April Showers...

Well, I can dream about them anyways. Still have snow on the yard but the days are growing longer and the temperatures are slowly warming up.  To celebrate, I'm getting back to work on a floral painting I started many moons ago. It was too grey, now it is too blue.  More tweaking to go.

Spring Flowers

Winter, winter.... go away, come again another day......

It is amazing to remember that this time last year I was basking in the sun, the lawn was green, flowers were blooming, and most importantly winter was over!  I can definitely tell that the days are getting longer, and even the last few days of warmth and sunshine can fool one to believe that spring is here.  But, this morning waking to snow squalls was a definite reminder that winter has not given up so easily. 

Spring Flowers
6" x 4" watercolour

© 2013

untitled - New Watercolour Work in Progress

I'm having fun with the watercolours right now and I started another one last night and I offer a sneak peak at a small section of it.  Can you tell that I have spring on my mind?  It is hard to believe that this time last year the snow was gone and the temperatures were creeping up to the +15C mark!  This year there is still plenty of snow on the ground, though it is suppose to creep up to above zero this week.  Perhaps I will see the snowdrops soon!

un-titled
6" x 4" watercolour

© 2013

White Tulip II - Work in Progress

I started working on the companion piece to my white tulip... it is another white tulip, though a slightly different pose. In the past, painting flowers has always guaranteed a certain amount of frustration. These two have actually been quiet fun to paint so far.


White Tulip
12" x 24" oil on canvas
© 2011

White Tulip - First Layer Complete

I can't believe March has come and gone already (where has the time gone!)! The first 'dead' under layer to my tulip painting is now finished, just waiting for the paint to dry so I can begin adding the colours. I usually paint small, though the times that I do paint larger I really really enjoy. Perhaps... I should start painting larger more often.



White Tulip
12" x 24" oil on canvas
© 2011

White Tulip - Work in Progress

Needed a break from all the water drops... and my walls were looking a little bare, so I have started a new 'larger' painting. The first black and white layer is almost complete, then I'll be adding the colour.


White Tulip
12" x 24" oil on canvas
© 2011

Purple Pansy

Something a little different for me tonight.... a large (for me) flower, specifically my favourite flower... the pansy. I will, one day, master the painting of the flower... even if it takes me 100+ paintings.



Purple Pansy
5" x 7" watercolour
© 2010

Rose - Finished Painting

Finished and now back to the birds. I have a couple of birds on the go and have my eyes on another floral painting in the future. Enjoy!


Rose
4" x 6" Watercolour
© 2009

Rose, Work in Progress

I didn't get nearly as much painting done this last week as I wanted, but... I got busy with life (well, relaxing and catching up with housework) but I think I am back into the swing of things. Tonight, I felt like trying to paint a flower again, but this time a rose.... and with bright fully saturated colours. So far, I love it! I think it is my best floral painting yet. I'm not quite finished it, though I do not anticipate it taking me long to finish a couple petals and fill in the background. Then... back to the birds!


Rose
4" x 6" Watercolour
© 2009

Daisy, An Old Work in Progress

Its been a few months since I last worked on this painting, but I've decided to pick up my brushes and work a little more on this one. I apologize for the poor picture... I'll take another one after I get a bit more done and in better light. Once this one is done, I have my eye on a much larger floral painting for my walls. I'll post a work in progress when I get started...


Daisy
10" x 8" Acrylic on Canvas
© 2009

Pink Poppies

I've been practicing painting flowers again... and I am pretty happy with today's efforts. I tried not to worry too much about the details and concentrate more on the colours and shapes. As a result, I think this is my best flower painting yet.


Pink Poppies
3" x 5" Watercolour
© 2009

Daisy, Work in Progress

I had an irresistible urge to pick up the acrylic paints tonight and paint. Yup... I have lots of other paintings on the go... but, when the creative bug strikes one cannot argue. Actually, I have been debating about playing experimenting with the acrylic paints on some 'rescued' canvases for a while now. By rescued, I mean gesso'ing over previously abandoned paintings to reuse the canvas. So far so good on this one... and hopefully I will be done it soon. A little bit of sunshine for my walls.



