Watercolor Sketches

 These small, quick sketches of European village scenes are fun and easy to do. I try to make them simple. They are a great way to try out different colors and values. And of course, I can always use drawing practice. Perspective is important in these little sketches so think about the angles of the doors and windows. Make the doors and the windows in the foreground bigger than in the background.

Start with a simple pencil drawing. Add a colorful watercolor wash over the buildings. When this is dry, start adding layers of color to get a variety of values.

I will often add pen and ink to my village sketches.

    

Gift Ideas

Did you know that my art work is featured on lots of fun, cool gift ideas with FineArtAmerica? Not only can you buy prints and canvas paintings but they also offer my art on pillows, notebooks, iPhone cases, towels, totes, coffee mugs and much more!  Even shower curtains!  If there is a painting that you would like to see added please contact me.  Check it out!

Let's Go - France and Beyond!

Join me on a fun, imaginary watercolor trips to France and a Tropical Paradise.  I am gearing up for the 2017 Portland Art & Soul Mixed Media Art Retreat!  Here is a short video with lots of examples of what I will be teaching:

Art & Soul - Portland 

• Tuttie Fruttie - April 6, 2017
• Tropical Paradise - an Imaginary Journey - April 7, 2017
• Let's Go France! - April 8, 2017
• Art for the Soul - April 9, 2017

Playing with my Muse and Color

Introducing Pixie Star!  She showed up to help me along in my creative endeavors....

Ooh!
 Pixie Star loves being surrounded by color!

Pixee Star and I have been playing around with my color palette.  Those of you who know me, know that I am obsessed with color and watercolor is my favorite medium.  In preparing for my All About Color class that I am teaching in my Bend, Oregon Studio, I took a closer look at the yellows on my palette.  My goal was to have the warmest yellow and the coolest yellow available.  I am happy to announce that I found a cooler yellow than I already had!  It is the Daniel Smith Lemon Yellow.  It is bright, fresh, and semi-transparent.  Next I will try using it in triad and tetrad mixes.  If I come up with something great, I will let you know!
Here are some photos from my Color Class.  There is some serious color study going on!

Coloring Books Meet Mixed Media

The new Cloth, Paper Scissor's Coloring Book,  Coloring Book Sketchbook, offers more than other coloring books.  Not only does it offer various mixed media art techniques, but it is a collection of sketches from many different artists, including one of my sketches of an old Italian door.  In her blog post, Jeannine Stein, shows how she uses mixed media to color my sketch of the door.
It was an honor to be asked to contribute sketches for the book and an honor to have Jeannine use mine sketch as a demo!

Here photos of how Jeannine Stein colored my door sketch:

The Fun Continues

Helen and I continue our journey to Sarlat, beautifully well preserved medieval town in the southwest of France.  It is an area rich with history and delicious food.  Think fois gras! (more about this in my next blog post) Since it started to rain, we found a comfortable cafe and painted in our journals and made some postcards to send to family and friends back home.  Here is the view from our cozy cafe:

Here is the postcard I painted while enjoying a warm cup of French coffee:

If you would like to join me on a painting holiday, please check out my upcoming trip to Orvieto, Italy!

Mixing Fun with Fun

Helen and I traveled to France, Spain and Portugal to paint and do a bike tour.  We took our watercolor art journals along with us and found fun places to relax and paint.  One of our first stops was Saint Jean-du-Luz, a cute fishing village in the southwestern part of France.  This area is known for it's Basque influence, sea food and beautiful, sandy beaches.  We painted postcards to send home to family and friends.

Postcards from Saint Jean-du-Luz

Helen's postcard of boats in the port.

Pinterest

Keeping a Watercolor Travel Journal

 Part of the joy of traveling to new places is to take some time to paint in my watercolor art journal.  This is my first time visiting Lisbon, Portugal.  I am enjoying walking around this colorful city  Here is a page in my journal of the cute trolley car.  This is what I love to do - paint plein air!

Fun Ideas for your Watercolor ART Journal, Part 3

I am always looking for fun, unique ways to add to my watercolor art journals.  While I travel, I always pick up brochures, free maps, coasters, wine labels...  Then I add them to my journal pages.  I also paint little paintings of what I see along my journey.  These all create a lasting memory more precious than any photo album.

Try these ideas!

· Doodle or create Zentangles.

· Connect your writing and glued items with lines, dots and squiggles.

· Collect and add business cards, tickets, postages stamps, cut out words and photos from brochures, wine labels, paper money and postcards from your travels.

Happy Colorful New Year - It's a Beautiful Day!

"Your success and happiness lies in you.  Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulties."  Helen Keller

Today is my birthday and the beginning of a new year!  I feel blessed in many ways.  I am so happy that I made the decision 14 years ago to quit my secure job as a lab technician to stay at home and pursue art.  I was scared, lonely and I had no idea what I was doing but I just knew that I had to draw, paint, mix gooey colorful messes and create.   I have made so many wonderful new friends.  Artists are the best!

More Photos from Irvine- Create & Beautiful Art!

Here are some photos from my classes at CREATE, Irvine, 2012.  We learned about color, adding dimension with value, colorful shadows and how to paint along our journey.  Thank you all for a fabulous time!

First time painter EVER!  Shelley"s pear painting using
the color wheel to pick her colors - Way to Go Shelley! 

Jeannie getting into her supplies

Beautiful glowing colors on Flip, Flaps & Fold-out Tag

Beverly's Juicy Pear & Color Chart

Jeannine's pears turned out as colorful as her t-shirt!

Using stencils in new ways....

Mother- Daughter Team

Cool art supplies

More art supplies

Fun!

Love using that colorwheel!

A Peek inside my Watercolor Journal, Alta Vista, Argentina

Painting of the Alta Vista Estancia

Fall is coming to Argentina and the colors of the poplar trees are starting to change.  We spent several nights at Alta Vista where we were warmly greeted by the hosts, Tamara and Frederico.  Alta Vista is a 60,000 hectare sheep ranch or estancia, which in Argentina means large farm or ranch.  It was built at the turn of the century and is located 20 miles west of Calafate in the Argentine Patagonia, and on the road to the Perito Moreno glacier.  Our rooms were delightfully decorated and this comfortable Patagonia estancia was a wonderful place for me to hang-out one morning painting the scene in front of me.

Tamara gave us a tour of the working part of the ranch where thousands of sheep are sheered every spring.