Almost spring?

Until then, more flowers.

I wanted to make the background warm to feel more cheerful and, well, warm.  This is watercolor and colored pencil.

When I paint people, I often take a photo of the pencil sketch so I feel free to screw it up.  Not that I'm aiming to wreck a painting, but I normally like my sketches and it's sort of a mental trick to know that I have a nice sketch somewhere no matter what happens.  Here are my flowers again.

The first piece of art I sold was a contour drawing of a lily.  It was on show at the Institute Library last fall.  This isn't a blind contour drawing, but line drawings are so much fun.

Snow scene

In honor of yet more snow, here is a sketch from a photo I took in Vermont.

Go fish

Here is a painting of some fish I started while I was in the Caribbean (yes, cruel sentence to write while we are "enjoying" this weather).  The one in the middle is a Queen Triggerfish, I think, with many liberties taken with color.  At first I thought I was overdoing it, and then I went snorkeling and realized some of my fish were rather tame!  Judi Betts taught aboard the ship and had us paint 6 x 9 in. paintings of fish.

I finished this one aboard the ship:

The fish here are a squirrelfish (punked out in different colors) and Rock Beauty.   I tried to make them smile where possible.  Unfortunately the one at the bottom left looks a bit lost.

Step off, winter

Last week I bought a hyacinth on a whim at Trader Joe's.  I stuck it in my kitchen window, and when I woke up this morning I was surprised to see not less than one inch of snow, but about three, and that my hyacinth was starting to bloom.  Perhaps we were both not expecting quite so much snow.  Tonight I used my handy dandy new paint set to capture its first day blooming in front of the snowy sky.

You may see some writing in the bottom right of the image.  I also keep a physical artist's journal for each day.   I normally punch holes in the side of whatever I paint for it, since they are typically quick and dirty paintings or sketches, and after working in museums it's fun to be able to beat up on your art, but out of deference to the electronic media I tipped it into the journal instead using masking tape.  I figure future conservators will thank me for providing work for thirty people when I am older.

Little steps, little paintings

This week I've decided to post something beautiful or something fun daily for the next year.  As such, I want to paint something new every day.  Like most artists, I enjoy owning art supplies, buying art supplies, and talking about supplies, and actually making art is fine, but no where near as fun as new toys.  When I found a tutorial (actually 60) about making a travel painting kit out of an Altoids tin, I realized this would be the best incentive to actually bring my toys with me and get painting done while I'm out and about.  Thank you to my colleague who a) didn't think it was weird when I jumped him in the break room asking for an Altoids tin I saw with him during a meeting and b) handing over said tin, after giving me my choice of three.

Eh voila, a painting tin!  Complete painting forthcoming...

For the nerds, the paint is Carmine, Rose Madder, Cad Red Light, Cad Yellow light, Aurelion; next row: Cerulean, Pthalo blue, Cobalt blue, Yellow ochre and Burnt Sienna.  Wanted to be able to paint portraits (cads and cerulean) and use the transparent triad (rose, aurelion, cobalt).  Handmade sketchbook and travel size brushes are looming behind the tin.