Spring

Ink Iris

I finally got a taste of a non-tropical spring while visiting our daughter in Portland, Oregon. She had beautiful iris in her garden that were begging to be sketched. I did this one with an Elegant Writer, a calligraphy pen that is not permanent. When you touch water to it you can get lovely shading and even some variation in color.

While we were there we went to the Portland Rose Garden and even though most of the roses were not quite ready to bloom, there were a few early ones that were stunning. With all the photos I took I'll have a lot of references to work with.

Last of the roses

Our temperatures in SW Florida are running way below normal; our normal high is 75, today my thermometer is sticking at 56, and there's a mean north wind. It's not unusual to have a cold snap or an occasional light freeze but to have this cold (to us) weather last for a couple of weeks is unusual. I had two salmon colored roses left on my bush and I thought that with the wind and predicted frost they would not last the night.

I've always admired the way that Janet Rogers paints roses but I have not perfected her method, yet. She lays down a puddle of varied color, subtracts with a damp brush and adds a few darker areas and like magic a rose appears. So, with that in mind I painted another of my required minis. I think I need a little more practice.

A Rose Collage

I painted this Rose Collage in a workshop a couple of years ago. I remember that I really liked the technique but I haven't done much of it until the most recent workshop I did. The last workshop was with acrylics on canvas, but this was done with watercolors on paper. The other similarity was that it was in a square format. It's fun going over pictures of previous paintings and finding that you are building knowledge and techniques all along the way. Each workshop and class is really integrating with what you already know even if you aren't consciously thinking of it. Workshops have a way of making me go beyond what I would do on my own, there is an almost electric, creative atmosphere when you are with a group of other artists.