An Abstract View

In May, we start packing up our car and heading to the lake on the weekends.  I thought you might enjoy seeing some of our views from our drive to the lake – in an abstract way!

In the Spring, the wild Lupines grow in the meadows in shades of blue and purple:

As the days get longer and summer arrives, so do fields of daisies and purple wild flowers:

In the fall, the cattails appear growing in a marsh area next to the highway:

I hope you enjoyed the drive!  I’d like to explore these small abstracts in greater detail.  These were done on 6 x 4.5 inch hot press watercolor paper with Neocolor water-soluble crayons.

Happy Exploring!  🙂

Big Bold Blooms

I finished my first flower painting yesterday from an online class I’m taking from Lynn Whipple called, “Big Bold Bloom Wild Painting.” It is a 5-week class that ends next week but I’d really encourage you to take it if you like painting flowers.  Lynn’s enthusiasm is contagious!

Here is my finished painting on a 24 x 30 inch canvas:

It is the first time that I have ever painted flowers this big and I absolutely loved it!  It is amazing how great it looks in my dining room, huh?

I thought you might enjoy seeing some of my progress photos.

I started by creating an underpainting of bold shapes in muted colors and then drew a rough sketch with soft vine charcoal:

I’m using Behr house paint samples from Home Depot which is a fabulous idea from Lynn Whipple.  I also used some of my Golden Fluid Acrylic paints in my next steps:

It was fun to add drips and splatters!  I then painted a soft gray color around the flowers, added a tabletop and some soft pastels:

I continued to tweak it until I was satisfied with it.  I then sprayed it with a fixative which did darken some of the pastels but I am still very pleased with it:

I’d love to hear what you think!

Happy Spring!  🙂

Sketchings of Nature

A friend at the lake brought me a wonderful nest she found on the ground.  It is a cup-shaped nest made out of green moss, pine needles, shredded birch bark or paper, tree lichen, feathers and dog hair.

I’m not sure yet the kind of bird that created this soft home-tweet-home.  Any guesses?  I had fun photographing it in a variety of settings like on a tree branch.

This prompted me to sketch it in my art journal:

With a few other wild plants such as:

Pink Forget-Me-Nots…

White Trillium flowers and unfurling ferns.

And wild roses that are in bloom!

I hope to paint these subjects individually.  It was fun to draw them in my sketchbook so I will remember to do so!

Doing these sketches reminded me of one of my favorite artists, Marjolein Bastin, who draws and paints nature beautifully.  Do you have a favorite nature artist?  I’d love to hear about it!

Happy Creating!