New Beginnings

I bought this Amaryllis bulb 6 or 7 weeks ago. I thought it would be fun to watch it grow and bloom while I was recovering from surgery. We could sort of begin together. Well, Amaryllis had a slow start. I watered and watched, and watched, did my exercises, and still no shoot appeared. I was almost ready to take it back to the store in disgust but didn't have the energy to stand in line. A couple days ago the little leaf shoot appeared, then the stalk started to emerge. I'm glad I wasn't as slow as the Amaryllis. It looked so inviting to paint sitting there on the window sill with a little sunshine making neat reflections on the galvanized pot. So I moved my paints into the kitchen and did my little watercolor sketch. I see my pot is a little lopsided, but hey, I painted! Yea!! That means my energy is coming back and that's a beginning. Happy New Year, to all, may you all have new beginnings in 2010!

The Muse

I was going to title it the muse is not amused. But it's more like the artist is not amused. I have been struggling with this little 5x7 canvas for the past two weeks. It was too light, too dark, too much, too little blah, blah. It's just a little experiment with molding paste, again, and some of my acrylic paints that needed some use. The dark around the edges is a Micaceous Iron Oxide, a sample from Golden. It has a sparkly effect which I think is quite nice. I'm not sure it shows up that much in the picture. I was into the copper again, too; the powder and the paint. I love the combination with the cobalt turquoise. I think I'm finished, but you never know. I'll post her and put her away for awhile. Perhaps she's not a muse at all but really a Christmas angel in disguise.

Here's to anniversaries!

It's been one year today that I started to blog with some consistency. I would have liked to post a new painting each day, but that was a bit too much to dive into. Some weeks have been more prolific than others but it has been a great motivator for me to get the brushes wet and paint.

Today's offering is more in the "having fun" category as opposed to working for a prize winning painting. I played around with some molding paste on a previously painted 8X10 canvas. I decided to do a palm tree shape with the molding paste and then painted it with acrylics. This was begun BS (before surgery) and completed (maybe) today, which is also 3 weeks AS (after surgery). Just for fun and for my old painting buddy, Marilyn, I've even sprinkled a little copper powder in it. For me, playing around with the different products, experimenting, having no fear of failure, is the best way to learn whether I'm on my own or in a class. And then I have the audacity to show it to the world.

Thanks to all who have commented and followed my blog, it's been a fun year and I hope to keep the whole thing going.

One More Orchid

I have one more little orchid painting that was done before my surgery so after this I will have to get busy and do some more little paintings. I have a one year anniversary of my blog to celebrate on Friday so I want to do something to get a blog posted on that day. I'm able to do more sitting so it should not be too difficult to paint a little each day. It's good to have a goal.

Attitude

This is the first day I have actually felt like doing anything since my knee surgery. I've finally got some meds that are helping with the pain and the attitude. It's interesting that the two go hand in hand; if you have nagging pain all the time it's very hard to have a good attitude. I have an increased admiration for those who live in pain everyday and still manage to be up and positive.

I'm still working on those little mini paintings that are required by our art association. Maybe I can crank some more out while I'm recuperating, it's pretty hard to work large when one leg has to be elevated. One friend suggested that I cover the bed with plastic and just go for it. That just may work. In the meantime here's the second in the series of orchids. I wish the iridescent paint showed up in the photo, it really adds to it.

Mini paintings

In order to enter paintings in our art league's February show and sale each participant must paint and donate six little paintings, 4 1/2" X 3 1/2" which are called "Mini's". I find doing them in watercolor is difficult but acrylic and gouache are easier for me. So far I have done three in watercolor with and orchid theme. This is the first. I decided to paint the background today, and now I'm wishing I had left it white. Oh well, I can always paint others and leave the background plain.

I won't be posting a blog for probably a few weeks because I'll be recovering from knee replacement surgery. I'll be back as soon as I can.

A Workshop with Don Taylor

It seems that no matter how many years you have been painting you can still learn something new. Even old dogs can learn new tricks. That's why I take as many workshops as I can. There are always new things to learn, new products to try. Who knows? I may finally find that magic brush I've always wanted that will take me to those artistic heights of excellence that we all pursue. Not only that, I get to have 3 or more consecutive days to paint in a friendly, encouraging setting. That said, this painting is one I worked on and finished in Don Taylor's workshop. He uses a triad of aureolin, cobalt, and rose madder genuine for his under painting. After that dries, he combines ultra marine with hematite pigments from Daniel Smith for a granulating dark effect. The hematites are non-staining and easy to lift. I lost a lot of my under painting getting in the darks but I think the look of a gloomy, rainy day is sort of interesting. This picture was done with his reference and his help on the perspective. Thanks Don!

