Delicate Ruffles - Watercolor

Back to my beloved watercolor.  This painting started out as a full sheet of watercolor paper (30" x 22") but has continued to shrink throughout the painting process.  After I painted the background, my starting point, I decided that there was too much background on the sides.  Hollyhocks are such a vertical flower, I really should have started with a longer, skinnier piece of paper.  I took a few inches off of one side, then a couple off of the other, then more off of the first side.  After that, I decided that there was too much stem on the bottom so off went more inches.  And finally, I took some off of the top to change the focal point of the painting.  I'm very happy with the final result even though the painting shrunk to 20.5" x 15.5".  Thank goodness that painting on paper gives the ability to change the composition after the fact.  Of course, if I were more careful with my initial composing, I wouldn't need to crop it later.

Hollyhocks seem to be one of my favorite flowers to paint.  With this painting, I feel like I've finally captured their delicate beauty.

Delicate Ruffles
Image Size 20.5" x 15.5"
Watercolor
Unframed

Missing Mexico

This is another departure from a typical painting of mine.  We just got home from Mexico and that is still in my head.  I love everything about Mexico; the people, the colors, the weather and good friends.  I wanted this week's painting to have the bright colors that are so prevalent there and a feeling of happiness.  This was painted with a palette knife so it was hard to control the edges of the flowers because I had already painted the background so as I was doing the petals, the paint was lifting but I'm really happy with the way it turned out.  The petals remind me of the palm fronds on a palapa (where's my margarita?) and the colors represent the happiness of Mexico to me.

On another note, today I was able to go see an exhibit of Joseph Raffael's watercolor paintings at Soka University.  I feel so fortunate to have been able to see his paintings in person.  You really can't get the feeling of the paintings from the website.  They are HUGE!  Most of them are in the 5' x 8' range.  The show closes April 15th, but if you are in the So Cal area and have some time, going to the show would be a very inspiring way to spend it.

Missing Mexico
Image Size 6" x 6"
Oil

Home Sweet Home

This week's painting is a portrait.  Okay, not one in the typical sense of the word but a home portrait.  Our friends just bought this house and I think it has such a beautiful entrance, I wanted to try to capture it on paper.  I love the door and that tree looks so sculptural and it creates a nice balance for my composition.  I'd like to say that I created the composition but it really looks like this.  There are actually still a few colored leaves on the tree (only in California does fall last until March) but I wanted it to look completely skeletal so I left them off.  Artistic license again...I'm feeling the power!

This photo doesn't really show the colors very well.  The painting is more colorful.

Home Sweet Home
Image Size 16" x 12"
Watercolor
Unframed

A Different Kind Of Apple

I know this subject has been painted by so many artists that it's become banal but I wanted to paint it anyway.  This is on a small piece of Ampersand's Aquabord.  I don't know why I don't use this more often.  It's a really fun surface on which to paint.  Also, it keeps me from blending everything to death (which is my normal inclination) because it's almost impossible to get a smooth wash on this surface.  The paint lifts very easily which made this subject fun.  I painted everything and then used the stem of a q-tip dipped in water to lift the spots on the cactus and apples.  The spikes were scraped out with a mat knife.  I would have had better control with an exacto knife but I was too lazy to go get it and the mat knife was right there begging to be used.

A Different Kind Of Apple

Image Size 6" x 6"

Watercolor

Floating Flower

Here is my second oil pastel.  It's a little bigger than the first one.  I like the first one better because it has a better sense of light and shadow.  The support I used for this was a blue archival mat board.  You can see bits of the blue peaking through in the leaves.  The color of the ground made it very hard to get the white to not look muddy.

I've decided I need a larger collection of colors.  What I have is very limited and there are no neutrals.  I know I should be able to mix them but I don't seem to have that ability yet.

I had fun playing with the textures on this one.  I did a scribbly sort of figure 8 pattern on a lot of it.

Floating Flower
Image Size 6.5" x 9.5"
Oil Pastel
Unframed

Romania

The location for Virtual Paintout this month is Romania.  What a beautiful country!  I think the Google truck must have been there in the spring because everything looked so fresh.  I spent a couple of hours looking through the country roads.  I wanted to stop but I had to see what was around the next curve, and the next, and the next.  Well you get the picture.  Finally, I got hungry and that was the end of the search online and the beginning of the new search for something good to eat.

