Follow the Leader...Finished for now

I am spending a restful week in Maine, right on the ocean. Unfortunately, it has rained all day today and we are expecting more of the same tomorrow. Nevertheless, I am enjoying my vacation away from work.
I spent a few minutes this afternoon finishing my Cherry/Crab Apples painting.  It probably needs a few more finishin touches, but I will call it finished for now at least.
The picture was taken inside with my small camera - the colors may be quite off on your monitor.

If we have a sunny day before we go back home, I will try to get pictures of waves ans seagulls to share.

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.

"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.

Magnolia II for Canada Day

 I have a four-day weekend because of Canada Day. It was so enjoyable to spend the day painting. After the small details of the strawberry and the maze of the peony petals, I wanted something easy and relaxing. I painted a variation of my "Southern Belle" magnolia painting ( see earlier post below). This is a smaller size than my initial version and is less dramatic...but I think that in general it is better painted. Or at least should be once I have smoothed some areas and some edges.

Arches 140 CP watercolor paper with W&N paints.
7.5" X 9.5"
The background is almost black with plum highlights.

Small video workshop study and question

I am completing a small strawberry study from Jacqueline Gnott's video " My Favorite Things". Jacqueline makes one take a real close-up look at a strawberry. Wow. I had never noticed all those small details before. Fascinating! Here is my humble  5" x7" rendition of Jacqueline's fruit:

My husband laughed yesterday afternoon as he found me in the kitchen taking pictures of almost every strawberry in the basket he had purchased earlier. I was looking for strawberries with stems...but there was none!!!

I will be in a two-day show at the end of July. Apparently last year not a single painting sold at that show:-(  I think I should have small paintings of this size either framed or just matted to offer some less expensive art. What do you think?

Most artists at that upcoming show work in oil or acrylic. I believe that there will be only one other watercolor artist. I found that surprising. That brought me to reflect on what medium is used on the various daily painters sites. Most daily  works are in oils; acrylic is next. Watercolor is fairly rare. Why is that?
Do people hesitate to buy online a painting that is either not yet framed or is framed in glass that could break in transit? Is it that watercolor is not popular or is perceive of lesser value than oil or acrylic paintings?

I would really like to hear your opinion on this topic.

Have a great Sunday.

Peony WIP part 4- Almost completed

There was an earthquake in Ottawa, Canada, today. My office building had to be evacuated and I finally went home around 3 pm...thus getting a bit of unexpected painting time. I worked on the petals of my peony. Unfortunately I worked after the natural sunlight was gone...I often make color choice errors with my artificial light. Once I had painted all the petals, I realized that all my petal colors were cool colors; so I quickly tried to add little hints of warmth here and there.|That probably was not very wise,,, Here is what the painting looks like photographed inside with a flash. I can't wait for tomorrow morning to see what it "really" looks like in daylight.  I still have quite a few finishing touches to add and a few imperfections to fix ( white streaks in the background because of smeared miskit, white that need softer edges etc).

Let me know what you think.

Pink Peony -Wip Part 2- the leaves

Finally, here is an update of my Pink Peony: I have now completed - for the time being anyway- the background and the leaves.  I have tried to keep the light mostly on the right hand side. I hope that these leaves don't look too overworked.
 What do you think?
I can't wait to start adding some color to the petals.

Pink Peony WIP

I have been having a lot of fun looking through all my recent photographs of peonies. It's now time to get down to work and use at least one of these photos as inspiration for a new watercolor.

 I intend to use many glazes to achieve a rich dark background as in the previous two peony paintings below.However, this time, instead of painting a white peony, I have chosen a soft pink one. The bloom was past its prime, but at least there was a bit of sunshine and shadows on this one.

Below you can see the work in progress on Arches bright white 140 lb CP. The size is approximately 11" X 14".

The first photo shows the work as I am leaving it tonight: the background is almost finished. It's black and dark green...The green may not show very much on certain monitors. The flower and leaves are covered with either liquid or film miskit.

