each shape that the artist can hunt for then paint.  Stay tuned for the finish!
Image is COPYRIGHT 2014 Kay Smith.

Portrait Little Girl in Plaid Shirt

15x11 watercolor from last Tuesday's portrait workshop as instructed by Stephie Butler; photo ref courtesy PMP.  We were to put down clean water first on dry paper then add light values of cerulean blue, permanent rose, and aureolin, let dry, then go around the little girl's face then hair.  Mixes of the primaries created the mauve tones and other secondary colors as seen throughout in this vignette.
Image is COPYRIGHT 2014 Kay Smith.

Everybody Loves Geraniums

15x22 watercolor of clay pots of geraniums, which was my demo last Thursday teaching at the Indian Rocks Beach Art Center in Florida.  It is a variation of garden still life I've done a couple of times, and was trying to finish it in 1 hour and think actual time was 1.5 due to late start and answering questions.  Color sanding was done into wet areas with watersoluble colored pencil and fine grit sandpaper for textural effects.  This work is SOLD.
Image is COPYRIGHT 2014 Kay Smith.