Irises in all their glory...

Ohhhh how lucky I am to have a neighbor with a touch for irises!

The highlight of Spring for me is when I can take a simple stroll down our street and feast my eyes on the results of her green thumb. With the intense heat we are experiencing, these beauties won't last long, so I've had to drop everything and get the photos while they are in their glory. I've done a number of paintings from her iris garden, and I can't wait to tackle some more!

I like the white irises on the left here....painting white flowers of any kind presents a challenge, especially in watercolor! These will be a lot of fun to do.....rendering the shadows and leaving the white of the paper as the brightest, sunlit parts of the flower.

I'm anxious to get back to painting! The Spring gardening chores have eaten up a lot of my time...but once those tasks are completed, I can get back to my brushes. I'll have a lot of fun sorting through all the beautiful iris photos... and saying thanks to the neighbor with the green thumb!

Kauai's Polihali Beach....

I've been working on a series of smaller paintings lately. Getting ready for the summer art festival season (and as I say this, there are frost warnings for this weekend)! The painting on the left is of Polihali Beach on the island of Kauai...the most beautiful place I have ever seen. I wanted to show just the vast expanse of beach here. People always focus on the NaPali cliffs, that are behind me and off to the right. And while spectacular, I wanted to paint just an empty stretch of beach, so this is the view looking out over the water. The island of Niihau, or sometimes called the Forbidden Island, is off in the distance. This smaller sized piece was fun to do. This is a painting that someone can buy as more of an impulse purchase....for themselves or as a gift for someone. Someday I will tackle a painting of those glorious cliffs! But boy....that will have to be a very large painting to do them justice!!

Purple iris is done!

I just finished another one of my smaller "floral portraits." This iris was absolutely gorgeous,, and I couldn't wait to paint it. As I look at the photo on the right, the colors don't look as vibrant in the picture here as they do in the actual painting! Oh well.....guess you've got to see it in person!

For the purple, I used Winsor Violet......such a true and beautiful purple.

I used Rose Madder Genuine for the pink....with a little Alizarin Crimson for some of the deeper values. Indigo and Winsor Blue were mixed with some of the Windsor Violet for the deep purple/blues. I used some Vermillion (boy, I'll miss it when I finally use all of my stash!) for the center, along with Winsor Lemon. The green is mostly Maimerblu's Sap Green, with some of the yellow mixed in.

It's exciting to me to see the iris leaves poking up through the mulch. I can't wait to see the irises again....and to get more photos.

A new iris has blossomed.......

With the summer art festival season rapidly approaching, I have been working hard to complete as many smaller sized paintings as I can. Paintings that are more of an impulse purchase.....something that someone might see that they know would be a great gift for someone.

I recently completed the single iris painting on the left. I took the photo a while back, and I just love the colors here. The top petals are a pale, bluish white, while the lower petals and center are a gorgeous yellow, coppery, coral. This was a lot of fun to do.

When I do larger paintings, I cut the paper down to fit onto the plexiglass I use as my backing. I save every last scrap of my watercolor paper (I use Windsor Newton paper exclusively). These smaller leftover pieces are what I most often use for my little paintings. Love to use every last piece!! For the blue, I used light washes of Cobalt Blue, with some Windsor and a little French Ultramarine. For the coral color, I did a wash of Lemon Yellow over all the coral sections, let that dry, then washed over with some Vermillion (discontinued.....waaaa!!!), some Dragon's Blood, and maybe a touch of Alizarin Crimson. For the leaf and stem I used mostly Maimerblu's Sap Green with some Windsor Blue and some Lemon Yellow.

One thing I always have trouble with, with these little paintings. They often sell quickly, so I don't get to have them very long! I actually miss them!

The beach at Poipu, Kauai......

The calendar says March, already. Yikes!! Where has the time gone?!
With the summer art festival dates coming up sooner than I'd like, I realized I needed to paint some smaller sized paintings. I had a lot of fun going through all my photo references, and I finally settled on an image I took from our trip to Hawaii in December.
I drove into Poipu all by myself on one of our last days there. I was very familiar with the area, as we stayed there for 2 weeks on our first trip a few years back. This is part of the beach front at the Sheraton Kauai. Very beautiful. I love the dark lava rock jutting out into the ocean, and the gorgeous palm trees along the grassy bank. I did a quick drawing right on the watercolor paper, and then began putting down washes of color. I did the sky very quickly, and except for a few little additions of color, left it alone.
The water is very dark here, and I used French Ultramarine, with some turquoise added for that tropical water feel. The lava rocks I used Payne's Gray, some Sepia, and some other lighter touches of Burnt Umber for contrast. The palm trees I used a lot of Sap Green with Windsor Lemon and some Burnt Sienna. The trunks of the trees I used various browns and blues to give them some contrast. One of the worst things one can do is to use the same color for every tree trunk...same as for every rock or every leaf. Nature is more colorful than we think....and if you really look closely you can see so many color variations everywhere.
Back to work!!

Pit Stop

Wow.......so glad to have finally finished my latest motorcycle painting! And I'm quite happy with how it turned out. Since my last post, I concentrated on refining the piece. I added some detailing to the leather motorcycle jacket, plus deepening the shadows in the folds. The engine of the bike required lots of fine detail work, and believe me, a biker will notice if I make any mistakes! So I work really hard to do the best job I can to get it "just right."

I like my bikers, too, off in the distance. I imagine they're discussing their ride, and planning out their next trip.

Now, with the weather finally breaking, I'm sure I'll see motorcycles on the road again. It's been a long winter!!

A motorcycle nearly completed.....

It has been way to long since I posted an update on my painting! This flu season has sure slowed me down! Hopefully the Kleenexes have all been put away, and I can get back to some long days spent in the studio.....where every artist longs to be!

I have been able to get a lot done on the bikes, as one can see in the photo on the right. The leather jacket has been a lot of fun to do. I was sure that wasn't going to be the case, initially! It's coming out looking like a well worn and well loved leather jacket....I'm so pleased! As all watercolor artists know, watercolor has a mind of it's own, and it can do things you cannot plan or predict. In this case, the watercolor gods were with me!

Much more still needs to be done here. Several sections of the bike need to be filled in, and I need to deepen many of the dark areas with more layers of color....mostly Payne's Gray. Shadows will need to be placed under the people and the smaller bikes in the background, or else they will look like they're pasted on, or just floating in space.

More work to be done, but the end is in sight!