 The second photo shows the drawing with the miskit. I spent more time than usual on this drawing: I worked on it during a two-hour train ride yesterday:-) I removed many leaves that were on the photograph..I will see if this was a wise decision of not...

I hope that I will find the time after work this week to complete this painting. I need a small painting for a show starting Sunday.. I will keep my fingers crossed that this one will be good enough. Otherwise, do you think the previous peony would do?

Have a great week.

DVD Painting Update 1

I have continued working with Jacqueline Gnott's DVD on painting a peony. After the dark background, I have tackled the leaves on the right-hand side of the painting.

I have just realized that I have never painted leaves before - flowers and petals, yes; leaves, never! Therefore, I tell myself that this first try did not turn out too badly. My first mistake though was in misinterpreting the  drawing when I used the liquid masking: I painted background in a few places where a leaf should have been, and I completely misinterpreted the lines that represented a large stem. Ah., well! It is still somewhat believable.

I also lost a lot of the highlights that Jacqueline kept. I probably went much too dark on certain leaves. Jacqueline achieved her darks in about 2 or 3 layers max....I must have at least 5 layers in certain areas. The pink on the bud is also too pink; I will go back and put in some magenta to darken it a bit.

Anyway, here is the progress picture with all its imperfections and sloppiness.  The next step will be to finish the leaves, mostly on the right-hand side. I can't wait to start the petals. However, I have just noticed how white the whites are in Jacqueline's painting - I am using 140 lb CP Arches - Bright white. Is there such a thing as extra bright?
Added Monday, 1200pm:
On my monitor at work, I have just noticed that the image is too bright - in real life, the green in the background hardly shows and the leaves are more subdued. On my monitor right now, the painting looks really ugly while I like it in real life.

Red Bubble feature of my pears

One of my watercolor paintings from the Dazzling Pears series has just been featured in one of the groups at Red Bubble. It is so nice to see those bright colors in February!

It's a bit of a coincidence since just this weekend I made this painting available on my other blog ( see menu on the right)  in the form of note cards- I print  these note cards myself and they re much smaller than the art cards available on Red Bubble

Those little poured paintings were a lof of fun to paint.

Venetian Shutters: Second pour and direct painting

In spite of all my good intentions, I did very little painting this weekend. I did a second pour for my background, and in the last hour, leaving most of the masking on, started some direct painting ....bad decision. I painted in poor light, and I feel that I have made a mess ( window arch and metal strip on the right hand side, especially)! For some strange reason,  instead of working on my lights, I put in some of the darks in the windows here and there...everything is very disjointed and after working on 300# hot press and cold press, I seem to have forgotten how to apply paint on my dear 140lb cold press :-)
I hope that I will be able to fix the messy parts...but I will get better lighting for working at night.

I wish you all a great week.

Venetian Shutters - First pour

The only work I had time to do this week on my new painting is the initial pouring. The colors did not quite turn out the way I wanted to. You will notice that I will be painting a much sunnier version of this scene and that the colors will be more pastels.However, I don't want it to be too similar to my "Laundry Day in Venice" that started with the same colors.  I hope to put the focus on the reflected shadows of the shutters and the plants.

I hope to have the chance to spend a few hours working on this painting during the weekend. 

Next painting in "Memories of Venice" series

During the last few weeks, I have just been experimenting with various papers without working on a larger painting.Today, I realized that after such a hiatus, I felt nervous about committing to what
I call " an attempt at  a painting worth framing". I am very good at procrastinating, so to avoid looking for excuses, here goes: I am posting the picture that I will use as inspiration....there is no turning back after this:-)

Some of you may recognize a portion of this picture that I used a while back for "Springtime in Venice". It is a picture that I took last April during my two-week stay in Venice. It is another Venetian facade to add to my series of "Memories of Venice"watercolors if the painting turns out ok.

I hope that my blogging friends are not getting too tired of these Venetian facades.For me, the main attraction of this scene is the opportunity to play with colorful shadows ( from the shutters and the plants). The smooth portions of the wall should also be great for pouring, my favorite technique.