This one is done with soft pastels.  I wanted to work with the oil pastels again but thought this scene would look better in the soft pastels.  After I finished this, I did do an oil pastel painting which I was going to post but after I took the photo of it, I noticed that I need to add some more darks.  It's funny how a painting looks done but a photo of it show it's flaws so clearly.

Romania
Image Size 7" x 10"
Pastels

Sunstruck

Oh boy, was this fun!  I found a new blog this week called the oil pastel review and was inspired to try oil pastels.  I remembered that I have some oil pastels that I've never used.  I think they were my dads and they were probably purchased in the 1960's.  They are probably inexpensive ones but it was fun playing with them.  I thought that working with these would basically be like working with soft pastels but they felt very different.  I have a lot to learn about them but I think the more expensive the supplies, the more oil and less wax there is in the sticks.  These were pretty waxy feeling  but that was okay.  The surface I used for this was a small piece of archival mat board to which I had added a layer of fine pumice gel.  It was the perfect surface for this medium.

I'm curious whether or not this will ever dry completely.  It's not wet like an oil painting is when first painted, but if I run my finger across it, some color lifts.  It seems like they wouldn't completely dry since if they did, the oil pastel sticks would also be dry and would be unusable, right?  Since the ones I have are about 50 years old and are still soft, I'm assuming that I will have to frame this medium behind glass as I would a soft pastels painting.

I will definitely be trying this medium again soon.

Sunstruck
Image size 3" x 4.5"
Oil Pastels

Newport Beach Back Bay

On Saturday I went to a plein air class in Newport Beach in the back bay.  I hesitated before signing up because I don't really enjoy plein air painting and prefer to be in the comfort of my studio rather than schlepping all of that stuff needed to paint on location.
It started out as a perfect day until the lecture was over and it was time for us to paint.  I chose the scene I wanted to paint and spent about 10 minutes setting everything up (I have a very cumbersome easel) including an umbrella for shade because I was looking into the sun.  Of course, then the wind started to blow and my umbrella flew off of the easel.  Luckily, I hadn't attached it very tightly and it didn't tip the easel over.  Anyway, I decided that the umbrella was not going to work and I wasn't going to stare into the sun so I turned 180 degrees and saw this scene.  I started to paint with great anticipation but realized that I wasn't seeing the colors very well in the bright sun, especially wearing my much needed sunglasses.
 After about 10 more minutes, greatly frustrated and muttering a lot, I left.  I was so mad that I had failed at my attempt but I came home and finished it in my VERY COMFORTABLE studio so I guess that this is technically not a plein air painting but I don't care!  One of these days, maybe I will become a plein air painter but I think I need to stop being such a big whiny baby first and I'm not ready to do that yet.

Newport Beach Back Bay
Image Size 5" x 7"
Oil

Everlasting Orchids

This is the only way I will have orchids in my house long term.  They are such beautiful flowers but I don't seem to be able to get them to re-bloom.  If any of you know how to get that to happen, I sure would appreciate any tips.  How often do they bloom each year?  I don't know, it seems easier to give the plants that are done blooming to my friend to pamper and then just buy new plants for the house that have fresh blooms.  Or...I'll hang up this picture and then I will always have orchids blooming in the house. That's much easier, I think.

Everlasting Orchids
Image Size 22" x 15"
Watercolor

Boardwalk

Here's another painting done from google street maps for the Virtual Paintout blog.  This is from Revere, Massachusetts.  I've never been to the beaches on the east coast but this looks like what I would imagine I would find there.  It doesn't look like a California coast scene to me.  I've never seen these walkways to the beach here and the shrubbery looks different too.  Of course, some parts of Cal. probably does look like this but in my mind, it screams east coast.  These walkways and shrubs convey such a serene feeling to me and the long shadows make it seem like late afternoon, always my favorite time of day at the beach.  This was done using soft pastels.

Boardwalk
Image size 9" x 12"
Pastels