Watercolor Art on Rainy Days

It’s challenging NOT to be obsessed with the weather out here in the Pacific Northwest during the rainy season. Many of the “natives” don’t seem to think about it much, but when you have spent most of your [long] life in a part of the country (mostly Missouri) where NO weather pattern lasts for days on end (I’ve lost count of how many days in a row...rain, rain, rain)...well, yes, then you do think about/obsess about it. Or, speaking for myself, I definitely do.

During these rainy days, I am not motivated to go outside. In addition to completing my 2019 Creative Memories Scrapbook Album (which was a huge project), I have played around with several little watercolor art projects.

Since I have a few to share, I will take this opportunity to discuss a little bit about how I see “style” or “technique” in watercolor. 

I will say that about a year ago, when I first started experimenting with watercolor painting, I took note of the various styles and got in my mind that I needed to settle into one style as I moved forward with learning and practice. What style would be “my” style, which style should I focus on as I learn?

But I have now observed that many of my favorite artists actually use different styles at different times. That works for me, because my mood is different some days than other, and I tend to paint according to my mood. 

Here’s what I mean by “style” or “technique.” This is from my layman, non-professional viewpoint. I see two major different styles of watercolor. Again, in my terms, I see “detailed/realistic” watercolor and “loose” watercolor. Each of those styles has a lot of variation, under the “umbrella” term. 

I tend to be more “realistic” and not so much “loose.” However, even my more detailed work is not totally realistic (I’m not that good). Under the umbrella of detailed, though, there is a cartoon/illustrative style. It isn’t just dropping watery color (loose), but is more detailed, with a goal of creating an “illustration” of the object. The extreme on the continuum of “loose” styles is mainly wet-on-wet, laying down a lot of watery paint, and letting it run. Many artists are great at that technique. I have not had much success with my attempts at strictly “loose” technique.

Here are some of my rainy-day projects with a brief description of the [varied] styles.

I’ll share this one first, because it’s not “really” watercolor, but is using watercolor paints on a sketch on a Bible page, called “Bible Art” or “Bible Art Journaling” or “Bible Journaling.” I have about four Bibles I use for art journaling (eventually one for each of my grandchildren), and this one is on the page of Matthew 8:20, where Jesus is talking about the commitment needed fo follow Him, as He said that even foxes have dens, but He [His followers] does not have a place to lay His head. This is an example of detailed (or at least NOT loose) style, although it is not meant to REALLY look like a fox, even though it is fairly realistic. I mean, you CAN tell that it is a fox. I think?

This little chickadee is an example of detailed (NOT loose) style and yet an illustrative technique; that is, while it is not loose, it is also not meant to be a realistic version of the chickadee.

This black-capped chickadee (compare to the previous picture) is a detailed style, somewhat realistic, although because I am not professional, it isn’t exactly like a photo of a chickadee. 

This colorful little hummingbird is sort of a combination of styles. While it is not an attempt at realism, I used a loose technique to lay down the colors of paint, some wet-on-dry (paint on dry paper) and some wet-on-wet (paint applied on top of paint that is still wet). This one may be about the most “loose” you will see from me at this point, as I typically like more “control” (duh) than is possible with a loose style of painting.

I often use a reference photo to paint from. This is the reference photo for this hummingbird:

So, there you have my thoughts on style, and as is obvious, at this point, there is a lot of variety in the styles I use. Obviously, the more illustrative examples are much easier and less time-consuming than the ones that have more detail and/or tend to be more realistic. 

Oh well, it’s all enjoyable, and even though I am the type of personality that will always care about “the product,” I am also all about the process!

#watercolorpractice #loosewatercolor #realisticwatercolor #illustrativewatercolor #rainydaysinthePNW #scrapbookcaughtup #somuchtolearn #Bibleartjournaling #Biblejournaling #Bibleart

Winter Day in the PNW (Spring on my mind)

So, we have been out here in Washington state, in our second home, only 3 1/2 weeks this time, and I am told it was raining non-stop, many weeks before we got here. It has rained non-stop since our arrival, for sure. It gets to be a downer after so many days with no sun. 

This morning there was a break in the monotony, in that it snowed for a short time, and some of it even stayed on the ground for a while.

Taken from our back patio:

And then the sun even popped out for a few minutes!

But I think I must already have spring on my mind, because as I was thinking about some easy watercolor subjects, I decided on a couple of flowers (and I don’t usually enjoy painting flowers—probably because I’m not very good at it).

