projecting and receding leaf pattern

Daily watercolor painting #181

approx 4x4 on cold press

Today's painting goal was to use the leaves of a plant for reference and make a simple design with gradation of high and low values for the foreground and background. then I inverted the painting for an interesting optical effect.

continuing a journey

Daily watercolor painting #180

approx 3x4 on cold press

Today's painting goal, for lack of formal ideas, was simply to put a mark on paper. What followed was some fun with watercolor mingling (that is let the colors themselves create beautiful shades )

and then a follow the dots situation where I created a simple window view narrative, with a flowering plant in the foreground, curtain middle ground and landscape background.

optical quilt designs

Daily watercolor painting #179
3x5 on cold press
Today's painting goal was derived from yesterday's "quilt" pattern and follows along the lines of the experimenting I've been doing the past few months with effects of color. So these colors were chosen to produce optical effects of projecting objects versus receding objects. For example, the central white object should appear to project (that is, be closer to the viewer), and the black central object should appear to recede(that is appear further from the viewer)

Moorhead Cultural Center, Iowa

This is an additional design created for a 2008 brochure to represent our local quiliting group who meets each winter at the Moorhead Cultural Center, Iowa.

Daily watercolor painting #178

approx 3x5 on cold press

Today's painting goal was to paint a picture using a photo reference of our local Moorhead Cultural Center for a 2008 exhibit schedule brochure.

patterns

Another attempt to convey the simple harmony of a pattern that was observed from an amyrillis flower.. 3 x 4 on watercolor on coldpress.

Daily watercolor painting #177
approx 4x4 on cold press
Today's painting gold derived from a critical observation of everyday patterns and use of limited pallete for a interesting design. Also, a chance superimposing today's painting on last week's amaryllis painting created an interesting effect.

toddler's marrative

Daily watercolor painting #176
approx 4x5 on cold press
Today's painting goal was to develop the theme of large group of people, in this case, toddlers. There was some landscape elements also.

toddler narrative

Daily watercolor painting #175

4x4 on cold press

Today's painting goal was to compose a narrative with a toddler. For scanning necessity I utilized one of the amyrillis paintings as a border and then decided to include in today's post!

street scene

Daily watercolor painting #174
aprox 4x4 on cold press
Today's painting goal was like yesterdays except a plan to use an urban narrative was established. Begin with Point on paper, and a simple design that incorporated foreground middle ground and background of urban landscape. will post later!

connect dots exercise

Daily watercolor painting #173

approx 4x4 on cold press

Today's painting goal was interesting because it developed from place a point on paper to connect the dots to create a narrative. I look forward to implementing this fun exercise many more times.

letting colors mingle

Daily watercolor painting #172

approx 4x4 on cold press

Today's painting goal was to "take a break" and let the watercolors mingle to create their own interesting patterns and design. I added a few dots for optical interest and contrast to this very simple painting exercise.

february amaryllis pattern

Daily watercolor painting #171

approx 4x4 on cold press

Today's painting goal was to use the amaryllis pattern for reference for a fluid watercolor design.

amaryllis pattern

Daily watercolor painting #170

4x4 on cold press

Today's painting goal was to use lines to suggest the pattern of the amaryllis.

Loess Hills february thaw

Daily watercolor painting #169

5x6 on arches cold press

Today's painting goal was a landscape from memory of a February image of the Loess Hills.

spring banner

Daily watercolor painting #168

approx 5x7 on arches cold press

Today's painting goal was to use simple shapes and color for optical effects. The inspiration derived from the colors and optical effect of the Australian Aborigines flag, black red and yellow.

A super vacation

Daily watercolor painting #167

approx 14 x 20 on arches cold press

Today's painting goal was to continue to work on a painting that was a study from a photograph of my niece Olivia enjoying a sunny vacation day learning to ride a horse.

Enchanting amaryllis

Daily watercolor painting #166

9x12 watercolor painting on cold press

Today's Valentine painting goal was a Valentine theme for all ages reflected by two children together enjoying a beautiful flower.

under the tree

Daily watercolor painting #165
6x6 watercolor on cold press
Today's painting goal continues developing the theme of narratives from landscapes and children.

kite flying

Daily watercolor painting #164
9x12 on arches cold press
Today's painting goal took a detour from the initial idea to compose a tree on a hill ...I decided to include a child in the foreground, then the landscape elements and the idea for a narrative emerged.

grass study

Daily watercolor painting #163

approx 5x7 on cold press

Today's painting goal began with the idea to explore deliniation of blades of foliage. The composition of a body of water grew out of that idea and the landscape with building and sky followed!

let's play with spot!

Daily painting #162
9x12 watercolor on cold press
Feb 10 painting goal was to compose a picture of a child and a pet dog!

little boy in February

Daily painting #161

9x12 on arches cold press

Today I lead a watercolor workshop and our goal was to utilize basic color theory and gradation techniques to compose a Valentine theme painting.

Loess Hills design

Daily watercolor painting # 160

3x7 watercolor on cold press

Today's painting goal is to use the gradation technique to depict a landscape from memory of western Iowa's Loess Hills.

potentially a favorite polyester

Daily watercolor painting #159

4x4 watercolor on cold press

Today's painting goal continues the Valentine theme, adding red shapes, a limited color scheme and simple lines to the recent painting exercise elements of gradation washes which produced an optical and whimsical composition

optical bannister

Daily watercolor painting #158

4x4 on cold press

Today's painting goal: Get red paint on paper and go along with it. And so, a paint in the lines that results in an optical effect.

valentine flower

Daily watercolor painting #157

5x5 on cold press

Today's painting goal continues the Valentine theme and utilizing red as a predominant hue.

February sunset

Daily watercolor painting #156

6x7 on arches hotpress

Today's painting goal was an idea that came from the interesting art site About.painting.com

THe painting idea for February is to create Valentine themes, so I built around the "reds" that I have been exploring, landscape elements and used a limited palette for a Valentine theme.

a red exercise

Daily watercolor painting #155

approx 41/2 x 7 on arches hot press

Today's painting goal was to apply the gradation technique using red and its' complement green, and also yellow, strictly for observing the resulting optical characteristics.

reds

Daily watercolor painting #154

approx 4x5 on cold press

Today's painting goal began as a study in values of red after reading an inspiring quote on an art blog this morning about letting color speak. After many attempts to push the contrast of red to paint flower petals I decided to crop a piece of an image for an example of values of red using burnt sienna and purple added to cadmium red. I'll be trying this exercise again.

grey, black and white influences

Daily watercolor painting #153

8x11 watercolor on cold press

Today's painting goal surfaced as a result of my fascination with the optical characteristics of color and object size in a composition. Here again I use one hue, paynes grey and spherical shapes of differing sizes to elicit the appearance of variety of spatial depths.