bouquet 6 not watercolor

Bouquet 6 ~ 11x14  ~Acrylic on watercolor paper

I'm teaching Acrylic 101 at Crooked Tree Art Center in Petoskey and in Traverse City this fall. The Petoskey location invited instructors to show paintings at the end of the month. Since the class explores acrylic, beginning with really watery applications to thick impasto; I decided to show examples of this versatility. This is the "watercolor-y" example. This certainly reminded me of how impatient I've become.... lots of layers of watery color on this one....cue hairdryer noise.

gifts

I gave a gift... and received a bigger gift.
I painted a watercolor of our daughter-in-law's bridal bouquet for Christmas. She was absolutely delighted, and touched, which in turn delighted and touched me.
A happily tearful, big hug was one of my best gifts Christmas morning. :-)

Cristina's Bouquet ~ 12x12 ~ watercolor

Light the Night

watercolor... to be used as "thank-yous" 

My husband and I are participating in the "Light the Night" walk tonight to benefit the Leukemia Lymphoma Society. I'll print out this image to use as thank-yous for the donations we receive. My mom died from Acute Myelogenous Leukemia...a nasty disease. I'd love to see the cure within my lifetime.
 http://pages.lightthenight.org/mi/DetroitL13/LFinn

Poppies Abstracted

#66 Poppies Abstracted ~7x5~ acrylic on collage

I have a larger (24x18 inch) one of these begun...I decided to test out some background colors on a smaller size. (Getting smarter in my old age, right?) This process has no do-overs. Gesso won't help. (Though it would make an incredibly textured surface to do something completely different on.) But these watery pure and transparent effects...it's a one shot deal. Yikes stripes.

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. :-)

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. :-)

Snow Day

#15 Snow Day 7x5 watercolor and acrylic

Well.... we got a tiny bit of snow last night... not near enough for my tastes but it's nice to see the white. This started it's life as a gesso primed piece of watercolor paper... then I painted the blue in watercolor, and lifted out the snow flakes and softened some of his edges. (If only it were that easy with some people I know... ;-) )

Compliments

#13 Compliments 7x5 watercolor and acrylic

My first inclination was to paint the background black... but the dark brownish red seems to work pretty well. Those funky edges in the tulips?  Achieved by letting the paint dry for a while then washing it off in the sink. Cool, eh? (Thanks Nick Simmons for explaining your technique)

Blue Matter

#12 Blue Matter 7x5 watercolor and gouache

This was completed last week... but I didn't get it posted until right now. A study in transparent vs. opaque. I can't decide if the transparent passages come forward (because of size) or recede (because of transparency).

I'm finding that the painting part of my challenge is coming along just fine, but the photographing, and posting is nagging at me. :)

In case you are just tuning in... I'm challenging myself to paint or draw (any medium) six 5x7's a week. I created a Facebook group of like minded folk... If you want to challenge yourself to do something, and need a bit of accountability... come and join us! Here's a link.

#10 Red Pine

#10 Red Pine

Here's a Facebook link to all of the paintings so far in the challenge... :-)

#9 The Red Headed Dot Dasher

#9 Red Headed Dot Dasher

I'll admit it. I made this up.

In the Spotlight... #7 in the yearlong challenge

#7 Pear in the Spotlight

#7...  Plugging away!  Feels good to be painting, and thinking about painting.

Fill in the Blanks and One Slice Gone,

#5 "Fill In the Blanks"

#6 "One Slice Gone"

On with the year long challenge I've started... These were finished on time, but not photographed and posted. You just have to trust me on that. :) Week one is never very hard... it's weeks 25, 37, 41, etc. that can be a bit more difficult.I'm kind of chuckling at my choice of painting pizza... Have you ever painted pizza?  Maybe you've never painted it... but I'll bet you've enjoyed a slice or two, right?


The electricians were here most of the day today... coming back tomorrow morning to finish up the wiring of the studio... I. Can. Not. Wait.

#3 Spruce

#3 Spruce  Watercolor and pencil

I'm packing the studio to move it downstate... I really have a lot of art books.... REALLY a lot.

#2 Washington DC

#2 in my challenge... Love quilts... and doodles. Watercolor and ink on card-stock. Frivolous fun.