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Cherry Blossoms

 Every spring I like to go to the Tidal Basin in Washington D.C. and walk around admiring the blooming trees. I do a lot of people-watching, as tourists walk, run, roller skate, picnic, do ballet, and take photos. Often I carry my painting kit and will do a sketch if it’s not too cold or windy. This year attendance in person is discouraged and one may look at the blossoms on the Cherry Blossom Cam. This picture was done from a photo that I took a couple of years ago.

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Come, Spring, Come!

 Spring Migration, watercolor, 11” x 16” We sit poised on the edge of Spring here in coastal Maryland. The daffodils and iris are pushing their long slender leaves through the soil. The maples are budding, becoming red and fluffy with stamens, in preparation for all the little whirling helicopters. The camellia bush outside our kitchen window shows pink tips poking out of the swollen buds. The songbirds have tuned up their calls, establishing their nesting territories. The tundra swans have taken off for their nesting area in the north, and the geese are practicing their flying formations, honking noisily as they go overhead. This watercolor was painted on a rough…

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A Celebration!

 I just noticed that I recently had my 500th person sign up to follow this blog! In order to celebrate, and to thank you for following my art journey, I am going to be giving away two free note cards to the first 25 people who respond. Here are the two note cards: Each card is 4.25″ x 5.5″ and is blank inside. Email me your name and address using “Celebration” in the subject heading. This offer is valid for the first 25 people who respond or until March 10, 2021, whichever comes first. My email address is Ruth@RuthBaileyArt.com.

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A Flock of Cardinals (#2)

 As so often happens when I paint a picture, after I decide that I am done, I look at it a couple of days later and think of all the things that I wish I had done differently. And the only remedy for those thoughts is to paint the picture again, and sometimes several times again! It was that way with the last painting I posted about a flock of cardinals in some winter birch trees with snow on the ground. Here is the second attempt: For purchase information, click on the image.

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A Flock of Cardinals

 It’s January, and as usual in southern Maryland, the winter is mild. We have temperatures above freezing and any indications of snow that appear in the weather forecast tend to evaporate before the day arrives and we get rain instead. It is the time of year when I start longing for snow, privileged as I am to have my studio in my home and I don’t have to drive to work. So, I create my own snow in my paintings. Birch trees are fun to paint in watercolor. To do these, I painted in the sky and the background trees, making sure to use pigments that don’t stain the paper.…

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Where the Leaves Are Not

 This is one of my favorite exercises in the autumn because it combines the colorful leaves with the concept of negative painting. We easily understand positive shapes because we can name them. They are things like leaves, chairs, circles, cups, cows, etc. Negative shapes are the shapes between positive shapes, like the hole between your…

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Red Chair

 I saw this house on my walk this morning, and I loved all the red – the chair, the mailbox, the birdhouse, the flag, and the flowers. This is in a neighborhood where lots of people walk and others sit out and greet their neighbors. We did get a break in the hot temperatures though, and it was overcast and drizzly this morning, so I had to imagine in the sun. Would you be a walker or a sitter? For purchase information, click here.

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Monarch Butterfly

 Today’s World Watercolor Month prompt of “Do-Over” wasn’t giving me any ideas, so I painted what I wanted, this monarch butterfly enjoying the nectar from some cone flowers. (Thanks to Virginia Westrick for the reference photo that I used.)

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Pose

 World Watercolor Month is almost at an end. Today’s prompt is “Pose,” which is what these two are doing! Would you ride with these guys?

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