#watercolorpractice #watercolorflowers #easywatercolor #springisonmymind #PNW #coneflower #sunflower

Watercolor Hobby: Being Real

So, sometimes I have to pick myself up and be realistic about my abilities (or lack thereof). I was feeling fairly successful, in terms of accomplishing what I wanted to do, when I finished the flowering cactus plant for my granddaughter. While it certainly is not to the professional level, still, I felt that it represented a good effort.

Then this week I tried another project, and it was an epic fail. So much for self-confidence. Yes, it was an attempt to emulate a highly accomplished professional artist, but my effort wasn’t even good enough to try to salvage. Trash can.

So, I told myself to lower my expectations a bit, and I followed a tutorial for a much simpler (easy) project. At least it’s not in the trash can...

So, I’m not giving up, not quitting...but, I have to be realistic in my expectations and accept that if I’m going to risk trying a high-skill-level project, it might NOT be a success, in terms of product. However, in terms of practice, every effort is beneficial (I suppose)...

#ladybug #floweringcactus #watercolorpactice #sometimeseasyisbetter #letsmakeart 

Granddaughter Heads Back to Mission Field

We were so blessed to be in our Washington home while Tory was at her folks’ home for Christmas.

We have many years of personal knowledge of the hello/goodbye cycle with close family as missionaries. We are thankful for the recent “hello” time that we were able to spend with Tory, as she came to her folks’ home for Christmas vacation. Last night it was time for the “goodbye” time of this cycle. It’s sad to say goodbye. 

But, our Priority Prayer for our grandchildren is that they follow God and are content in His calling on their lives. That’s our Delightful Joy Girl Tory. 

As I have been saying for [many] years: Their part is to go. Our part is to let them go. 

We are so thankful for Tory’s willingness to GO. We are so blessed to be her grandparents.

“For this reason also, since the day we heard this, we haven’t stopped praying for you. We are asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, so that you may have great endurance and patience, joyfully.” - Col 1:9-11 (CSB)

#HellosandGoodbyes #ProudofTory #GOTory #familysupport #delightfuljoygirl

Celebrating the New Year

We celebrated New Year’s Eve with Mark’s family at our house for traditional Hoppin’ John, Snickerdoodles, ice cream sundaes, singing, and board games!

Tory loves cacti, and her apartment in Mexico has some cactus decor. So I painted a watercolor cactus for her to take back home with her.

New Year’s Day we went to Red Robin for burgers and then to the new (last) Star Wars movie, The Rise of Skywalker. We have been to several of the Star Wars movies at theaters together through the years.

#NewYears2020 #FamilyTime #FamilyTogether #CactusWatercolor #FamilyBoardGames

Blessed by Family Christmas Celebrations

We enjoyed celebrating Christ’s birth with three family gatherings this year.

We hosted our Annual Sibling Christmas this year, at our Missouri home. Left to right: David (my husband’s brother) and his wife Janene (my sister), Russell and me, my brother’s wife Michele and my brother Keith.

Another celebration in our Missouri home: Our daughter’s family (missing Evan, in Texas), front row left to right: Me, daughter Sharida, grandson Dawson, my hubby. Back row, left to right: granddaughter Alyssa and her husband Josh Albers, Sharida’s husband Greg Green.

In Washington, we were invited to join our son’s family celebration in their home. Front row, left to right: Me, daughter-in-law Kristy, granddaughter-in-law Caroline holding our great grandson Leeland. Back row left to right: Russell, son Mark, grandson Conner Ford (daddy to Leeland), granddaughter Tory Ford (home for Christmas vacation from the mission field in Mexico).

I have literally hundreds of pictures from these times together, and I considered not blogging any of the pics, but in the interest of having at least a bit of cohesiveness on my blog, I chose to post a “summary.”

#familyChristmascelebrations #Christisborn #familytimesarethebesttimes #MOandWA 

Winter Snow Scene {Watercolor}

So, this is one of those pieces that I am not all that pleased about sharing. In fact, this one will only be here, on my blog. 

Sometimes it seems that the easier the “challenge” appears to be, the less likely it is that I will do well with it. Maybe that’s it: Because of my “nature,” I tend to do better with greater challenges.

This piece was not difficult, but I was not able to achieve the results I had in my head. 

I do love winter scenes, and the setting for this piece could be in either one of the states where I live: Missouri (where we do have some evergreen trees and a lot of snow) or Washington (The Evergreen State, where we sometimes have snow).