Georgia Blue Ridge

I spent a long week end with some wonderful "sisters" in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Georgia. What I painted in my little Moleskine doesn't come close to the beauty of that area but I give myself credit for trying. The trees on the hills in the distance had lost all of their leaves so it was just a mass of grayish brown. The center hills were full of evergreen trees with trees with orange leaves interspersed among them. That combination of green and orange was quite striking. Closer was another hill of trees that were barren. The skies were a striking blue the whole week end which is unusual according to the one whose cabin we were visiting. We had an interesting visit by a young bear who wanted our garbage can in the worst way. I wish I had gotten a good picture of him/her but I wasn't willing to venture outside to do so. As a result, I have a picture with a fuzzy black thing in it. At least I know it was a bear.

Starting tomorrow I'll be taking a 3 day workshop with Don Taylor, I hope to have some interesting paintings to post.

Playing with Paste

Ancient Symbols 1 & 2

Getting my cue from Mary Todd Beam in her book The Creative Edge, I tried playing with molding paste. I was given two 5 X 7 canvas boards that were going to be thrown out so somehow that gave me permission to play. Funny how free material does that. On one I used molding paste and the other light molding paste, both sample jars from Golden. (More free material.) I spread the paste on the canvases and used a texture tool, palette knife and jar lids to make designs in the paste. I let them dry overnight and then rubbed a charcoal stick over the rough edges to bring out the design. I thought the charcoal was too heavy so I took some off with a paper towel. Then I started applying thinned liquid acrylic paint allowing the colors to mingle. After drying I added some dark blue, cobalt teal and metallic paint. I think I prefer the molding paste to the light molding paste because it dries with a glossier finish, the light paste is almost grainy and a very matte finish. It was fun to work with and I think I'll try a bigger project on illustration board in the future.

Finish those paintings month

Midnight in the Garden 13.5 X 10.5

Last week I resolved to finish some old paintings that have been languishing in portfolios for who-knows-how-long. They are just beginnings, some with no real subject or direction in mind. Times of play when I just splashed on color and various tools to make texture; saran, filter paper, rice paper, wax paper, salt, alcohol, bubble wrap, etc. When these were dry I didn't continue with them because I didn't "see" a composition in them. So last week, armed with various sizes of mats I moved them this way and that until I found some compositional possibility to pursue. This is my first completed painting from my resolve. It was fraught with many difficulties. I wish I had taken a picture of the underpainting before I started working on it. One of the difficulties was that it had lain so long that mold had hidden itself until the water made it show up in spots. The spots were on leaves, though, so it didn't matter too much. In one area there had been damage to the paper, I suspect from too heave salt residue. When I tried to gently scrub in this area the paper came off in sheets and almost made a hole through the middle of the painting. Since it had become a mixed media painting anyway, I repaired it with white acrylic front and back and collaged on it. It was an interesting challenge and I'm going to start the second one, tonight, I hope. I have four to go.

Rooftops for DSDF

I played around with another piece of Tyvek for my Different Strokes from Different Folks challenge. This time I used almost all acrylic and did I ever go wild with the color. The picture was so monochromatic, and uninteresting in color to me so I went as far the other direction as I could. I tried to concentrate on shapes, and textures. For the finishing touch I used Caran D' Arche Neocolor sticks. I rubbed different shades over some of the areas to enhance the textures made by the acrylic. It was loads of fun just playing and experimenting in a free way. Always the question in my mind was, "What would happen if I..." and then I would just go for it. I hope you catch my sense of play.

