Another,like the other....

I am enjoying my limited palette and quick wet on wet morning paintings.

This could very well be my Christmas card. The colors didn't photograph as rich as they are. The colors i used were my old favorites,that i haven't used in while. They are; sap green, ultramarine and perm. rose. When i first started painting these were my go to colors. Although, admittedly i was more into controlled painting at that point. Now i love the flow and bleed and freedom that watercolor allows.

Holly

I painted this before work this morning. Sat down to look at another painting that flopped and started to play. The painting is actually a bit darker than this i had to photograph it in the morning before the sun was up.

Today's work....

Pinks are a bit 80's i need to add more dark colors.

So much time has passed....

So much time has passed since i last posted. No excuses a few failed paintings and then this... not my favorite but a post at least. I have missed everyone and now to visit your blogs:>)

3...three

I seem to be stuck on sunflowers. This painting needs a bit more of something? I will try, try, try not to overwork it. I thought about Charles Reid and Jane Minter as i painted this. Admittedly, both painters have different styles,still they are two of my most admired painters. So in painting this I thought about both painters yet tried to keep my own style. Having said that, i will definitely need to add more of ...... ?

It's been a while since i have painted i haven't been feeling well, and quite preoccupied by it all. Hopefully,now i will be able to concentrate on painting a bit more. ( happily)

Very interesting show on television Bravo,The Next greatest artist. The show is a competition among artists given challenges from arty folks.

One more time!

I added some additional color and highlights .

Challenged

Saturday morning is my favorite time. The first day of the weekend - freedom unfolds itself in all of its glory and allows me to choose what i want to do with my day. So i decided that i would look for inspiration, i told myself that the first picture of a flower that i saw i would paint and well, this is the result. Rather boring actually but the color is good.

Labor Day Sunflowers

I actually painted this painting earlier in the week but i felt that it wasn't finished and i didn't know where to go with it so I stopped. This morning
I took a fresh look at it and, though it doesn't photograph with as bright of colors that it actually has,I liked it. It has a distressed look that is quite appealing to me as i continue on my journey to loosen up my paintings.

Close up

Looking close at flowers you realize the complexity of the colors,patterns and textures. It is a delight to get lost in the moment and contemplate how to paint it to show off natures beauty. I am not a botanically correct painter, though i used to try, most of my flower exist only in my imagination.

It's been a while

Painting this was a bit of a challenge. I find about half way through a painting i get sort of lost? This time i stepped away for a few days. My inspiration has been and is my garden,which is just beautiful this year. Filled with natures surprises,such as self seeding unplanned Cleome. Back to the painting, I was stumped so i sectioned of the painting and began working on small areas. this gave me more an understanding. At any rate i came up with this and as i was painting it dawned on me that it has rather a tissue paper collage sort of feel. I think it was the yellow gamboge (D.S). Wonderful paint... Glad to be back!

Beat the heat!

It's been a while since i visited my blog let alone painted and posted. I have been busy with Ruby( my new pup) and the garden. Finally had a moment to paint,trying to beat the HEAT!

Easy does it.

One never knows what will be the inspiration for a painting. While playing with watercolor pencils and paint i noticed how much i loved dark violet,fuchsia and light green next to each other. The painting is also inspired by day lilies from my mothers garden now planted off of my screened porch,bursting with daily flowers.

Morning Practice

It's been a while since I've posted a painting. I have been busy training my new puppy Ruby. So this is a much needed practice painting, actually all of my paintings are practice:)

4 paintings

Let me explain... the landscape attempt needs a bit more darks but it was an initial attempt. I would like to try more landscapes this summer. I sure got a lot of granulation, probably from the spritz of water i flushed it with.
The Tulips are this mornings inspiration,just a beginning i will continue with it. I used a big brush and lots of water very quick and impulsive.I think i like the colors that blend on the paper are my favorite, a rather happy painting. (My mood at the moment anticipating summer vacation.)
The Iris received a water spritz as well. The Petunias are in need of stamens in the center of one of the flowers. I think i have painted that painting a million times. Petunias are the most difficult for me.

sunflower

I didn't draw this flower it started out with a yellow wash. Then each morning i would add more color and detail. I used a photo as of sunflowers as my study but the colors directed my every impulse.

It was really exciting to look in on the painting each morning and add a paint here and there. An art fix for the day before work.

Good Morning

It's been a while since my last post. Most paintings have fallen short of my expectations. Time is on side though, summer months equal R&R. (rest and relaxation).

Mom's Day

Painting after painting have been utter disasters. I think i haven't spent enough time thinking about the painting in the pre- painting stage... quite typical of me and my impulsive self. I have freedom issues. I was about to abandon this until i started to play a bit more to try to salvage it. The texture in the photo is quite interesting ? It doesn't appear on the painting itself? Sad thing is there is the most delicious bit of orange in corner that is not in the photo that i so enjoy.

The world is a better place with good moms... simply irreplaceable.

Lost and Found

I painted two forsythia paintings. I drew the more detailed painting first while the much looser version was painted without a drawing. I prefer the looser version. I think maybe i will go back in and very carefully add a bit more negative painting.

The more detailed painting i really got lost in and couldn't figure out where i was going? Does this ever happen to you?

Early morning painting

Every time i begin a painting it's almost as if i am learning to paint again. I ask myself the basic questions over and over and can't find the answer. Then the brush takes over, i will catch myself saying... LEAVE IT,but then i don't.

Painting this i remembered my teacher putting in bits of dark in paintings that really helped lift the colors. Sometimes i think good painters do just that they know where to add the dots and dabs.

Points of interest

I have been working so hard lately i haven't been able to visit and comment on all of my blog friends posts.

