Winter is here. 

It's a quiet lovely time of the year. 

I tend to become a hermit at this time. 

Lately I've been loving coloring in fanciful coloring books.

But I did paint this experimental watercolor (with a bit of collage) the other day. 

20 days until Spring! yay! 

 

Cards from paintings

I often paint flowers for practice. Sometimes they go well...sometimes not so much. When a less than wonderful painting presents itself, I often make it into a card. The cutting and cropping seems to add something to a 'less then' painting.  I like them much better as cards.

Happy crafting!

watercolor and cardmaking

I've had this poppy stamp for a long time and as much as I love it, I rarely use it. So I pulled it out and had fun painting it with watercolors. I added the hello and some sequins. Easy Peasy!

Happy Crafting!

water color and rubber stamping

My crafty friend Lisa came over and we played with water color painting and stamps. She brought this gadget that cut shapes into paper and then ribbon is fed through the slots. The card above is my final result. I added watercolor paint to the rubber stamps and stamped onto paper. I did add a bit of paint here and there. All in all, a nice card!

Let me know what you think. If you want to know the stamp I used for this flower, leave a comment.

Happy Crafting!

Urban Sketching at the beach

Beach from the boardwalk by the clock.

watercolor in my 5.5 x 8 journal.

This week was a bad weather week, but just before all this rain and wind, I went to the clock on the Bethany Beach boardwalk and set up my travel sketch one early evening.  I sat at a bench and painted this. The angle was interesting because the sand dune in the front hides the actual beach and you just see the water. I hope I was able to convey that. I find drawing and painting the ocean HARD! So I keep drawing and painting it. I admire those on YouTube who, in a few swishes with their paintbrushes, create a realistic ocean painting. There is a lot of time and practice behind that seemingly fast painting.

Fantasy Magnollias

Using the # Altenew stamp and die set "Magnolias", I made this card. The flower I stamped using a light color distress ink. I used the distress ink so that it would react with water when I painted the stamped image with watercolors. I used reds, oranges and browns for the flower. That way, there is no line of the flower stamp. 

Magnolias don't really appear in this color, but isn't that part of the fun- paint a magical fantasy color flower? The paper- I LOVE the background paper! It's from Stampin' Up, one of their designer papers. First I stamped the flower on 140# watercolor paper. Then I painted it and die cut it out. I also stamped and die cut the leaves. The stem I just drew, painted and fussy cut. The flower needed a little pop so I added a strip of washi tape and that did the trick. I picked up the orange in the designer paper with the orange cardstock. The "Thank You" is embossed white on vellum paper.

Happy Crafting!

art journaling with attitude

attitude

in my art journal

I was on the beach recently and had my lunch. This guy landed and obviously wanted in. So I shared my bread with him. He just stood there, staring with such attitude!  So he is now in my art journal. I sketched him with color pencils and watercolor. 

weeping angel

I love cemetery angels. I have been known to lay down in muddy cemeteries to get just the right shot (ask my then boyfriend, now husband, who would come along for the drive.) And yes, he still married me :-)

In early April I drove to various towns in Georgia with my sister on our annual sister-trip. This year we focused on my father's side of genealogy. We ended up in a small cemetery in Americus, Georgia, the birthplace of my grand father and great-grandfather. We usually go to the local library and the town cemetery when doing our family genealogy. While walking around the cemetery, we came upon this amazing grave of a weeping angel. It was so moving in the context of a cemetery.  The painting below is of that weeping angel. I've painted it in my Cavallini Medieval Journal that my dear husband gave me many years ago. (He gave two identical journals and I've just completed the first journal.)  The paper is hand made Italian paper, very smooth, thick and creamy. It takes a bit to get used to the paper- different than my usual Arches 140 cold pressed.

weeping angel

7" x 9"

watercolor

I came across an article about these angels here if you are interested in reading more about them.

YUPO exeriments with watercolor

I played with yupo paper and watercolors last night and today. First I put down puddles of colors and introduced stencils into the puddles and let them dry over night. Today I painted flowers into areas. This is all experimental for my online class I am taking, The Year of the Fairytale with Carla Sonheim. Great class! 

YUPO journal

In the online course I am currently taking, we will be using YUPO paper for experimentation in our illustrations. I had one huge piece of Yupo that was too large to comfortably handle, so I decided to cut it up and make a journal. It turned out quite nice and I am pleased. The size is 8" x 5" which is the perfect journal size for me. That's the size of my favorite journals and sketch pads. This journal has 11 pages or 22 pages to use.

 

I look forward to our experiments. I am enjoying this online class- if you love to draw you might consider this course. It's for all levels of artists. 