Lost World Circles

Myrna Wacknov's paintings on Tyvek intrigued me and I tried one but the watercolor just beaded up on it. Then she blogged about using a Golden Acrylic product called GAC200 that increases adhesion to slick surfaces. So I coated the Tyvek with a GAC and gesso mix as recommended on the bottle, let it dry, and then I was able to get some success with the watercolors. I played around with making circles and lines, used some watercolor crayons and some acrylic paints, and finally drops of alcohol. When I thought I was happy with it I let it dry. While I was looking at it upside down I noticed that I had three circles in a vertical row right in the middle! (Top painting.) Aaaagh! The curse of putting things in the middle. I put the top picture in Photoshop and corrected the two lower circles and liked it better so then I went into the real painting and did some watercolor editing. The surface, being rather slick was pretty easy to edit. The bottom picture is the finished painting, Lost Worlds, 8.5x11 . I showed it to a friend and he asked, "Why paint on Tyvek rather than traditional paper or canvas?" I came up with three reasons; you get at different effect, it's a challenge, and the Tyvek was free (a builder gave it to me).

Smart Women

I'm up and running in Florida! We had more problems than usual this year upon our return but things are settled into "normal" whatever that is! I finally added the finishing touches to the acrylic and collage painting that I started about a month ago in Minnesota. It's so good to be back in my own little studio/room off the kitchen, surrounded by my usual stuff. We artists do like "our stuff", don't we?

As I look at this painting I think I may have gone overboard with the "stuff", perhaps it is too busy, but I'm happy with it. I've been reading The Creative Edge by Mary Todd Beam and her advice is to paint what pleases you. She says, "You have really reached a milestone when you don't care what anyone else thinks." How true this is in life as well as in art. I hope that I can continue to paint with that freedom.

Happy week end!

A Short Absence

I will be disconnected for a few days until we reach our home in Florida. If the weather cooperates I'll be able to paint a little bit in the places we visit on the way down. I'm looking forward to seeing my painting buddies in Florida again!

Hotel Les Roches

I'm supposed to be packing and getting ready for our migration back to Florida and I found a little painting I did in France in 2006. We stayed at a wonderful B&B called Hotel Les Roches in Mont St Jean, France. One lovely afternoon I sat and painted the front entry. The face in the arch was the face of the wife of the builder and original owner of the chateau.

If you ever want to get a taste of the French countryside in the Burgundy area I would highly recommend this chateau. The rooms were clean and spacious, and the food and wine was an A plus. The area was full of vineyards and ancient caves full of dusty old bottles of fine wine.

Mini equipment

Today's post is a picture of the second painting I did at the lake. It's of one of the clumps of birch trees that are around the property with the lake in the background. To my dismay, I've painted so many Florida scenes that I have almost forgotten how to paint birch trees, one of my first watercolor lessons. I think I captured the look eventually, though. Along with the painting is the the tiny brush, Pocket Box and and Moleskine. Until I started painting the miniature paintings with gouache last summer, I never used a small brush except for an occasional detail. Just look at me now!

A Break at the Lake

We were invited to spend a few days with our friends at their lake cabin in northern Minnesota this week. I was looking forward to some fall color and I wasn't disappointed. The maple's reds, oranges and yellows were a lovely contrast to some of the trees that were still stubbornly green. It seems like the maples always go first. I sat on the pontoon boat and did a quick painting of the shoreline in the distance. I finally got to use my watercolor Moleskine that has pages that are 5 1/2" by 3 1/2". It's pretty small but the only brush I had was the one in Sketchers' Pocket Box with 12 half pans of paint in a little palette. I'm trying to see how "minimalist" I can get with my equipment. I'm not sure of the size of the brush but it's certainly no bigger than a #2. It's fun to see what can be done with a small book and palette.

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.

Birthday Bouquet

I love to paint original birthday cards for close friends. Sometimes there just isn't time to get it done and get it in the mail on time. On those times I have to settle for a print of a painting. That seems to work OK, too. People are happy to receive a "real card" in their mailbox instead of an e mail card. So this one was done earlier this summer of some flowers I had from the farmers' market. It got painted on time but also copied so that I can use the bouquet again and again. I like to tell friends and family members that I am glad they were born. Whenever your birthday, I hope it is a happy one.

Pomme and Wine with Chocolate

I'm continuing my backwards journey through the workshop and I'm now ready to post pictures of the little warm-ups that were started the first day. I was very unsatisfied with that first days work so, on the second day I painted over and put collage on them. They are only 6X6 inches. I still used the same technique of allowing the under painting to come through by using a thin glaze and dabbing it with tissue while it was still wet. Perhaps if I had played with it a bit more I would have glazed again over some of the collage but I think I will leave it alone for now and do that the next time.

