Koi

I know, this doesn't have a very creative name but I get tired of naming paintings and I just wasn't feeling particularly creative today so "Koi" was the best I could do.  The inspiration for this painting was a long, skinny piece of plexiglass that I have that I thought I could use for framing so I cut a piece of paper from my watercolor paper roll and decided that Koi would be a fun subject for this long orientation.

My plexi is 48" long and this paper is 44" long which would allow for a mat when I frame it but I think I will cut it down a little bit so that I can use a standard size mat (32" x 40").  I could buy a 40" x 60" mat but I think this painting could use a little cropping so I'll do that instead.

I haven't painted Koi for awhile so it was fun to get back to one of my favorite subjects.  Doing multiple glazes on very wet paper gave some really nice effects.  This painting has a soft, blurry look which is very different from how my paintings usually look and I'm really happy with the result.

Koi
Image Size 44" x 13"
Watercolor

Crash

This is my first attempt painting a wave using watercolors.  I was excited to try it and I liked the format of this piece of watercolor paper that I had already torn in half (11" x 30") that I was planning to use for another project.  It is Arches 300# cold press paper.
The right side of the paper is a bit smoother than the wrong side which I would have liked to use, but I used the wrong side because I didn't want the huge water mark that Arches paper has to show in the painting.  That has ruined many of my paintings.  I still have a lot of Arches paper which I will use until it is gone, but it is no longer my favorite.

Before starting this painting, I saturated the paper so that I could get some interesting soft edges but had forgotten how much the paint moves on this heavy paper when it's really wet.  I intended to paint this using only transparent watercolors and didn't want to have the really hard edges that are created from using resist, but had forgotten how much the paint moves on this heavy paper and I lost a lot of my whites.  I used white gouache for the edges of the waves and some of the foam area.

I'm excited to try more of these wave paintings using watercolors.  I think this has a more luminous feeling that the ones I've painted in oils.

Crash
Image Size 11" x 30
Watercolor

Wild Wave

Here's another wave painting.  I took lots of pictures of waves while we were in Mexico and I plan to paint a series of them using different mediums and in different sizes.  This one is oil and is 5" x 7".  With summer coming, these paintings are getting me in the mood for warmer weather and longer days.  I hope they have the same effect for those of you that are in colder parts of the country.

Wild Wave
Image Size 5" x 7"
Oil

Beach Day

I'm playing with the palette knife again.  We just got back from Mexico and I'm already missing it.  These colorful umbrellas dot the beaches there and make every day feel like a holiday.

I primed the panel with bright orange and let bits of it peek through the colors to add some sparkle.

Beach Day
Image size 6" x 6"
Oil

Red,Red,Red

I've always like the way radishes look all bundled together in the market with those squiggly roots.  Finally, I decided to paint them.  I'm not really a fan of having radishes in my salads (or any other part of my meals)  but I tried to make them look delicious anyway.

I found out that my banner design didn't make the cut but it was fun to try and I look forward to next year's competition.

Red, Red, Red
Image Size 5" x 7"
Oil