One of the beauties of where I live is the local university, JBU. Established in 1909 the buildings have so much character and history. I did this one while I was waiting to pick my son up from the local public school right down the road. This painting was a 30-minute piece of work. I like time limits, they make me not think and over compensate. I did go back and add some retouches.
Watercolor, ink, graphite, and acrylic.
A quick painting I did last night. Trying to figure out what to paint, so I painted what was in front of me…a lamp and plant.
Watercolor, ink, graphite, and a dash of acrylic.
A friend came across some eco friendly notebook paper made from stone. It’s called NatureStone. He asked me to try it out with watercolor. At first touch it’s very durable, it has a synthetic feel. My watercolors adhered to the paper well. Hardly any bleed when I applied my ink. Very cool.
On this composition I went back to watercolors. I am having a hard time finding my niche. I love to spend hours researching other watercolor artist and observing their technique. I think I spend too much time researching and not enough time refining my own technique. Here is a sample of getting back to the basics.
My first Plein Air event was yesterday. Very nervous and excited at the same time. Our location was a beautiful stone built chapel with ivy everywhere. It was nestled next to some tall dark trees. Since there was so much greenery I wanted to emphasize the church to let the church stand out.
I dug this out of the archives. I did this originally about six to nine months ago. Everytime I pulled it out to review it always felt like it was lacking something. I went back and added some greenery, shadows and contrast. Below is the before and after.
The before and after side-by-side.
It’s been a busy week of prepping original art for my etsy store. I have to admit this is a hard decision. These are like my children. It’s hard to think about letting them go. If you are interested, check out the below link to my store.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/97775463/mystic-dahlias-framed-watercolor?listing_id=97775463&listing_slug=mystic-dahlias-framed-watercolor
Super excited! Received word on Saturday that one of my original art pieces was bought. You may remember it, “Venice Boardwalk”. Hopefully more purchases in the near future.
I have studied some great watercolor artist and noticed how they use a “dabbing” approach to trees and leaves. I have been working on this. Here is a piece done with watercolor and using the dabbing on the trees.
I have said it before, my two favorite subjects to draw/paint are barns & lighthouses. Here is another lighthouse.
Watercolor and ink.