I Love Paris

The second day of last week's workshop the assignment was to plan something with words in the painting. I had a paper with the Eiffel Tower on it that I thought I would like to incorporate into my painting so I decided that my word would be Paris. The first step was to choose an abstract design for the "bones" of the painting. Once the design was chosen and painted, making interesting textures and layers in the paint along the way; we could then place our collage pieces into our painting. Finally, the letters were stenciled and the painting embellished with a little gold paint. After a week of looking at the painting I've decided that it doesn't need another thing. What do you think?

Orchids in acrylic

I took an acrylic workshop with an artist friend of mine, Karen Knutson. I don't ususally do paintings in acrylic but I thought it would be fun to learn something new. I'm always up for a challenge. The most frustrating thing for me was mixing the colors to get the color I wanted. Usually I ended up with a big pile of too much paint, but that should improve with practice. It was quite a process of building up successive layers of colors and removing by using water of alcohol to reveal the color underneath. There were also layers of collage to add interest and texture. I'm posting my last painting first because it is the most completed. I hope to have time in the coming week to finish my other attempts.

Osprey Nest

This osprey nest has been on this pole for many years. It seems like the osprey nest is always active. It's situated on Matlacha in the public park near the Pine Island Art League building. Since Matlacha is an island, it is an ideal place for osprey; surrounded by water, the birds have an abundant supply of fish. Osprey are also known as "fish hawks". They are wonderful flyers, fishers and nest builders. Every year they add more sticks to their nests. I wonder if it's a bird version of "keeping up with the Jones".

The Fishingest Bridge

This bridge in Matlacha Florida is called by locals "The fishingest bridge". On many days you can see the whole bridge lined by people fishing, depending on what's in season. It's a draw bridge, as you can see by the picture, it is open allowing a sailboat to go through the pass. The bridge also services a very busy road and the traffic backs up until the bridge is closed again. This gave me an opportunity to hop out of my car and shoot a picture so that I could paint it. The building with the red roof is a motel that is built out over the water so that the guests can walk out of their doors and fish anytime they want to. Matlacha (Mat-la-SHAY) is a unique little place that mixes fishing with art galleries.

Something New

I found a new product to try while looking around my local art store. They are like watercolor pencils but when you wet them and they dry, they are permanent. They are called Inktense by Derwent. You can work over them and add to them and the color underneath will not move. I did my intitial drawing with them and when the first layer dried I went in with watercolor to get the depth of dark that I wanted in the wave and water areas. I think I'm going to enjoy doing watercolor sketches with them; so far I have a tin of 12, enough to have some fun for now.

The Pits

There was an old book title that read, "If Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries, Why Am I In the Pits?" I thought I'd finish my Cherries and Spoon series with the pits. I did, at last, succumb to their delicious juiciness and ate them. I often wonder how the old master painters could stand there and paint the obviously delectable food in their still life paintings, and not eat their subject. They didn't have the advantage of taking a digital photo as we do so that we can use the reference well beyond the "expiration date".

Another Cherries and Spoon

I'm really enjoying my cherries and spoon paintings. Cherries, especially the Rainer variety, are fun to paint with their yellow and red coloring. I enjoy the reflections of light on the spoon, too. My daughter who now lives on the West Coast in Oregon says that the cherries are available around the country because there was a bumper crop this year. Yea for bumper crops!

Rainier Cherries with a Spoon

We have been blessed with Rainier Cherries at our local supermarket. They seem to have a much shorter season than the usual red cherries. Their sweetness is legendary and I long thought that growers in Washington State kept them to themselves, along with the peaches, apricots and marion berries. Perhaps more are being harvested these days. Whatever the reason for them showing up in Minnesota, I had to attempt to paint those two tone little orbs before eating them. Next I'll be on the lookout for some other fruits from Washington State.

Deck Flowers

It's been cool and windy in Minnesota lately. We could use a little warming, global or otherwise. Some friends and I tried to do our artwork out on the deck, it was sort of sheltered and just enough sun to keep us from heading indoors. I had a good sighting of a colorbowl of flowers and added a few pieces of pottery for a nice little still life. I wanted to do the cat but he was unwilling to join us. I decided a little ink caligraphy would add some pizzaz.

