Bella

This is a portrait of Bella. She belongs to the owner of the company my husband works for and he asked me if I would paint her. Isn't she sweet? It's 8.5 x 10.

My Secret Santa gave me this

Thank you Barbara Ann Spencer Jump, a very talented watercolor artist from Arizona who is part of an online watercolor group that I belong to. This was the gift that she sent to me.

Santa's Beard

I painted this for a Secret Santa swap with a watercolor group that I belong to.

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas!

Kathy

Blonde Ambition

Who knows what future talent lies ahead?
This is a watercolor on cold press paper.
5 x 7

Pretty Smiles

This is a recent portrait commission. I think these girls look like models. Aren't they pretty?

8.5 x 10 inches watercolor on Arches cold press

One Choice

5 x 7
This is part of a series of paintings I've done around vending machines, specifically the M&M machine at our local zoo. ;)

Honey Bee

I painted this for my sister who became a beekeeper this year.

4" x 5"

Where did October go??

Annie & Bailey

I have the privilege of being friends with the owners of these two very beautiful shelties. =) They're just gorgeous hunks of fur and they don't jump or slobber on me when I visit. Thanks Don & Jeanne. I'm showing them off for you.

Little Masterpiece

This is my latest watercolor painted on a 9 x 12 piece of Aquaboard (fka Clayboard Textured). This was my first time using it and I liked it. It's different from watercolor paper because the paint doesn't really soak in so you also have to be careful when layering because you can lift paint. The benefit of that is that if you have to correct something...it's much more forgiving than regular watercolor paper. I'll bet you can't even tell where I had to lift and correct! The other feature I like about this board is that it is a "board" and it's about 1/8" thick. You're supposed to be able to seal this with spray and frame without glass. We'll see...

The Story Book after William Bouguereau

I took the day off from work today and painted with my friend, John. ;) He encouraged me to try my hand at copying this William Bouguereau painting (first photo). I'm asking myself why I haven't attempted this before. I'm really pleased with the result and it was also a great exercise. I don't normally go quite this dark but what a dramatic effect. My version is watercolor and measures 11 x 7.5.

Sleeping Beauties

I attempted to make this look more like an illustration......Watercolor on hot press. 9 x 10.5 inches.

Omaha Autumn

A pretty path from the Old Market area in Omaha, NE.

7 x 5 watercolor.

Ghosts

I painted this along with the blog Different Strokes from Different Folks hosted by Karin Jurick. This past week the subject was white pumpkins. It had kind of an aerial angle and there were 3 pumpkins but I found it tricky to compose. I decided to play and be real lose on hot press paper. Parts of it are successful. :)

Miniature Portrait Finished - Hayley

I finished it just in time to ship it priority mail tomorrow. Measuring in at a minute 2.5 sq. inches, this is the smallest painting I've ever done. (Yes, I DID use a magnifying glass for some parts but it's tricky holding the magnifying glass in one hand and my paintbrush in the other. It messes with your depth perception. LOL)

Mr. Swiss watercolor portrait

This is another quick watercolor that I painted with Wetcanvas this weekend.

4 x 4 inches

Miniature Portrait Work in Progress

This is the beginning of a miniature painting for an upcoming show that I'm hoping to enter if I can get this finished and framed in time. My reference is a picture of my daughter. I'm using hot press paper because it is easier to get finer detail and you can build up layers and paint similarly to the way you would with oil or acrylic.

I was looking at some of the winners from The Miniature Art Society of Florida's last show and you should see how detailed they are! (Click on that link in the first sentence.) I've found some really tiny brushes in my collection and I'm trying to go slowly. They say that these can take as long as large paintings. Even though I'm going slowly, it's still a much smaller area to cover so hopefully, I will have this done in the next couple of evenings.

Just finished illustrating a book

About a year ago, a friend of a friend of a friend asked me if I would be interested in illustrating her children's book. I said Yes! not knowing exactly what I was getting into but thrilled for the opportunity. It has taken about a year on and off to complete and now it's finished. Yay! For my few readers, think of this as early notice because it may take a year before it's published depending on how quickly the publishing company gets to it so the celebration will be progressive.

Here's the cover page.

Two Quick Children's portraits

These are two quick watercolors I did for fun with the All Media Events group on Wetcanvas. Each took about an hour and they're on scraps of watercolor paper approximately 2 x 3 inches.

