It’s funny (and sad) how often you see paintings of scenes that look great except that everybody has left town. I’ve been taking a Zoom class called “People Alive!” with the goal of populating sketches with casual figures, and also better understanding how the head changes with different angles. Here’s some of my homework. Not easy! Art is fun and frustrating because you’re never as good as you want to be, and you can keep learning for the rest of your life.
Hibiscus are such beautiful plants, with flowers that only last a day. Is this a metaphor for cherishing the days of our life? Though watercolor is my primary medium, I also love the fluidity and brightness of acrylics. 100% of sales go to voter protection this election year.
6″ x 6″ acrylic on museum board $75. Frame available.
This election year I’m offering my art for sale to fund the fight against voter intimidation in North Carolina. Unfortunately, efforts to prevent African-Americans from voting are still common, especially in rural areas of the South.
Original watercolor 8″ x 10″ (fits an 11″ x 14″ frame), $225, 100% to fight voter intimidation. Tax deduction available.
A unique feature of watercolor is that, if you pre-wet a shape with clear water before the dropping the paint in, the watercolors will run together and mingle. The paint won’t go where the paper is dry, like the spaces between the tree trunks. Only three colors (red, blue and yellow) were used here, but they mingled to create purple and other shades. That’s one of the reasons I love watercolor.
The daffodils are starting to bloom in North Carolina. Can you tell I painted this quickly? The pencil lines of the sketch (which I didn’t always follow) were left. The background was painted after the flowers, including the negative spaces between the stems, and colors were allowed to run together and form “blossoms.” Watercolor is the only medium which can achieve some of these effects.
