Watercolor Nature Journal: Violets

I love Johnny Jump-Up Violets and the way they create a carpet of violet and green in the lawn in early spring.  I've always wanted to take a photo that captures the parade of blossoms, and finally managed it this spring.

Of course I wanted to paint the scene in my new concertina watercolor journal.  I started with a pencil sketch. Then I painted in the various violets -- the closer ones I painted in detail, and as the violets grew farther away, I painted them as flower shapes, and finally as blobs.

When the flowers were dry, I painted around the many violets in shades of green, and created a shadow color by mixing permanent blue violet with Hooker's green.

I created the concertina sketchbook by cutting a 6" x 20" strip from a sheet of 300 pound Stonehenge watercolor paper, then scoring the paper every 5" with a bone folding tool and folding in a zig-zag folding pattern.

Blick sells sheets of 300# Stonehenge Aqua watercolor paper for $12.  The sheets are 22" x 30" so you can make 3 of these accordion-fold journals for $12.  That's reasonable for journals, and the paper is absolutely lovely to work on.

You can paint on both sides of watercolor paper, so when I fill up one side, I'll flip it and paint on the other side, creating a folded record of my spring in nature.

You may recognize the cover of this sketchbook from an earlier post about painting phlox.

I love this little watercolor sketchbook!  It's pocket-sized, and the 300 pound paper is a dream to work on. 

 

Watercolor Nature Sketches: Phlox

I love to sit in nature and sketch.  Sometimes, I only have time for a quick hike, so I snap photos of anything I wanted to sketch on the spot, like these wild phlox in bloom.

It's often the tiniest things in nature that draw me in.

I began this sketch with a pencil drawing, then painted in the flower petals in mixtures of permanent blue violet, Phthalo blue, & permanent rose.  I let the first wash of color dry before adding in shadows on the petals.  

I laid in the background by painting in one big wet layer, touching in darker bits and letting the color spread.

With watercolor, you control the flow of the paint by controlling the water.  Watercolor blooms and spreads within a wet area, and won't flow to dry areas of your paper unless it's very runny and dribbles.

To create the little shadowed spots behind the flowers, I let the flowers dry fully, then carefully painted the area beside the flower with clear water and touched in a dark mixture of permanent blue violet and Hooker's green. 

I worked quickly to touch in other green mixtures to give the sense of foliage on a forest floor.  By keeping the background indistinct and more abstract, the phlox flowers pop forward to catch our eye.

I finished the sketch by adding lines with a fine black pen with permanent ink.
 

Would you like to make paintings of tiny things?  

Here are a few photos to practice with!

Happy Creating!

Many Thanks to our Osher Models!

Our Osher Figure Drawing classes have wrapped up, and I feel tremendous gratitude to the models, like Robin (above), who inspired, challenged, strengthened, and uplifted us with their work.  

I see our models -- like Selena (below) -- as co-creators in the art studio. They express their creativity through their poses, bringing us inspiration and ideas.

Our models' work tells stories, and we artists participate in the stories by illustrating what we see.  Here, model Emily (below) in her flower crown, looks to me like a goddess of Spring.

And model Rikki lies on a beach in the sunshine in my mind's eye.

Many thanks to our amazing models!  I feel grateful to have gotten the opportunity to create with them. 

Watercolor Landscape

The spring landscape inspires me with its ever-changing swaths of color.

Every shade of green from chartreuse to seafoam, to deepest pine green fills the landscape.  Verdant new grass sweeps in to replace the old, dead meadow plants. 

On walks, I snap photos like this one.

Then I take them back to my studio to paint my version of the scene.  I think it's important in art, to give ourselves the freedom to create our version of reality.  When I started painting, I thought I should re-created every twig and pine needle in a scene.  

Folly!

But that lesson showed me that I am at liberty to play with any element of the scene I wish!  I have simplified this landscape, and I have used purple lavishly where it might not be evident in the photo above.  Why not?  I love purple and green together.

I began by making a simple pencil sketch.  With a kneaded eraser, I lightened the darker lines to keep the pencil marks from showing through the paint. 

I mixed different colors -- Phthalo blue with a touch of Hooker's green for the apple blossoms in the center of the scene, sap green with Winsor yellow for the yellowy greens, dioxazine purple with a touch of Phthalo blue for the distant hills and shadows, and Phthalo blue and burnt sienna for the spruces.

