Lilacs WIP

So after painting so frantically for that art festival, I understandably wanted a break. Then sadly I was suddenly out of the habit, and it is so much harder to get back going again! But I actually have three commissions right now (it's never happened all at once like this!) so I really needed to get working! I decided to start with this 11x14 painting that this guy commissioned me to do of his wife's favorite flowers. Then he can give her flowers that won't wilt! Ahhh so sweet (he did have to give her a call to ask what her favorite flower was ;) )! Unfortunately, lilacs come in bunches. Bunches and bunches of tightly-packed, delicate little flowers. I so wish her favorite flower was a lily right about now! But that's the thing with commissions. Sigh. I don't get to pick. On the other hand, there's a for-sure customer waiting when I'm done! So here's tonight's start:

Northwest Art and Air Festival

So I survived my first art festival! That was a bit of a wild ride. It's kind of like stepping into another world. A world that pops up for a weekend at a time and then disappears into nothingness. I spent way too many hours prepping and stressing and reading articles, along with way too many nights rehashing all of that in my brain instead of sleeping. But overall, I think it was a good experience. I can't say for certain because I'm way too exhausted at this point! I have no idea how some people do like 30 of these type of things a year! The coolest part was probably the night glow:

How cool is that?

 But back to the art side of things - I learned lots, got plenty of compliments, distributed business cards, met lots of people and sold a few things here or there. And I got some painting done at the same time! This is an 11x14 watercolor on aquabord that I painted out there for people to see as they walked by. I love the bright trees on the right and the clouds I added into the sky. I fought with the water for a crazy long time, and am mostly happy with it now except it really looks to me like there are snakes in the water. Ha! And ew.

 

And I got mostly done with this one as well: 

I'm really digging the sky! Kinda nervous about adding the water, which is silly because that's usually my favorite part!  Fingers crossed!

Looking Up

Having hit a bit of a painter's block, I spent a stupid amount of time looking through pictures to find something, anything that would really inspire me. I finally found this photo by Michelle Lykokapis that she'd put on the Photos for Artists page for artists to use for free. It's such a cool site and so supportive! And it managed to snap me out of my funk! I loved the perspective and then had fun magnifying the little bits of color into a wider spectrum.

 It was a challenge to see more than was there but it was a fun challenge - not like that tower of laundry trying to catch my eye. 

After I'd finished the tree, I had a big dilemma because I really liked it and didn't want to ruin it by messing up the sky. The trunk said the sky should be dark so it's lights would pop, but the darkish leaves wanted it to be light so that they would get to shine. My original plan had been to make the sky into kind of a stained-glass window with each section being a different color, separated by the branches and leaves. But I was no longer certain it would work. Thankfully, my husband encouraged me to go for it so I did! 

And I love it! The yellow and light purple areas were a real risk but I knew they'd help bring the color from the tree around to create repetition and balance. The risk paid off!

Lacecap hydrangeas

I went to this gorgeous garden with my mother-in-law recently and loved looking at these lacecap hydrangeas. They're just so delicate and unique! I hardly took any pictures of them though because I thought they'd be rather frustrating to paint. And they don't make for a good Georgia O'Keeffe style, like I prefer. Well, I wasn't wrong about either assumption, but I painted one nonetheless because as I said, they're just so unique! Roses I've painted and will paint again. Same with lilies and tulips and sunflowers. But never one of these. And they're cool. Can you tell I was almost equally drawn to the bright leaves? Hopefully they don't take over the painting entirely.

Yellow?

Hmmm...I didn't want to do another dark background so thought I'd try something different. Yellow seemed perfect to bring out the yellow in the bees and in the centers of the flowers, and might even help give the feel of the serious heat that was killing me when I took the picture.

Not at all sure I like it though. My husband told me to put it down and assured me I'd like it better in the morning. It's been nearly 24 hours now and I'm no more sure about it. We'll have to see how long it lasts or if I just end up painting over it!

Purple Flower time-lapse

I'd been waiting on some music from my talented brother to finish up this video, but decided to just go ahead and use his music on a later video. Gets a little crazy with my other hand spinning the aquabord around to give me a better angle for my painting hand. Ha! It's kind of a funny idea, but it's not always easiest to paint with your painting right side up!

