There is always something to do when you are an artist and teacher. I had an email last Thursday from a past student wanting to know if I could fit her in for a lesson on Saturday. Of course, I agreed!
Theresa wanted to do flowers and had some of her own wonderful photos as references. She had two major concerns: backgrounds and portraying the delicacy of flowers.
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| #1012 - Bloom & Bud - 5 x 7 watercolour |
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I used the leaves to show wet-in-wet blending followed by liner brush work. For the petals we used a wet-on-dry technique with damp brush blending. The background was straight wet-in-wet using a variety of very strong colours blended on the paper, painting carefully around the flower. And finally, I demonstrated lifting out colour from the background and adding a few more leaves and the bud to help balance the composition. There isn't time in a two hour class to do a complete painting so I jump around from subject to subject so the student has had instruction on every element. We work on a few leaves, a few petals, a bit of background and lifting and then the student can (hopefully) complete the painting at home.
Bloom & Bud started off just as a demonstration on a old spotted piece of watercolour paper. In spite of the jumping around, I could see that my demonstration piece was looking pretty good so I cleaned off the few spots that showed on the petals and completed the painting.
To top of the weekend, I got a surprise. A few weeks ago, my friend Sheila was doing a give-away on her blog (
Sheila's Blog) of some niftily textured foam. That is what I picked up at the post office on Sunday.
The timing was perfect as I had just started work on a quilled dolphin and wasn't sure how I would finish the card but one of the textured foams was perfect. I will probably be playing with these foam pieces for some time.
And finally, here are a couple of photos of winter in the valley. Today started off with 6 more inches of snow, grey skies and a 20 minute blizzard but by 11:00 the sun was shining in a vibrant blue sky.
Hmm, I got more cloud that I thought. Some day I should paint some winter scenes of the valley but for now, I would rather think Spring and paint flowers.
Love your flower Val, those leaves look so fresh and new! Love how you used the foam, and how the broken tops mimic the crest of the wave. I really love the mixing colors in the water :) Perfect with your sweet dolphin. I opened all of these images in the slideshow view. WOW!! Your view is awesome. Even so, I am with you. I would rather be painting flowers and warm scenes. LOL.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the mention, have fun my friend :)
Thanks Sheila - glad you like the flower and leaves. Wasn't I lucky with how the foam worked? At first I thought whoops but then I realized the effect worked. Glad you like the photos of my world - I am so looking forward to spring!
DeleteHi Val.....leave it to Sheila- the generous soul that she is! That floral painting and the teaching that went with it is awesome! Sounds like you hit on all the important things, and in a spontaneous and fun way. Nice!
ReplyDeleteThanks Laurie. It is always nice when a student enjoys the class and leaves feeling that she 'got it'. And yes, Sheila is very generous, especially with her time and information.
DeleteI truly love the artist's life, Val - you're quite right that there's always something creative lurking around!
ReplyDeleteHi Win - especially when we teach or get involved in strange Art Box projects - lol. I was sorry to miss the display last weekend; all the pictures I have seen made it look very interesting.
DeleteBeautiful job on the flower...the blending on the petals is so well done. The textured foam sounds like fun and looks great with the quilled dolphin. Your photos of the snow show the beauty of your area. Thanks for sharing those.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much Joan for you lovely comment. I am glad you like the photos of our area which I think is beautiful any time of year.
DeleteWe had a bit of snow here today...not quite as much as you have.
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