I decided to paint another still life with my eggplants, books and favorite turquoise goblet. It is an up-close, intimate view of these elements. Especially important is the featured book, Art & Soul, by artist Audrey Flack. The art on the cover ignited my imagination. I love the deep, purplish-blue-black of the eggplants, and their […] more »
This was a fun watercolor to paint with my glossy black eggplants and glassware. I enjoyed the process of drawing the design using my reference photo. Some of my favorite art books are included in the still life. Usually I wet the paper where I intend to drop in the pigments wet-in-wet, which is one […] more »
My idea was to set up an Autumn still life with fabrics, flowers and fruit. I chose a mini-pumpkin and decorative gourds and set them on a patterned blue-spotted fabric. Patterns galore! The lovely complementary blue color sets off the oranges, yellows and reds. I picked some of the last cosmos blossoms from my garden and set […] more »
This was inspired by Annie’s chairs at the Artisan Gallery 218. In early spring I did numerous loose contour sketches of these antique chairs and they were the beginning of my collage design. The other elements evolved from my imagination: the sunny window, the magenta color I love, the zinnias and sunflowers from my garden. […] more »
This is a petite floral watercolor, and the challenge for me is painting in a small format. I love painting large pieces, so this was difficult for me even though it is quite small. I began by drawing one of my garden zinnias from life, which takes longer than the actual painting. As an artist, […] more »
This is another petite painting challenge, in a 6” x 6” format. Square designs are more difficult than the usual rectangular ones, but I prefer them. I began with a detailed drawing of my garden coneflowers from life. Working in my sketchbook daily is on my to-do list. It is good practice and your observation […] more »
This is another sumi-e watercolor that was completed in one sitting. I used my sketch from life done in May. The blossoms on this iris were bronze and coppery tones. It was a joy to paint! The background was finished wet-in-wet with a mix of green, orange and white gouache. more »
I have been inspired by my garden flowers — the colors are luscious and bright! This piece was worked from using my original sketch, done from a still life of a Japanese iris. They are much smaller than the bearded variety. I set up the iris in one of my mom’s antique jars that has […] more »
Earlier this year, I wrote down many ideas for subject matter to paint. I intended to do a music series after the guitars and violin. For this piece I used my reference photo taken at the Museum of Making Music in Carlsbad, California. Beginning with a very loose pencil drawing and weaving colors and shapes […] more »
Flowers are a consistent theme in my work. I work from life, drawing my garden flowers and taking numerous photos. I began with an idea for the design and sketched it out on tracing paper the same size as my paper support; in this case I used 300# Arches watercolor paper. The heavier paper doesn’t […] more »