Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Celebrating a New Beginning! WIP - Hydrangea _Part I

Today is a most special day for me: it is the first day, officially, of my retirement and it is, officially, the first day of my new beginning as a full-time watercolor painter! To celebrate, I worked on a new painting, branches of hydrangea ( instead of working on my Venetian Pool Party started over a week ago). Here is part I of this WIP - hopefully the firstWIP of many for the month of December.

So far, I have only put in the dark background, the leaves, the stems and I have started on the darkest background petals. Overall, the flower clusters will be mostly light pink with a touch of mauve. The challenge will probably be to keep a unified look to the painting. It has been raining here all day and I took the picture indoors with a flash; consequently, the colors are probably a bit off.

As always, I love to hear from all of you!

21 comments:

  1. Oooh! I love the look of this one. Such a difficult flower to paint or sketch. Wonderful beginning to your retirement - funny retirement you will be working more than ever!! Well done for joining the Daily Painters International Group.

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  2. Congrats on your retirement. What an adventure to get to explore your art world full time! I love the approach you're taking with this painting, too.

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  3. What a wonderful start to your new lifestyle. May your days be full of joy.

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  4. Congrats! Wish you many great watercolors in your future life.

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  5. Joan, Sandy, Vicki and Irina:You ladies are so nice and supportive! How could I not enjoy my new adventure with such blogging friends. Thank you from the bottom of my hear!

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  6. YIPEE!!! No more alarm clock to so rudely wake you in the mornings...that's a main pleasure of mine! You'll not know when you had time to work you'll be so busy painting and doing other things you haven't had the time to do. I love the start to this hydrangea...they're some of my favorites as I grow lots of different colors in my gardens.

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  7. Thank you, Mollie! I certainly had a very nice first day. And perhaps I will be able to grow something other than weeds in my garden next spring:-)
    I am finding this hydrangea rather challenging to paint...but we'll see.

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  8. I agree with Joan and Mollie - you will be busier than you imagined! This hydrangea will blow the one I did right off the bush! - your leaves and stems are already so realistic. Good luck on your new profession!

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  9. Looks like you're going to thoroughly enjoy your retirement - and so will I, the way this painting has started ;) xx

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  10. Congratulations! I hope your retirement is everything you wanted - and then some! More time to paint and enjoy and do the things you want to do :) This is a great start; I'm looking forward to seeing this one take shape.

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  11. Christiane, I LOVE the colours on your latest masterpiece! I can't wait to see it finished :)

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  12. This is a great start! Happy retirement. I think you're going to love it.

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  13. I love this!!!

    Can't wait to see final product!

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  14. Deb, your hydrangea is beautifully soft with superb color blending and variations - mine will have a much harsher look if I judge by how it is progressing. If mine is half as nice as yours, I will be delighted! Two artists, two totally different works:-)

    Pat, Rhonda and Kathy: thank you. I am very pleased that you like the beginning of this new floral.

    Johanne: I don't remember ever painting a masterpiece :-) I will try to finish this painting within the next few days. It's strange, but the first few days of retirement have gone by very quickly and there was not much time left to paint each day :-)

    Lucia: I hope that you will drop by often. Thank you!

    P.S. Lucia and Johanne are two great friends from work ( ex- work :-) I miss them so much already. I hope that this blog will be a way for us to stay in touch...sigh...

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  15. I've always found hydrangeas to be so daunting to paint....but they are such beautiful flowers. You, however, will have a masterpiece, judging by the start of this.

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  16. Christiane congrats on your first official day as a full time artist :) I can't wait to see all that you will do !

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  17. Gretchen: hydrangeas are indeed so beautiful...but I am far from creating a masterpiece:-) Nevertheless, I truyly appreciate your vote of confidence.

    Thank you, Krista! But the day at home goes by so quickly...I hardly found any time to paint. I will have to revisit my schedule:-)

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  18. this is off to a great start Christiane

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  19. Thank you, Gary.
    I will try to post my progress, tomorrow. I have a bad cold today, so did not finish it:-)
    Take care.

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  20. Congrats on your retirement! This hydrangea painting is beautiful. My favorite flower and you captured the frailty and soft colors so well. I don't think you should crop any part of it away:) Just lovely as is.

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  21. Thank you so much, Kathy,for stopping by and leaving such a nice comment. I hope that you will visit again!

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