Painting #50 - Blooming Saguaro

Painting #50!  Half-way there!!  WHOOHOO!

I really didn't know what I would paint for #50 but I wanted it to be special to mark my half-way point.  I had no idea it would be this one.  

My neighbor in Arizona has a Saguaro that was blooming and I insisted that my husband stop so I could take a photo.  Saguaros don't usually bloom this early so I was thrilled to find it.

It is one of the first paintings I did when we got back to Wisconsin and when I went to post it on my Blog I looked to see what number it would be and there it was, #50!

Funny how these things work out.

I have been reading a book about using more light in painting watercolors (Elizabeth Kincaid's "Paint Watercolors That Dance With Light") and am trying to do just that.  I am pleased with these results because I did manage to get the light in there.

Onto #51!

Kelly - Painting #32 - Prothonotary Warbler on the Little Miami River

Painting 32, Prothonotary Warbler on the Little Miami River

I saw this fellow last Thursday on the Little Miami River trail. He was tucked deep in shadow, but his beautiful yellow-orange feathers could not be dimmed. He caught my eye as the perched in a tree near the river.

#007 Graduation Owl--Kathy

Umbrellas and owls have always been two of my daughter's favorite things. She is graduating from Louisiana State University this month and wanted an announcement card to send to the people who have been an important part of her life over the past 22 years........something "her." This is the illustration I created to print on the announcement.....her idea, my design.

Kelly - Painting #30 - Ladybird, and Painting #31 - Five-minute Sketches of a European Robin

Painting 30, Ladybird on a Daisy

Hmmm....this doesn't look like a bird to me, but I'm accounting it as one! In England, Ladybugs are called "Ladybirds," ....sooo semantically....she sort of counts as one of my 100 bird paintings!

Painting 31, Sketches of a European Robin

These are very quick sketches. The first robin took three minutes, 20 seconds (I've put the times next to the sketch). This was an assignment from Laure Ferlita's Imaginary Trip to England. No pencils...no lines...just water brushes. Again I'm surprised at how quickly I could obtain a likeness (seems like a lot more time compared to the 20-second Eastern Kingbird!). We were allowed to spend up to five minutes per sketch, but 3 minutes, 45 seconds was the most time I put into a bird. I used the entire five minutes for the nest, which was really fun to paint!

Painting #49 - Plein Aire Tulip

I could not wait to get back to Wisconsin to paint some tulips and when I saw this one nestled in my daughter's small lilac tree I knew I had to paint it.

Thanks to the squirrel who planted it there.

Kelly - Painting #28 and #29 - More Studies of a Black and White Warbler

Painting 28 - Black and White Warbler on Branch

Painting 28 - Black and White Warbler Resembling a Nuthatch

...just a few more studies of the Black and White Warbler in Painting #25.

Kelly - Painting #27 - White-breasted Nuthatch in Purple and Red

Painting 27 - White-breasted Nuthatch in Purple

...another experiment. I wanted to see just how far from reality I could go and still produce a recognizable image. I started with a 20-second paint sketch of a White-breasted Nuthatch in red, then let the purple fall wherever it felt good. Both Rick the Reluctant Birder (my hubby) and my son, Matty, recognized this as a nuthatch. Matty thought it was cool, and Rick wondered if I did it with my own blood... I really enjoyed doing this sketch....fun, fast, tons of pigment...no detail.

Kelly - Painting #26 - Twenty-second Eastern Kingbird

Painting 26 - Twenty-second Eastern Kingbird

I wanted to see what I could paint in twenty seconds. I used one color...and sketched it out with a waterbrush. Twenty seconds is longer than you think when you're just trying for form and not detail. I really enjoyed this exercise. I'll probably end up turning this sketch into a painting later.

Painting #48 - A Very Different Cactus

I get inspired by the strangest things.

