irises

 16x20

(Sorry this photo isn't so good!)

I love this time of spring when every week something new is blooming: this week the bearded irises are starting to open. I also have some Dutch irises but I think they wonn't open for a few weeks yet.

My bearded irises are all blue-red violet, but my neighbor has some gorgeous light-blue ones--I'm going to ask if she'd like to sway a few rhizomes.

Today I was riding my bike by a house I often go out of my way to ride past because of its spectacular garden. The creator of the garden was out doing some weeding, so I told her how much pleasure her garden gives me, and we started to talk.

She is a real gardener, very knowledgeable, whereas I am really just a person with a yard who selects and plants things kinda haphazardly and hopes for the best!

Anyway, she's going to come over to my house for coffee, to look at my yard, and we're going to look for things we can share/swap. She's already given me a little Queen Anne's lace plant!

I am very excited! She, Lisa, was so nice, and I am going to learn a lot.

unfinshed landscape

 

9x12

Another one: couldn't finish. 

It's a nice scene though and I'll probably try it again, but with  more sky next time!

unfinished tulips

 14x18

 Dipped into this a bit over the week, but couldn't finish ... Sometimes I just can't seem to push through to the end.

Maybe it was because I had a busy and frustrating week.

Next week will be better!

quince again

12x12

Lately everytime I paint something, I feel I have start over!

I wasn't happy with my attempt to paint dappled sunlight in the quince painting below and decided to start another; you'll see I haven't gotten to the problem area yet.

But here's the problem when you have two paintings of the same thing: there's always something to like (and not like) in each!

Seeing them side by side now I can really see that the quince in the first one have a luminosity that the ones in the second don't. Third try?

white-throated sparrow

4x4

I think I mentioned I'll be in two small group shows in August ... I would really like to have a few little bird paintings to put in in it, so I'm starting to think about that ... (a good thing, too, since my last two daffodil attempts have been just awful! haven't abandoned them yet, though!).

This guy is a little stiff for my liking. (If you are on FB check out Michelle Clamp's bird paintings at Paint Colorful Birds for Fun; they have a wonderful fluidity that I would love to be able to achieve.)

Just a start.

melo & arya

9x12

In the reference photo you can't see many details because of the strong backlighting, so I set out to try to see the shapes of the midtone and dark values and paint only those.

I have a number of photos of my cats with strong value contrast that I think could produce good paintings.

Have to work on those transitions a bit ... and learn to not go back into a wet wash. Duh.

daffodils #3

7x11

My rescued daffodils are getting a little droopy ... as is my treatment of this subject. My friend Mike says I always lose a little energy as I repeat a subject, and he's right.

Wasn't too happy with the one above, so I did the quick, wet, no-drawing sketch below, to try to bring a little energy back to it.

canna lily

 19x26

This was a good subject for me; I could break  it down into smaller, discrete shapes and fill the space. 

I might go in and add some darks here and there to amp up the three-dimensionality (it's rather flat right now) ... or I might not: I might just enjoy the colors.

Today--a beautiful spring day--is my mom's birthday. Spent most of the day working in the yard, moving things around and dividing my many hostas--all descended from ones she gave me; a very Peggy thing to do.

daffodils #2

 

8x12

These are the daffodils I was able to save from the over-diligent leaf raker.

The buds opened up a little overnight ... so on to #3.

wip: quince

12x15

I am partial to that classic watercolor subject, fruit hanging on a tree. I have many photos of a persimmon tree at the end of my street that I hope to get around to painting one day.

I signed up for an online course with Birgit O'Connor called Shadows and Backgrounds because I love one of the paintings she does in the course, a branch of quince. I signed up for, and actually completed two of the projects for, another of her classes, and I learned a lot--about planning, about going big ... (And the classes are a good deal, imho: when you buy, you have access forever! Birgit supplies all the info and references you need; there are FB groups to interact with other students; and the videos are very good.) But I still have more to learn from her.

For example, for some dumb reason, I don't know why, I started this painting before watching Birgit's video. Luckily she has a video on correcting blooms--I don't usually mind blooms, but the one on the big leaf is just distracting.

Now the plan is to finish this, then do another a la Birgit.

pelicans

11x15

This is my second go at this, from a reference I found on Paint My Photo.

It's an improvement over the last in some ways, but I'm still not quite there yet ...

Again, I had a problem with the paper! In the lower quarter of the sheet; there was some defect there. But in this case it was for once a help, adding to impression of a worn wooden boat.

1st shot at daffodils, 2019

Okay, posting old-school here: take a photo with a camera; upload to laptop; edit and move to blogger file; post. Seems so laborious now ... but at least it works.
I have to complain about my paper a bit here: sometimes I seem to get a sheet that just won't cooperate--it's too absorbent and the colors don't mingle. Or it could be me: maybe I'm not getting an adequate ratio of paint to water to allow the color to float on the surface?
Anyway, debuting my new bar blue-striped towels! Have been looking everywhere for ones just like these but with writing on them--haven't found them yet.

The young man raking the leaves in my yard decimated one of my daffodil beds today. Managed to save a handful that haven't opened yet. So, 2nd shot will a vase of buds!

testing ...

I haven't been able to post from my phone, which, it turns out, surprisingly, is rather a pain.
I always get a "network error" message.
I am far from technically minded, but I steeled myself and did some troubleshooting.
Seems it's the photos that are causing the problem. So, another avenue to explore, sigh ... but I'm closing in on it!

(My blog will only post words, not pictures and my printer lately only prints pictures, not words. A technological chiasmus.)