I have finished the sketch and have used Pebeo masking fluid to keept my whites and main highlights.

Hopefully, after work this week, I won't be too tired to start the first pours.
I am using Arches 140 lb CP, my old faithful, and the painting will be approximately 15" X 20 ".

Wishing you a great Sunday.

Another experiment with 300lb Hot Pressed Watercolor Paper

Two posts ago, I communicated the results of my first experiment with 300lb Hot Pressed Fabriano watercolor paper. I was not pleased at all with my experience - I felt that I had no control over the paint. However, many artists love this paper - I was obviously doing something wrong. Yesterday, I gave this paper another try. The results may not be too great, but this time I actually had fun painting on this paper. I used less water, I lifted paint with a tissue, I created texture with  paper towels, with salt. and with a sponge.
As inspiration, I used another of my photos from last year's trip to Venice.  Here is the photo:

I cropped the picture and painted only a part of it on a 11"X14" Fabriano HP. The paving stones did not come out the way I intended, but I am fairly happy with the two silhouettes.

I think I need a break from my experimenting and will go back to my old faithful, Arches 140 lb CP watercolor paper before I forget how to paint on it.

Have a great day.

Experiment #2- Arches 300 lb Cold Pressed Paper

Last week, I painted a quick sketch on Fabriano 300lb Hot Pressed paper that I was using for the first time. You can read in one of my previous posts that I was not totally enchanted by that paper. However, I will try it one of these days for a floral watercolor.

In my search for that perfect watercolor paper that would not need any taping or stapling and still would not buckle, I purchased some Arches 300 lb CP  paper. Today, I redid last week's sketch of a Venetian balcony:  I spent about the same amount of time on the painting and used very similar colors.

What is the verdict? Have I found the perfect paper for ME? Let's see...
The Arches 300 lb CP is very sturdy - I don't think I would have to stretch it even for my pours. It seems to be quite forgiving and allow some lifting of the wet paint without damage to the paper. I like that! This paper gives me more control over the flow of the paint than the 300 lb HP Fabriano. It reacted beautifully to the use of the salt technique....better than the Fabriano and better than the Arches 140lb CP. However, the paper is more heavily textured than the Arches 140lb...so much more that I went back and checked my bill to ensure that I had not bought Rough paper instead of the CP. This texture does have an impact on the application of the paint...drybrush effects are very easy to produce...even when that is not quite what you want to do:-)
The paint dries much lighter on this paper because of its blotting effect ....you have to use more paint.

Do I prefer this paper over my regular Arches 140lb CP? Certainly not...at least I am not used to it enough to prefer it over my old standby. I like the sturdiness of this paper, but I have not succeeded, at least in this first experiment, to achieve the luminous quality that I can sometimes get with the 140lb.

I still have over 3/4 of a sheet of this expensive 300 lb paper...I will certainly experiment some more with it. , but may not use it for my next larger painting.

Any comments about this paper and tips about the best ways to use it?

Update 4: Almost done

This latest picture was taken with a flash and does not represent the colors 100% accurately.

I have done the ironwork ( tougher than I thought:-), have removed all the masking, added clothespins for a few dots of color. I still have to put in the clothesline - will probably use white acrylic for that - and all the finishing details especially around the whites where the masking was.

From a distance, this painting is quite nice:-) . I am getting tired of looking at it though and I am looking forward to painting something quite simple next.

Humble Venetian Door -Update 3

The "Humble Venetian Door" is humbling me, I fear. :-)
I hope that some of you are still following my slow progress. This is Thanksgiving weekend in Canada: I really hope to finish this WIP by tomorrow.

I have greyed down some of the pinks and yellows on the facade, I have done some work on the water, the dark background beyond the ironwork. The cool pink on the left-hand side is still attracting too much attention and I also have to decide how I will tackle the ironwork.

Lessons learned so far: what really attracted me to the reference picture was the shadow of the laundry and the door - I don't think they stand out that much in this painting...perhaps I should have zoomed in a bit more on those two elements; I should have spent more time on the composition and placed the laundry shadow less on the edge of the paper.

