Lily Pad Pond

 

Lily Pad Pond

Image size 18" x 48"

Oil

Here's another skinny painting but this time it has a horizontal orientation.  This is a commission.  My clients liked a painting that I had painted that is similar to this but much smaller (10" x 14") and painted with watercolor.  They had a specific spot for this painting and a specific size and chose oil as the medium.  I love painting something that fits a special space in a client's home.

Drench

 

Drench

Image size 48" x 12"

Encaustic

I love a long, skinny format for paintings!  This has a lot of depth that isn't showing in the photo.  I painted this to enter into a juried show.  It was accepted into the show and sold soon after the show ended.

Flow

 

"Flow"

Image size 12" x 16"

Encaustic

Here is an encaustic that I painted a few months ago and am just getting around to posting it.  I've painted very little in the past year and am trying to paint regularly once again.

It felt really good to do an encaustic.  I've really missed working in that medium.  This painting has some areas of shellac burning and the white line was inscribed and filled with white encaustic.  I haven't done that before and really like the effect.

San Clemente House Portrait

 

"San Clemente House Portrait"

Image size 11.5" x 20"

Watercolor

I stopped doing the weekly paintings at the end of June.  I certainly didn't think that it would take two months before I posted another painting!  I guess I really needed a break.

This painting is a commission of a home in San Clemente.  I haven't painted a house portrait for about a year and a half.  I really enjoy painting them but had forgotten how stressful they can be to paint.  It's important for me to capture the look of the house, add artistic license, and have the clients be happy which causes me to overthink my decisions every step of the way.

This is a poured painting, which I think adds a lot of beauty.  The glow that is achieved by pouring thin veils of blue, yellow, and red in many layers gives a cohesive look to the painting.  I poured paints for about half of the painting and switched to direct painting.  This home is beautifully landscaped and having the plants as a focal point was important to the owners.  It would be hard to achieve the color and detail of the plants in a completely poured painting.

Artichoke Study

"Artichoke Study"

Image size 6" diameter

Acrylic

I love these round, handmade watercolor papers.  I attached a piece of rice paper using matte medium to it to give an interesting texture and seal the paper.  I painted it using thinned acrylics.

For the past 12 years, I've posted a painting each week and I've decided that I'm taking a break.  The original reason I started doing it was to make myself paint more often.  Lately, finishing a painting each week has become more of a chore than a joy.  I would rather be working on projects at my house than having a deadline for a painting right now.  I haven't really been happy with most of my paintings lately so I've decided to paint when I'm inspired and not have any deadlines.  I guess I'm getting lazy as I'm getting older.....

Falling Blues

"Falling Blues"

Image size 13" x 19"

Acrylic

I found this wonderful handmade paper that has a very textured surface in my pile of watercolor paper.  It didn't have any sizing in it so I sealed it with Matte Medium before painting.  I think you can see the texture of the paper in this photo.  The paints found their own direction to move on the paper and because I sealed the paper, I was able to get some good darks.

Fiery Sunset

"Fiery Sunset"

Image size 9" x 12"

Encaustic

I was playing around with encaustics again this week.  I'm not a fan of orange, but with the purple/pink mixed in I think it gives a nice effect.

Sky High Palm

"Sky High Palm"

Image size 22" x 22"

Watercolor

First, let me say that the border on this is not crooked as it shows in this photo.  The paper is warped and I couldn't get a good picture of it.  I'll flatten it tomorrow and post a new photo.

This is a poured painting that was a problem from the beginning.  I used a piece of 300# paper which, in hindsight, wasn't a good choice.  Too much of the paint is absorbed into the paper which makes it harder to get darker values.  On top of that, this paper has lost its sizing which was not immediately noticeable, but that made it even harder to get the darker values.  My final layer was the border and I got that dark value by using paint that was not diluted very much at all.  

It really doesn't even look very much like a poured painting to me so it was a lot of wasted extra effort.  Oh well, I'll try again with a different paper and see what happens.

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. 

Remembrance

"Remembrance"

Image size 10" x 8"

Encaustic

For Memorial day I decided to paint an encaustic using patriotic colors.  I think the dull colors that I added to the red adds a bit of drama and interest.