getting serious about loosening up

Watercolor on gessoed watercolor paper. My daughter, Kajsa, went to Yellowstone this summer and took several photographs of the wildlife - I painted this once and it was stiff and awful so I tried again and this time it turned out much more like what I was aiming for -  I have never painted on gessoed paper before but it sure helped me to keep it loose - 8x10 -

I like this one!

This started out to be an acrylic under painting for an evening sky and distant treeline water color painting.  I realized that the foreground was too dark to go back in with watercolors which had been my original intention. (OK so I wasn't thinking straight from the get go ) Anyway,  I started messing around with pastels on the under painting and this is what I got and I'm very happy with it- Surprise!!! I never like my artwork and I like this. 11x14 on 300lb water color paper.

Having more fun with watercolors

Still having fun practicing watercolors -  working on getting looser --- for my birthday I got four new watercolor books that have inspired me to try new and different styles and techniques - I'm thrilled because I feel good enough to practice several days a week - small 4x6

Painting Little Jewels

I am having lots of fun wrinkling up wet watercolor paper and then dropping or painting with watercolors--I then let it dry a little and go back in and do a little negative painting - My paper does not hold up to this technique very well I'm using a student grade 90lb -I am going to try some other papers - 

I'm not very familiar with negative painting techniques and sometimes I  just define an area or two - but talk about loose - this is very very loose - two of these pieces I have done in other media I think I blogged them if so I'll post a link to my original versions - I have no idea if these are any "good" but I do know that I enjoy making them and looking at them so I guess that is all that counts for me- these are all small 3"x5"-

This is rock creek I did it in colored pencil as a thank you note to my uncle here

I tried this scene in pastels here  I like this version better.

another try at Pastel landscape

Still working on getting looser and how to do leaves against the sky so the leaves and the sky do not look choppy.  I do not like the leaves and sky area in this and it is not fixable so I think I need to do some small practice studies so I can figure out how to get the look I want.  I tried a watercolor underpainting on wallis sanded paper on this piece.   The watercolor caused the paper to buckle even though I had taped it firmly - next time I will dry mount and see if that holds the paper flat while wet - it did flatten back out when it had dried.  As usual I overworked this so the entire underpainting is gone-   there were several areas that would have been lovely had I restrained myself and  let them peek through the pastels - this is small 8" x 10" -  It has been so long since I posted on blogger things have changed and I can't figure out how to left align the text - there it's fixed-

Mangoes and Crayons

I spent the day in my studio - Worked on a pastel landscape I had started last month - and then decided to work with crayon - I've always loved the colors on mangoes and I had two in the kitchen - For some reason I feel very relaxed when I work with crayons and the best part of crayon is you have to quit before you are ready to because plain paper will only take so much crayon - 5"x7" on plain paper

Ashley's Iris #3

I'm not sure if I'm done with this Iris or not - the series may not be done- but I think this piece needs work - however, I'm going to leave it alone for a while - Pastel on colorfix paper 8 1/2" x 11 1/2".  The background is weird but that is what happened -  it reminds me of some old fashioned William Morris motif - I just love the colors in the central large petal on the blossom - and have yet to do them justice -

Ashley's Iris #2

Since the last Iris had a failed background I started with the background on this one - Ink on watercolor paper approx 6" x 11" -  I am having fun with the ink - this one was fun # 3 will be pastel - maybe later this week-

Ashley's Iris

Took lots of reference photos when we were at Lars and Ashleys this spring this iris was from her garden- the black background evolved when the original watercolor pencil background failed - watercolor pencil on fabriano HP 140lb paper approx 5" x 10"

I really want to get back to making more art and watching less TV