This is art and not simple production; with every work, we should move forward in some way or at least express ourselves in a new creative way. Reproducing what we have already mastered is not art....Making mistakes, not achieving perfection, is part of the journey... My, I am good at justifying my errors :-)

Work in progress...no title yet

In my previous post, I showed the picture below that I am using for a new watercolor in the "Memories of Venice" ( or, if you prefer, " Yes, it's yet another Venetian door!" :-)) series.

This painting will undoubtedly be quite different from my previous ones: I will not focus on a close-up of the door, but will show most of the facade; the colors in the reference are rather drab and subdued ( but I probably won't resist the temptation of adding lots of color.); the humble facade does not speak of past Venetian splendor.  However, the shadows under the hanging laundry are so attractive.
..
I already feel that this will be a challenge for me...Especially for that reason, to push myself to go ahead with this, I will post my progress...It may be slow because of current pressures in my full-time job ( You see, I am already coming up with excuses :-) . The WIP may bore most of you, but believe me, it's going to take a lot of courage on my part to publicize  my artistic struggle...What if the result is only good for the bin???( nail biting, heart pounding, finger on the delete button etc....!)

Without further ado..and with a deep breath..., here are the first stage of Memories of Venice VI.

Stage1:   The sketch is done on Arches 140lb CP, approximately 16" X 20". I have masked the sections to remain white ( around the door, the laundry) and the ironwork on the windows. I may have made the sketch too dark ...I wanted it to show in the picture.
As usual, I am starting with a pouring technique for the background, using three primary colors. Oops...where has the gray facade gone???? Ah well...

I hope that you will stay tuned for an update later on this week.
Take care.

I am not the only one who is crazy about Italian doors...

I joined the Red Bubble Site about a month ago. Last week, for the fun of it, I entered my Venetian Doorway in a group challenge "Doors and Windows". What a relief to see that I am not the only person around with a door fixation :-)...

And what a pleasant surprise to find out two days ago that my favorite door had been voted one of the ten top entries...and the only non-photographic winner.
...

Here is the picture reference that I will be using for my next Venetian door  watercolor painting- not at all a Palazzo door, that's for sure. In fact, that's one of the most humble-looking doors that I have seen in Venice.
However, the hanging laundry is symbolic of the life on the other side of the door - it leads my imagination beyond the door to an interior and individuals that I will never get to know...On the other hand, those individuals will never know that I was on the outside wondering about them. In fact, don't we go through life building doors to separate us from others, to keep them out or simply unaware that others would like to be invited in.  Viewed this way,  this humble door takes on more meaning for me than the gilded door of an empty palazzo....

Hopefully, I will soon have some pictures to show my progress with this painting.

I know that they are meant to be sold, but....

Yesterday,in her blog, Deb Ward mentioned that she was hanging up a show. Yesterday, I did the opposite:I took down my paintings from a summer-long two-women show at Mariposa Farm, just outside of Ottawa.
It was a successful show since we sold some paintings, had a great opening reception with the delicious Mariposa food, received good feedback and made new friends.
Here is a picture from that show even though the lighting was not conducive to great photography - and the wall not completely straight :-)

However, I was beaming yesterday to see my paintings again and to bring several of them back home :-) I know that a big reason for showing my paintings is to sell them, but I was so happy to get my "little babies" back, to admire them and to find them even better than I remembered them. And I really missed those that I had sold :-)

Paintings are an expression of our feelings, of our vision of the world. In many ways, they are part of us. I suppose that it is only natural that we feel a certain sadness in parting with them and joy at seeing them again. Do you all feel this way?

In the picture above, you can see on the right-hand side two of my Dazzling Pears paintings. Here is a close-up of one of them, Light and Shadows - Part of the light is in fact due to the reflection of the flash on the glass. It is probably not quite as successful as the two previous Dazzling Pears that  I have posted, but it is part of my experiments with the pouring and masking techniques.