The Glory of Flight

Not sure this one is finished but then again, I vowed to not spent to much thought or energy in these so I should probably just moved on. It's just that it looked better in my head. Ha! Sometimes hard to transfer that to paper, isn't it? It's just that with the light source behind the balloon, the side facing us was all in shadow and I just couldn't get it to not look flat, and when I tried it just turned dirty. Then the lines on the balloon didn't really seem to curve around it but there wasn't room for them to with only showing this small portion of the balloon. Such artist problems. So it's not my favorite but I'm posting it anyway. 

Photo Credit: Linda Seavey

Drifting Off

So clearly I'm kinda stuck on the hot air balloon gig but it just hasn't run its course and I'm having a lot of fun and they're quick to do so I haven't even had the chance to get bored yet! Oh and I'm preparing to have an art booth at the Art and Air festival (there will be hot air balloons), which I'm super nervous about because I've never done it before. I just don't know what to expect but the good thing about it is that it's got me painting. And painting lots. And I love it.

Watercolor on paper 8x10

Photo credit: Tricia Anderson 

"Blowing Away" Time-lapse video

Oh, this video wasn't quite ready when I posted the picture the other day, so here it is now. And forgive the quirky angle, I write while laughing heartily at myself. I had no clue it would end up looking like I was painting on the ceiling when I filmed it like this. Live and learn they say ;) Hope you like it!

Spiraling Upward

I had so much fun playing with yesterday's hot air balloon, that I just had to do another. Might even make a series of it. Course I didn't want it to have the exact same look, so I tried to change up the magic a bit. I gave it a slightly different touch. What do you think? 

Photo credit: Linda Seavey

Blowing Away

Had a really, really bad day today. Like daughter-puked-in-the-car-after-driving-30-minutes-to-Costco-so-we-had-to-turn-around-and-drive-back-without-the-groceries bad. It's hard to come back from that. So I needed to paint badly, and to paint something fun. Never painted a hot air balloon before, but I'm going to have an art booth at an Art and Air festival in a month so I thought it might be fitting. But it was more technical than I'd realized, although I'm not sure why that came as a surprise. It's like I'm a complete idiot sometimes. Like I haven't been doing this for years and have no clue what it'll take to paint something. And as I finished, it was just kinda meh. But all along I had toyed with ideas of ways to somehow make it as magical as hot air balloons seem to be. And at the end, not loving the result, my husband said, "why not," when I told him what I was thinking and that's all I needed. Permission to play! And it suddenly wasn't boring anymore.

8x10 Watercolor on paper

Photo credit: Linda Seavey

There's hope!

Less empty white space yet! Wahoo! 

I might actually finish this painting after all.

Sunbathing Tulips

FINISHED! I've got a kink in my neck and a severe need for catch-up sleep, but I am proud to say I finished on time! I'm pleased with the results. And so very tired.

Watercolor on paper

29x22

Background Time

I love painting the light shining through tulips, but I gotta admit, I also really love greenery. Guess I must be a true Oregonian after all. :) However, it is a bit of a jungle in there under this bunch of growing tulips and it's not the easiest thing to keep straight. Obviously it doesn't have to be exactly like it was in the photograph but it has to make sense and be varied and be colorful but not detract from the tulips too much. All at the same time. Luckily, that's not too much pressure. Ha! 

I love putting the super dark color behind the light tulips. While it doesn't make a ton of sense logically since they're back-lit, it makes for an awesome pop. One more day of painting, and I hope she'll be ready.

So many tulips

I made a goal to finish all the flowers in my painting tonight so that I had a chance of getting the rest done by my Monday deadline. Which is why I'm posting this at nearly 2 AM! In my defense, do you know what happens when you stare at one thing for too long? Ha! My eyes start to go a little crazy after searching for shapes in the same colors again and again and again. And the paper is so big, that to reach the petals at the top comfortably, I had to turn the paper sideways. Naturally then I turned my image sideways, which means my laptop was propped open on its side. My husband thinks it's hilarious when I do things like that. In theory it could really help me see the shapes instead of the tulips. That might work better when it's not so late and my eyes aren't blurring together!

But goal accomplished! And that's more important than sleep, right? I'll let you know tomorrow.

Winter Remedy

So we've been having a tad more than our fair share of colds this winter and it'd been making it rather hard to paint. I needed to get inspired. I needed spring. No sign of it (or the sun) outside lately so I decided the best medicine would be another translucent tulip painting. I have a store of photos from going to the Tulip Festival years ago (now that I'm back in Oregon, I can go get new photos this year!!). I wanted to do one again where the light shone through the flower petals, making them looking almost like tissue paper overlapping, but with silky smoothness instead of crumply fragility. It's slow going as there are so many layers to lay down, and I flip back and forth between stepping back and allowing the colors to blend together slowly on the paper, doing marvelous things on their own that are the reason I love watercolor, and then tightly controlling where it does or doesn't flow. So yeah, slow going.

