Parrots: A Work-In-Progress

Certainly, my parrots are a departure from my pottery design paintings. Now, I'm in the process of learning more about background possibilities. These dudes have a ways to go, but at least I've begun something new.

During the process of scouring some watercolor technique books, I came across some very inspirational thoughts written by Marion Moses in her 2005 book called "Creative Watercolor".

Moses wrote: "...artists frequently explain, 'I know what I want it to look like, but I can't put that on the paper." "...the fear of putting the techniques to work can overwhelm an image held in the mind. Desire and passion are the keys to unlocking your creativity. If you want to paint, you can. If you need to paint, you will. And once you begin putting the paint to paper with your heart and soul, instead of just your mind, your art will be guided by your creativity. What you feel will help you paint what you see."

"Sometimes it is hard to leave that comfort zone where you face few risks. Learn to take risks you will be surprised what that does for your self-esteem. Become a positive thinker." (page 9)

I find Moses' words to be smack on target and words I need to take to heart. Thought I'd share her wisdom with you all.

Mexican Bird of Paridise - Arizona

Another flowering beauty in the front of our house. This bush grows very quickly and flowers all summer. It is totally stunning and will be fun to try and paint. My art friend Susan Roper told me about Ann Pember's fabulous website (see sidebar of my favorites for the address). Her flower artwork is totally fabulous. I'm ordering her DVDs and book and will try to do some of these photos justice in paint. We can never expect to achieve the wonderful colors we see in real life, but I'll sure give this one a whirl.

People may complain about the high temperatures in Arizona and believe that nothing significant grows here, but just take a look at this beauty. I took this photo just as the sun was coming up. The flower appears during the night and usually starts to shrivel by 9 a.m. It's now 4 p.m. and the flower is nothing but a brown stub which will fall off by tomorrow. Such total beauty for such a short time.

Sometimes, this cactus off our patio has as many as 15 flowers, but this time of year, we are lucky to see one once in awhile. Today was my day. I'm going to use this as one of my personal reference photos and attempt to paint it. It's a far cry from my southwest pottery designs, but I'm going to give it a go. It will be fun to try to capture these colors on paper. What paint colors will do it justice?? Any thoughts?

One of my latest paintings. This was fun to paint because I chose elements from several old pottery designs. Once again, the true colors are not showing up well in this photo, but the giclee I had made really captures the glorious colors. I used primarily Daniel Smith paints for this image.

Cancun Flowers 2007

Trying my hand at uploading photographs that I have taken over the years. If you would like to use this as a reference photo for a painting, you are welcome to do so.

Let's Paint Today & Polychrome V

This is a painting I completed in 2006. Unfortunately, the shading on the photo is missing. The original painting and giclees clearly show the shadows which I created using the tip of my index finger as a brush. I simply dipped my finger into a shadow color and gently added shading in the appropriate spots. I liked the effect, but still believe that using a real brush is more effective.

Today is a "Let's Paint Day" when I challenge myself to begin a new painting. But, today will be different because I'm going to try the multiple paintings-in-progress plan used by so many watercolorists. Multiple WIP will allow me to work on a different painting while one dries. So, off to the drawing board to see how this plan will work.

Thank You Susan Roper and Polychrome IV

A sincere thank you to Susan Roper who helped me set up my new blog today. We had trouble opening the blog I started in 2006, so a new one was our only option. Susan is a superb teacher not only for watercolor technique, but also Photoshop Elements and establishing a new blog. By the time she finished her teaching session today, my keyboard was "smoking". I finally can use some of Element's cool features to evaluate my paintings in progress and send a correctly sized jpeg of a painting to one of my watercolor online groups. Check out Susan's awesome blog containing some wonderful paintings and photos... just click on her link.

The watercolor painting above is called Polychrome V. It is part of my series of old southwest pottery designs. The giclees of this painting have been well received and goes well with my Polychrome II and Black-on-Red paintings which I will post in time.