Day 6--30 Paintings in 30 Days. Tall House With Blue Door.

Tall House With Blue Door.  Watercolor.
Approximately 9.5 x 5.75 inches.

Fall Flowers--Cosmos

Cosmos.  Watercolor and Crayon.
10 x 13 inches.

While I wait for the leaves to turn, I've been looking at the swaths of black-eyed susans and cosmos planted in my neighborhood.  Next year, I'm putting in some cosmos.  They're whimsical and bold. Love that contrast.

I was trying for an all over pattern, but think the painting ended up too structured in the placement of the flowers.  I would say this has a weak composition.

It's cobalt and indigo blue, cadmium red orange, permanent yellow deep for paint (all daniel smith). The crayon colors are light green, white, and golden yellow.  The crayon is really just random marks over the tops so that it looks like feathery leaves.  (maybe... looks like feathery leaves!)

My kids are back in school, so hopefully I'll be posting more consistently.

And Back Again

Pink House (revised).  Mixed Media.
Slightly smaller than a full sheet!

I finally got my house where I'd like it to be.  It took three or four loop backs and major changes for the entire thing to hang together in an interesting manner.  Call out to  RH Carpenter for her feed back on an earlier version of this painting.

What did I change?  The house grew, the sky went dark.   The foreground went pinker and then darker.  I'm hoping I didn't get the caran d'ache crayon mixed into my paints.  There's a lot more crayon.  I put watercolor over acrylic, which hopefully will not peel or otherwise flake off.  In between, I tried more buildings, trees, a path......)

Part of my issue may be that I am fiscally conservative (you can interpret that as cheap--my kids say the cheapest mom in town), and when I paint so large, in the back of my mind is a chant--you're wasting a sheet, you're wasting a sheet.  I have to let that go.  It ruins the joy of the process.

Black Eyed Susans

Black Eyed Susans.  Watercolor and Crayon.
Approximately 9.5 x 6.5 inches.

I painted this on Saturday, which would be day--....?  I am losing track.  It is a combination of indian yellow, hansa yellow medium (which was garbled in my palette), indigo, and a little carbazole violet. Then I overlaid with an orange Caran D'Ache Crayon in the flower petals.

Channelling Cheerful

Fall Foliage Abstracted, Watercolor,
Approximately 12 x 13 inches.

I wanted to try a cheerful abstract.  (This is harder for me than you might think, thank-you.) And, I wanted it to represent fall or autumn (the happy fall, since I was shooting for cheerful, and not the gloomy one).  In other words, I went into this piece with intent of mood and feel.

And, voila.  I'm not sure I have enough darks, but I like the composition, which holds no matter which way the painting is oriented, and the palette.  The paints are quinacridone gold, violet, and purple plus prussian blue.  All from Daniel Smith.    Paper is Kilimanjaro 300 lb cold press from Cheap Joes.

High Horizon Line Landscapes

I am drawn to landscapes with high horizon lines.  I'm not sure I can explain why. One of my favorites is Last Light, Tuscany by Salliann Putman. You can get a feeing for her painting style, here, but I can't find a link to that particular painting online.  (Drat!)

I tried two, using very similar palettes of indigo, phthalo blue gs, phthalo green, and indian yellow.  They are both about 4.5 x 5.5 inches. Even though they have the same palette, they sure have different moods.