Happy

 

I saw a dog just like this today and his name was Happy.  I'm already thinking about spring so I thought I'd paint in a field of spring flowers.  Gouache and acrylic paint.

 

 

Golden puppy

Playing with gouache paint today.

 

 

 

Day at the beach continued

 

I was able to paint another watercolor while at the beach in Santa Barbara.  Daniel Smith watercolors and 140lb watercolor paper.

 

 

 

I finally did it...

I finally opened up a Society 6 store front to sell my art:

 http://society6.com/justcrazyaboutdogs

So good and check it out and tell me what you think

Day at the beach

 

Two weeks ago we had unbelievable nice weather...it was about 73 degrees in Santa Barbara; I packed my supplies, packed the dogs and off we went to Santa Barbara to do some  Plein Air painting.

 

While I was painting my husband was filming me for a short video.  Plein Air painting isn't something I'm very comfortable doing. Usually you can find me in my studio painting, with all my supplies around me. So this is my take on what I saw that day at the beach.  I used Daniel Smith watercolors and 140lb watercolor paper.

 

 

Daily painting of flowers

I'm really enjoying working on my daily gouache paintings.

 

 

Peonies

I love going through old photographs of things I love.  Since Peonies only are in bloom for a short time, I try to buy as many as I can and them take pictures to capture their beauty.  Gouache painting in sketchbook.

 

 

 

 

Fall colors

I finally have gotten around to scanning watercolors that I did last fall.  Daniel Smith watercolors on handmade watercolor paper.

 

 

 

A meadow of green hills

Meadow of green hills on handmade watercolor paper.  Daniel Smith watercolors.

 

 

 

 

Talking giraffes

I love giraffes, especially these two taking a break to chat.

 

Holbein Gouache in sketchbook. 

 

 

Birthday Roses

 

Roses that my husband bought me for my birthday last month.

Holbein gouache in sketchbook.

 

Daily paintings

 

Since I started doing daily sketches, I was afraid I'd run out of things to paint.  So far so good. 

 

 

Dreaming of Roses

I started the new year dreaming of my roses.  I can't wait for them to come in bloom again.  In-the-meantime, I paint them.  Painting a day in gouache in my sketchbook.

 

New Projects for the New Year

Hello!  and "Happy New Year"!

 

I've been wanting to write this post since the beginning of the year, but I wanted to take care of  some health challenges that I was hit with back in November. 

 

 Back in November I had my annual Mammogram and got a call from my doctor telling me I needed to go in for a biopsy because an initial test suggest an area of tissue on both breasts wasn't normal.  So I had to see an oncologist first and then have the biopsy done.  Needless-to-say, this all happened a week before Thanksgiving.  So scheduling an appointment took some time.  It wasn't until a few days after Xmas I got my test results.  Thank God everything came back negative.  But from all the stress of waiting I got sick.  I'm finally starting to feel better.  

 

Over the holidays I started to explore Holbein watercolors and Holbein Gouache.  I've used Holbein watercolors in the past, mostly just Opera.  After taking a long look at some of the colors I decided to buy a few tubes that I thought would be great colors for flowers.  I was happy with the results and decided to buy a few more tubes of watercolor, along with gouache in the same colors.   It was during this buying spree I noticed that Holbein sells a Palm box watercolor set, but with a price tag of $500.00, I decided I didn't want to spend that kind of money.  It was by chance I was looking for something on E-bay that I came across the same set brand new for only $175.00.  While you know I had to have it.  It came all the way from Japan.  I spent an enjoyable afternoon playing with my new watercolor set.

 

 

 

 

The small watercolor above the Holbein watercolors is something
I created by cleaning my brush on the watercolor paper each time I changed color.  I think due to the lighting, the watercolors appear dull, but that was probably due to the lighting at the time of taking the photo.   I'm so use to using a smaller watercolor set, so it will be interesting to see how many colors I actually use.  If I find I'm not using all the colors I might take those out and put in some Holbein gouache.

New Projects

In my studio I do have a large set of Holbein gouache.  On January 1, I started to do a page a day only painting in gouache.  I happened to discover  http://www.augustwren.blogspot.com/   Jennifer Orkin Lewis just a few days ago who was doing exactly that.  One 30 minute painting a day in gouache.   So that's what I plan to do for a whole year.

Besides doing the painting a day, I will continue to explore different ways to use watercolors.


I also plan to re-open my Etsy shop selling prints of my watercolors  and also join Society6 to sell my artwork as art prints and more.  I like the fact that they produce and ship the products.

This year I'm also taking a watercolor workshop with Jean Haines http://www.watercolourswithlife.blogspot.com/ in April @ Daniel Smith in Seattle, Washington.  I probably will take other workshops and do some online classes.


So I'm hoping this year will be good and productive.