Weekly Planner: Geraniums in Bloom!

I have a potted geranium on my studio desk thatI saved from the first frost last fall, and the blooms lift my spirits.  Why not incorporate them into this week's planner?

I began with an ink sketch with my Lamy fountain pen.  After the ink had dried, I added watercolor washes.  This notebook isn't made for watercolor painting, but it's still fun to decorate the ink drawing with some color, even if the paper crinkles.

I love the colors I see in this plant.  They create a beautiful color palette.

What do you see in your everyday life that inspires you? A quick sketch is a lovely way to celebrate the subjects and colors you enjoy.

Happy Creating!

Post Card Art

My best friend, Robin, and I have been writing to each other for over 28 years.  In that time, we've made the weirdest, most creative and inventive stationery from cereal boxes, wallpaper samples, maps, and other everyday ephemera.  We've even made our own paper to write on.

Robin inspires me.  Above is a pair of post cards -- Robin's on the left, and mine on the right.  She sent me her flower card first, and I was so taken by the freshness of her lines, the playfulness of the colors that I tried my own.

We made our cards with watercolor on watercolor paper. Waterproof markers and white paint markers add the finishing touches.

My best friend is a master at writing post cards.  In one 4" x 6" card, she can speak of the rich details of her daily life, news of her family, and the power of mortality to focus her on the bright joy of living.

Robin's post card inspiration got me playing with more ideas.

I have always been thrilled by upcycling interesting looking papers into cards and letters.  When I recently read that the U.S. Postal Service had upped the maximum size of a post card to 6" x 9", I grabbed a political ad from the trash, cut it to size, and slapped two coats of white gesso on one side.

I glued a scrap of 140# watercolor paper to the back of the political ad with Yes! paste, and added some black and white washi tape around the edges to keep them from getting caught in the Postal Service machinery.

When the gesso had dried, I painted and stamped the surface with India ink and a blue water based ink. I wished I had prepared a bunch of cards to create a series with, because when I got started, I didn't want to stop!

Post cards are a wonderful art warm-up, because they're small and invite playfulness & experimentation, especially if you use upcycled materials.

I hope you'll try your hand at making and sending postcards!

Experimental Painting

I've had the opportunity to read some great books & magazines lately, and, inspired by my reading, I decided to try to paint more freely & expressively.

The only way to achieve this is to experiment.  Not every experiment works, and even those that I feel are successful, like the one above, have parts I like (the loose yellowy-green fronds against the dark blue shadows) and parts I don't (some parts just got mushy).

I painted this frothy fern as I sat at the breakfast table, as the morning sun spilled in and backlit the foliage.  I was taken by the glowing yellow green fronds right next to deep shadows.  I painted quickly, without a pencil sketch underneath, looking at the fern as much as possible.

In the moment, I felt like I was painting haphazardly, wildly out of control!  When I stepped back, I liked the result of picking out the part that fascinated me and trying to express that.

It was incredibly freeing to remind myself that I didn't have to make a photo-realistic "likeness" of the fern, and that precision is not better than expression. My goal was to just express the sense of light pouring through greenery. 

Every time we experiment with our art-making, we learn and grow.  We make discoveries.  It may feel risky, wild, and unkempt, but even if the results are wonky and imperfect, they are worth trying just for the possibilities they hold.

I hope you'll make a list of art experiments you'd like to try and then recklessly pursue them!

Discover New Possibilities with Color Swatching!

I have been reading a wonderful book on the power of watercolor sketching to bring you joy & liven up your art practice.

One of the first activities author Jen Russell-Smith outlines is making a color chart.  She recommends it as a way to fill the first blank page in a sketch journal.

I had a small travel set of Winsor & Newton watercolors I had gotten while on board the Queen Mary 2 last summer.  I wanted to test this little travel palette out, so I created a grid of squares using a waterproof, black pen, and then put a dot of each color across the top and down the left side of the grid.  

I also filled in each pure color in the diagonal where the color meets up with itself from the top and the left side.

I mixed every color with every other color as they met up on the grid.  

