Ring the Bells!!!

ring the bells that still can ring

forget your perfect offering

there is a crack in everything

that's how the light gets in

-leonard cohen

Recreating a Background

I enjoyed painting these lilies- A LOT! I think if there were only one type of flower to paint, this may be my pick. Everything from the color of the stamens, the messy flower edges, leaves, and whimsical patterns capture my heart and attention.
On this piece I  headed for a close-up of three favorite buds. They were completed without too much work; however,  I ignored planning the background. I KNOW better than that! After studying the blank, white background for a couple of days I decided to go in with a light, grey-blue gouache. What was I thinking?!? So, now that I'd killed the white of the paper (one of the 10 Commandments for a watercolorist) I realized this was a gonner. I tossed this painting into my 'stand-by' pile and moved on to my next victim.
After another painting or two I glanced back at this and decided to pull it out, experiment with dropping indigo and darker colors on TOP of the gouache and see what happened. I enjoyed the effect as the opaque gouache background acted almost like YUPO paper. Suddenly I had a 2nd chance with this piece. A few hours later this was my end result.
Lesson (that I've learned again and again): Some of my best pieces are the result of me totally giving up, walking away, then coming back with fresh eyes and energy.

Picasso Meets VanGogh?

I took a day off of my painting schedule to…..paint! I belong to a fun online class of watercolorists (Create 38) and May's objective was to study the color of yellow (not one of my favorites). I started with good 'yellow' intentions but repeatedly leaned toward a more chosen color of mine - orange. LOVE ORANGE!  These sunflowers were from the Solvang farmers market and reminded me so much of a couple of impressionists I admire.

BTW, the online class is led by Vinita Pappas and is inspiring!