The rhododendrons are just finishing their splendid spring display. This watercolor is a reminder of the profusion of color when rhodies are blooming. A reward of our gardening efforts is to have a ready supply of painting ideas. The challenge is to balance time gardening and time painting. There is never enough time to do both as much as I'd like.
Shallot, Onion, and Garlic:
I used Daniel Smith Pearlescent watercolors on black watercolor paper. Shopping in the produce section always inspires me to see the produce as something that would be fun to paint first, eating secondary!
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Congratulations, Chelsea, on your New Year, and especially your new creative jewelry: I am the happy owner of several of your creations. I always feel happy wearing them. Thank you, Chelsea!
Did your mother ever tell you that eating vegetables would make your hair curly? Mine did. I can still hear her voice. Well, Mom, my hair is curly, but was it the beets?
This holly branch was quickly and freely drawn with a black crayon on textured paper that accented the irregular lines. The colors were quickly brushed in with a large pointed watercolor brush.
I filed this away, forgotten for a few years, not quite sure how I would used it. Fast forward, I found it when searching for something else and thought it would work for a Christmas card.
For the wording, the lyrics to" The Holly & The Ivy" carol seemed perfect. I picked parts of the lyrics that would fit into the spaces, a bit of editing the original.
It makes this all of a piece to have envelopes coordinated with the card. Shopping for stamps, I selected the Christmas stamp design that was red and green, with a bit of white. .
Envelope
Card
Looking for an idea for Christmas cards, I went through my archives and found this holly design that had possibilities.
This one was redone with some new features in Mac's Pages program: removed the background, and then, most exciting, I accidentally hit a command to add the drop shadow. It was exciting to see what happened, accidentally! This was my new Christmas note. I thought it would also be a good post card, especially considering the new U.S. postal rates. Maybe next Christmas!
Some paintings are a struggle, but this one was a lot of fun. I still feel a jolt of adrenaline whenever I look at it.
The swirling petals were easy to paint, guiding the brush out from the center of the flower.
Drawing the circles bouncing up from the greenery, I held the brush perpendicular to the paper, just the very point of the brush on the paper. It felt as if the circles morphed into champagne bubbles with that fizzy sparkle.
I have forgotten what animal hairs were used for this skillfully hand-made brush. We who are fortunate to have some original Keith Lebenzon brushes still mourn his passing.
This is just one of uncounted lily paintings I've done. I chose this one because the green background and lavender border made this painting especially pleasing, at least to my eye. Lucky me, the judge agreed!
When not painting lilies, I'm in the garden, planting, even encouraging dozens of lilies clustered around the garden. Early fall, I'm perusing lily catalogues, deciding what new ones to add to next year's crop. There are always new ones, considering bloom time, color, planting places.
Recently the proliferation of rabbits has become the bane of gardeners. New lily shoots are particularly luscious to rabbits, nibbled to the ground. No lily! This winter's project: fencing cylinders to protect next spring's crop.
Eat Eat your veggies! But…make art first!
These peppers were so vibrant and glossy, they were really fun to paint, quickly without thinking much. The border took a little longer, deciding where the peppers would burst through and making the pen designs. Making linear borders always reminds me how much I liked high school geometry. What would my geometry teacher have to say about what his class started!