I love the palm trees for their majesty, their colors, their patterns. This watercolor has a lot of very intense color and the negative spaces are strong. This is one of my favorite color palettes.
find it here
Palm Trees brilliant yellow watercolor
Category: Nature
Be good to bugs and insects
Here are four bugs and some with wings. This is a simple design to draw and I’m not that crazy about some bugs but some are very beautiful. The text is simple Ariel font and each letter is outlined in a different color. The purpose of this exercise was twofold: how to make a design look good on medium range of background colors and 2: hide some of the text so that the viewer does not notice he can’t see the whole thing. enjoy and see it here on different colors
Watercolor abstract leaves painting and holiday cards
This is a large watercolor and right now it’s in the gallery waiting for a home. I’ve been painting big lately and it feels really good. There’s lots of underpainting and patience in preserving the white areas in this work. That’s really necessary to keep the colors clean and the feeling fresh. The basic idea to start with was to take leaves and branches from my little
garden and draw and paint from life as the composition.
Painting from life has always been my favorite way to go. The colors and shapes point me in the right direction. I did some underpainting with inks on completely saturated full sheets. I used my fingers and didn’t use a brush for the underpainting.
I stuck the very wet paper to a big sheet of plexiglass and it sticks very well and stays wet a long time. I can dry it between takes in the sun. This is my favorite style of painting. It reminds me so much of how I used to paint in California years ago. It’s liberating. Someday when I grow up, I’ll make a video of the technique.
I’ve been remiss in posting for many reasons I think we are all feeling. Lockdowns, covid fears, busy with life chores, some health issues and the list goes on. Anywho, I’ve had a bit of a difficult mountain to climb but I’m happy to say it’s hopefully over. I have lots of new art challenges and I’m facing them head on.
With the work at home as normal now and the new lifestyle settling in, painting has taken on a new pleasant dimension. I surround myself with studying intently trying to catch up on my digital drawing that I haven’t done in a long time. I even bought Affinity Designer software which is completely wonderful. Photoshop is still my go to but I love what this program does afford. I’m beginning to have some time with it.
Since we got through Thanksgiving and have a little less than a month before Christmas, I’ve been busy designing and redesigning my holiday greeting cards. It’s kind of amazing to realize how many I have drawn and painted over the years. This is kind of goofy fun because it’s so flippant. I still try to put some thought into each one and people love them and yes, they get it. The season is very short when you are trying to play catch up on time. Everybody knows you should start December in June but hey, stuff happens. It’s been fun playing catch up and I’m posting one card a day on my Facebook page.
I have done two more large paintings and I will post them to catch up.
Cornucopia for fall
I have always loved the fall season. September used to be my favorite month in elementary school. I remember the chilly mornings of New England and the changing of the leaves from greens to oranges and yellows and reds.
This is a tribute to the season. A thankfulness of great squashes like butternut, acorn and of course, the mighty pumpkin. Have a pumpkin latte and enjoy what the season brings.
Here is the painting on my products.
Axolotl – the water monster
Axolotl means water monster among the Nahuatl tribe. It is possible to find this animal in the floating gardens of Xochimilco,a borough within Mexico City. However, there arefewer specimens that actually exist in the wild. Most water monsters now live in aquariums throughout the world. I is often called a salamander. They are usually 20 to 30 cm. long.
The most striking thing about the axootl is not only its appearance and the variety of colors it comes in, but the fact that it is able to regenerate its own cellular tissues. It can change its own colors. Due to water contamination and the use of this animal for medicinal purposes, there has been a huge decrease in its specimen count. It is almost extinct.
Painting Mexico 
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