Little Girl

Finally, a portrait! It's been too long. In between waiting for another painting to dry, I worked on this one. It's 2 5/8 x 3 1/2 on cold press watercolor paper.

Acrylic Butterfly

Hmmm, trying to think of an interesting title but haven't settled on one yet. I painted this for myself so I really don't mind if it doesn't have a title. This is acrylic on 3/8 art board and measures 4 inches square.

Thirsty?

This is my newest painting which won first place in portraits and figures at the Bellevue Artists Association Silver Palette Show, our annual art show. It's 14 x 11 acrylic on art board and the figure is my 7 yr old son. This is #5 in a series of paintings I've done centered around vending machines.

Welcome Sun

"Welcome Sun"
2.5 x 3.5
To bid on Ebay, click here.

Peace Rose and Black Cat Art Cards

Peace Rose, 3.5 x 2.5, is painted on 140 lb. cold press paper. To bid on Ebay, click here.

Juliet & Balloon

This is an original art card. My cat Juliet is the subject and I added the balloon to give her something to look at. This is watercolor (with touches of colored pencil & ink) on 140 lb. hot press paper.

White rose

Here's another rose art card (2.5 x 3.5). I used a limited palette of rose madder, cobalt blue and new gamboge to paint the rose with a little alizarin crimson and ultramarine blue to paint the very dark crevices. The background is mostly sap green with a little burnt umber and winsor green and a wash of cobalt blue. This Ebay auction is starting at .99 with no reserve.

By the Pool

This painting is the result of a painting session with a model and some additional fiddling around when I got home. I decided to add some collage paper to the background because it just felt like it needed something to perk it up. I like the effect and it makes me think she was sitting by a pool when in actuality she was sitting on a porch. ;)

"By the Pool"

7 x 5 watercolor and collage

Coral Rose

A group of my online watercolor friends were talking about their favorite flowers to paint. Roses and daffodils are two of my favorites. I haven't painted a rose for a while so I decided to paint one. ;)

Coral Rose

3.5 x 2.5

This is the first time I've participated in an ACEO fad. Apparently Hamsters are the new Crow, so here is Out With the Old... (conspired by the hamsters of course.) watercolor and ink 2.5 x 3.5

The story behind this for non-ACEO collectors is that there have been certain subjects (like mermaids and crows) on Ebay which collectors have scrambled to buy causing prices of these little gems to skyrocket to $200-$500 (oh why didn't I participate then?) Hamsters seem to be the latest craze so I'm listing this in the hope that it will at least sell for the opening bid since collectors haven't been that interested in my stuff lately. Wish me luck. I have Ebay fees to pay.

Monet Wannabe

Another day of plein air painting was an opportunity to repaint Marge and then paint Peter. Here's Peter in his Monet hat. We only had about 30-45 minutes after lunch so we had to paint quickly but the results were very satisfying and I'm really starting to appreciate the learning opportunities from being able to paint from life. Go check out Peter's impressionistic painting here.

Landscape Painter

I was invited to go plein air painting today with two friends from the Bellevue Artists Association. One of them has a home near the Missouri River, a really beautiful refuge. The weather was perfect so we found a spot near the river and set up. I'm really not crazy about landscape painting myself, so I painted Marge while she was painting. This started out as a pencil drawing in my sketchbook and then I decided to add some watercolor to it.

Making Hearts

I'm sorry I haven't posted in so long. I didn't realize it had been since April 18. I HAVE been painting. Here is a recent watercolor called Making Hearts, 7 x 5.



click here to bid on Ebay

Resting (Black Siamese Cat)

This is another acrylic painting of my cat Juliet, who is all black but appears to have some siamese in her because she has a very slinky body and a really affectionate personality. This painting is done on Art Board which is a really wonderful 3/8" thick natural fiber panel made of douglas fir. This is a really nice quality support with a keyhole slot on the back to hang it. Click here to bid on Ebay.

Measures 7.75 x 7.75 inches.

Yellow Daff on Green Background

I started using some of my regular colors to paint this daffodil and then decided to switch to quinacridone gold and winsor blue. You can really see the contrast of these colors in the shadow on the left petals. It was kind of fun to experiment. I'm still searching for the perfect yellow shadow colors. ;) To bid on Ebay, click here.

Yellow Gold

This is another beauty from my garden. To bid on Ebay, click here.

