Here’s another group of small drawings done on a 3X5 spiral pad of Canson with a Stylist ink pen. I keep dreaming about color pastel paintings, but I’m still having fun with these. I hope you enjoy them!
This is an oriental poppy called “Coral Sea”. Guess the color?
Boots of Flowers
I saw this done somewhere, turning old boots into vase holders. I love people with a sense of humor!
Poodle Doodle
I just thought he was cute. It’s probably a poodle mix since that’s the thing these days.
Tags: Animals, black & white, dogs, Flowers, pen & ink, pets, poppies, Sketches
It’s been a busy holiday season and I hope it was wonderful for you all. Presents and food and family ruled, but not necessarily in that order. It was out first Christmas with our new granddaughter, Zoe (7 months) and it was heavenly! BUT, I didn’t get much artwork done. Let’s see….turkey…..art…..turkey….art…..it was tough! The choice, not the turkey!
My New Year’s almost Resolution is to try to keep up the daily art, so I decided that if I couldn’t stop and paint, I could at least draw a little. I gave myself a Christmas present (well, one of them) of a 5 X 3 spiral sketch pad by Canson and a new Stylist Pen (one of my favorite drawing pens….like the flair). The pad and pen are below. The first 4 days of drawings follow.
By the way, I got this idea from my son, Thom Chiaramonte, who makes small sketches on post-its. I think they have helped him through many a conference call in S.F. His are all on the subject of robots (I think they are all that). You would enjoy his sketches and his sense of humor. His site for these drawings is: whatitoleyou.com. Have fun.
#1 Bouquet of strange flowers (1/1/10)
#2 Mountain Chickadee (1-2-10)
#3 I call him Pepe (1-3-10)
#4 Lillies
Tags: Animals, black & white, dogs, Flowers, pen & ink, pets, Sketches
The Poinsettias seem especially nice this year. I can’t imagine Christmas without them. Here’s one from my diningroom table. The painting process is below:
Here is my last minute set up….we’re all in a holiday rush, right? I took a picture of the plant and stood it on my table easel to paint from. It was easier tonight than trying to set up lighting and painting the actual plant. As you can see, for this watercolor I’m painting each petal and leaf individually wet-in-wet. I decided not to take the time to paint a background, although I may go back and do that later.
This shot show the Winsor Newton travel set I’m always referring to as well as my 5.5 X 8.5 drawing pad. You may be able to tell that I tape 3 of the edges down to the pack to keep the paper from buckling while the paper is wet.
And here’s the final version. I hope you all have a wonderful holiday and I’ll see you with lots of work in 2010…….(although, I should say with lots of fun!). Peace to you all. Jan
Tags: Color, Flowers, process study, Watercolor
You all know my motto…..”when in doubt, paint flowers”!! I have been working on the 100 paintings challenge on Wet Canvas and in my case, that means pastels. While thinking about the next version, I got side tracked reading Elizabeth Mowry’s “The Pastelist’s Year”. She is head and shoulders my favorite pastel artist ….and not a bad writer either. So, I thought I’d do a small watercolor tonight. The image is approximately 4 X 6. Once again using Winsor Newton watercolors in my 7X9 sketch book. I definitely need to keep practicing using watercolor. It’s the medium I need to work looser. But, fuchsias are year around happy flowers. So, I hope you enjoy!
Tags: Color, Flowers, garden, Watercolor
I’m truly behind in my quest for 3 versions a week for the 100 painting challenge, but still in there! I haven’t decided on any theme for some of them, but who knows how I will feel next week. This one just painted itself with wild and crazy colors! For those new to the site, the size is always 5X7, pastel, 30-minute time limit (although on this one I think I pushed that to 45 minutes).
Enjoy!
Tags: 100 Pastel Challenge, Color, Flowers, landscape, pastel, Sketches, Watercolor
This is another type of veriation that I’ll be exploring in the challenge to do 100 paintings. My pastels tend to look soft and, some might say, mushy. But I like the almost water color effect that I get manipulating the pastel. In this case, the largest amount of pastel was applied with individual strokes. Sometimes, pastelists will use a vertical stroke…..I don’t think I’ve ever seen any with purely horizontal! I was so into this picture that I ran over my 30 minute limit and took 45 minutes…..but I think I’ll keep it anyway. Otherwise, it fit the remaining categories of same picture and size (5 X 7) I’ve now completed 5 paintings in my quest for 100. I hope you enjoy this one! Do you think I like color?
Tags: 100 Pastel Challenge, Color, Flowers, landscape, pastel, process study, Sketches
This was such an unusual yellow rose with red edges and red and green leaves that I took a picture of it while walking the dogs earlier in the year. Watercolor, of course, in my 7 X 9 sketchbook. I actually liked the bud more than the opened flowers as the red seemed more intense. Unfortunately, this shot doesn’t show the brightness of the original painting. I may go outdoors tomorrow and see if I can get a better shot. All comment are truly welcome! Remember, this is a learning adventure…..and I can take it 
Tags: Color, Flowers, garden, Watercolor
Well, I thought I’d give those colored flairs another try. I’m not as happy with them as I am just the black flair, but it’s fun trying to blend and smear the ink.
I decided that I couldn’t wait any longer, so I sat down and had some fun with watercolor! Funny how life keeps getting in the way these days. So, my new personal goal is to get something done daily and not worry about it. This is a quick watercolor (4 X 6) done in my sketchbook of a very small amount of the monster Morning glory taking over my back yard. My efforts at controlling it’s goal of world domination have been insufficient in this heat. I’m expecting to hear from the City of Lakewood about possible lost animals soon!
Tags: Color, Flowers, Watercolor
Although I did some pastel portraits back in the 70′s, I really didn’t do too many. It was hard to find a class in those days. Then I spent years designing and selling quilts in shows etc., and my art was sporatic. Then one day, I found “Paint the Changing Seasons in Pastel” by Elizabeth Mowry and I was hooked. The pastel above is the first one I tried after a couple of practice dabs and you can see the Mowry influence in the strokes. Who would have thought you didn’t have to smudge the life out of the medium? I’m off to an art guild meeting, but I thought tomorrow I’ll do this scene again and see how my techniques have changed. Should be fun!
