Water

"Water"

Image size 3.75" x 6.5"

Encaustic, watercolor and alcohol inks

I had this small piece of paper that was cut from a finished watercolor painting.  I loved the colors in it and couldn't bring myself to throw it away so I covered it with encaustic clear medium, added alcohol inks, and more wax.   It was a good experiment. 

Eze

Eze

Image Size 10" x 14"

Watercolor

Eze is a medieval town in France that just oozes charm.  It sits high on a cliff and overlooks the Mediterranean sea.  The oldest building there was built in the 1300s.  The narrow walkways between the buildings wind through the small town and up to a cactus/succulent garden that has a great panoramic view of the tile rooftops and distant sea.

This was a study that I started many years ago for a larger painting. I don't typically do studies before painting a large painting so this was unusual.  The large painting has been done for a long time but I never finished this study.  As I'm cleaning up and trying to become organized, I decided that I had to either finish this or throw it away.  Of course, you know that I have a very hard time throwing things away so I finished it.  It's not a masterpiece but it's done and that's good enough for me for this one.

The Squadron

I checked with my knowledgeable friend, Google, to see what a group of Pelicans is called.  One of the names is a "squadron" which seems like a fitting description.   They are ready to launch an attack as they fly close to the water looking for a quick meal.

I love watching them skim the water as the waves are crashing.  Even though they are large, clumsy looking birds while on land, they are very graceful in flight.  These are brown pelicans, which are prevalent in Mexico on the Pacific side.

This was a challenging painting because of the paper I used.  It is a piece of Lanaquarelle 150# watercolor paper that I've had for a very long time.  I've never heard that sizing in paper goes away over time but this certainly didn't seem to have any on it.  I've used other Lanaquarelle paper that was purchased in the past year and really liked it.
As soon as I put brush to this paper, I knew it was going to be a hard surface for painting.  It absorbed the paint immediately like a blotter.  I was tempted to throw it out but it was the only paper I had with me (I was out of town) so I continued and eventually enjoying working on it.  One of the problems was that the paint kept absorbing into the paper and was pretty pale when it dried.  The back of the paper looks like it was painted also because the paint bled through.

I don't think this would ever be a favorite paper but it was interesting to have the paper completely soaked and apply paint and not have it spread.  I think working on surfaces that challenge my usual way of working is a good exercise.   But...next week I will paint on a less stressful surface.  : )

The Squadron
Image Size 11" x 15"
Watercolor

Cactus Flower II

We had friends visiting this week so I didn't have a lot of time to paint.  Here is a watercolor sketch on Aquabord.  I really enjoy working on this surface so it was a fun project.  It's so easy to lift the paint from this surface.  I was able to lift the spikes on the cacti and the light areas in the flowers with no problem.

Cactus Flower
Image Size 6" x 6"
Watercolor

I received some great news this past week.  My painting, "Gone...Again" has been accepted into the San Diego Watercolor Society's 32nd Annual International Juried Exhibition.  To say I'm excited would be an understatement!  Here's a photo of that painting:

Bougainvillea Mexicana

Here is it.  Can you believe it?  I actually did something I said I was going to do.  This is the watercolor version of the bougainvillea silk painting that I did last week.  Many times I say I'm going to do this painting or that painting and they never get posted.  That's because they never get painted.  I guess I have more ideas of what to paint than the motivation to paint them.  I get easily distracted by new ideas and the old ones just get forgotten.  I should probably write them down for those times that I can't think of anything to paint.

This is a large painting and I really had to work hard to finish it for today.  I fought with the paper the whole time.  It is on Arches 300# rough.  I'm not sure what I was thinking when I chose that paper for a floral.  Maybe because the wall was stucco I thought it would be a good choice.  I drew this and painted the background quite some time ago so I don't really remember my thought process.  Also, though I love the heavier papers, it is really hard to get some of the color mixtures and effects that I want.  I was hoping to paint the shadows with a looser, more watery feeling but didn't think I could get that with the heavier paper.  The edges were drying creepy (I mean creepy crawly, not creepy scary, even though it's Halloween)  instead of blurry like I wanted.   Also, when I floated the colors blends on the paper they looked beautiful but because the paper took so long to dry, the paints blended together too much and lost the effect that they had when they were wet so I was unhappy with that aspect of the painting too.  I had to do a lot more glazes to get the effect I wanted. That seems to happen on the 300# cold press paper too but the Arches 300# hot press seems very different in how it accepts the paint and is one of my favorite papers which is weird because I hate their 140# hot press.  That paper is very hard for me to work on because I like my paints to blend smoothly and that doesn't happen easily on the lighter weight hot press.  Maybe if I didn't wear my glasses while I paint I would relax and not worry about things like that because they would look blended.  : )

Anyway, enough about paper.  I'm sure those of you that aren't artists are yawning by now.  I'm really pretty happy with this painting even though I was cursing at it while I was working on it.  Maybe that helped.  I'm not sure what I'll paint next but it won't be flowers.  As much as I like them, I'm sick of them for now, especially pink flowers!

Bougainvillea Mexicana
Image size 22" x 30"
Watercolor

Cactus Flower-watercolor on TerraSkin

I'm still playing around with the TerraSkin paper surface.  I love the watery effects I can get with it and it forces me to paint more loosely.  I took some pictures of cacti flowering at Sherman Gardens a while ago and had been wanting to try painting them.  The flowers on these cacti are so beautiful I will probably paint them many times in several mediums.  This is a very small painting but I think a huge painting of these would be amazing.

