Watercolors by Lynn Holbein

Samantha, who turns six months old this week, wishes you some adventures in 2022.

My doctor is on my case to eat five fruits and vegetables a day, plus very little meat, both of which she says will help prevent heart disease, cancer, and Alzheimer’s. And meat production and transportation as the two leading causes of global warming.

Habits aren’t that hard to change. A breakfast smoothie (banana, almonds, frozen berries, almond milk, and OJ in my little blender) and a tray of vegetables, tossed in olive oil, salt, pepper and roasted, are delicious and filling. So far I’m on track. Check with me in a month!

Sammie and our family wish you a happy, healthy year ahead.

This watercolor painting, which I did a few years ago, is of the Vermont landscape near our summer cottage.

Wishing you and yours a happy holiday season!

This painting walks the line between realism and abstraction. Does that approach appeal to you?

And here is Sammie, now 4 1/2 months, after her recent muddy adventure.

Sammie (Samantha) is now four months old. This is a view when she naps. Thinking of the odd perspective and getting a photo were the main challenges here; after those, the painting was done very fast. Can you find her nose?

Every morning I center myself with a cup of tea and a meditation app. My current favorite meditation app is Balance, which was awarded Google’s best app of 2021. As a gift to the world during Covid, Balance is offering one year free to new users. Click here if you are interested.

This painting started with wet paper, then I dropped in random colors which blended together. After it dried I asked myself what it suggested, then inked in the suggested shapes. Then a second layer of watercolor to reinforce what had appeared. A fun process.

For an art class I’m taking, the homework is to paint a pattern in nature. I’m sure you can guess whose coat this is. Speaking of coats, Sammie got her first grooming on Sunday, and a ribbon to boot. The ribbon fell off ten minutes after this photo was taken.

This painting of 3 1/2-month-old Sammie was fun to do, though figuring out how to portray a mostly white dog was challenging. In the end I emphasized the background shape with lots of colors.

Autumn in New England are beyond compare. In North Carolina it’s later and more subdued, but still beautiful.

Sammie the Storm Trooper let herself be dressed up, for about two minutes. She took the helmet off within ten seconds and began chewing on it.

Gratitude and Humor.

I “painted” this on Procreate on my iPad. So simple, yet evocative.

And these two photos, the second of our new puppy Sammie, show why silence makes us nervous these days.

Unlike puppies, orchids stay still and don’t chew on everything or pee in the house. Much more restful.

Birdfeeders are so entertaining! Here are a Carolina wren and a male goldfinch in summer plumage.

Judging by the many enthusiastic replies to last week’s post, people love puppies. So I will send a photo of Sammie as well as my weekly painting in the coming weeks. She’s ten weeks old, and learning to walk on a leash.

No time to paint this week, as we drove twelve hours roundtrip to pick up Sammie, (short for Samantha) from the wonderful Addison family who raise golden doodles in Georgia. Right now she’s two months old, but eventually she’ll be 35-40 pounds. Like a human baby, she’s adorable and lots of work, and very popular, not only with Bruce and me but also with our granddaughter Lila.

Playing with lines and connections, showing the transparency of watercolor.

There are many painting choices. Watercolors are great — transparent, safe, portable and fast drying, and for over 20 years they have been my “go to” medium. Gouache is similar to watercolors, but opaque, so it’s easier to cover mistakes. Acrylics are also opaque, with the appearance of oils when dry, yet water-soluble. Water-soluble oils are non-toxic with easy cleanup.

After years of hesitation, I finally bought some regular oil paints. My brother-in-law Gordon assures me they can be used safely by cleaning brushes with baby oil. The main difference is the slow drying time, so you can make changes for days. Here is my first oil painting — so fun!

One goal of art is to capture the viewer’s eye and invite them to move around within the painting. Inspired by my photo of some flowers this summer, I had fun playing with it this weekend, moving beyond the reality of the dominant red flowers to create interesting and more elusive background spaces.

This oriole, like those in your neighborhood, is preparing to fly to Central America for the winter. I am starting a series of one-of-a-kind paintings in oils or acrylics, small enough (6″ by 6″) to fit in even the most crowded homes. These modestly priced originals come with your choice of a small easel or a hook for hanging. Info in caption.

“How very special are we
For just a moment to be
Part of life’s eternal rhyme
How very special are we
To have on our family tree
Mother Earth and Father Time.”

— Charlotte’s Web

Who doesn’t love these amazing little birds, who will be leaving our backyards for their epic flight to Central America in a few weeks.

After 16 months of missing family, it’s been such fun to be together in Vermont. Here are our daughter-in-law Eva, Maggie (3), me, and Lila (15). And my painting of the view of Caspian Lake in Greensboro, VT.

Most hens spend their entire lives in wire cages too tiny for them to stand up or turn around. Please consider buying eggs from pasture-raised hens, who have continuous access to the outdoors and eat a more natural diet. These hens, at a farm in N.C., seemed to be living the good life.

When is the last time you noticed the wires which light the darkness, heat and cool our homes and food, charge our phones and computers, and so much more?

Doing a little painting like this is freeing. There’s no pressure to be realistic, just follow your intuition and the colors and shapes that please you.

‘Tis the season of heat, growth (plants, trees, baby birds, fawns …. ) and Farmer’s Markets.