What would your version of this scene look like?

I hope you paint or draw it!

Happy Creating!

Botanical Weekly Planner Page

Each week in my planner is a new opportunity to experiment with my art. I try to let myself be free and let the art flow intuitively. 

Surprisingly, I feel more experimental than I do in my sketchbooks. 

One of the things I loved about our Watercolor Leaves and Florals class at CCBC was that we used the photos of wildflowers in field guides as references and created our own versions of real flowers.  

It gave us something to start with, yet we had none of the pressure to create anything realistic.

I created a "new" flower as I was making this page.  It's the yellow one. I was thinking of Queen Anne's Lace as I painted it.  

I can see now how much the drive for perfect realism puts a damper on my creativity.  Accepting that my painting isn't going to be photo-realistic releases my creative impulses and makes the process more fun and playful.

When I started painting landscapes, I wanted to capture every pine needle and flower in the scene.  Of course, that's impossible.  Learning to be playfully abstract in my watercolor paintings is far more fun for me than trying to recreate reality on the page.

Would you like to take a day in nature to play with your watercolors?  I hope you'll join me for my upcoming Nature in Watercolor Workshop for Beginners at Raccoon Creek State Park.  Read more about it in this post:

https://betsyblissart.blogspot.com/2026/05/osher-nature-in-watercolors-worshop-for.html 

I hope you'll join me!

Osher Nature in Watercolors Worshop for Beginners

There's still space left in my upcoming Nature in Watercolors Workshop for Beginners on May 26th!  If you are curious about watercolors and would like to learn more, I hope you'll join me.  Even if you're not currently a member of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at CMU, you can take the class!

Osher at CMU offers curious participants a chance to try out one class for free, and if they like the experience and want to try more classes, they can become a prospective member, pay $95, and take as many additional classes in that semester as they like.

Here's a link to more information about Osher at CMU: https://www.cmu.edu/osher/

Here's Osher at CMU membership information:  

https://www.cmu.edu/osher/membership/index.html

And here's a link to the summer 2026 catalog of classes: https://www.cmu.edu/osher/publications/weekly-essentials/2026/summer/registration-is-open.html

Nature in Watercolor Workshop for Beginners

Are you curious about painting with watercolors, but you don’t know where to start? Would you like to spend a day with your Osher friends in nature being creative? Join us at Raccoon Creek State Park for this day-long workshop. We will play with our art supplies to become friendly with them, then we’ll test them out in the beauty of nature. 

Please note: This workshop will be held rain or shine. The address to plug into your GPS is Raccoon Creek State Park Recreation Hall, 195 Cabin Rd #15050, Georgetown, PA 15043. Mobility Requirements: Hiking 1/2 mile on uneven terrain with art supplies will be part of this full day of activities. Bring your watercolor supplies and a brown bag lunch for a day of watercolor painting adventures.

Friday, May 29, 2026, from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM.

$25 Materials fee.

Cost: Requires membership in Osher at CMU.  Membership information here:

 https://www.cmu.edu/osher/membership/index.html

Dues & fees information here:

 https://www.cmu.edu/osher/membership/dues-and-fees.html

Still have questions? Drop me a comment below.

I hope you'll join me on May 29th!

Watercolor Botanicals & New Stickers!

I thoroughly enjoyed our Watercolor Leaves and Florals for Beginners class at CCBC. 

Rather than focusing on creating perfectly realistic paintings of flowers, we made our version of roses, coneflowers, phlox, violets and lilies.  We even invented flowers and leaves.  At the end of the class, I had created so many demonstration paintings, including the gratitude journal I shared in a post here.  

When an email deal from Sticker Mule for 4"x 6" sticker sheets came through, I snapped photos with my cell phone and jumped on the offer. 

I love printing my art and giving it away or using it on stationery.  Seeing my art as a greeting card or a sticker pushes back against that harsh critic. The Hobgoblin is proven wrong when I  give someone a sticker and see the joy on their face.  We can uplift others with our art!

Happy Creating!

Spring Nature Journal Update

So much is happening right now in nature!  Out on a walk in the state park, we stopped for a rest, and I found this lovely tree with lichen growing up the trunk.  

As I was drawing it, a male Eastern Bluebird perched nearby and sang.  Absolutely enchanting!

