Happy Thanksgiving!

"Once an artist gets it...

...in his mind that it's a blooming adventure, then, and only then, everything falls into place and starts to work."
Joseph P. Blodgett

Anemone Flowers - Step 4

Anemone Flowers detail - Step 4

Anemone Flowers detail - Step 4

Slowly, but surely it's getting there! I've sure been appreciating all of the feedback that I've been getting on it!

:)

"There's so much versatility...

...in watercolour. You allow the paint to roll around, and then drop in some colour, just one that takes your fancy, and watch it explode into a shape that morphs into something else... lots of fun."
(Karen Phinney)

Anemone Flowers WIP - Step 3

I wish I had more progress to show on Anemone Flowers, but our household was struck by another bout of the flu and this time it hit me with a vengeance. I don't know if I've ever been so miserable!

But, we all seem to have recovered and hopefully our immune systems are better for it. I am really hoping that this is the last of it...since September, when school started, it seems like we've just gotten one thing after another. I don't know if I've ever spent so much of Autumn in bed!


Well, as you can see, I think I've finally gotten my main shapes laid in. I haven't been working directly from one photo in particular or directly from a sketch (though I did sketch out some of the individual flowers). I've actually just been feeling this one out as I go along, even more than usual. I put in the flowers first, then a few groups of leaves, then some of the buds and stems (which as I look, I think I probably need more of) and now I'm filling in around the edges and underneath, more into the background.

Here's a detail from the lower left corner, where I've begun to add more leaves:

Anemone Flowers - detail

And from the upper right corner:

Anemone Flowers - detail

I've been glazing many very thin, very wet layers atop one another, so working from those corners in just seems easiest to keep from dragging my sleeve through where I've already worked.

This painting is turning out to be all about different levels of transparency and layers. I'm having a really great time with both. I brightened up my flowers with still another glaze of New Gamboge and am loving the salmon color against the teals and purples of the background. I'm not sure how much they're resembling 'anemones' by now, but hey, I never claimed to be a botanical illustrator!

As always, I'd love to hear what you think!

=)

"One Cannot Have Everything the Way He Would Like it...

...A man has no business to be depressed by a disappointment, anyway; he ought to make up his mind to get even.
Mark Twain - from A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

I want a studio - I want a studio so badly I can taste it.

Not because I want to get away from my kids, my husband, animals to feed, dishes to do, laundry to fold...wait...that is actually sounding pretty good...

But no, in some ways I actually thrive on the chaos around here and try to put it into my painting. Nothing beats having my daughter surprise me with a "Whoa - cool!" while noticing what I'm working on or my son asking how I was able to get something down the way it is.
No, the reason I want a studio is merely practical - I want to be able to leave my things out and set up without fear of them getting ruined or worrying about the baby deciding to dip his Cheerios into a nice big puddle of lead white paint (actually it was Quinicridone Gold - thank God!).

I was especially wishing for a studio as I looked at the giant piece of Fabriano paper that I had left over from a class I taught a few years ago. This paper has been painted so many times in my mind's eye - too many times actually, which was why it was still rolled up in my closet, waiting for me to finally make up my mind as to what was finally going to qualify as the best idea to put into action on it...

or had been rolled up in my closet, I should say...because it wasn't anymore. It was pulled out into the middle of my bedroom, still rolled up, but obviously had been stepped and sat on by a delighted George Thomas - who was supposed to be in his play pen.

I coulda cried. I'm pretty sure I did cry actually.

However, watercolor teaches me every day that the best thing to do with a disappointment is to work with it - don't bother trying to fix what can't be fixed and don't use it as an excuse to give up until some 'ideal' comes along.

Then it hit me! When I was a hairdresser we had a saying for when we made mistakes - "Call it texture!".

Got carried away and chopped a chunk off too short? Do it on the other side too and Call it texture!

Chemicals sit on somebody's head to long and hairs start to break off? Call it texture!

Ok, you can only take it so far, but the basic premise is sound. In most cases, as long as you do something evenly around someone's hair it will look intentional - whether it originally was or not.

So what did I do with that paper? Rolled it up in every possible direction I could and...

Sat on it!

Repeatedly. And once I'd done that on all sides, in all directions, I took the whole thing and scrunched it up into a big ball...then got it wet and stretched it over a gessoed canvas that I still had around from my oil painting days.

The painting is turning out lovely...probably moreso by the ease of painting on something already deemed 'ruined' from the start more than anything.

Here's the first couple of layers to the underpainting of it:

Yin Yang Daisies WIP - Step 1
30" x 40" Watercolor on Fabriano Paper

I've done big, loose swaths of New Gamboge, Hansa Yellow Light and Quinicridone Gold wherever I want to see the light hitting the petals.

When that was dry...

Yin Yang Daisies WIP - Step 2
30" x 40" Watercolor on Fabriano Paper

...I started going through and putting my darkest shadows in, making sure to tip my canvas around to get a sense of movement in them. I'm going much more loose with the shadowed daisy on the right...I have something of an idea forming in my head about the balances between things, with the darker sides sometimes being more interesting...

That's what I have so far anyway.
I'm also still making progress on Anemone Flowers and will post an update soon. I try to never just work on one painting at a time. Keeps them from getting too precious and it helps me to let washes thoroughly dry when I need them to if I have another painting to work on in the meantime.

Hope you're all having a creative day!

=)

7 Blogs...

Part of winning a Kreativ Blogger Award was passing it on to 7 other deserving blogs and it was hard! Not to come up with 7, but to narrow it down - there are so many wonderful blogs out there to learn and be inspired by!

Here's 7 of my favorites:

1. Artist Marie Theron chronicles the West Coast of South Africa
2. Chris Beck - Brush-Paper-Water
3. Cathy's Watercolors
4. Ona K - Emotive Expressions
5. Joan Sanford Cook
6. Guy Magallanes - My "E" Scapes
7. Randy Carboni

Hope you enjoy them as much as I do!