Marybeth Heikes

Paintings in Watercolor & Mixed Media

Posts Tagged “Brown”

Teapot Series #19

Teapot Series #19

December 8, 2015

For me, the challenge is to continue this series and expand on the teapot designs. My goal is to do at least twenty unique designs. Originally the focus for this background was to be a crossword puzzle, but it evolved into the arrow-like shapes. I also wanted to use a different range of colors than […] more »

Box Sitter

Box Sitter

November 24, 2015

Cats play a big part in our lives and I have a lot of models around during the day. Felines love squashing themselves into a small box and I used a reference photo for this watercolor painting. I used a limited palette of cadmium orange, cerulean blue, sap green, ultramarine blue, white and thalo red. more »

Newborn

Newborn

May 21, 2015

I have been thinking about doing portraiture in watercolor for a long time, and when our goat Zooey had kids, it was the perfect moment. I couldn’t resist painting my husband holding baby George. As usual, I worked from reference photos and edited the background to keep the portrait uncluttered. I feel it was successful […] more »

Journey

Journey

February 26, 2015

I enjoyed assembling my paper scraps for this creation. It began with the background piece and I moved smaller pieces on top of the brown, and also cut shapes to insert papers behind the openings. It started as a rectangular composition, but when I started gluing the pieces, I decided it would be a stronger design […] more »

Chickadees

Chickadees

February 17, 2015

Inspired by the Sumi-e paintings I made many years ago, I wanted to experiment with this technique using my collage papers. When working this small, in approximately 5 x 7 sizes, it’s best to limit shapes and not get involved in the details. Sketching from some of the birds outdoors at our feeders, I began […] more »

Pollen Swirl

Pollen Swirl

February 9, 2015

Sunflowers provide a never ending inspiration; I absolutely love these flowers with their huge heads and bold, bright yellow shapes. My challenge for this piece was the size. Larger paintings are my forte. This is scaled down to 5.25 by 7.5 — very minuscule for me. I edited the seed-head and just added a spiral […] more »

Compromises

Compromises

February 4, 2015

This is the first small-sized abstract I have completed in collage. It was inspired by Kandinsky’s work — I love the geometric shapes, the triangles, circles and squares. I began by cutting various shapes and assembling the design. Collage is wonderful for being able to move things around before you permanently adhere the shapes. And […] more »

Flamingo on Vacation

Flamingo on Vacation

January 30, 2015

The inspiration for this piece came about while we were on vacation in San Diego last summer. The color of these birds attracted my attention, it was so vivid. Everything about them inspired many sketches. I focused on the head of one bird. Its head and neck are very graceful. No background was planned, but I […] more »

Raymond’s #3

Raymond’s #3

November 20, 2014

This is my third watercolor of one of the most popular eating places in Centerville — Raymond’s Dairy Creme. Since it changed ownership and there is a new sign in place, I thought it would be nice to do an updated version. I always begin with a photograph for reference to work from, so I […] more »

Indian Corn

Indian Corn

November 7, 2014

This artwork came about by way of request, but I have been thinking of doing one of the indian corn for a long time. I worked from my original pencil drawing done in 1980, which is very detailed and took me many months to complete. In the collage design my drawing is simplified — just […] more »