Now I get to keep this memory and return to it in my nature journal.

Digging in the garden as I planted potatoes, carrots, onions and beets, I turned up this large pupa (2-3" long).  Looking it up online, I discovered it was the pupa of a tomato hornworm or sphinx moth.  I tucked it back under the earth where I'd found it in the hopes that a lovely moth will emerge.

What is happening in nature around you?  I hope you take a moment to sit outside and make some sketches & observations in your nature journal.

Happy Creating!

Charmed by a Vintage Tea Kettle

A recent thrifting adventure turned up this adorable aluminum tea kettle.  I bought it to use in my drawing classes for still life setups, and was so charmed by it, I made a watercolor study of it myself.

I started with a simple pen and ink sketch using my Lamy fountain pen and waterproof ink.

After the ink was dry, I laid in washes of ultramarine blue mixed with burnt sienna to make a steely grey. The wet-in-wet approach worked well to merge contrasting areas and soften the edges. 

I began laying in burnt sienna and yellow ochre to make the brown craft paper and wooden box in the background.

I got excited about creating the wood grain by laying in stripes of burnt umber mixed with burnt sienna to lighten it or ultramarine to darken it.

I found that my first attempt at the wood grain was too detailed and drew the eye away from the tea kettle, so I softened the wood grain with light washes.  

I like the final level of detail in the background.

If you are captured by this little vintage tea kettle, I hope you'll make a painting or drawing from the photo at the top of this post.

Happy Creating!

Making a Gratitude Journal with Watercolor Florals

We're having a wonderful time in Watercolor Leaves and Florals for Beginners class at the Community College of Beaver County.  

We've been creating loose watercolor florals on a variety of papers.

I put together a sample gratitude journal to show my students the possibilities for using their artwork.

Here's a flip-through!

I used gesso to partially cover the type of an old book page to make it easier for the journaler to write on the page.

I found a variety of old papers, like this accounting ledger, at the Pittsburgh Center for Creative Reuse.  Check them out here:

https://pccr.org/

You may recognize some of the materials I used for this project from this haul:

https://betsyblissart.blogspot.com/2026/03/upcycling-finds-from-pittsburgh-center.html

This blank music sheeting gives the perfect space for a short entry.

The cover is made from a wallpaper sample that I folded over and glued to make it extra sturdy before sewing the binding.

I used a simple pamphlet stitch on a single signature.   

I love that you can invent your own flowers and leaves using this watercolor floral technique.

I learned the technique from Wendy Solganik of Willa Wanders in her Loose Watercolor Florals class on Teachable.  You can find her course here:

https://www.willawanders.com/watercolor-leaves-and-florals?_gl=1*1uj0ask*_gcl_au*MTIzMjgzMTQ2MC4xNzc1NTg0NDc3 

Happy Creating!

Art for Breakfast!

I found this holey tree trunk on a recent hike and I loved the rich, earthy colors and the many holes and craggly bits.  I snapped a photo to create from later.

Back in the studio, I made an ink sketch on watercolor paper, then washed in loose watercolors.  

After the watercolor dried, I decided to add the final touches with colored pencils, but the piece sat on my art table for a week or more.

I finally brought it to the breakfast table and finished it with Prismacolor colored pencils while I sipped tea.  

Art can be very portable -- you can create as you eat a meal, talk with a friend, or listen to a podcast.  You only need for your hand to follow your eye.

Where would you like to take your art?

Nature Treasures and a Nature Journaling Class!

My studio is chock-full of twigs, feathers, acorns and other natural treasures picked up on walks.  Eventually, these bits get dusty & crumbly, so I return everything to the wild.  

When I collect drawings of these treasures, I get to keep them tucked away in my nature journal in their fresh, dust-free state.

I also get the experience of slowing down, immersing myself in nature, and drawing in my nature journal.

I made this sketch on a recent hike in Raccoon Creek State Park.  It's lovely to open my nature journal and bring back memories of that day and of making discoveries in the woods.

Would you like some inspiration and instruction on nature journaling?

I hope you'll join me for an in-person Nature Journaling class at the Raccoon Creek State Park Wildflower Reserve on Sunday, April 12th, 2026, from 1-4 PM. Cost is $15.

You can register here:

https://events.dcnr.pa.gov/event/nature-journaling-3974