A Man Seated

The Different Strokes picture this time is a man seated on a folding chair. Nothing too interesting about that, or his surroundings. Sometimes I think the challenge is to make an interesting painting out of something ordinary. Maybe I think too much! Anyway, I did the exercise and decided that the painting was crying out for some red so I made the ordinary brown chair red. It works for me! You can check out how other artists painted the same picture at http://differentstrokesfromdifferentfolks.blogspot/

Last Night in France

It seems that the latest memories are the most vivid. We had a morning flight out of France so we were in position near the airport on our last night. As usual the trains were scheduled to go on strike the day we were to leave. Being near the airport is the smart thing to do even if one desires a last night in Paris. Luckily, we had a west facing window in our hotel room or I would have missed a spectacular sunset. It was one of those sunsets that lasts and lasts and the colors just get better and better. Long after the sun had gone down there was still an orange glow on the horizon. The sun peeked in and out of low clouds and at last came out from behind the conical steeple before decending behind the horizon. My painting doesn't do the scene justice but I enjoyed reliving the breathtaking sight.

Painting at Sea

Another little painting that I did when the seas weren't too rough. A melon slice and a lemon. My inspiration was from another blogger, now I can't find the painting and give credit because it was several weeks ago. Thank you, friend. Rather than copy her painting I did it from memory because I thought it looked so fun to do.

I'm getting my brushes wet again, after a long period of dryness, at least for me. A friend challenged me to just paint for a certain length of time, 1 hour or 2 hours, and then just stop for the day. Even more challenging, do a completed watercolor in that length of time. Not so easy if you paint wet on wet, the drying time is too long. So, small and quick it is!

View From the Ship's Balcony

This little painting was my view from the balcony of the QM2 on one of the brighter days at sea.

Our trip across the Atlantic reminded me of the old silly Navy song; "I joined the Navy to see the world and what did I see? I saw the sea!" We had a nice balcony stateroom but there wasn't much to look at. There was a report of a whale sighting and dolphins but not when I was looking. Truth be told, the whale sighting wasn't more that seeing the spout way off on the horizon. Most of the weather was also gray and rather stormy so it was hard to paint with the constant motion of the ship even though it had modern stabilizers. This is not to say it wasn't a pleasant way to cross the ocean, it was; they even had a watercolor class (which I didn't take advantage of). There were many lovely things about it, I just had a hard time getting into the zone for painting.

At sea

Believe it or not, I'm writing this at sea. We are crossing the Atlantic to England on the QM2. I won't be able to post my usual watercolor blogs until we return in early July. I hope to have lots to little paintings to share then.

Pam's Peonies

My gardening friend, Pam, graciously picked some of her peonies for me a few days ago. I have been working on a painting of them ever since. I have a vase that is made to look like birch bark that I love to use, it's shaped like a big piece of birch bark that has been curled around and fastened together. This was a bigger painting project than I thought it would be. Interspersed with the peonies were daisies, just to add some interest. I was challenged all around with the white daisies and peonies, it was quite a lesson. I think painting from a live subject is so much more challenging than from a photo but it is worth the doing.

Spring Flowers; Peonies

I've been trying to paint the peonies that I saw this week. They were the single petal type and remind me of poppies. The first ones I painted are tight and hard edged, which was OK but I long for a looser style. Nothing gets me painting loose like Yupo, so I threw some paint on some Yupo and think the first results are quite fun. I may play around with it some more and if I do, I'll be posting any additions that I make.

A Different Strokes Challenge

I'm just getting into painting again since the "transition". I wanted to enter the Different Strokes Challenge and today was the final day to submit an entry. I had to get my brushes going fast. Sometimes if you don't sweat it too much things work out better. That was the case today. I had a picture of a bull that I always wanted to paint but didn't know about what background would be interesting. The Challenge provided me with a perfect background for my black bull. Is he an Angus? I don't know, he was all by himself on a ranch in Wyoming, and he wasn't too happy about it. He stopped complaining long enough for me to take the picture. I think the farm picture is Pennsylvania, maybe he'll be happier there.

Transitions

This is a drizzle rooster I did awhile back. You drizzle a glossy acrylic outline and when it's dry you can wet the paper and add the color. It's a fun process, especially with chickens.