And it's a big piece of paper, but one or two flowers per night, I'll get it done some day. Probably not before the Feb 1st deadline I was shooting for since I needed a new painting to submit by that day. Miracles do happen though, right? 

And if it doesn't this time, well, maybe I should've got going sooner. Like during those 4 bouts of strep throat I've had in the last few months. 

Pink Cascade

So I went with the dark background. Not 100% sure about it. I've never done a background so dark but I was hoping it would help the flower pop even more. The background scenery in the photo would've just distracted and I wanted this prima donna to be the star of the show. But it changed the feel a bit so I'm not sure if it worked. Hmmm...

I have a confession to make. I LOVE the movie Notting Hill. Now I know that probably sounds totally random but there's this scene where he's asking his friends if he made a good decision when he rejected the famous actress. And they all support him with fabulous lines like "Absolutely. All actresses are mad as snakes." I feel like I need my group of friends hanging out in an empty restaurant to tell me if I've made a good decision or if I messed up finishing this one. My husband's snoring on the couch though so instead I'm just quoting the lines to a marginally relevant movie to myself when I really should be sleeping. I guess I'll have to wait until morning. 

Pretty, Pretty Pink

1st night:

I nearly stopped after the first four petals I hated it so much. I don't know how to work with pink having never really don't so before. I love oranges, reds, and yellows but pink kinda isn't me. Maybe it's because I have four daughters running around in pink tutus and tiaras everyday, but it just doesn't seem serious somehow. So I had no clue how to do shadows and depth with this new pink tube of paint. Intimidating. 

2nd night:

After glancing at it throughout the next day, I decided it wasn't so bad after all. I liked the cascade of colors, how they kinda drip into the next layer. Only problem was I didn't get around to painting until nearly 10 PM so I had to stop after less than an hour because I'm trying really hard to be better about getting enough sleep. However, then I lay in bed thinking because I'd left just as I really got going. Boo.

3rd night:

I couldn't make the same mistake so I kept pushing through way past when I should've gone to bed. And I really should've gone to bed. Not only am I exhausted, this was crazy difficult to paint! I'd been scared of the middle. There's so much tiny detail in there, and it's so different than the rest, and it's where the eye is going to go! And there's so much less color there yet there needs to be definition. I went back to hating it again. Reminded me of a student I had once that said her paintings go through like 10 different stages of ugly before she's done. Ha! This was a serious struggle. I was certain I was ruining it. There's more defining to do, while still walking that ever-constant battle of balance to not over-work it. My plan all along is just to have a deep, dark purplish background. I think that's still what I'll do. I wasn't sure if I was going to leave the white lines between the petals - I often blur those out but I think it adds to the stylistic feel. My husband really loves it. One more night of painting and it should be done. Fingers crossed that I don't ruin it! ;)

Done!

I had to finally just stand up and tell myself I was done. It's so hard to know when to stop! So I taped it to the family room wall and spent the rest of the day staring at it while I went about doing everything else. After a few hours, I had decided on two things that needed fixing - the top of the stem needed to be lighter so that it didn't get lost into the deep dark shadow next to it, and the blurry edge of a flower in the bottom left needed to be orange instead of white. I was hoping that second change would help balance the painting better. I'm still not positive that I didn't totally butcher some composition rule by putting that cut-off section in the painting, but I do think it's much better now. Despite being a more exciting color, I think it demands less attention and sends your eye back over to the real star of the show. Hope you agree!

More progress

I thought the red flower was difficult but turns out the white one is so much worse! Seriously, there is so little color in it. How on earth am I suppose to give it depth or anything? Oi. And then what to do with the background? I decided to let watercolor do what watercolor does best and blur the background, leaving the focus on the flowers. It's interesting but not distracting I hope? I'm not sure. There's a lot going on. Too much? But I do like the contrast in colors at the very least. However, I do hate the little blurry edge of another flower in the bottom left. It's so bad. I thought it would help balance but it just looks sloppy. And the white flower's stem ... I don't know. Time to sleep on it and see what I can do tomorrow!