Last week Marthann's Musings featured the work of Guiseppe Arcimboldo: Fruit and Vegetable Artist (1527-1593).  It looked like so much fun I was inspired to try it and the result is a "Fruit and Vegetable Cactus".

I have a wacky sense of humor!  LOL

Kelly - Painting #25 - Black and White Warbler Looking in a Hole

Painting #25 - Black and White Warbler Looking in Hole

Black and White Warblers are among my favorite neotropical migrants. I get to see them most of the summer on the Little Miami Trail near my home. This fellow, however, I saw last summer at the Clear Creek Metropark In Hocking Hills (located in southeastern Ohio). Black and White Warblers walk down a tree like a White-breasted Nuthatch. They are fun to watch and listen for.

Place de la Concorde - Claire - 31

I used another photo off of GoogleMaps as inspiration for this sketch.

Painting #47 - Plein Air Landscape

Last week my husband went golfing and I went to a nearby park to paint.

The above painting is my favorite with the reflections in the lake and the mountain in the background.

As I looked at it I thought how interesting that in the space of a few hours I painted a lake with mountains in the background, a sailboat on the lake and two different cacti, all in the same location!  

I used a 6x6 inch accordion folded, 140 # watercolor paper for my plein aire sketches.  I love how it all seems to flow together even though they are all different.

I have other accordion folded journals for these subjects:

cacti

flowers

portraits

plein aire

and 

miscellaneous.

When they are done I will probably bind them together.

Painting # 46 -Mountain Pine

On Easter Sunday we took a ride up to Mt. Lemmon just for the heck of it.  I brought my painting stuff planning a big painting day.  Not!  I got altitude sickness at the >8000 ft. altitude and this pine is the only sketch I did.

I am getting so hooked on plein aire painting that I keep looking for and making opportunities.  Painting outdoors is just amazingly different than working from photos.

Gardens at the Musee Rodin - Claire 29, 30

For this assignment I used a couple of photos off of the Musee Rodin website as inspiration. What a fun place it would be to take a stroll through the gardens.

This second image was painted from a very small and long photo. It is one of my favorites because of the different format.

Sacred Heart - Claire - 28

Another page from my sketchbook journal from my <imaginary> trip to Paris.... what fun we had!!

Paintings # 43, 44 and 45 - Poppy Frenzy

The winter rains in Arizona have brought, and are bringing wildflowers galore.

Poppies are the ones that everyone loves and will travel miles to see a hillside of them.

I got inspired to paint.

This first one is all wet-in-wet with a few lightly defined petals.

Then I moved on to the next one.

Even more definition.

This is the last one with a combination of techniques I tried above.

The light in it is purely accidental but I like it.

I'm not sure my poppy frenzy is over yet.

Painting # 42- Just Having Fun

The Easter bunny changed all these prickly pear cactus to Easter egg cactus.

And then the bunny thought he better hide.  Can you see him?

I had fun doing this and just wanted to share it.

#024 Yellowstone Dogs -- wolf no. 76

M21, the alpha male of the Druid Wolf pack. Once a black wolf, here he has turned quite grey, but is still in him prime. For more information about him go to my blog.

Kelly - Painting #24 - Happy Easter Chicks

Happy Easter!

Painting # 41 Plein Aire Mountains

This location is two hours north of Tucson where I had the occasion to do a plein aire sketch.  It was very windy and the watercolor dried faster than I wanted.  It was the pot of flowers that first got me interested and putting the mountains in was just added fun.

Kelly - Painting #22 and Painting #23 - Royal Tern in Sun...Royal Tern in Rain

The Royal Terns along the beach let me walk so close to them. The only thing they seemed to care about was that they all faced in the same direction, and that direction was facing into the wind!

It rained only one morning while we were in Florida. Looking out onto the beach, everything was a dark melting of blue, gray and purple. Eventually a few Royal Terns flew in a landed. Even without illumination from the sun, their white feathers were bright and separated from the dull pouring of rain.