February 2018 – Watercolors by Lynn Holbein

Book of My Paintings

For Christmas our daughter Kate surprised me with a book of the paintings I posted throughout 2017.

The book came out beautifully, with high quality 8 1/2″ x 11″ paper and excellent colors, and I am going to order a number of copies. Each page has one of my sketches plus the narrative from that day. If you are interested in buying one at cost, they are $36 plus $10 shipping. Please let me know (just click “reply” and it goes right to my inbox) by next Sunday, March 4, and I will place the order next Monday.

Gerbera

My friend Betsy gave me this beautiful plant for Valentine’s Day, so it seemed a good idea to sketch it.

Drawing Breakfast

In his charming book “Everyday Matters,” Danny Gregory suggests we draw our meal before we eat it. This took more willpower than I had at L’Aroma Cafe today, so I ate some of the toast before sketching and a lot of the breakfast before adding paint to the sketch. Watch how Gregory does it on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPYmVBTrpK0

From Job to Joy

For fourteen years, I loved teaching art to adults. Eventually though it became a chore to think up new lessons every week. When I stopped teaching several years ago, it helped bring some of the joy back into the process of painting. Painting to share with you is the “sweet spot” which makes me happy. This image popped into my mind — the universal desire to enjoy our work and lives more.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

“Connection” seems to be crucial in making us happy. Connecting to family and friends, to animals, to nature, to creativity, to our Higher Power. Nurturing connections takes time and effort, but we are repaid many times over. Here’s wishing you a mosaic of connections, big and small!

Nudes

The Newton Watercolor Society hires models to pose every other Saturday through the winter, and this week there were 20 people there to paint. What a privilege! The model starts with 2 minute poses, then 5, 10 and 20. Here are two of my sketches of 20 minute poses. You can see the pencil lines as I tried to get oriented. The skin color is a mixture of red and yellow.

Steps of a Watercolor

We have about 30 houseplants, a variable number depending on which ones I’ve killed or bought lately. Yesterday I noticed the little string hanging from this one and decided to sketch it. In case you are interested in the process: first there’s a drawing with waterproof ink, then a wash of variable greens, then two layers of darker greens to show the variations of shadow. Drawing shadows is a learning edge for me. Some people would be bothered by the mistakes on the pot and shelf, but I like the “happy accidents” of watercolor.

Orchids

The orchids which are sold at supermarkets now are so amazing. They are economical, the blossoms last a month at least, and they bring such cheer to gray winter days. Here’s a spray of orchids I purchased and painted several years ago. I chose the green background to offset the pink flowers.

Happy unBirthday!

Today is my husband Bruce’s birthday. Yesterday was our youngest son Andrew’s birthday. In April we will celebrate a real Birth Day when Andrew’s baby is born.

If, like me, your birthday is not today, or even this month, let’s celebrate anyway. Happy unBirthday!