Autumn Chickadees and Oak Leaves

After painting maple leaves with all of their pointy shapes and lovely colors I get a yen for a change of pace and paint oak leaves. Oak leaves have really awesome irregular shapes and lovely curves. They are sort of symmetrical and sort of not and I love how they attach to the branches and twigs. Their colors are more muted as they move into Autumn. So I've combined chickadees and oak leaves for fall color and a glimpse into the life of a bird.
These pieces are painted in watercolor on 100% cotton paper. Some of the paint is sparkly Daniel Smith paint which is a subtle sparkle. Daniel Smith makes a great color called Iridescent Ruby which if you haven't tried it is really fun to use.

"Oak Leaf Vista" • Original watercolor on 100% cotton paper • 7.5" x 5.5" 

To purchase click HERE.

"Autumn Two Step" • Original watercolor on 100% cotton paper • 7.5" x 5/5"

If interested in purchasing this piece click HERE.

Autumn Harmonies

After masking the bird I started with a wash of acrylic ink. When the ink was dry I unmasked the bird and painted it in watercolor. Then using leaves I placed them in places in the painting as place holders and painted around them with watercolor. I went back in with acrylic ink and painted some of the whites to add sparkle. There's some iridescence in this piece from the ink wash. I think the bird looks very much at home among all of the surrounding leaves.

"Autumn Harmonies" • Original mixed watermedia on 100% cotton paper • 11" x 15"

If interested in purchasing this piece click HERE.

Oak Leaf Swirl

Painting cardinals is very fun because of working with the bright colors. In this piece I put the birds among oak leaves and enjoyed making harmonies with the browns and reds. I brightened the female bird a bit and added light blue green to the background. I really love the movement and the swirl of the leaves and colors.

"Oak Leaf Swirl" • Original acrylic on 3/4" wrap around canvas, painting continues on sides, ready to hang • 12" x 12"

Towhee Workshop

This was a really FUN workshop! Everyone make a GREAT piece of art!
We used watercolor and acrylic inks and autumn leaves to create a very unique piece of art! We were able to squirt, spray, texture and let loose with the paint.
Below are the pieces. (Thanks to everyone for allowing me to share!)

My next workshop will be painting cardinals in acrylic, Saturday November 4th!
Check out my website at: http://www.melissagannon.com/workshops/index.html 
to see details.

  

Dancing Reds & Browns & Greens

Sometimes you get something in your head and you just have to work on it until whatever it is becomes satisfied. That's what's happening to me and cardinals. I have all of these ideas of incorporating these birds into paintings in combination with leaves or snow using different colors. I also was able to photograph cardinals when I was in Texas. Granted, my photos aren't great since the birds were wary and far away, but it was fun listening for them and watching them hop about in the trees and it's great to have more of my own references.

I had some small canvases and I thought a cardinal would fit very well on one. They like oak trees and the rounded shape of the oak leaves and the pointyness of the bill and crest make a contrast. I've been loosely experimenting with Munsell colors. On the Munsell wheel, the complement of red is blue green. If you do a red, yellow, and blue triad and adapt it to the Munsell wheel the triad becomes yellow, red violet, and blue green. I've been loosely experimenting with Munsell colors in my recent work. It puts the color off a step and  makes for some interesting combinations. I enjoyed adding peach as an accent color to this piece. I think it really picks up the browny tans and highlights the red.

"Dancing Reds & Browns & Greens" • Original acrylic on 3/4" wrap around canvas, painting continues on sides, ready to hang • 7" x 5"

If interested on purchasing this piece click HERE.