This and That

I have continued to experiment a little with watercolor, trying to get the feel for some of the standard techniques. Here are some of the experiments.

This first painting is something from my imagination. I painted it on Arches cold press paper, on the back of a "failed" painting. That paper sure takes a beating!

watercolor painting by Vicky Christensen

Next is an iceberg, inspired by a reference photo I found on the Wet Canvas web site. At some point I would like to paint this again using acrylic paints.

watercolor painting by Vicky Christensen

Here is another one from my imagination: a sunset over a snow and ice covered field.

watercolor by Vicky Christensen

Finally, I wanted to paint something to use as a holiday card this year. So here is my abstract watercolor of colorful Christmas decorations against an evergreen background.

watercolor by Vicky Christensen

Painting With My Birchwood Friends, November Edition

I had the pleasure of painting with the ladies at Birchwood Arbors again. Here are some of the paintings they did this morning. 

The first photo is of my mother. Of course I am biased, but I think she did a great job! Everyone did a great job! 

Railroad Track Through the Woods

Painting by Vicky Christensen, watercolor on 16 X 12 inch Arches 140 lb. cold press paper

I heard a lot of good things about Arches watercolor paper and since I had a 40% off coupon from Michael's, I decided to give it a try. I ordered a 20 sheet block of 140 lb. cold press. I have been painting with Fluid paper blocks, which have the adhesive on the two long sides of the paper. I like that Arches has the adhesive on all four sides.

Snow

We had our first snowfall of the season a few days ago. So here are a couple watercolor paintings to commemorate that occasion. 

Painting by Vicky Christensen, watercolor, 12 X 16 inches

Abstract painting by Vicky Christensen, watercolor, 9 X 12 inches

And while I'm stuck in the snow, I am dreaming of warmer times. Here is a painting based on a photo I took in Hawaii.

Painting by Vicky Christensen, watercolor, 12 X 16 inches

More Watercolor Practice

Painting by Vicky Christensen, watercolor, 16 X 12 inch

Still working on my watercolor skills. If I were to do this one over, I would not paint all the fine branches. I got kind of carried away.

Snow on the Mountain

Painting by Vicky Christensen, watercolor on 9 X 12 inch 140 lb. cold press paper

Today's painting is based on a photo taken by my nephew. A few years ago, he and his mother took a road trip from Minnesota to Seattle. As a side benefit he has several gorgeous photos of some of the most beautiful spots in the US.

I decided to paint this with watercolor because I wanted to challenge myself.

Painting Water with Watercolor

Painting by Vicky Christensen, watercolor on 9 X 12 inch 140 lb. cold press paper

I was in the mood to paint another watercolor, so here it is. The reference photo had a sailboat which I obviously decided not to paint. I'll try that later, but for today I just wanted to focus on the sky and water.

Negative Painting Practice

I am doing some more experimentation with negative painting. Here is what I have done so far.

First, an abstract landscape. I started with a wash of yellow, with some streaks of red. Then I layered in the washes for the tree canopies and the grass/trunks. I followed up with some more definition with a darker mix below the trees, washes of burnt sienna to give the tree trunks some texture, and some more color in the tree canopies.

Watercolor on 9 X 12 inch 140 lb. cold press paper

 The next painting is an abstract of leaves floating in a pond. I started with yellow and orange washes and dabbed in red and blue into the wet washes. I followed up with layers of color to outline the leaves, splashes of water to lift some of the paint, then more layers of darker colors to outline the "leaves" and other shapes that developed as I was mixing colors and splattering.

Watercolor on 9 X 12 inch 140 lb. cold press paper

Finally, an acrylic painting. This is an abstract of tree branches in spring, also done using a negative painting technique. My inspiration was a red maple tree, hence the red and yellow flower clusters that appear before the leaves in early spring.

Acrylic on 16 X 12 inch canvas

Trying New Things

Painting by Vicky Christensen, watercolor on 9 X 12 inch cold 140 lb. cold press paper

 I am continuing to experiment. I bought a new book by Linda Kemp, Simplifying Design and Color for Artists. She specializes in negative painting techniques and her paintings are full of rich color, texture and depth. The painting above is one of my negative painting experiments in watercolor. The composition leaves a lot to be desired, but I do like the colors and textures. I plan to be doing more negative painting in the future, both with watercolor and acrylics.

I also wanted to do a quick acrylic painting today since it has been a couple weeks since I have done one. I had a canvas that was already primed with a sky blue color, so I decided to do this close-up view of a flowering crabapple tree. I based this painting on a tree that I planted at my old house. It was gorgeous when in full bloom.

Painting by Vicky Christensen, acrylic on 16 X 12 inch canvas

Adventures in Watercolor

Painting by Vicky Christensen, watercolor on 140 lb. cold press paper, 9 X 12 inches

I decided to mix things up and try painting with watercolors. Until today, other than the painting sessions with the ladies at Birchwood Arbors, I have used watercolor only for underpaintings for pastels. This is my first serious attempt to paint a watercolor landscape. I decided to paint a subject that I had already painted in pastels -- a scene from Giverny in Autumn.

