The Woods

The Woods

Mixed Media Collage 8 X 8

This little landscape collage was one of those experiments that turned out well. The landscape foreground of hand painted and altered papers came together quickly and easily. I knew I wanted the feeling of woods on the top but couldn't find or make any paper that worked. As I wandered through an arts and crafts store I came upon a stamp of woods that would fade in the background. I used the stamp on thin tissue so that if there was a background it would show through. The stamped piece was laid under the adjoining piece which was also an altered tissue. I like the effect very much. I painted the bird and a few leaves so that the scene wouldn't look too forlorn, like it had been burned. 

A Pot of Spring

Spring Tulips, Watercolor, 7 1/2 x 11

I saw this pot of tulips at the grocery store and they were too tempting to resist. What a wonderful reminder that spring is coming. We don't grow tulips in southern Florida, it just doesn't get cold enough for the bulbs. But, we can enjoy the potted tulips that are available every spring. I like them better than the cut ones because they last long enough for me to get around to painting them. If you want them to last you have to buy them with the buds still hidden in the leaves and have faith that they will spring up to be lovely blooms. Only one was blooming when I bought them but a couple of days later I have five flowers and the first flower is already beginning to close. It seems a short window of opportunity but so worth it.

Ruffles

There was a ruffled iris among the blue iris in my daughter's garden. It wasn't quite pink or bronze, it had undertones of purple but also yellow. I guess if you mix a purple and yellow you get a brown color but this was a prettier color and very difficult to duplicate. The fuzzy things, whatever they're called were bright orange. I added watercolor to my pencil sketch, unfortunately I didn't have my watercolor Moleskine but a little sketchbook and the paper was pretty thin and crinkled from the water. It makes for a nice memory of my time at our daughter's house.

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.

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.

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.