Watercolor Pansy

This was this past weekend's project.  I tried a technique I learned about online wherein sprinkling salt over a watercolor puddle creates texture. 

I did this in the lower right hand corner of this piece, and the effect is pleasing.  I provided a cropped view of this piece to show you what I see close up.

Please leave a comment and let me know what you think.

More Flowers...this time, Wisteria

 These two are my newest brush time experiments. I'm always moving from medium to medium and still haven't figured out which is truly my favorite to work with.  I recently read that brush time is meaningful when we are working toward becoming adept at a particular technique.  I start that way, finish following where the image takes me, and end up learning something I didn't intend.  Here, I was practicing with the pencils and discovered I enjoy depicting flowers with watercolor.  Acrylic paint attempts never ceased to fail......

 This is a depiction of an actual amaryllis I had growing in my living room last winter.....rendered from a photo.

They both are rendered from watercolor pencils I bought a while back and finally decided to use.  The bouquet is a copy of an image from the box the pencils came in.

The beginnings of my latest project.  It's difficult not to notice that I move from detailed content in one landscape; to the above - loose, broad strokes w/palette knives and heavy body acrylics.

 

I'll re-post when it's finished and when I've thought of a name for it.

Rolling River and a Country Road

I am happy with the final rendition of this long-running project.  It's much different than the original sketch, and if  you check out that post (dated 11/10) you'll see what I mean.  If he likes it, this one will belong to my brother Charlie.  He saw one of the posts on Facebook, and expressed an interest.

Small progress made this past week.  ....still a long way to go before I'm finished.  Every time I change one aspect of this "scape"...a whole new set of ideas kicks in, and ....well; this feels like the painting that will never be finished.  It's good to have a project that keeps me painting.....somehow, it's been tough to honor brush time.

Painting Update - Still not finished...

Been working on this painting "on and off" for the past few months after giving it no attention for quite some time.  I posted a picture of it's beginnings back on November, 2010.  

To finally provide the update feels really good (in spite of the fact that it still needs a considerable amount of work...).  It's going to be fun to post the finished project.

"Girl in a Sunbonnet" -

This is taken directly from a lithographed image on an octagonal cookie tin gifted to me by my favorite aunt.  Mom, Aunt Rose, Aunt Edie and I planned a "day with the girls", and after a great lunch we went back to Aunt Rose's place to visit a while longer.  I was admiring the beautiful things she has collected over the years (she loves yard sales and flea markets) when the tin caught my eye.  I asked her about it and she offered it to me!!   

Compared to the original image this depiction seems "cartoonish", but she is so charming I enjoyed sketching it immensely.

"Imaginary Waterfall"

Practice, practice, practice.....respecting brush time....

I'm going to post to Yahoo's Everydaymatter's art group, of which I have been a member for some time now.  The groups is always generous with positive feedback.  I'm thinking .... lack of aerial perspective, improper shading (depicting rocks is a PAIN !!), and overall coloration are why I don't like it. 

It was still fun to do because painting with Amy is always fun !!

"Drive"

......done for my nephew, Anthony, upon his request. He asked me to paint a poster relative to the movie "Drive" - so the name of the piece. When Anth saw the movie around September, last year, he was inspired. I showed him some of my other work recently, and from that he asked me to paint. It's a preliminary pastel sketch done to get a feel for the final piece.

The image was taken directly from the movie. It's straight forward so I "skewed the view" for interest. When I showed it to him .... he liked it.

It's posted here because I jumped out of my comfort zone to get started....it's much different from typical subject matter.

Thanks Anth, for always having faith in my work and for helping it grow. I love you very much. xoxoxo