Sunset at Jupiter Beach

 

When my niece was here last week we went to Catan's and I got a few art supplies: a set of Micron pens for sketching, a couple of pointed filbert brushes (don't quite know how to use them yet) and a 6 x 9" block of Canson Montval watercolor paper. I was anxious to see if the paper would hold up for watercolor painting. So I used a photo that my daughter-in-law took at Jupiter Beach as my reference. The paper held up OK for not being100% cotton. I liked the block because the paper didn't buckle. I was happy with how the sky turned out, but I don't really like the waves/water. I might have to try this again on better paper since I want to try another technique on the waves and see if I can actually do the sky the same again.

 

 

 

 

"Almost There" (South Florida Beach with Umbrellas)

I really wanted to use the new Daniel Smith watercolors I got recently and I found a photo of this beach with a lot of color in it. (I don't remember which beach it was--south of Lake Worth somewhere I think.)  I used Bee 100% cotton paper. I did another painting with this paper and I didn't like it, but this time I liked it. It's 140 lb. cold pressed and it's smoother than Arches which is good for small detail like the umbrellas. I used a little bit of masking fluid for the umbrellas so I could paint the water in one wash. I did mess up the line of the beach, but I decided to not try to fix it which would probably make it more noticeable.

I  also used a couple of the Daniel Smith Primatek colors--Rhodonite is great for adding to blues for a soft gray and for pinkish glazes.

In the Country

 

 

This was supposed to be done for World Watercolor Month, July 25 "Farm Life" but I didn't get it done in time. It could also qualify for the prompt on July 27 "Clouds in the Sky" which was yesterday. I guess I'm a day late for that one too. I was supposed to try to get looser, but I don't seem to be getting there. I did this in a small sketch book (5x8) because it was supposed to be just a sketch. I kind of overworked it in places, but it didn't turn out too bad. I almost gave up half way through. I recommend watching Jenny Moed Korpela's summary of all thirty paintings that she did for 30x30 Direct Watercolor for June in which she advises not giving up:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtwI-jf3FTE&t=1639s

Beach Bicycle

This was supposed to be for Monday's prompt on World Watercolor Month, "On the Beach." Lesson learned: If you are not sure of your placement of an object don't use the darkest color you have. I messed up the perspective on the black wheel of the bicycle and I had to make some repairs. I hope they aren't too bad.

Peturnias

I was going to try to do the World Watercolor Month challenge, but I did this July 7 and I think it qualifies for yesterday's prompt, Beautiful Blooms. I need to practice doing flowers a little more. I don't think I got enough contrast in the lighting either. But here goes anyway:

Just Peachy

Here are the peaches I did for the watercolor challenge #30x30Watercolor2018. I got 58 likes which was very encouraging.

I Think I'm Back

I think I'm back to painting again. I took a rather circuitous route to get there. I had cataract surgery in October of 2016, but it took about  a year to adjust to my "new" eyes. I had some reaction to the surgery (macular edema) that took six or seven months to clear up and then I had to adjust to new glasses. I can't see really up close like I used to, but my distance vision is good (with glasses) and colors are spectacular. That's what got me enthusiastic again. I did a lot of perusing on You Tube to keep me distracted while I was recovering and discovered "Junk Journaling." I think it was the color that sucked me in--in addition to an attic full of "junk" that I could use for journaling. Then I did some bullet journaling which led me to decorate a planner that I custom designed for my use.  While searching for videos on You Tube, I ran across videos for watercolors. So I started doing watercolors again. Through some art groups on Facebook, I found out about a 30 day challenge for watercolorists. I didn't do the whole 30 days, but it did get me started--along with a sample set of Daniel Smith watercolors. ( 238 colors on dot cards which are so much fun to test.) However, I think I started out with using my watercolor pencils first. I have several different brand sets and I wanted to see what the difference was between them. So I did an apple sketch eight times with each different set. Here they are:

 

 





 The last apple was done with watercolor markers. I didn't like them. But I did learn the value of painting the same thing over and over again. It is good practice. I did a pair of peaches for the watercolor challenge which turned out pretty good because I had practiced the apple sketches--round fruit.

Waylaid

I had to take a break from art; my house and my "stuff" were getting away from me. But just when I had gathered enough stuff for a yard sale, I wound up in the hospital with atrial fibrillation and pneumonia. It seems to take a couple of months to recover after that kind of setback. I continued with cleaning up the yard and reorganizing the house "stuff", planning to start painting again after the holidays and a wedding. (My grandniece got married.) It also didn't help that our desktop computer is being finicky; sometimes it stays on and sometimes it doesn't. I have a laptop, but I prefer the larger screen (I'm also getting a cataract in my left eye so it's harder to see detail than it used to be).  I also got a smart phone so I always have a camera on me if I see something that might make a good painting. That's going to take a few days to figure out. But I thought I had better post something before my blog disappears since I hadn't posted for almost a year and explain the absence.
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So here it is January already and I haven't started painting again. I'm not sure where to start to get back to where I left off. Maybe I should start with a trip to the optometrist so I can get new glasses and see a little better and get some inspiration back and put that smart phone camera to use.
   

Future Painting

 

This was one of the first flowers in my garden this year. It's a tree peony blossom and it was gigantic. I'll have to figure out which is the best medium to use to paint this. I can see this in watercolor, but I've been using acrylics lately so don't know which I'm going to chose yet. Maybe acrylic on watercolor canvas?