We've been in transition the last couple of weeks. We pack up and leave Florida's hot and steamy weather for something more moderate in Minnesota. People call it the theater of weather. You can get it all in just to span of a few hours. Some years a summer in Minnesota can be as hot and humid as one in Florida, but that is unusual. I hoped I could paint something during the down time of traveling but it just didn't happen. Now that we are settled in, groceries bought, bags unpacked, laundry done, I can get some organization going in my painting area and get back to blogging.

Brush experiment

I had to sit and mind the gift shop at our local art league (http://www.capecoralartleague.org/ )and to pass the time I decided to try the brushes I bought several years ago that have water in the handle of the brush by Aquaflow. I thought they might be handy for painting in confined places where you might not want to have a cup of water. It was frustrating in the beginning because I'm so used to rinsing my brush frequently in water; with this brush you have to squeeze it to flush whatever pigment you are using out of it before going on to another. It's nessesary to have something absorbent handy to catch the drips and to wipe the brush; papertowel or sponge work well. I painted on a postcard sized piece of w/c paper trying to keep in mind a confined space. It's no masterpiece but it gave me some insight into painting with these interesting brushes. The Aquaflows have a valve in them that keep the pigment from being sucked into the water in the handle which was a problem with another brush that I had. I'm thinking that I might even be able to do quick sketches while riding in the car on long trips.

The Humble Onion

I had a little painting session with some friends today. While they chose to do landscape paintings of the area, I chose the humble onion, three of them. My friend's husband is a wonderful gardener and here in South Florida this is the harvest season while the rest of the country seems to be just thinking of planting things. He had an abundance of onions, and they are an interesting subject with their dried tops and papery skins.

New York Street Scene

What a fun painting Karen Jurick had for us to paint this dsdf session. The canyon of New York City with their colorful, ubiquitous taxi cabs. I had one more strip of yupo, so I had to paint it on that. I love the result of the wavy edges and the way one color oozes into another. It's a small painting, only 15 x 3.5 inches, so I could only do a sliver of the whole picture which you can view at http://www.differentstrokesfromdifferentfolks.blogspot.com/ You can also see all the other fabulous painters' renditions of the same picture. It's really fun to see the creativity that takes place on that blog.

Watery Sunset

I think I've finally come to the end of my long, narrow yupo paintings. It's time to move on to something new. But I have one more to post. It's 26"X5", so it looks small on the uploaded picture because of it's length. I like the way the sun puddled into the water on this one. Sometimes the sunsets do have the feeling that the sun is just dipping down into the water and you don't know if the sun will overcome the water or the water the sun; and then, it just disappears. Perhaps I should do one more painting with a "green flash".

More Art In Bloom

I think I need more photography classes. For some reason my camera was very confused taking pictures at the museum. So many of my photos were blurry. It seems that my camera didn't know where to focus even though I tried my best to direct it. But this painting of the boats lined up on the shore and the flower arrangement lined up in little boat shaped vases was really nice. Another favorite.

Art In Bloom

While we were in Minnesota we took advantage of an annual exhibit at the Minneapolis Institute of Art (MIA) called Art In Bloom. Floral arrangements are made to resemble different works of art. My favorite was done of a painting of a steamboat. I love the baby's breath in the smoke stacks.

Yellow Daffodil

I've been in Minnesota for the week end and have once more experienced the variety of weather they call spring up north. We had rain, wind, cold temperatures, sun, fair skies; in other words, the whole enchilada! We went to the Minnesota Arboretum in Chanhassen to see spring in all it's glory. We saw daffodils, tulips, magnolias, crocus', all shapes and sizes of trees leaves, from small buds to several inches. It was glorious and many pictures were taken.

I just had to paint a daffodil and then I came up against the problem of painting yellow flowers; what do you use for shadow color? I used a purple which I knew would turn to brown on the yellow, but blue would turn green and red would turn orange, etc. I'm not totally satisfied with the outcome but if anyone who paints in watercolor has a solution I'd love to hear about it.

Sunset, Sea and Sky

This one is a small one, 14.5 x 3.5 inches. It was painted on Yupo. One reason I like Yupo is that the pigment stays on the surface and dries there; doing so it remains vibrant. On ordinary watercolor paper a lot of the pigment is absorbed and it dries at least 20% lighter. If you don't go strong with the color the first time you have to glazed more color onto it.