This watercolor was painted in the “alla prima” technique, from the Italian meaning “at the first.” It describes a painting which is completed in a single session. The idea is to capture the essence of the subject in a bold, intuitive way, using vigorous, expressive brush strokes and minimal color mixing on the palette. This […] more »
I was inspired by the bright orange mini-pumpkin and the last of my magenta cosmos flowers for this painting. One of my favorite fabrics, the one with all the patterns of dots and splotches, was used under the vase of flowers and pumpkin. It is a great complementary color with the orange pumpkin — it […] 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 »
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 »
Now that the weather is cooler and changed into fall, I have been thinking about my summer flowers — the wonderful luscious yellow and mahogany sunflowers among the delicate fuchsia cosmos. These were picked and arranged in my artistic vase, filling it thick with blossoms. I am particularly fond of the red-violet color. It really […] more »
This week I've been working on some quarter-sheet florals for the upcoming festival -- so attention flower lovers! I love the vividness of colors and try to combine different varieties into an interesting arrangement. [...] more »
I love sunflowers! I have lost track of how many I’ve painted, which is the reason why the title is a number instead of a sunflower variety. Along with the sunflowers I’ve added another one of my favorite flowers, cosmos. I like the way their delicate shapes contrast with that of the sunflowers’ big and […] more »
This week I set aside the barn collage after working a bit on the roof shapes and windows, and thinking about a good sky color to complement the barn textures. I completed a quick watercolor painting of some of my last garden flowers of the year — pink cosmos and red & yellow gaillardias. There […] more »
Cosmos are a very showy flower and I love the colors. more »
Zinnias and cosmos. more »