I did manage to paint this pear painting. Actually the only thing that interests me about this painting are the stems. I have been thinking about trying a bit of collage or stamping or script. Something.... mainly i want something that is more interesting to me. Not sure what.

So happy it's the WEEKEND!

Praying for Japan .

Colors of Peace

Sap green,perm. rose, yellow gamboge, scarlet lake, cobalt blue.

The colors that dreams are made of. I am trying my hardest to loosen up. Finding lines i need to keep or create ,while losing those that are not necessary. A challenge to be sure but there is nothing like being lost in a painting. Time stops,stress and troubles disappear. ahhh

Learning to paint and loving it!

The other weekend my husband and i visited Ann Arbor,which we often do. We love the atmosphere and the shops of this diverse University of Michigan town. Well, I bought two new sable WN brushes and let me tell you what a different experience painting has been. The brushes hold an incredible amount of water OR paint depending how you use them. So being playful and loving process more than anything i play and play. Seriously wonderful brushes.

Not a fence!

The other morning as i worked on "over working"this painting, my husband walked into my art space and asked,"what are your working on?" Then he looked at my painting and said ,"oh a fence???? " Then he proceeded to say looks a little muddy????? whaaaaa? I said well lets just call it abstract?

Seriously it's just a piece of paper. ugh. And it was a heck of a lot of fun to.... over do!

Early morning practice and WIP

Lately,before i go to work i have been painting for about 30 Min's.. Usually after work I am just to warn out to have any creative spark. sot the flowers were this weeks practice. I am drawn to the blue greens and pinks.

Today i started painting the mirror with flowers.... favorite things yet again. I am seriously trying to loosen up and hope to add only a bit more color and definition on this. Unfortunately my photography skills leave much to be desired.I've managed to cut off the right side of the painting. Perhaps i will re ~post when complete... happy painting.

interiors

I couldn't decide on colors on this one,which is usually not my problem. I was also thinking that i needed a floor lamp but i was to far along in the painting when i decided so i had to settle for a lamp on the fireplace. I am finding interiors so much easier than flowers? Crazy.

I just noticed the crooked lampshade,now it is like home:)

Louis XVI and the flowers#2

I am going to play a bit more with this and see what happens. Maybe a few more defining lines. The most challenging thing about trying to paint in more of a loose fashion istrying to find the lost and found edges. What is it that defines the form? What should be left in what should be taken out? While i was painting this i was thinking of my friend Barb,when we painted together, I watched her paint and was impressed at how her eye directed her rather than the still life itself. hmmm.

Louis and the flowers

The post really should have been titled some of my favorite things.

I feel a series coming. A few more of these would be fun.

interiors

Fun with decorating and doing as i wish. Not sure how much i like the yellow against the blackish gray. Regardless, no risk taken here,it's just a painting!

Chairs

More sketches with a similar feel. Chairs with a heart and I rather like the chair with the door. I like the juxtapose between the painted and the simple unpainted door and frames.

Early morning sketch

I am a self proclaimed decorating junkie. I love magazines, blog sites, antiques and anything having to do with decorating,design gardening,and architecture. I like the idea of placing a lamp where it isn't suppose to be. In the painting the lamp is on the bench to make room for the flowers in front of a floor to ceiling window. I think i like that idea.

Tulips in the snow

I am home today because of a blizzard, yes blizzard? We had a terrific storm last night in Michigan. Honestly i feel like i live in the arctic...brrrr. Tulips are on my mind, with all of the cold and snow. Looking out at my garden it's hard to believe life exists under all of the snow. But alas, in just a few short months Michigan will be enjoying another beautiful spring.

I am still trying to loosen up playing with lost and found edges while still keeping colors vibrant. It looks much easier than it is. Funny i always thought painting loose meant fast painting, now i think the opposite is true. One painting is wet in wet the other is not,both are 5x7.
Now let's see should i mix paint on the palette or on the paper hmmmm?

Learning As I Go

Painting Sunday, a nice break from the work week and a marvelous distraction from anything that causes grief,despair and stress.

Saturday morning,bright and early i hit the local library determined to pick up Flower Painting in Watercolor by Charles Reid. In doing so i ran across a few more books that peaked my interest. In painting this picture, I thought about the contour drawings of Reid and the brush strokes he advocates. Then i thought about the artist in the best of watercolor Splash 8, Mckibbin and who talked about putting his watercolors in the shower for half a day and scraping and stenciling them.

His painting was beautiful and full of texture and light. I loved it.

After all of that inspiration i went through some references determined to loosen up ,and well, as you can see i need a bit more practice which is fine because I'm enjoying the ride! Happy Painting.

Flowering Quince

I believe this is Flowering Quince,my moms favorite. The article from this reference discussed bringing in branches from flowering bushes and forcing them to bloom in January. I have forced branches in late February but never in January.According to the article the process is slightly more involved. Our weather has been bitterly cold lately the highs have barely reached 14degrees F.Flowering branches would be such a treat.



After photographing this i added a bit more color. Fuchsia of course. I am trying not to over work this!

Football Sunday

I managed to paint a few paintings before today's games. Yes I'm a fan.I can't believe it myself.

Last night i went to a painting class,Painting With a Twist. It's a new franchise in our state. The class isn't billed as serious art, everyone paints the same painting. We painted an acrylic painting called,the dancing sunflower,one of the better choices in my opinion. The Twist is you get to paint with friends while drinking wine and eating treats ! It was a lot of fun. I will post my painting soon.

Happy MLK day and of course Happy Football!

Calla Lilies

This painting began with my new Christmas tube of paint. Yes i was disciplined at the art supply store and only bought a single tube of paint. The color is Holbein vermilion. So i played and am enjoying a mix of vermilion and magenta. This is a much larger painting that i didn't really care for.... composition issues. The winter is a good time to start working on sketching again. Try out some new ideas. Happy New Year.