 

 

Watercolor/pastel painting for my "2014 - Year of the Fairy" online course

I am really enjoying this online course taught by Carla Sonheim! If you enjoy fairy tales (and who doesn't?), then you might want to check this out. It's a year long and each month we will be learning about illustration and fairly tales. This first month we are focused on an old Russian folktale, the Princess Frog. We are learning about character development and spot illustrations this month. My mind is busy with images and I am so enjoying playing with my watercolor and pastels. This painting is from a wonderful photo someone from the group posted. It made my head swim with possibilities! I drew the frog and snail pretty much as it was in the photo and the rest is what I imagined. The frog is Vassillisa, she was turned into a frog by a wicked king. She is on her journey now and takes this moment to look back from whence she came...

"From whence she came..."

another painting of same place

This is my second go-round using the same reference photo of the lakes in Monroe. Both are accurate, but the second one has a different layout of the land, so to speak.

Monroe Lakes, watercolor and pastel

on 140 lb. paper

 

 

been on vacation and home now...

Since May I've done a fair amount of travel. First I went to France for a 2 week adventure of painting and exploration of Provence. I traveled across the South of France and it was a fantastic trip! I spent the second half with my oldest granddaughter and that was also a special time.

I just got home yesterday from the beach. We go each year and this year we went for 2 weeks. We left a day early because of the pouring rain...the weather was not great the whole second week. But all was not lost, as I did paint 4 watercolor paintings.

 

This is one I started at the beach and finished it today, at home. It's a mixed media painting - watercolor and pastel on 140 lb. watercolor paper. I am new to pastels and am learning/experimenting with them.  I am liking how it looks to apply pastel on top of watercolor.

 

This view is a view of a lake in the center or my little town which I live, Monroe, NY. In the middle of our village are two ancient lakes (well, actually one, with a road built in between). In the 1930's a complete woolly mammoth was discovered in about 3 feet of water! The skeleton is now on exhibit at our local college. Anyway, I digress- I see these lakes almost everyday in my local travels. And what is so nice, there is a walking/bike path that goes all around the lakes and many in town walk/ride around. This is a view from the south end, standing on a bridge there with a waterfall just to the lower right of this spot, looking north west.

belated Valentine's Day post

My sweetie is a romantic traditionalist...roses and chocolates...so pretty and yummy....

4" x 6" watercolor

on hotpress paper

I painted this cookie last year (or two? it all goes too fast now)  My local baker makes these wonderful sugar cookies and decorates and shapes them for each holiday. I bought one, took it home, set up the still life with a doily and photographed it before I devoured it. It really is a good sugar cookie...anyway, Happy Belated Valentine's Day!

speking of love...

Isn't this cute? I made this using a faux postage stamp from tentwostudios.com.  Last year I worked on their design team for a short stint. Great products! I painted the heart with gauche watercolors. The background is walnut stain. I love her Marie faux postage stamps!

fantasy painting

painting with out photoshop

painting with a photoshop edge

Having a lot of fun just painting without any idea in mind - I made last night until the wee hours (my husband says I hang from the rafters at night...I really paint).

After I scanned in my painting I brought it into Photoshop and added a scratchy border to make it look older. Not sure I like the effect, but here it is. Would love feedback- which do you perfer?

another watercolor cookie painting

I painted this last year for Valentine's Day. I enjoy painting in the realism style. This is a watercolor painted on 140# hot press paper. I am selling prints of this in my etsy shop for Valentine's Day.

Tomorrow more snow is coming and I am thinking of doing some baking since I will be house bound. What should I bake?

I painted this little ATC watercolor some time ago. I like how it turned out as it has a spontaneous feel to it. Which makes sense to me- I wasn't really 'trying' when I painted this- more intuition and feeling- which as I know to be true, usually results in a better painting. My usual "style" is more realistic, so this was a stretch for me.

People who know me do not often put my name and the word 'spontaneous' together in a sentence!

Savannah - land of Spanish Moss

spanish moss,

watercolor and graphite on paper

In Atlanta, the first question is 'What's your business?'
In Macon, it is 'Where do you go to church?'
In Augusta they want your grandmother's maiden name.
But in Savannah, the first question is 'What would you like to drink?'

-John Berendt, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.

(Can you tell I fell in love with Savannah... and Beaufort...and Edisto Island?)

Fiddle + Watercolor = MUD

black eyed susan

watercolor on Fabrino HP

click to enlarge

I usually paint in twos. I am a little impatient when I paint and that tends to work against watercolor painting. Paint needs time to dry. And we've all heard: 'it's as exciting as as watching paint dry'

When I paint in twos- while one is drying, I go to the other painting and work on it. This is usually enough time for the other one to dry. Then I go back to the other. It works for me. Other wise. I start to fiddle. Fiddle + Watercolor = MUD. And mud is bad.

Here is the other small painting I did yesterday. Again, not a masterpiece but I sure enjoyed painting!