A surprisingly useful bunch of colors resulted!  For instance, when I mixed Sap Green and Chinese White, I discovered the color I've been seeking to paint the silvery green foliage of Autumn Olive bushes.

And, did you know that when you mix  Pthalo Green and Burnt Sienna, you get a lovely deep forest green?  I discovered these colors and more!

At the bottom of the page, I tested out 8 of my 12 colors, painting a concentrated swatch at the top, then watering down each color towards the bottom.

Watercolors look different in the pan than they do after they dry on the paper, so this swatching page will come in handy as I paint and sketch with this travel kit.  It's amazing to me the amount and variety of colors I can create from this tiny, 2 1/2" by 5" kit.

Get to know the potential in your watercolor palette with this great swatching project!

Watercolor Flowers Class: The Power of Play

 

The sight of fresh, colorful blooms and foliage inspired my students & me in my Watercolor Spring Flowers class at the Community College of Beaver County. 

We began the class by playing with our new watercolor supplies.

The painting above is a demo I made in class, to show how to pick up paints and lay them down, how to create the background after the first washes had dried, and to show the power of putting color opposites next to each other.

I wasn't trying to make anything in particular.  I was just playing.

After class, I added more watercolors and used Posca paint pens for details.  I plan to make color copies of this painting to create greeting cards with.

Below is another demonstration painting I made in class to show the steps in painting flowers. I notice I like the parts best where I was just messing around and listening to the little voice of my intuition.

Color at this gray time of year (for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere) can lift the spirits and give us a way to express our feelings. 

I hope you take the time this week to pick up your art supplies and play with color!

Flower Power!

I bought carnations for my drawing students at the Community College of Beaver County to practice on last week, and had some leftovers after class.  

The flowers have brightened up my studio, and inspired me to play with India ink in a Pentel Pocket Brush Pen. I focus on making marks that feel freeing & expressive.

 After the ink dries, I add watercolor washes.

Because India ink is waterproof, you can add watercolor washes over the top as soon as the ink has dried, creating bold contrasts.  

I hope you can have a play with colorful art supplies and a bouquet of flowers.  

The flowers will lift your spirits twice - as you enjoy the blossoms decorating your home, and as you create artworks based on them.  Remember, you're not a camera.  You don't have to create a super-realistic artwork.  Just play with lines & colors inspired by the flowers! 

Color in Winter

When the weather is February gray, and you feel like you need a splash of color, try cutting up small pieces of watercolor paper and playing with watercolors, making brush strokes that feel natural to your hand.

I began this piece by splashing in watercolors.  After that layer was dry, I added India ink touches to pop the contrast up.

These are great to prop in a place you will see them, so you can benefit from their bright colors.  I dropped this one into a letter to my best friend.

Happy art-making!
 

Interior Decorating for a Goldfish

I have a new pet named Dory.  

Actually, Dory lived all summer in my garden pond, but I had to bring her indoors before the winter weather froze the entire pool.  

I didn't have a decorative backdrop for her tank, so I took some inspiration from my color journal, and created this scene during winter storm Elliott.

I started with watercolors, and after the washes dried, I used Posca paint pens to add details like the bubbles. It was a wonderful stress reliever to play with colors!

And I get to see my artwork everyday as I pass by Dory's aquarium -- a miniature mural!

I hope you find ways to display your art in your living space and celebrate yourself as an artist!

Faerie in Turquoise

During the lockdown, I discovered an artist on YouTube who creates for self-care.  She paints, writes, and collages in an art journal as a way to calm anxiety and support her mental health.  The Unexpected Gypsy's public YouTube videos inspired me to start an art journal -- then fill it, and embark on several more.  Creating simply for my own joy and self care is freeing and has become part of my self care routine.

I joined her Patreon, and it feels good to support a working artist who inspires me.  She produces special "Paint with Me" videos for patrons, and it was while watching one of those that I painted this little faerie. 

What a delight to play with colors and my imagination, and watch a character appear from my pencil and paintbrush! 

Hoping you'll take the time to play with your art supplies for no other reason than for your own joy! 