Lush greens and deep shadows are blessings of summer. The red barn is opposite green on the color wheel, making each livelier.

This week our daughter Kate’s third book is being published, Reclaiming Rest: The Promise of Sabbath, Solitude and Stillness in a Restless World. In a recent review, Publishers Weekly called the book “elegant,” and Rev. Michael Curry, the presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, wrote, “If ever a book could be described as timely, this is it!” As summer begins, how are you reclaiming rest? Here’s a link to learn more about the book.

Perhaps, like me, you have loved ones who are suffering from anxiety and depression exacerbated by the pandemic. Let’s be gentle with each other, for there are many wounds that are not visible.

I love it when people commission me to paint their animal companions. My most recent pet portrait is of Koby, beloved and recently departed. It was given to Sara for her college graduation a few weeks ago. The photo her mom gave me shows such a loving connection.

If you ever would like a pet portrait, you can find the details here.

Sitting on our porch now is a real delight, because so many birds come to our feeders at this time of year! The harried parents rush back and forth to feed their babies. I rarely make a journal page with commentary and several separate images, so this was fun.

These are the final two variations I made for the “Painting in Series” class. (Scroll back at www.lynnholbein.com to see the photo and six other paintings.) The top painting was done with just red, blue and yellow, mixed in different ways. The B&W was made tracing the original photo on a lightbox, using pen, pencil and three markers.

“Those of us who are truly lucky have more than one mother. They are the cool aunts, the elderly ladies, the family friends, even the mentors who whip us into shape,” wrote Heather Cox Richardson.

Giving thanks to the mother who gave us life, and to the other women in our lives who have mothered us.

Taking a break from my Mother & Baby series, I painted this last week, inspired by Danish artist Lena Gemzoe. She works fast, squeezing watercolors from bottles, tilting and scraping with a credit card, welcoming “happy accidents.” Here is a mesmerizing 7-minute video where she creates an entire painting. I love the mystery of these landscapes.

Two more iterations from the photo of our daughter-in-law and granddaughter (at www.lynnholbein.com ). Here’s a version with graphite (pencil & graphite stick), and also a painting with an undercoat of gesso applied in different directions to add texture to the hair and clothes.

This painting for my “Paintings in Series” class might well be subtitled “From Mess to Success.” The assignment was to create texture in your painting. I put salt in the mother’s hair to give it texture, and then glued tissue paper on her shirt, which looked awful. In frustration, I ran the whole painting under the kitchen faucet and scrubbed at it. When it emerged, it started to look better, so I applied ink to the edges (it was damp, so it ran on the baby’s face) and reinforced the paint on the mother’s and baby’s hair. A happy accident.

In April I’m sharing some pieces made for a class “Painting in Series,” when we each chose a photo and painted it using a variety of techniques. See my website www.lynnholbein.com for the reference photo of Eva and our granddaughter Maggie.

This assignment was to cut loose from realistic colors. The top uses contiguous colors (a variety of blues), and the bottom uses opposite colors (red/orange and blue/green). Crazy, but it helped us think outside the box.

I recently completed an excellent 10-week class called “Painting in Series,” taught by Chetana Keltcher, about painting the same image over and over using different techniques. For my weekly posts in April, each Monday at 5 I will send you one or two paintings I made for this class.

This photo is of our daughter-in-law Eva, holding our granddaughter Maggie when she was six months old; Maggie will be three this week. The painting below is on rice paper, using ink applied with both a pen and a brush.

Spring is officially here, and in North Carolina the daffodils, especially in sheltered sunny spots, are in full bloom. Here’s a casual painting of a clump of them near our new house.

After several years of low-level pain which has reduced my exercise (walking, yoga), I had my right hip replaced last Tuesday. I’m closer to pain-free every day! Kate and Lila, our daughter and granddaughter, came last weekend and painted my toes. Then it seemed time for a rehab sketch.

We are so incredibly blessed by modern medicine. Do you know the average life expectancy of people in 1900? 49.

The beginning of Daylight Savings Time is the best time of the year — eight months of longer, warmer days stretching ahead of us. Birds migrating north, flowers poking out, winter coats stowed in the closet. Blessings await.

Painting faces is tough. “A portrait is a painting with something wrong with the mouth,” wrote John Singer Sargent. I don’t know this woman — whose photo I found on the internet — so she won’t be offended if it doesn’t look quite like her.

After reading an article about the mental and physical health benefits of counting our blessings, I glued this heart together from thread, yarn, a button and various bits and pieces.

It’s been eleven months since most of us have travelled, so it’s fun to think about past vacations. My most exotic trip ever was to Thailand in 2014 with our son Andrew. We rode elephants in the jungle, and I sketched this at lunch to thank the mahout (elephant trainer). Later we made this astonishing stop at a family-run tiger zoo. The trainers hovered close by as Andrew and I each fed the six-month-old tiger a baby bottle of milk.

May you have a loving year ahead!

Orange and blue, opposites on the color wheel, make each other sing. This painting is based on a photo by our dear friend Ned Schofield, who sadly died three years ago. He was an amazing photographer.

Crows, chickens and other birds are much smarter than we used to think. Crows can even use tools. Our son Chris loves crows, so I painted this for his birthday.

Yupo does not absorb paint so the effects are unexpected and fun. I am sending you this on Monday at 5, since that was the preferred day of the majority who voted.