Sunday Report

This has been another week with very little painting and a lot of work. Next weekend is a long weekend, and I certainly intend to spend many hours painting. I will use my next few evening to get several projects on the go.

I have been painting only in my head, these days. However, at least, one of my Venice paintings, Only in Venice,  has just been featured on Red Bubble, in the Works on Paper group.  This reminds me that I have neglected my "Memories of Venice" series lately.

This morning, I went to the beautiful Experimental Farm Ornamental Gardens to take some pictures as future references for paintings.   Which one to choose for the coming projects? What about this hollyhock picture?

I also took some pictures of cherries on the linen lace piece I showed a few weeks ago - I have not shot the perfect reference yet, but I think that I am getting closer to what I want.

Hopefully, I will have more than photographs, plans and previously shown paintings to post by next weekend.

I wish you all a great week.

Almost too busy to paint!

This past week, I was extremely busy in my full-time job and had little energy left to paint. I did try to paint a few minutes every night, but with my eyes closing with fatigue...not the best conditions for a painter:-) I am posting the artistic results of this low energy week.

The first photo is of the probably finished strawberry trio: Forever Friends, three optimistic berries who don't realize that they will soon find themselves in a real jam :-)

This watercolor painting is on a white background and will be sold matted in white ( with a black core showing at the beveled edge) to 5"X 7" to fit a 8"X10" frame. It is a great companion piece for the other berry paintings shown in previous posts.

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The next painting will be on my list of "to redo". I like parts of it, but I don't find it "crisp and clean" enough , It is from a picture offered free of copyright to artists by Billie Crain on the Paint my Photo site. It is 7.5 X 9.5" approx. and would fit an 11"X 14" frame.

I also bought myself a few new toys: oil paints, brushes and medium. I don't think that I will ever find a painting medium that I like more than watercolors, but why not give oils a try. Who knows?

Have a great week and I hope that we will all have the time and the energy to create beautiful art:-)

Two recent features on Red Bubble

I have had two new features on the Red Bubble site lately:
My Laundry Day in Venice watercolor (above) has just been featured in, what else, the Wash Day Group. This is the 4th Red Bubble feature for this painting that also ranked in the top ten in one of that site's artists challenges.

My two strawberries in  Let's Talk  were recently featured in the Fruit and Veg Shop group.

It's always fun to check the Red Bubble site and find out that one of my paintings has been highlighted. This always sends me right back to my brushes - an instant motivator!
Have a great Saturday evening.

Work in progress - Forever Friends

The heat wave that won't go away is making me lazy and I have not painted as much as I should have. nevertheless, I want to show you what I am working on: ANOTHER small strawberry painting. After painting one lonely strawberry, two seriously-talking strawberries, I am now depicting three optimistic strawberries - "Forever Friends".  This is only a WIP at this stage since I still have a lot of work to do it...the green leaves and the shadows should improve its impact; however, I have been working at night again, and that's never when I do my best work:-(

I want to start adding a bit more complexity to these berry paintings. Here is a picture of  part of a  linen lace placemat  that I would like to use next time - although I may have photographed the wrong side of it:-).  What do you think?

"Let's talk!": New strawberry painting

As I mentioned below, I sold a strawberry watercolor at last weekend's art show. People liked them because they look so realistic with all their seeds and highlights.Today I finished one of the strawberry watercolor paintings I had started, but not finished for that show.

This one is called "Let's talk!" since these two strawberries really seem to be having a serious "tête-à-tête".
It is on Arches 140lb CP watercolor paper. The background is left white in order to focus on the strawberries and their shadows. It is matted in white with interior dimensions of  approximately 4.5" X 6.5" and will fit a 8"X10" frame. The mat can be all white, or, if I find another, with a black core line showing at the beveled edge as with my single berry below.

I am really having a lot of fun painting these strawberries -each one  seems to have  its own character:-)
 I have another sketch ready, with three strawberries this time -an increment of one with each new watercolor.

$50 US, matted, unframed. Free shipping in North America

This is a great companion piece to the watercolor below, "Berry Lonely", which is also on Arches 140 lb CP watercolor paper and painted with Windsor and Newton professional grade watercolor paint.It is on a white background ( although the background looks pinkish on my monitor) and is also matted in white ( with black core showing at the beveled edge of the mat) with interior dimensions of  approximately 4.5" X 6.5" and will fit a 8"X10" frame.

$49 Canadian, matted, unframed. Free shipping in North America

I am looking forward to reading your comments on the new berry...my next painting will probably be a floral so that you don't all get sick and tired of looking at strawberries.
If you have any questions, email me at chris_kingsley@hotmail.com
Have a great Sunday.