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Indian Lady

For two years, I spent almost every weekend painting with the All Media Art Events group on Wetcanvas. It really increased my confidence and gave me the courage to venture out on my own. I occasionally go back to play and tonight I decided to paint along with them.

This is an ACEO 3.5 x 2.5 "Indian Lady". Click here to bid.

Childhood Memories Show Win

I'm pretty happy tonight. I won Member's Choice for my piece in the Childhood Memories show on EBSQArt. (And there's even some prize money.... =)

Morning Glow - Daffodil WIP (watercolor demonstration)

My daffodils are FINALLY blooming! I'm so happy. This morning I went out and took a bunch of photographs and I decided to make this a watercolor WIP (work in progress). This is an ACEO (Art Cards, Editions, & Originals) 3.5 x 2.5 inches. I used watercolor on Arches 140 lb hot press paper and then at the end I went over some parts with watercolor pencil but I didn't blend the pencil with water. To bid on this ACEO on Ebay, click here.

I first drew my daffodils on. I lost a little more of the left daff than I had wanted but it works OK because the focus is on the taller one. I used New Gamboge, to paint a wash on the flowers, Cerulean Blue in the background and Winsor Green and more New Gamboge to paint the stems & leaves. Hot press paper is smooth and requires more building up of the paint than cold press.

I used burnt sienna and winsor green to develop the darks in the leaves and ground. Cadmium orange for the centers of the flowers and cobalt blue, rose madder and new gamboge to paint the shadows. I didn't completely mix the 3 colors but let some of it mix on the paper so it wouldn't look flat.

I just continued to build up the color using the same colors mentioned above. Then I used some cerulean watercolor pencil to go over the back a little and some alizarin crimson pencil to go over the shadows on the daff and over the burnt sienna in the background. I like the additional look from the pencil strokes and it intensified the color.

Swallowtail & Lilacs

Happy Spring!

7 x 11

Another Daffodil

"Up Close" 5 x 7

I painted this daffodil with watercolor on gessoed watercolor paper. I randomly cover about 50-75% of the paper with gesso making lots of marks. This makes a very interesting texture when you paint on top of it. I also try to go dark in the background with the first wash because the watercolor doesn't soak in to the gesso so if you go back over it, you will lift paint. This also creates lots of interesting texture possibilities. It's a lot of fun when painting organic subjects. Tuscan Pear is another example of watercolor on gesso. Click here to bid on Ebay.

Childhood Memories Art Show on EBSQArt - I entered my collage piece from Monday into this show. Click here to view it and if you'd like, you can register as a patron and vote for your favorite painting in any show on EBSQArt. (P.S. My piece is on the very last page.)

P.S. Thanks if you voted in the EBSQArt show. My piece won Member's Choice.

Ready for Spring

"Daffodil Morning"

In anticipation of spring which seems like it's taking forever to get to, I've listed this daffodil watercolor on Ebay. I painted it in the fall and apparently forgot to share. :) It's almost square at 6.75 x 7.5 inches. It would look stunning in a frame. I am anxiously awaiting my new crop of daffodils to bloom. They look like it could happen any day now. If we'd only get some sun...*sigh*

Childhood Memories - Mixed Media painting

Today I played with mixed media. I made this piece for the EBSQArt Childhood Memories show (which you can vote on starting April 1 through April 7). I used acrylic, collage, watercolor crayon, pastel pencil, and Crayola crayon to create this artwork. The small drawings were actually done my son who is the subject.



dimensions = 10 x 10
(though my scanner cuts off about 1/2" on each side.)

Life Begins

Several images came to mind when I was thinking of how I wanted to illustrate "life begins" for the Daily Watercolors Wednesday theme. I have experienced many changes in my life this past year and I can say that I am transitioning into something much greater than I could ever have imagined. I chose a butterfly to symbolize "life begins" because once they have transitioned from a caterpillar, they soar and life really begins for them! To bid on Ebay, click here.

Sunday Painter

This is for my friend Erika! Thanks for the encouragement. ;)

To bid on Ebay, click here.

WIP 4 and 5 (final)

Here are the last two pictures of the portrait WIP I've been sharing. I used mixes of alizarin crimson, cobalt blue, burnt sienna and burnt umber to model the face. the beard is paynes gray, winsor blue and burnt umber. I lifted paint in areas where I wanted it to be light gray.