Iris

This painting was inspired by Sylvia's Iris painting.  I needed something to paint Thursday at the art center.  So I took a half sheet of hot press watercolor paper and some photos of irises.  I did direct painting with Opera and other reds and quickly put stripes for the background.  I borrowed Gretchen's Murphy's Oil and wiped out red color.  I then rinsed the whole painting off under the faucet.  I wished I had brought another painting to work on because I had to wait for this one to dry.  Today I painted soft detail at the edge of petals,

Art Colony

This is from our Wednesday paintout.  After entering the Art Colony yard, we were bombarded with things, full of color and unique.  Too much.  So I just sat on the closest chair and painted what was in front of me.  After I went home I outlined everything with Elegant Writer, a pen that runs.

Watercolor  Matted 28 X 22

Blue Heron

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The Blue Heron is a majestic bird.  I always have people asking me if I have a painting of one.  I love to  paint them.

Acrylic on stretched canvas  24 X 36

Three Ibis

I sold another bird painting and I have to replace it at the art center.  So this was a quick painting.  I covered the canvas with white and added stripes of pale color.  After the paint had dried I drew the ibis and painted the sunlit top with white with a little yellow.  The shaded side of the bird was painted with grey with blue and orange highlights, just dark enough to look like white in shadow.

Acrylic on stretched canvas   20 X 16

Two Sail Boats

Just another acrylic painting playing with clouds.  It was painted over a portrait I did in the portrait class, so it had lots of texture all ready.  Last time it was birds, so this time I added sail boats.

Acrylic on Canvas Board   20 X 16

Pleiades

Plein Air painting at Beach Seafood.  There were only four out with us this morning.  It was another beautiful morning.  We all painted some part of a shrimp boat.  I was the only one painting with watercolor.  All the white was painted around.  There is lots of activity while we paint.  The Shrimpers are busy working on their boats.

Watercolor  Matted  22 X 28

Three Gulls

 

This was painted with acrylic on board.  It was hard to paint because it was smooth with no tooth.  I saw a demo on YouTube by Jerry Yarnell for painting clouds.  Then I found an old watercolor painting in my reject pile.  Kinda fun.

Acrylic  16 X 12

Batik California Poppies

I originally painted this in watercolor.  I painted after visiting my brother in San Lois Obispo, California, last year.  I overworked the watercolor, so it went to my reject pile.  So this is the exact painting in batik.  Some painting are made for batik and this is one.

Batik  22 X  28 Matted

Time Square Again

Plein Air Painting with the Fort Myers Beach Art Association.  I haven't been for awhile because I was taking my college class on the day they met.  It was a beautiful day with low humidity. There were seven painting and everyone painted a good painting.  Gorden Ross painted the three turtle statues.  Fun.

Watercolor  20 X 16 matted

Yellow Coconuts

One of the fun things you can do with watercolor is crop the painting.

Which do you like the best?  This was another wet on wet.  I painted it last night and this morning I lifted some color and added a little masking fluid.  Maybe I will do the cropped version over in acrylic.

Watercolor  20 X 16 Matted

Golden Green Coconuts

Wet on wet.  I drew the coconuts softly and then wet both the front and back of the watercolor paper.  I waited until the paper lost it's sheen and started painting.  The color spreads so I don't paint too close to the edge of the coconuts and leaves.  The longer I paint, the dryer the paper becomes, so I can then put in more detail.  The wet on wet painting has a wonderful transparency to the color.

Watercolor  20 X 16 Matted

Egret with Mangrove Leaves

Pouring watercolor again.  This time I used liquid frisquet.  After the painting is done and I removed the frisquet, all the edges were hard and ugly.  I use a special brush and sometimes a toothbrush to soften the edges.  It is very time consuming.  But the effect is good.  It was worth all the work.

Watercolor  Matted  16 X 20

White Pelican

Watercolor.  I stretched the wet arches watercolor paper by stapling it on a board.  Let dry then coat the whole paper with light permanent rose, & new gamboge to give the white a glow.  Let dry again and draw the pelican.  I then wet with a brush everything except the bird and a little reflection.  Then I poured around the bird with darker of the same two colors plus thalo blue.  I made the thalo blue very weak.  I poured next to each color instead of over.  Then the paper was tilted so the colors mingles.  The paint stays on the wet paper if you are careful.

Watercolor    20 X 16 matted

Two Egrets

There is a lot in this painting.  Birds, foliage, trees, lily pads.  I am happy with it but it was a day's project to finish it.  After it was finished, I glazed the whole painting with a pink glaze.  The glaze unified everything.

Acrylic  16 X 12

Safe Landing

Acrylic  7 X 11

Today was rainy.  Dark and depressing.  I did everything but paint.  Cut mats, made business cards, read my Kindle took a photoshop lesson.  Finally after supper the sun came out and I finished this painting I started yesterday.  I am going to paint larger from now on.  It is hard to paint these small paintings.

Spoonbill at Ding Darling

This was painted today at the Fort Myers Beach Art Association.  There were lots of artists there because we had to bring our paintings to hang at the new library building.  The construction was a success.  They saved a spot on the top floor for paintings to display.  The area has computers and a lunch area.  They also installed lighting to spotlight the paintings.

Acrylic  11 X 7