Dazzling Dahlias

My neighbor grows beautiful Dahlias:

I was inspired by Rachel Murphree who does such beautiful watercolors to try painting one today.  Be sure to check out Rachel’s blog here.  She also sells her amazing paintings!

My neighbor let me clip a few flowers for a vase.  Unfortunately, Jack Frost had started to nip some of the flower blooms but I still thought they were stunning:

Sorry the photo is  a bit small but I had to crop out the tuna can sitting on the kitchen counter…lol!

I started by sketching my subject with a black micron pen:

I tried to stay loose and not over think it.

I then added 2 layers of watercolors – here is the finished painting:

My colors aren’t as bright as the actual flowers but I decided I liked it this way.  It was fun to “Doodlewash” it!  If you don’t know about Doodlewashing – check out Charlie’s blog!

Happy Painting!  🙂

A Pear-fect Treat

I seem to be thinking a lot about pears lately… so after I ate my one for dinner last night, I went to a local Farmer’s Market and bought 3 more!

I needed to warm-up so I did 3 quick scribbly drawings with a ball-point pen to get the feel of their shape:

Next, I decided to draw a contour of them like I was writing a haiku – with only 5, 7 and 5 lines for each pear shape.  I scribbled water-soluble (Neocolor 2) wax pastels in vibrant fall colors:

And softened them with water:

And finished with this written haiku:

Yellow blushing red                                                                                                              A juicy ripe pear-fect treat                                                                                           Sweet autumn harvest.

Have a happy day!  🙂

Creating Art Every Day

I like to experiment with color and different art mediums much like my dear friend, Laura at Create Art Everyday!  You can find her AWESOME blog, here.

Below is an experiment I did recently with water-soluble wax pastel crayons, Tombow markers and Prismacolor pencils:

It reminds me of curly ribbons wrapped around a birthday gift!  🙂

Laura has been creating some beautiful flowers in her sketchbook!  She inspired me to give it a try:

I sketched them in black pen and added just a hint of watercolor.

I took this photo of my roses in my yard for my reference:

Hope you find a little time to create today!  And if you need a little inspiration to get started, check out Laura’s blog!

Happy Creating!  🙂

A Ledger of Color

Several years ago, I purchased this old ledger at a thrift store:

I thought it would be the perfect art journal!

So I started a color journal.  Here are some of my papers I have created:

The above print I made using a dye and salt technique with leaves at the lake.  I also attached a photo I took.  I love the greens and yellow.

Here is another green and yellow one.  This one uses a photo, a piece of mica and some papers I purchased:

I love the shades of orange in this one:

I thought the paint color sample was a good match!

Wild strawberries were my inspiration for the color red:

And I liked the multi colors of this one:

It says:  The woods are full of fairies, The trees are all alive; The river overflows with them, See how they dip and dive!  (Author Unknown)

I hope to continue adding to my color journal this week at the lake.  I am bringing my watercolors and acrylic paints with me.

Have you ever created a color journal?  I’d love to hear from you!

Happy Creating!  🙂

My Meow Muse

My cat, Jack inspired me to create these doodles:

Which cat is your favorite?  I’d love to hear from you!  🙂

I’m taking Carla Sonheim’s online class called, CATS!  You can find out more about it at this link.  If you are looking to have creative fun for only $25 – then this may be your cat’s meow!

Today was the first class.  And we had to draw cats from our imagination.

Many of my classmates also posted a photo of their cat(s).  So I posted this one of Jack on his lawn chair.  Yes, he sleeps on all of them but this is the “chosen” one!

He was a bit annoyed that I had been sitting in his chair…

Then he decided to ham it up for the camera:

He looks so relaxed!  Almost like he is smiling!  🙂

He decided it was too hot outside so joined me in my art room for another nap!

This is probably why he doesn’t sleep at night…

Hope I made you smile today!   🙂

Happy Creating!

Watercolor Postcard

I painted this postcard from the lake photo I posted yesterday:

I like painting this size – 4 x 6 inch!

It is a good way to “practice” painting.  🙂

Last year, I painted a watercolor postcard of a mountain scene and actually MAILED it!  And yes!  The person actually received it!  What a FUN gift to share with a someone special.

I challenge you to create a “postcard” size painting and MAIL it to a friend!

Happy Creating!

Cowbirds and Cardinals

This udderly ridiculous bird:

Is NOT part cow:

But it is a REAL bird:

Yes!  There really is a Cowbird!

I was doing some online research on Cardinals after my blogger friend, Jodi – who takes FANTASTIC photos – posted a video of  a female Cardinal nesting in her backyard – very cool!  Check out her blog at Life In Between.  (Not only does Jodi take awesome photos of birds, she also shares some delicious recipes that look like they came from a magazine!  She recently did a silly bird in watercolors that I ADORE!)

I had no idea that cowbirds really existed!  Apparently, they are smallish blackbirds.  Cardinals are often “parasitized” by the Brown-headed Cowbird.  This means that the Cowbird waits until the female Cardinal is away, then the Cowbird visits the nest, removes an egg and then lays one of her own eggs.  (Talk about mooooving in!)  The egg is apparently similar in size.  The Cardinal then raises the Cowbird.  I had no idea birds did this!  This Cowbird is certainly milking it for all it’s worth!!!

The Cowbirds are made up of a family of Screaming, Giant, Bronzed, Shiny and Brown-headed birds…(no I’m not making this up!)

Hope you have an UDDERLY creative day!!!  🙂

My Cat Jack

My cat, Jack decided that I needed to introduce him to you today.  Jack loves to be outside especially when the sun is shining!

Here he is hiding in the grass in case a bird might drop by…

Jack loves to catch birds and mice and bring them to me as love offerings.  🙂