I am happy with how this painting turned out. I know I have a lot to learn, but that's the fun part.

Painting With My Birchwood Friends

This morning I spent some time painting with my mother and a few other residents of the assisted living facility where Mom resides. Thanks Kris Swanson and Birchwood Arbors for letting me join your group in this fun activity.

Here are some photos, starting with my mother. She painted a snowy winter scene.

Autumn on My Mind

Painting by Vicky Christensen, Acrylic on 12 X 16 inch canvas

The leaves are falling here in Minnesota and frost is on the pumpkin, but the fall colors still abound. After spending a few hours painting rocks and twigs and watery reflections yesterday, today I wanted to do something very loose. I figured the best way to keep it loose is to go from my imagination rather than a photo reference. So here is the result. I started with a canvas that I already had painted with a greenish gray mix (leftover paint from a previous painting), used a 1/2 inch flat brush and the colors I had left from my last painting: ultramarine blue, titanium white, Hooker's green, cadmium yellow medium, cadmium red light, Payne's gray, burnt sienna and burnt umber.

Finished Painting: Rocky Pond

Painting by Vicky Christensen, Acrylic on 18 X 24 inch canvas

I have finished painting the rocky pond. I had to tweak the rocks on the left side of the pond a couple times because the reflections were giving me fits.

Work in Progress: Rocky Pond

Acrylic painting, work in progress

 I haven't painted for a while, in part because I just wasn't in the mood, and in part because I needed an inspiration. I was rummaging through some old pastel paintings last night and came upon one that I really enjoyed painting and thought it might be fun to try it in acrylics. The photo above is the work in progress. I was mid-way through layering in the foliage and got to the point where I needed to work on the rocks before getting back to the foliage. I started blocking in the rocks and working on their reflections in the water before stopping for the day.

Below is the pastel painting. The original inspiration is a photo I found in the Wet Canvas reference image library (http://www.wetcanvas.com/RefLib/showphoto.php?photo=88393).

Same subject, different medium (pastel)

You're Never Too Old to Paint

Today I joined my 86 year old mother at a watercolor class. Mom lives in an assisted living facility. The former chaplain of the adjacent skilled nursing facility has been teaching watercolor to some of the residents once a week for the past five weeks.

I am in awe of the talent in the group. My mother used to paint when she was younger but hasn't painted in several years. She is rusty and lacking in confidence, so it was nice to see her give it a try. Among the others there were a few that obviously had painted before, plus a couple who are new to painting. Regardless of individual skill levels, each one tackled the "assignment" with enthusiasm. Today we learned how to use masking tape to mask off the trunk and main branches of a birch tree.

Here are some photos of the group at work:

And now, the painters with their masterpieces:

This is my mother :). She needed some coaxing and it took her a little time to get the spattering technique down. Too bad I chopped off the bottom of the painting when I took the photo, because her birch bark was quite lovely.

This young lady is a self-taught oil painter. She has a phenomenal sense of color and composition. She is not as experienced in watercolor, but you wouldn't know it by looking at her paintings.

I just love her bold colors choices.

Don't you love her dramatic color choices and bold textures? She has her own recognizable style that comes out in every picture she paints.

This lovely lady likes to paint buildings, and her birch tree is providing the shade. Note the red tile roof she painted on the middle building.

My tree. The most important thing I learned: if you goof, don't give up. If you are lucky, you can paint over it!

Alaska Sunset

Painting by Vicky Christensen, acrylic on 18 X 24 inch canvas

The inspiration for today's painting was a photo taken by my nephew in Alaska. I am not sure if this is a sunset or sunrise. Either way, the photo is beautiful and I hope I have done it justice.

Waterfall

Painting by Vicky Christensen, acrylic on canvas, 22 X 28 inches

A while back I painted this waterfall in pastel, from a slightly different viewpoint. When I found this photo by the same photographer, but from this angle, I knew immediately that I wanted to give it a try in acrylics. So here it is. The reference photo can be found here: http://www.wetcanvas.com/RefLib/showphoto.php?photo=17158&sortby=d&sorttime=9999&way=asc

Leftover Paint

I want to do abstract art but I am quite intimidated by the prospect. I get these images in my mind and don't know how to execute them. For that matter, I don't know enough about composition and design. So I have been putting off actually committing a canvas to an abstract painting.

In the mean time I have been using up paint leftover from my each of my paintings to dabble with some stream-of-consciousness exercises. In other words, I am tossing the paint onto either watercolor paper or a sheet of canvas, only using the colors at hand, without much thought to design, etc. I simply start with a general idea of where I want to go, then let it happen.

So here are some of the results.

acrylic on 12 X 16 inch watercolor paper

acrylic on 12 X 16 inch watercolor paper

acrylic on 16 X 12 inch watercolor paper

acrylic on 12 X 16 inch watercolor paper

acrylic on 16 X 12 inch watercolor paper

acrylic on 12 X 9 inch canvas sheet

acrylic on 16 X 12 inch canvas sheet

acrylic on 9 X 12 inch watercolor paper using palette knife