flounder found love

#48  Flounder Found Love.... 5x7  acrylic on paper.

This makes me giggle. Lots of silliness happening in the studio this week. If you look closer, he even looks like he has a bit of a cherry Kool-aid mustache. hehehehe

flounder 1

#47 Flounder 1~ 5x7 Acrylic on paper

Did you know... that flounder lay on the bottom of the ocean floor and have both of their eyes on one side of their bodies? I did not. We don't have flounder in the great lakes. That's my excuse.

balancing act

#46 "Balancing Act" 10x10 collage

Ok... this was fun. Though I need to find my smaller scissors, if I want to do more... which I do.

Circus music

#45 "Circus Music" 5x7  watercolor and acrylic

Welcome to the big top.

Go Around

#44 "Go Around"  5x7 ...Watercolor and gesso on paper.

This his my preferred method of dealing with obstacles. :-)

The Thing About Books

#43 "The Thing About Books"  7x5 mixed media

Late night painting session last night... (I'd spent the day painting book shelves.. not quite a challenge painting, though if I could count it... I would.) :-)  The cute little tank top appeared after I had collaged random things onto the paper... And then I sort of went from there....

Spring Snow

#42 Spring Snow~ 9x12~ Acrylic and acrylic marker on paper

Cherry Orchards in northern Michigan had a tough year last year... the frost got em.  Hopefully 2013 will be a much better year...
7 degrees here in Rochester Michigan... It was fun to paint spring on this frigid day.

Wallpaper 2

#41 Wallpaper 2...  5x7 ... pure watercolor

More patterning... started with the blooms, and then filled in with the leaves. I think leaving the white of the paper gives it sparkle... I'll have to remember that. :)

Green Thumb

#38 Green Thumb... 5x7 watercolor

Still working in pure watercolor... no drawing, just trying to let watercolor be watercolor. :-)

Tangled

#40 Tangled... 5x7 watercolor

I've been painting patterning.... no particular thought in mind... just starting and following my nose. This mindless sort of meandering with paint is a somewhat zen experience.... This is the sort of thing I never make time for, and it's so beneficial. Another plus for doing a challenge. (6 paintings a week for a year)

ranunculus

#39 ranunculus  7x5 watercolor

Because I'm limited to watercolor at the moment... I'm enjoying getting back a couple of watercolor skills...

• light hand with glazes
• transparency
• lifting
• patience (ha!)

I've just about caught up (6 paintings per week for a year).

Wallpaper

#37 Wallpaper... 5x7 Watercolor

Still finding my watercolor legs...
Along with my 6 paintings per week for a year, challenge... I'm posting January's paintings over at Leslie Saeta's blog.... She's organized a "30 paintings in 30 days" challenge... There's some fantastic stuff going on in there!

Mom's Bowl

#34 Mom's Bowl~ 5x7 watercolor

I'm up in the northern lower peninsula. (Michigan)... working with watercolor... Painted this from life... I'm a bit rusty with my drawing and my watercolor... but that's why this challenge is so good for me. (6 paintings a week for a year)
Use it or loose it. :-)

Hot Stuff

#27 Hot Stuff  7x5 acrylic and colored pencil

I spent all day yesterday, painting. And I have nothing that I want to show you. Some days are like that... luckily not too many of them. It's painful to watch. Hopefully today will be different. This is one that I hadn't posted from last week. Thanks goodness I have a few waiting in the wings for days like yesterday. :-)

New Day

#31 New Day  8x11 Acrylic on watercolor paper (with textured  gesso)

#31 Lost some of it's freshness when I had to dink around in the sky... oh well.... "New Day" (sub-meaning... tomorrow is a new day, and maybe I'll be a better painter) :)

whiskers

#29 Whiskers  7x5 mixed media

I love obscuring with gesso... seeing what happens, then embellishing with colored pencil. Mindless and satisfying.

Deconstructed Poppy

#28 Deconstructed Poppy  5x7 collage

While moving and unpacking the studio, I found 3 poppy petals that I had preserved with acrylic gel medium. They turn a nasty taupe color when dry.... but a bit of acrylic paint fixes that. The black/brown spot stays as is. I'm seeing how far I can go, pushing the subject off the page. We artists are always seeing how far we can push things and get away with it. :-D

Love is a Shiny Thing

#26 Love is a Shiny Thing   6x6 acrylic on embossed foil, glued on panel

This one just doesn't photograph well... The way it changes as you walk by, gives it a life of it's own. On Sunday, I sat at the family room table and doodled on a couple of 2 foot lengths of heavy duty aluminum foil. I learned that it takes a loooooong time to fill 2 foot lengths of aluminum foil with doodles.

Workings

#25 "Workings" 6x6 acrylic on panel

Had a mess... then covered over most of it with white gesso.  Number 25 in my challenge... I'm not going to be posting all of my challenge paintings here... If you are truly interested in seeing the entire group, warts and all...you can click here.

Bauble Blossoms

#22 Bauble Blossoms, 7x5 acrylic and silver tape

I had a huge home depot size roll of dryer vent silver tape left over from our new dryer installation... I call it new art supplies. I imagine it showing up in places for a long time.... foil with a sticky back. Love it. Used it in 3 places on this one... with a bit of paint pen on top. Easy peasy silver foil technique. ;-)

Phases of the Sun

#21 Phases of the Sun  Acrylic and pencil on paper

Phun with Phases.... A doodle that I'd like to revisit in a larger scale and with different colors. Getting over a really nasty cold... Pheel much better today!

Super-bot

#20 Super-bot  7x5 acrylic on paper

I received this adorable robot Christmas ornament from some very good friends of mine.... I refuse to put him away in a box and will enjoy him year-round. I gave him some arms in the painting, for balance (hehehe)...but that doesn't mean I think he should have arms. He is charming armless.

Cardinal

19 Cardinal 7x5 on collage paper

I will never be able to paint a cardinal or blue jay without thinking about the game "angry birds." His smoothed down pompadour and slight "bucked" beak make me laugh too.
I'm a bit behind with my challenge painting... Christmas was fun... and then I got hit with a nasty bug... (luckily after all our family had gone home.) I'll be painting double time to catch back up...and I'm really looking forward to it!