Dancing Oranges

I've been experimenting with some new wash techniques. It turns out that you can create a wash with a lot of colors and as long as they're allowed to run off the paper they don't make mud! It makes for some luminous colors. I've added a little gouache and some watercolor crayon to this piece.

"Dancing Oranges" • Original watercolor on 100% cotton paper • 11" x 7.25"

If interested in purchasing this piece click HERE.

Light Dancing Around the Chickadee

I have been painting a lot of chickadees lately in combination with Autumn leaves. I decided to change up the colors a little and work with greens. I think these greens work really well especially with the little bits of purple and lavender. I started out with oak leaves but decided to just kind of make the background into color shapes.

"Light Dancing Around the Chickadee" • Original acrylic painting on 3/4" wrap around canvas, painting continues on sides • 5" x 7" • Ready to hang

If interested in purchasing this piece click HERE.

Dancing Greens

While looking for a small piece of paper to paint on, I ran across this piece that already had a blue green wash on it with some texture. I added the bird and some more color and it worked out really well. It's kind of cool when the piece already has an established color dominance. That way all the colors that I choose have to fit with the already present colors. There's a little sparkle on this piece from one of the Daniel Smith mineral watercolors.

"Dancing Greens" • Original Watercolor on 100% cotton paper • 5.5 x 7/5"

If interested in purchasing this piece click HERE.

Maple Leaf Rock

A brand new acrylic which I just finished today. The colors are inspired by taking photos of red maple leaves with the camera set on 'tungsten' instead of daylight or cloudy. This really tweaked the colors especially in the sky holes. When I switched to sunlight or cloudy setting, the colors were boring in comparison. I've also included the complements of the red from the traditional color wheel as well as the Munsell wheel. In the traditional color wheel, the complement of red is green and in the Munsell wheel the complement of red is blue green.  There's warm and cool in the whites, a good amount of neutrals and good contrast. This has been a really enjoyable piece to paint although I've spent the last several hours tweaking colors and values to make it really "ROCK!"

"Maple Leaf Rock" • Original acrylic on 3/4" wrap around canvas, ready to hang • 12" x 12"

If interested in purchasing this piece click HERE.

Thoughts Among the Oak Leaves

Leaves have just kind of taken over my head. When I close my eyes, I see leaf patterns! The oak leaves are fun to paint because of all of the browns and yellows. I wonder if the birds think of their view from the branches a little like we think of our view from a picture window facing the woods. It looks like a great place to have a "think."
This piece has a lot of glazing to build the golds and browns. There is a little white gouache in the sky and a little sparkle in the piece.

"Thoughts Among the Oak Leaves" • Original watercolor on 100% cotton paper • 5.5" x 7.5"

If interested in purchasing this piece click HERE.

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.