Sunflowers

It feels like summer, so that means it's time for sunflowers.

Daisy

We had a vase full of happy daisies, so I used them as inspiration for my watercolor daisy.

Abstract Anemones

For my birthday I received Jean Haine's Atmospheric Watercolor book and I've been so excited to try one of the exercises. Her style is very loose and abstract, which is what I would love to be able to achieve, but am unable to so far. I tried out her anemone exercise first. Her style, while it looks effortless, will take a lot of practice to get good at.

Poppoes

I was going for abstract poppies. They seem like such a simple shape, but it's like the apple all over again.

Sunset Clouds Attempt

I wanted to make soft, fluffy pinky clouds. I'll have to try again.

Two steps back. Though I do like how some of the colors mixed together.

All Mixed Up

Just seeing my watercolor palette gets me excited to paint more--it's just so pretty!

Wild Flowers

I painted a few little sketches of wild flowers. I like how dainty they look. Next, I need to combine a handful of them into one composition.

Pink Flowers: I've Lost the Magic

I just painted a wonderful abstract flower and then I produce these two less than fabulous paintings. Guess I won't be paying any bills with my paintings anytime soon.

Abstract Flower

I painted this abstract flower without much planning and I love how it turned out! I don't even know how I did it. Hopefully I can make it happen again.

New Daniel Smith Watercolor Paints

New Daniel Smith watercolor paints arrived in the mail. Hooray! I'm so excited to try them all out--especially the Interference Gold.

Watercolor Drips & Streaks

A watercolor style I'm often drawn toward is  when the artist allows the paint to drip down or streak out. Turns out, it's super fun to create.

Tulips

I found a wonderful watercolor painting of tulips, so I used it as a reference for this painting. I'm not yet able to achieve the style of painting I would like from painting real life subjects, so I thought I would try to reverse engineer this painting.

Thistles

In the spirit of loosening up, I decided to try a variety of thistles. Plus this was a great excuse to use my new pink Daniel Smith watercolor paints. I love the architectural feeling of thistles, though they're still on the wild side.

Daniel Smith Watercolor Demo

I recently attended a free Daniel Smith watercolor demo at University Art. I had never used their paints before, nor had I used any artist grade paints for that matter. They were amazing! They were have a big sale, so I bought a few. Can't wait to try them out!

Carrots

I love how these colorful carrots turned out. Just the right amount of loose sketch, but you can still tell what it is.

Apple Sketches

I have yet to master the apple, but I had fun with these ink pen and watercolor sketches.

Veggies

Here are a few quick sketches I did with an ink pen and watercolors.

Mixing Tray

Even if my paintings don't turn out beautifully, the mixing tray always does.

Radish & Thistle

Simple little paintings.

Forest

This was a commissioned piece. My husband requested I paint him a forest. I wish he would pick something easier. I definitely cannot paint from memory.

Loosening Up

I'm working on loosening up my watercolor paintings. Here I tried it with a carrot, lotus, and poppies.

Pink Fruits

More colorful fruits. Pink makes all fruits look amazing!

Colorful Fruits

Tonight I played with my watercolor pans, which I have in an assortment of colors. I just doodled these fruits, mixing all sorts of colors.

Solanacea Close-Ups

Here are a few close-up shots of the plants to see the details. I used lots of color glazing in this painting, and most plants ended up with a final yellow glaze, which brought a sense of continuity to the painting. I didn't think a glaze of yellow would look good on some of the plants, like the eggplant, but I loved how it turned out.

Solanacea Family Painting Progress

In one class period, I finished up my Solanacea plant family poster. This took at least four hours, if you can imagine it. Having gone through this larger painting, I learned so much and feel if I was to paint it again it would look much better.