Hello in Red and Blue

A couple of weeks ago, I cut some bluebonnets and Indian paint brush from our acreage and brought them in to enjoy and paint them.  I started this painting with wet paint on wet paper, adding fuller body color and pulling out color as I saw fit.  After drying, I worked one section at a time continuing this process, stopping for "gut checks" frequently.   This process of refining my painting until it expresses what I intend is quite an exploration.  Thanks to my friend Becky for encouraging me to finish this painting and to share the process! 

"Watercolor, Free and Easy"

My brother asked me to lead an art activity at a surprise birthday party for a very special lady, his girlfriend, Sandy. She is not only his special lady, but one of my biggest art enthusiasts. How could I say no? After a trial run with a smaller group of friends, then an inspired day of analyzing my own painting process and simplifying and outlining the steps involved, I came up with an easy step-by-step process. With the key steps painted and described on an illustration board, I led the group through creating their own painting of vases with light shining through. The first step involved making a wet-on-wet underpainting. Then when the underpainting was dry, the image of vases was added by transferring a tracing onto the underpainting using graphite paper. And finally, the space around the vases was painted a darker color, causing the lighter colors to appear to shine through the vases. Voila! We had quite a few masterpieces and lots of laughter and fun, not to mention, wine, food, and birthday festivities interspersed in between!