Flintridge Cottage
“Flintridge Cottage” – watercolor – 5.3″ x 7″
Every year our town has a spring garden tour of some of the nicest homes. I often take a camera along to get ideas for landscaping. And occasionally these gardens end up in my paintings, too. This ivy covered cottage is on the route of one of our daily walks. With manicured box hedges, rose bushes and perennial flowers, it looks like something out of a fairy tale.
Palos Verdes Ride –
Palos Verdes Ride – 13.75 x 9″ – watercolor on paper
$100 Purchase from the artist
A few weeks ago, when we went down to Wayfarer’s Chapel for our anniversary, we drove through the Palos Verdes peninsula and I took a few pictures from the car along the way. One of them featured some large eucalyptuses, which I can never pass up the chance to paint. Unfortunately, this area is “no parking” due to extreme landslide danger, so I was not able to get out and sketch. But that’s why I always carry a camera with me. When I got home and took a look at my picture, I saw that there were some riders emerging from the grove. I hadn’t noticed them at all during the drive-by.
If you live in the area , I think we just approaching Portugeuse Bend, coming up from San Pedro. (Googlemap link below.)
His Eye is on the Sparrow
“His Eye is on the Sparrow” 8in x 8in – watercolor on 140# Fabriano paper
SOLD
This painting was partly inspired by the song so loved by gospel singer Ethel Waters, “His Eye is on the Sparrow.”
Although the watercolor painting is sold I since painted the same scene as an oil painting, 11 x 14 inches, oil on canvas.
Interested in this painting?
Click this link to write me. See more of my paintings on my website
Magnolia Glow – Daily Painting
Magnolia Glow – 7 x 11″ watercolor. SOLD.
Although this painting is sold see more of my floral and botanical paintings here
Every year I wait for the magnolias to come into bloom at Descanso. The tulips burst open at the same time, which seems fitting. The downy buds thrust up, covered with a soft casing that seems like velvet or suede. Eventually it begins to show color. This is usually about the time that a rainstorm threatens to spoil the blooms. But, with luck, the tight buds will make it through the showers, to open fully on a warm day. From this tight urn-shaped form they will expand gracefully, the petals laying back in ecstasy. The colors are more subtle in the shade, but I like them best in early morning or very late afternoon, when a slanting ray causes the white of the petals to glow with a hot inner fire.
In this case, the flower was painted first, in general terms. Then the background was added to gauge the contrast. Finally, I went back and added the final color accents to the bloom. I rather like the trapped negative space between the stem and the leaf – it reminds me of certain art nouveau motifs.
Full Blown – Daily Painting
“Full Blown” 7″ x 11″ – watercolor on 140# paper
Available
It’s not too late for the camellia show at Descanso Gardens, if you’ve been putting it off. There are still plenty of big blossoms in every range of white red and pink, and the azaleas at their feet are dazzling as well. And the tulips are up!
I was a painting fool this weekend. The more I painted the more I wanted to paint. I had some red paint left over from the tomatoes, and rather than see it go to waste I looked around through my recent flower files and found this camellia blossom, caught in the brilliant late afternoon sunlight. I can still imagine it hanging on the tree, moving slightly in the breeze.
I think I could paint something different from Descanso Gardens every day and not ever get bored. Do you have a place you feel that way about? Whether it’s a park or a garden or a part of the city that you call your artistic “home?”
Purple Iris – Daily Painting
Purple iris 4″ x 6″ – watercolor on 140# paper with colored pencil accent
SOLD
Spring is almost here, and although the irises in my yard haven’t bloomed so far, I rummaged around in my files of photos I took last year and found this one to work from. I admit to being an iris fancier as well as a mum grower, and I like to collect different varieties. Descanso gardens has an annual spring plant sale and that’s often a good place to get irises which have been divided out of their huge iris garden.
“As the Parade Passed By” – new painting
“As the Parade Passed By” – 12′ x 15″ watercolor on paper.
VIVA Gallery – NWS all member show
Last week, I got some very good news that I’d like to share with you. If you’ve been following this blog for the last year or so you can imagine how much this “first time” means to me.
I found out that this new painting, “As the Parade Passed By” has been juried into the Natl. Watercolor Society’s all member show, which will be hung in about a month at the VIVA gallery in Sherman Oaks, California (in the San Fernando Valley.) I am delighted to be included in this show of other NWS members and look forward to becoming more involved through activities and future competitions as well.
The painting was developed from an original photograph I took at a parade not too long ago. The man had a faraway look that I wanted to work with and enhance in watercolor. It was painted about two weeks ago. The watermark, of course, is not on the original.
When I got my MJ at UCLA, one of my favorite J-school classes was photojournalism. To be able to fade invisibly into a crowd and capture a face, a look, a moment, still fills me with excitement. Translating that into another medium has made the experience all the more enjoyable and precious.
Detail:
P.S. Here’s a good article on the use of street photography as an art form
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_photography#Photographing_without_permission
Monster Radishes – Daily Painting
“Monster Radishes” – 10″ x 14″ watercolor on 140# paper
Purchase from the artist: karen@karenwinters.com
When we go to the Farmers Market on the weekend, we are often delighted to see unusual vegetables from regional truck gardens. This week I was astounded to see these Radishes of Unusual Size (with a tip of the hat to Princess Bride.) These vegetables are between three and four inches in diameter and one alone would be sufficient to populate a salad with piquant red and white medallions.
Because time was short before preparing dinner, this was direct-painted without any pencil underdrawing, an experience I have compared at other times (like working on Yupo) to skiing downhill on ice. With staining pigments like these you get one chance to make the stroke, for good or bad, and then let it be.
A lot of people don’t like radishes because they can be hot, but I like them for crunch and flavor, but I’m going to have a hard time cutting up these proud beauties.
Art thought of the day from Matisse:
“It is feeling that counts above all. It is not physical matter one renders, but human emotion.”
Abstract Cliffs
Cliffside 7.25 x 3.25 – watercolor on paper
This small watercolor was an experiment in abstracting a scene – an exercise that I found very liberating and refreshing. When I look at the work of the California regional painters of the 30s and 40s, I see how often they broke away from realism to paint simplified forms and improvised color schemes. You can see the evidence of this movement in the highly designed travel posters of the era.
Quote of the day from Robert Henri:
“The object isn’t to make art, it’s to be in that wonderful state which makes art inevitable.”
May you all be in that state all this week!
Asparagus – Watercolor painting
Asparagus 9 x 12 – 100 lb. paper
From my sketchbook …. When asparagus shows up in stores it’s a sure sign of spring, even if it comes from Chile or who knows where. My dear husband knows how much I love the vegetable and when it appears for a good price at Trader Joe’s or one of our other local markets, he brings it home when he’s out doing errands. I like it simply prepared, like most of the fresh vegetables we enjoy around here. Steamed or microwaved briefly, with a little butter and salt.
This was painted directly with ink and brush and watercolor. Simple and quick, just like asparagus should be prepared.