#Watercolor #EvergreensintheSnow #NotMyBestWork #WinterSnowScene

Another Sweet Little Watercolor Snowman

After struggling to paint birds for the past few days, I took a break to paint something just purely fun. In fact, it was therapeutic to paint this little snowman.

Birds are just difficult, and only the experienced professionals can make them look realistic. That’s not really my goal when I paint (not really a fan of extremely realistic paintings, where the painted piece looks like a photograph), but if I am painting a bird from a reference picture, I’d like it to be a nice REPRESENTATION of the photo. I am just not at that skill level right now.

SO, I’ll paint some fun things for awhile. After all, my goal is to enjoy the process AND the product. 

I do find that enjoyable painting helps me focus on good and pleasant things. I suppose I could say it reduces anxiety.

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” - Philippians 4:6-7 (NIV)

#watercolorsnowman #watercolor #watercolorpractice #winterthemewatercolor

Watercolor Bluebirds (Process/Product)

So, I have had Eastern bluebirds on my mind since we saw them in our Wonder Forest a few days ago. I took several pictures, shared in a previous blog post. 

I have painted a couple of bluebirds. I am not thrilled with either. I am, after all, I remind myself, a novice. Duh.

The first one I tried, I used a free image from Pixabay as a reference photo.

The problem with public reference photos is that they are just that: a photo, taken with a professional camera, resulting in a professional photograph, full of vibrant details.

Then, here is my attempt to paint this bird with watercolor (with the addition of a Missouri snowstorm):

After I posted some of my photos of our backyard bluebirds on Facebook, a few of my Friends suggested I should paint a bird from one of my pictures. That was even harder. Here is my photo:

And my attempt to paint from my own photo:

 

Both pieces: Arches Watercolor Paper 140# Cold Press

Winsor & Newton Professional Tube Watercolors

I’m just going to make this understatement. Watercolor painting is difficult and challenging. Birds are way harder than they appear to be. In fact, I’m done with birds for awhile. I’m going to do something fun next, like another snowman maybe!

#watercolorbluebird #Missouribluebird #watercolor #WonderForestatPeacefulAcres

A Different Thanksgiving

This will be the first time in many years that hubby and I will be alone for Thanksgiving. It’s not that we are ALL together for every Thanksgiving, but for years it has been “the norm” that I am preparing dinner for SOME of us every Thanksgiving. So, I confess that I am struggling.

Thanksgiving 2017 (Missouri)

Left, front to back: Greg, Sharida, Evan

Right, front to back: Kristy, Mark, Conner, Caroline

Thanksgiving 2018 (Washington)

Left: Conner, Leeland, Caroline

Right: Mark, Kristy, Tory

I will miss cooking and baking for family. I will miss being with family. Most of all, I will miss our “Thankful-for Time,” as we always have that special time where we share the things we are especially thankful to God for this year.

As I said to Tory (right now in Mexico), I will have my “thankful-for time” in my heart.

I am very thankful that my children and grandchildren are happy and healthy and each serving God exactly where He wants them to be right now. 

How blessed am I, after all!

#Thanksgiving #FamilyLove #FamilyTogetherness #TheNewNormal

My Hobby Room

In our Missouri home, I have a large room dedicated primarily to my hobbies: scrapbooking and art. This room is in the lower level of the house, in a corner, with windows that allow me to see a lot of our woods.

There are shelves that house SOME of my scrapbook albums and various other items such as children’s books, some that belonged to my children.

Out those windows I can see the bird feeders, and one of the cutest little birds is the tufted titmouse. I painted an illustrative (as opposed to realistic) version of one of them.

#hobbyroom #tuftedtitmouse #teddybears #scrapbookalbums #myhobbies #watercolor

Watercolor Snowmen

I’m feeling almost caught up with holiday projects: scrapbooking is up to date, Christmas shopping is almost done, house is decorated, and Christmas cards are ready to be mailed once the annual letter is written and tucked inside. 

So, I’ve been doing some light-hearted winter/Christmas-themed watercolor painting. Snowmen are fun for me.

This little guy was completed following a tutorial by Maria Raczynska. It’s always harder than it looks.

Arches Cold Press Paper 140#, cut to 5x7

Winsor & Newton Professional Watercolor Tube Paints: Olive Green, Permanent Sap Green, Indigo, Neutral Tint, French Ultramarine, Transparent Orange, Sepia, Yellow Ochre, Quinacridone Red, Payne’s Gray, White Gouache 

Holbein Watercolor Tube Paint: Pyrrole Red, Gold

This one was inspired by a meme that I saw on Facebook. 