Plein Air Painting & Potluck

 

After years of teaching art via Zoom, my students wanted to visit our farm and studio to see where the classes originated from.  We held an Osher Plein Air Painting on the Farm class on a recent Friday morning, and invited students to bring a potluck dish to share for a picnic lunch.

Our weather was lovely & sunny, and the sight of artists in folding chairs spread about the farm, painting brought me joy.  I managed time to make this quick sketch of the June trees and field.  

Our event closed out after lunch with time for sharing artworks and stories.  Wonderful to see the creativity of everyone gathered there.

The Last of the Summer Tomatoes

I stole a little time Monday morning with my paints and art journal to capture these last tokens of the summer sunshine. It felt good to slow down and connect with my creativity, with the light, with the ripe tomatoes sitting on the table in front of me.  

The open window brought in the sounds of my fountain and the warbling of a Song Sparrow. Time stilled. Life expanded. All that existed were two tomatoes in the sunlight in the moment. Peace.

I hope you can steal a little time in your day today to create for self-care.

Watercolor Explorations: Landscape

In preparation for our first landscape class, David and I took a hike with a camera and captured several landscape scenes.  I also got permission from a photographer friend to share several of his photos with my Osher class.  

I sketched a rough outline of the scene, marked out the highlights in the foliage around the old tree trunk, and used masking fluid to protect the highlights on the tree's trunk.  

To create the woodsy foliage, I began with washes of mostly Windsor Yellow, with a bit of Sap Green mixed in.  I wanted to capture the sense of sunlight pouring into the foliage. While the foliage washes were wet, I added Sap Green splotches and even a bit of cool, Hooker's Green.  Several layers of leafy greens came next. 

After the forest background was done, I worked on the main trunk and nearby trees & twigs.  I mixed Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Sienna for a general gray, and Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Umber for darker areas.  I also washed in some Sap Green to the main tree trunk to represent the green I saw reflected there. I added a bit of earthy browns and grays to the forest floor.

The final step was to use a rigger brush for a few fine limbs and twigs, and a spattering of white gouache, Sap Green, and Windsor Yellow.

A Light in the Woods

A lovely August evening found me hiking out into a quiet woods in Raccoon Creek State Park, my supplies tucked into a backpack.  The crickets chirped.  Acorns dropped through the foliage, and a Blue Jay called from overhead. The act of painting connected me with the peace of the woods and gave me the space to see a larger picture in my life.  I love the feeling of being lost in the moment, and trying to capture what I see with my brush.

Valentines Update

This time of year, with the snow and cold blustering outdoors, I find myself drawn to bright, bold colors and making Valentines.  Tonight, I brewed up some green tea, carved a new Valentine stamp, and tested it out on papers that I had previously painted with intense Dr. P.H. Martin's Liquid Watercolors.  Nothing like the thrill of bold black lines against vivid magenta, tangerine and violet!

The Speedball Speedy Cut block I used to create my stamp was super easy to carve. 

I painted on sheet music, pages from an old shorthand textbook, and dictionary pages.  The print added another layer of texture.

A finished card.

November Sunset

The days have turned suddenly cold; the autumn colors have been blown from the trees; and the more subdued tones of late autumn have overtaken the landscape.  A busy work schedule has kept me from hiking in the woods and painting, so when a friend sent me some sunset photos last night, I jumped on the opportunity to paint the beauty he captured with his camera.  I started with a wet-in-wet series of washes in the sky, and when that had dried, I sketched the wintry trees and shrubs in the foreground, inking them in with a small Sumi brush and India ink, and touching up details with an 05 Micron pen.  It felt good to connect with the landscape, even through a photo of it.

The Changing Landscape

Autumn has truly arrived, and with it the celebration of colors hidden all summer long under the green canopy.  This Cottonwood tree attracted my eye with its leaves waving, flickering, catching sunlight with every breeze.  Virginia Creeper vines weave their colors along the trunk of the tree, offering a contrast against woodland foliage and meadow grasses.

More Inktober Sketches

October has finally turned fall-ish with cerulean skies decked with feathery mare's tail clouds.  Crisp air, chilly nights and brilliant sunlight makes the colors seem that much brighter.