Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Something different



This first is a stained paper collage - that is, I took several kinds of rice papers and stained them with watercolor in yellows, oranges, reds, purples, blues and greens, and then tore them and adhered them to watercolor paper. I did have a loose drawing as a guide. There are some gold "strings" in the vase and the background that do not show in this photo. I can see great possibilities with this technique.




It's been a week for doing something different, and yesterday I decided to play with a piece of Yupo, that interesting plastic/paper. This is "Pemaquid Point" approximately 10 x 12 on Yupo with watercolor. The watercolor floats around on this paper for quite a while after you put it down, making all sorts of surprise textures. I also spattered some clear water on the rocks and grass to help it along.

Monday, December 11, 2006

God Bless Us All This Christmas











This is the painting that I used for my Christmas card this year. It shows 6 of my grandchildren last January acting out the Nativity scene right after the youngest was born. It was a challenge trying to get a likeness for each of the kids, especially for Joey, the little blond guy on the right who refused to be in the reference photo. The original painting is 11 x 15.

White Poinsettia












I do a few poinsettia paintings every year around this time. It gives me that good old Christmassy feeling. This one is 5 x 7 and was painted for my swap partner - I belong to a group of watercolorists who trade small paintings a few times a year. I enjoyed "finding" colors in this all white flower.

Friday, December 08, 2006

Painting With Grandma













All of my grandchildren love to paint. This Thanksgiving my littlest grandson, two year old Brandon, painted this masterpiece for me. It took him a while to learn not to rinse all the paint off his brush before putting it to paper. My job was to get more paper and more water when needed, and to tell the budding artist how terrific his paintings were.