Strathmore 140# watercolor paper

Winsor & Newton Professional Watercolor Tube Paints: Olive Green, Permanent Sap Green, Winsor Green (Yellow Shade), Cobalt Turquoise, Indigo, Sepia, Winsor Lemon, Payne’s Gray, Transparent Orange, White Gouache

Holbein Pyrrole Red

#watecolorsnowmen #watercolorpractice #snowman

Blue Christmas Balls in Snow {Watercolor}

My favorite artist to follow online right now is Maria Raczynska. The problem I have (and have always had, as a part of my nature), is that I want to be perfect. Maybe this watercolor thing is good for me, because clearly I cannot recreate her work with the level of perfection that she has. Now, honestly...duh. Of course I can’t. I’m just learning. She is an accomplished artist. So I try to use her work as something to work TOWARD, to strive for, while realizing I will never do more than just poorly emulate...

Still, I do like the challenge of creating something even similar to her paintings, as her paintings that I choose to try are just beautiful.

So, I stared at her painting of the blue Christmas balls in the snow, for days, before being brave enough to try it. I know that once I put the paintbrush and paint to the paper, I will finish it.

Artist tutorial: Maria Raczynska

Paper: Arches Cold Press 140 # (5x7)

Paint: Winsor & Newton Professional Watercolor Tubes, French Ultramarine Blue, Indigo, Cobalt Blue; little bit of white gouache 

Ink: Winsor & Newton Gold Metallic Bronze

#StopTryingtobePerfectBecauseYouAreNotGoingtobe #MariaRaczynska #MariaMorjane #Christmaswatercolor #watercolor #BlueChristmasBallsinSnow

Missouri Bluebirds Visit {Our Wonderforest}

The Eastern Bluebird is the state bird of Missouri. However, we rarely see them. We have several bird feeders, including the type of food they (supposedly) like. 

This morning three or four of them appeared (at least one male), checking out a little bluebird/wren house attached to a tall tree stump near the feeders and in full view of our bedroom window. 

They were peeking inside and seemed interested but did not try to go in.

 

After their recon mission was over, they left, and shortly a Carolina wren went inside the house. Oh.

(For those interested, my camera is a Canon PowerShot SX50 HS.)

#MissouriStateBird #EasternBluebird #OurWonderforest

Ready for Christmas in Missouri

This year we will have our Christmas in our Missouri home in mid-December. Since we are not having Thanksgiving at our house this year, we decorated for Christmas earlier than usual.

This is a new tree this year. It has LED lights that can be switched from white to multi-colored, with several variations of the two colors (flashing, blinking, etc.).

This white flocked tree is in the Piano Room.

We will be joined on December 14-15 by our daughter’s family (her hubby, our granddaughter and her husband, and our grandson). Then my Sibling Christmas (my sister/husband and brother/wife) will be with us December 16-17.

On December 19 we will drive (four days/three nights) to our second home in Washington state. There, we live very close to our son/wife and grandson/wife/great grandson. Out there, we will be honored to be a part of their Christmas celebration in our son’s home.

#ChristmasinMO #OurTwoTrees #ReadyforChristmas

Holiday Tastes and Scents: Peppermint

We have the house all decorated for Christmas (already) and now I’m enjoying Christmas-themed watercolor projects.

About this Piece:

Inspiration/Tutorial: Ellen Crimi-Trent (You Tube)

Paper: Strathmore Watercolor Postcards 140#, 4x6 (so I can use it in my scrapbook pockets)

Paints: Winsor & Newton Professional Permanent Alizarin Crimson and Holbein Pyrrole Red (gold splatter, W&N gold ink)

There are certain flavors and scents that always remind me of Christmas. For example, a tangerine at Christmas reminds me so much of my Mamo and Grandad’s house at Christmas—she always had the best tangerines during the holiday season. The smell of a live evergreen tree is another scent that I love at Christmas.

Peppermint is another scent and taste that I associate with Christmas. Today in my hobby room the fragrance of peppermint is coming from my diffuser.

I wonder what it says about me that, many times when I think of a Bible verse that is associated with my art piece, the passage that comes to mind is Psalm 103:5, “He satisfies my mouth with good things...”

But I also like the rest of that verse: “...so that my youth is renewed like the eagle’s.” 

So there you have it.

#watercolor #peppermint #Christmascandy