Daisy, Work in Progress
10" x 8" acrylic
© 2009

Saskatoon Berries

This one was finished late last night... been struggling with the greens in the leaves and the white of the flower. Greens are causing me some problems, especially lots of greens and having some distinction between the various elements that are green. Oh well, one does not learn until they keep on practicing.



"Saskatoon Berries"
4" x 6" watercolour and acrylic
© 2008

Smiling Faces

Or... facing my fear of greens. I decided to tackle my nemesis tonight... that is, my fear of using greens. I used a mixture of my new paints (the purples) and my old paints (greens, yellows, and blues) tonight with the goal of mixing lots of different greens. Tonights effort at these greens produced reasonable results, though I am particularly proud of the pansy faces. Very few flower paintings ever make it to my blog as I tend to scrap them fairly soon after starting. There is something about flowers and I that just do not get along when it comes to painting.



"Smiling Faces"
3" x 4" watercolour
© 2008

White Trillium

Finally found some time to try out my new 300lbs hot press paper this week (its been an incredibly busy week). I really like some of the properties of the hot press... the colour lifts easily and I really like the softness of the edges that I'm able to achieve. Some of the things I don't like: the colours seem dull... though that is probably me trying to mix to many colours together. I have more pieces of paper to play with and I should have a few more paintings posted this weekend.



"White Trillium"
4" x 6" watercolour on paper
© 2008

Emerging

One down and several more to go... I've been working on this painting for a little while now and I am happy to say that it is done. This was painted as a companion piece to my other tulip and I am planning one more piece for this set. The third painting is still in the planning stage (won't start it until I get a few more of my incomplete paintings finished).



"Emerging"
3" x 5" oil on canvas paper
© 2008

Spring Scents

With more snow again today on the West Coast I had to keep reminding myself that spring is just around the corner. Thus, this little painting of a bumblebee checking out the spring flowers just had to be done.



"Spring Scents"
3.5" x 2.5" watercolour
© 2008


I painted this guy with mostly my Daniel Smith paints (I added a little bit of burnt sienna). There is even a little touch of iridescence paint in the tips of the flowers.

Fading Magnolia

Arrgg... photographing wet oil paintings in the evening is got to be impossible. I tried about 20 shots of this one and this was the best of the bunch. This is another (and possibly the last) painting that I am going to enter into the upcoming art show. Though, this might not be the final version of this one. I am thinking that once it is dry in a couple days I will go in and tweak some of the highlights and deep shadows in the center of the flower.




"Fading Magnolia"
4" x 3" oil on canvas paper
© 2007


I only have two more paintings to mat and frame and I can see myself in the very near future making a trip to the gallery to drop off my submissions. Once I have these little paintings done, I am going to return to work on my somewhat abandoned lighthouse and my apple still life.

Technorati Tags: art, miniature, flower, magnolia, oil+painting, wwao, etsy

White Tulip

I've been working on this one for a few days now... finally I think it is done (unless I see something). I tried not to fuss with the details on this one as much as I normally do, but I just couldn't help but pick up that tiny brush and add some details.



"White Tulip"
3" x 5" oil on canvas paper
© 2007

Magnolias

This is one of my favourite paintings so far! It is painted with a limited palette of ultramarine blue, hansa yellow light, alizarin crimson, and titanium-zinc white. In between painting chickadee's and the lighthouse, I have been experimenting with limited palettes... just to help me learn how to mix my colours. One of my happy mixes in this painting was a combination of alizarin crimson, hansa yellow light, and white. These three colours (in the right porportions) create an amazing glow on the magnolias and really helps to warm up the flowers.



"Magnolias"
5" x 7" oil on canvas paper
© 2007


Technorati Tags: art, magnolia, flower, oil+painting, wwao