Cactus Flower
Image Size 5.5" x 4"
Watercolor

Jersey Cottage - Watercolor

This month's location for the Virtual Paintout is Jersey.  When I first read the post, I thought Bill was just being cool and referring to New Jersey as "Jersey".  I hate to admit my geographical ignorance but I'd never heard of the island of Jersey.  I DO know that New Jersey is NOT an island so I was eager to see where Jersey is located.  It is close to the French coast and is one of the Channel Islands.  It's a very beautiful, charming island and I hope to do one or two more paintings to submit to this month's challenge  before July is over.

Jersey Cottage

Image Size 9" x 12"

Watercolor

Unframed

$110.00 

Irvine Park

Last weekend I participated in a plein air class at Irvine Park.  That park is beautiful and has many rural areas as well as a zoo, train rides, and pond.  This tree was at the edge of the pond and has a wonderful sculptural look.  Did I enjoy the day?  Noooo, but I didn't hate it as much as the last time I tried plein air painting even though it was cloudy, cold and windy.  Where's the warm So Cal weather when you need it?  I actually lasted two and a half hours.  That's a long time with my short attention span.  I'm pretty happy with how it turned out even though it's a lot of green.

I've always been afraid to paint plein air with watercolor because it's harder to cover mistakes but this wasn't painful at all.  I may go back and re-paint this tree in oils as some point in the future and try to get more color into it.

Irvine Park
Image Size 12" x 16"
Watercolor
Unframed

The Coastal Route

It's taken almost the whole month for me to get around to painting something to submit to the Virtual Paintout blog.  This month's location is the French Riviera.  I was attracted to the interesting shapes of these cliffs leading into the ocean and the bushes in the foreground.  This is a watercolor and I tried to paint it in a loose manner.

The Coastal Route
Image size 12" x 16"
Watercolor
Unframed

Tropical Fragrance - Watercolor

This was such a fun painting.  I love these flowers.  I know I say that about almost every flower but I am a gardener so that's to be expected.  Plumeria are such fragrant beauties.  They remind me of my first trip to Hawaii and bring back wonderful memories.  I painted this on Ampersand's Aquabord which I love.  I also really like this 6" x 6" format.  When they are framed in the drop-in frames, they look stunning and none of the painting is hidden behind the frame.  You can see what I mean below:

Tropical Fragrance
Image Size 6" x 6"
Watercolor

Summer in Alaska

I'm still working on painting loosely.  Maybe I'm starting to see things differently because "loose" is getting easier for me.  I know this is still pretty tight compared to most loose watercolor paintings but for me, it's pretty darn loose.  Actually, I'm missing working on my tight paintings.  Maybe switching between the two styles is the answer for me.

I've been told that it's important for an artist to have a distinctive 'style' so that their work is recognizable but I enjoy painting in so many different mediums and different ways that I wonder if I will ever settle on one style.  I guess time will tell the answer to that one.

Summer in Alaska
Image Size 15" x 22"
Watercolor

Quietude

How's this for loose?  I know it's not recognizable as one of my paintings but I swear I did paint it.  As I was painting is, I was frustrated and not enjoying myself but I am happy with the result.

Quietude
Image size 15" x 22"
Watercolor
Unframed
$275.00

Paradise Lost II - Watercolor

Here is the second painting in my Paradise Lost series. Can you tell what is in the background (the brown part of the painting)? Only about half of the people I ask get what I was trying to portray. Of course, it seems really obvious to me but that's because I painted it. I would love to hear your feedback on this one.

Paradise Lost II

Image Size 22" x 30"

Watercolor

Framed

Rocks II

"Rocks II" is the second abstract I've done that was inspired by granite slabs. I'm getting more comfortable with painting abstracts but it still isn't really my thing. I'm much too literal to see things in an abstract way.

Rocks II
Image Size 15" x 22"
Watercolor
Unframed

Rocks I

This is very different from my usual painting style. I've never felt comfortable with abstract painting. It does not come easily to me. However, I recently spent quite a bit of time in granite yards while we were picking counter tops for our house and was inspired by the beautiful stone configurations in some of the slabs. This is the first in a short series of my rock inspirations. I also used a limited palette of Ultramarine Blue, Raw Sienna and Burnt Sienna. This could also be considered an alternative primary palette using the Raw Sienna as the yellow and the Burnt Sienna as the red.

Rocks I
Image size 18" x 24"
Watercolor
Unframed

Sunflowers on a Shelf

Another try at a still life and yet another version of sunflowers. I really am tired of painting them because of all those darn petals but they are such happy flowers.

Sunflowers on a Shelf
11" x 15"
Watercolor
Unframed

Yellow Angels

This was an interesting painting to attack. I had fun with the border details and working the organic shapes in with the geometric shapes. I used a different brand of paper than I usually do so I had to fight with it throughout the whole painting. It was like learning to paint again.

Yellow Angels
30" x 22"
Watercolor
Unframed

Pear Trio

This is another painting that is being influenced by the workshop I'm taking.

Pear Trio
7.5" x 11"
Unframed

Magnolia Still Life

This is a painting I worked on in a watercolor workshop I am attending. The colors are new to me and I really like their richness.

Magnolia Still Life
7.5" x 11"
Watercolor
Framed

Greek Doorway

This is a watercolor that I started a couple of months ago and finished this week. I'm sure finishing up a lot of unfinished paintings lately.

Greek Doorway
22" x 15"
Watercolor