"IRIS" IN BLUE

Good Day everyone!!  Another beautiful day here, Sun shining,slight breeze, will be in the mid 80's later. What more can you ask for.  I'm adding another painting I finished for another monthly Challenge on WetCanvas..  This month the host wanted any kind of  Blue flowers.  This is a beautiful bearded Iris, that I loved to grow when I had a backyard.  Every year this particular plant would dazzle me with this display of these beautiful blooms.  The blooms were not suppose to be so blue, but this one liked to show her display on her own, and every year her blooms reigned over the others. So in tribute to that lovely lady who danced with the wind. I painted one of her girls.........this is one of my "Petite Pearls" Series showcasing smaller paintings. Hope you enjoy!!!
Painted with Acrylics on Gallery Canvas, 8x10 inches

Daffodils Springs Glory

This was done yesterday for a monthly event at WetCanvas  in the Florals Forum. You can see it there if you like.  It was done on gallery wrapped canvas using Golden full body Acrylics limited palette.I like to get up close and personal with my flowers, and just loved colors in these when I brought them home!!

***.....Just a note...........I'll be hosting the Monthly Florals Event coming up for the May, at WetCanvas, If anyone is interested in joining in, just go have a look in the forum,(Click the WetCanvas Link Above) or leave me a note here in the comments.for information..    It's open to all levels of  artists, and types of media and easy to get involved with some fantastic people from all over the world.......

Hydrangea - Finished !!

Finished this today, and got it entered in the project on time!!
I'm actually quite pleased as to how it turned out. Have a couple more in mind, larger scale.
The background was an experiment for me, as I usually do a very dark one,
but wanted to play with the light and colors, hoping to give it a lovely airy flair.:)

Acrylics on 11x14in Canvas....no need to frame if you don't want to.

Rose .....almost finished

I've joined into a June project at WetCanvas -a wonderful artists forum I'm a member of- and we were to paint a rose and post it on the due date for all to see. I decided to do a hybrid tea rose and concentrate on the heart of it, the core of the rose. I've almost finished it, still some work left, with the outer petals and at least one more color glaze maybe two, to get to the color I want. But so far I'm quite pleased with it, and thought I'd post it here to see what it looks like.

Used Golden Full Body Acrylics on 16x20 gallery wrapped canvas.
I've carried the painting on to the sides, so no need to frame it unless one wants to.

Sketchbook Vine Charcoal Drawing #5 - Young Woman

Still working on doing some drawings every day if possible, to improve my skills.
This one was done tonight while watching a movie "Catwoman" ......I had never seen it before..... with Halle Berry, Sharon Stone.
Wow Halle is one incredible beautiful woman, I may, just have to try draw her sometime, and her figure is to die for!!!!
I really enjoyed the movie, and in the end had this drawing done. I did not work too hard on it, but going to post it as I don't want to nit pick on a study.
I find I'm working with the charcoals much faster, and more efficient, so that's good, also getting a good likeness a lot better, and faster. So I'm pleased.
Would love to hear from you.....Crits & Comments always welcome!!
Done with Willow Vine Charcoal
About 9 x12 in my Sketchpad

Sketchbook Drawing #4-Young Woman

Another hot off the press. Quick study, I seem to be on a roll here, just want to do faces it seems.
All these are just impulsive. No pre thought to draw them. I just get an impulse when I see a image, or something, and grab a pen or pencil and some paper. I tend to like to use a pen, as then it hinders me from being able to erase. Still playing that game with myself. I've done quite a few more since the last posting, but I'm going to post this one from last night as I quite like her look and she was done very quickly and no real hitches. Still very rough drawings, I'm a messy artist. But this one is a lot cleaner than most of them LOL.
This is done with pen on 8.5 X 11 paper........

Have some paintings on the way.......you must be getting bored with these sketches by now!!!
Stay tuned......

Sketchbook Vine Charcoal Drawing #3-Young Girl

Quick Study Sketch very rough, I played with last night. It's from a young girl riding on a merry go round, her hair flying. I centered it on her face, as I wanted to capture the movement, and her joy!!
May do a painting from this. I used charcoal and graphite, played around with some added markings and shading to give it a more abstract look. Not sure if I'm done yet, will have to look at it for a while. About 9 x 12in..... What do you think??

Cows Play Of Color II "Mom and Calf"

Here's the second one in this Play Of Color series on "Cows"

Another WIP (work in progress) worked on this this week with the first one.
Finally remembered to get a photo of the first color stage .
The last photo shows it's almost finished.
Still some more work on the calf, and some last layer of colors. One more session and it should be finished.

This is larger 16x20 on gallery wrap canvas, working my way up.
My next one is going to be a lot larger than this.
Would love you feedback on these. Different style for me. What do you think??

I'm using a limited palette here, finding my background color, and the basic color tones.

First color layed in, and then sketched in the compostion of the cows over top, pretty rough, just a few lines to follow

''LILY'' CloseUp

This is a "Work In Progress" - WIP - that I started in July of this beautiful Lily. I was not far from finished, and somehow got sidetracked onto some other things, and there on my work table it has sat, leaning against the wall ever since.

One of my goals this year is to get caught up on unfinished works, and to not leave new paintings unfinished...........so thought I would post this here, to gently prod me to meet my goals, and show you what I'm working on.

I must tell you, I've never been a big fan of yellow flowers, I never buy them, I don't grow them, and never thought I would paint them!!! However, this one appealed to me, in it's very soft, lovely coloring, and it is a Tiger Lily, and a beauty. Also yellow flowers are hard to paint.

When mixing colors with yellow they can turn to "Mud" very quickly...........so I liked the challange!!! Hey.......I'm an emotional painter (so I've learned) I have to have some kind of emotional attachment to something before I'll try paint it, be it an animal, a flower, or a view of a valley, somethings got to grab me, and hold my interest, or I'll go on to better things, and that happens very quickly for me!! So big surprise!!!!! I like this yellow flower, and now I'm going to finish painting it. ( We're a weird bunch.........Us Artists) LOL :)

So onto the flower. It's a yellow Tiger Lily, doing it with Acrylics on 16x20 gallery wrapped Canvas.

I've not done a contrasting underlayer, that I often do with flowers, basically because of the color.....I don't want mud. This has about 5 or 6 layers on it in different areas already.

Now I'm starting to build up the contrasts and shadows, with many different colors of yellow, and mixtures.

Also, please disregard that horizontal line near the middle of the picture. I had to use my scanner and sew 4 photos together to get the photo, and the scanner did not like the yellow, and I had a hard time getting a decent photo........No Camera. :)

This is going to look great when it's finished. Luv that light soft lemon color!!!