Celebration Day!

After a lack-luster Christmas season art wise, January has been AMAZING! I credit a lot of the success to Leslie Saeta's 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge. Above is a collage of the paintings and pieces of artwork that I made during January 1-30. Nine of them sold. Below is a collage with the sold pieces indicated by a red dot. Thank you so much for the support and encouragement if you purchased any of them.

My original plan was to do ALL 4" X 6" watercolors. I did not do that, but I did do quite a few of those and decide to make a collage of just those to see if I have "a style" in the smaller format.

My watercolors are usually large; I tended to paint more realistically in a smaller format. I think that the smaller watercolors have traits in common, but are not as distinctive. I have a few favorites though. The earlier ones are on display at Stifel & Capra in Fall Church, VA. I will be framing several of the others for shows around town.

Another exciting thing that happened in January is that I started painting in alcohol inks on yupo. Both the medium and the surface are new to me. What fun! What a struggle! I've by no means conquered it or explored its possibilities!

I hope your January was one to be proud of. See you in February!

Day 16 - Thirty Paintings in Thirty Days

Time for Tea

Mixed Media

4" X 7"

If my daughter sees this, she will likely call me a cheater, since I didn't begin this piece of artwork today, but I did finish it up today, so I am going to count it. "Time for Tea" contains many elements and layers. The spoon and the blue floral at the top are watercolor monotype elements. I constructed the tea bag out of several layers of paper and used the actual string, staples and little tag/label. The square is part of a watercolor that I decided would be better served in parts. Behind the spoon is a piece of an aquatint etching. I also see some papers I purchased and some papers some friends and I dyed and embellished.

Inspiration for this piece comes mainly from my print studio friends. Printing there requires a tea time to catch up and I greatly enjoy that. I am currently planning a show with these wonderful ladies, called Collective Ink Printmakers. That said, I am off to the print studio. Enjoy today's 30 in 30 here and on Leslie Saeta's blog.

Days 14 and 15 - Thirty Paintings in Thirty Days

Border Riot

4" X 6"

$40

Click here to purchase

So...tonight I am attempting to place catch up on the artwork front. While my teen daughter was in a voice lesson, I sketched the image above of zinnias from Photostream on my iPhone. Thank goodness for technology. It isn't my best work ever, but I got a new book on painting flowers in watercolor last weekend, so I wanted to do another flower painting. I didn't really follow any of what the book recommended except it talked about petals reflecting the sky, so I did add a little blue to some of the petals, which I really like. I was also a little more aware of the fact that flowers are three dimensional. I got a little bit bored with it at the end and started abstracting the background shapes, which I also like.

Yellow Belly

4" X 6"

$40

Click here to purchase

After I finished my flowers, I decided to finish one of my etched pieces. You would have to look REALLY closely at the turtle, but the line drawing he consists of is an etching on a piece of rice paper. I then gesso the back of the paper and watercolor the front. From there, I did things slightly differently than my normal mixed media process. I knew I wanted to include the turtle in some collage, but I feared that the watercolor would run when I applied matte medium, so for the first time, I sprayed the front of the turtle with varnish and let it dry before proceeding. I also applied him to a 300# scrap of watercolor paper instead of the printmaking paper that I normally use. (It was really wonderful to avoid the warping of paper!) I think he turned out well; I love lime green and bright blue together.