Dreams Grapes

I did this painting this weekend using gel medium with watercolor. The gel medium allowed me to lift whites more easily.

Orange You Glad?

After taking a class from Frank Webb last week, I decided to use one of his compositional techniques for this painting. It gradates from left to right -- darker to lighter. It is a rarely used, good compositional technique according to Frank. I found that I had to make the one flower on the right (seond one in on the bottom) a much darker red to balance the painting. Before I did that, it looked like two different paintings -- one soft on the right and one bold on the left.

These poppies were in a side yard of a house that I used to walk past on my daily walks in my neighborhood in Rochester, MN. I took the photo three years ago and decided it would work for this side gradation technique.

The title comes from that corny joke we used to say as kids -- "Orange you glad I didn't say banana?" Orange dominates and I think it is a happy painting.

My First Oil

I took a class in water soluble oils from Cathy Futral this week. I painted this in class in less than 2 hours. (You can click to enlarge.)




I found it hard to get the fine detail lines with oil. It seemed kind of gloppy to me. I missed the flow of the water I guess. But the painting does look richer.


Also, it is going to take over a month to dry!! I would definitely need a studio if I used this medium. I don't have enough space in my apartment to have drying art laying all over the place. Right now it is taking up a seat on my porch and I'm hoping there are no major storms.

Richards 48th Birthday Cake

My brother likes malted milk balls so I made this cake featuring them. I used my grandmother's "My Favorite and Best Cake" recipe.

He is now in St. Thomas on vacation with his family and I hope he is having fun!

Pinning, A New Beginning

I painted this from a photo of Maureen's orchid. We bought it for her when we went to Miami for her pinning ceremony. I used a turquoise background because that is a color she likes and it contrasts well with the yellow/orange centers of the orchids.

Turtle In The Tank

I painted a not too great watercolor this weekend at Autrey Mill Nature Center. While there I took this photo of a turtle (Red Eared Terrapin) in a tank inside the reptile section.

It was a pretty strange looking painting and you couldn't really tell what was going on until I decided to glaze the bottom with permanent green light. That helped distinquish the side of the tank from the rest of the painting. Adding some light lines in that section also helped.

Bird On A Limb -- Take 2

My friend at Watercolors Wet N Wild (ning group) suggested I darken behind the bird and also the leaves below. I took her suggestions and I think it really made a difference. Don't you?

Bird On A Limb

I painted this bird from a photo. Not sure what type of bird it is and I need a name for the painting. If you have any suggestions, please send them on.

Thank you very much,
Marian

My Napa Cabbage

My friend Lorance showed me his book of Edward Weston's photography. I was struck by a photo of a cabbage leaf and decided that would be a good subject to paint -- good design. So I went to a few grocery stores but could not find the A shape I was looking for in any cabbage leaves.

I spent $4 for the most photographic cabbage and took the Napa cabbage home to photograph. Of all the photos I took, I liked two photos/designs and my mother helped me select this image to paint.

I used five colors sap green, lemon yellow, ultramarine purple, and indian red/brown madder (? not sure which) and the deep background was glazed with indigo.

This one took me a lot of painting sessions. All those curly queues got tedious!!

How I Steam My Hand Painted Scarves

I created a page showing how I steam my silk scarves here.




Click to view my hand painted silk scarves.

La Boca Hand Painted Silk Scarf

La Boca
$95.00

Size: 54x8 inches

I painted another scarf this weekend. This one is dark grey with the image of lady in red that I saw posing in La Boca -- Buenos Aires, Argentina. The lady is painted on either end of the scarf and umbrellas are in the middle.

The scarf was supposed to be black but I must not have steamed it long enough so it ended up grey. The charcoal color is softer than a stark black would have been. On both ladies, the mouth gave me the most trouble. The dye ran too much. I think it is funny because 'la boca' means 'mouth' and both mouths are too big. Appropriate??!:)

Note: The image shown is a small subset of the full scarf. > Click here
to go to my website where you can see the three painted sections of the scarf and purchase.

Birds, Roosters

I have been painting more scarves. Just so happens they all have to do with birds! You can see these as full, longer hand painted silk scarves on my WatercolorsByMarian website.

I decided that I should attempt one of my more popular watercolor images on a scarf so did the birdhouse one.

Then my friend at work suggested I paint a rooster scarf because his sister likes roosters.

Silk Scarf - Redo of Lavender Fields

I repainted this scene on a smaller silk scarf and this time I did not use any gutta/resist in the fields. So in this scarf the fields do not have any hard lines. They blend together and look more natural I think.





It is from a photo I took in the south of France near Gordes. You can see my first attempt in an earlier blog. I love the lavender in France:)

Silk Scarf Painting

I painted this scarf from a photo of a statue in my neighborhood. It is painted on a silk scarf 27x27".