watercolor and painting ideas
…this is where we’d like to bee:
The World Watercolor Group theme for this month is “Let’s Go on a Nature Hike!” but in my area, we are still in the throes of winter. And even though I go for a walk most mornings, I will probably not see many of the items on the daily prompts. So, I get to make them up!
Wishing you sunshine and relaxation today!
Ruth
On our last trip to visit my daughter and her family, we got to visit with her neighbors, who own some chickens. My son-in-law taught my grandchildren to “pet” the occasional centipede that shows up in their house before taking it over to feed it to the chickens. 😏
Using some photos I took as a reference, I painted this picture using three primary colors, cadmium yellow light, permanent alizarin crimson, and cobalt blue.
The World Watercolor Group prompt for today is “Puppy” so here is my folks’ dog Savannah. She has her own special chair in the living room and often sleeps in this position.
The Doodlewash prompt for today is “Good Hair Day” and since I didn’t want to do a self-portrait, I decided to concentrate on the other important “hair” that I want to have a good hair day everyday: my watercolor brushes. The criteria for a good watercolor brush is that is should carry/hold a large amount of water (or paint) and that it should come to a sharp point (for round brushes) or a fine ridge (for flat brushes). The very best watercolor brushes are made with the hairs from the tail of the sable martin from Kolinski, Russia. No wonder they are expensive! Most watercolorists today use brushes that have some or all synthetic bristles in them. They are affordable, available, and easily replaced if one wears the point off.
Although I have a coffee mug full of brushes, these are the ones that I turn to every day. From left to right they are: a Silver “Black Velvet” round 8, a Connoisseur 1″ oval wash (also known as a “Cat’s Tongue”), a Silver “Black Velvet” round 12, and an Escoda “Versatil” rigger size 10.
In order for brushes to have “good hair days” they need some basic care. They should be kept clean and dry when not in use. They should not be left standing in a container of water. This can loosen the glue holding the bristles in the ferrule and cause the bristles to take the same shape that hair does on a pillow overnight, especially when one wakes up with the hair going in every direction! If this happens, sometimes the bristles can be reshaped with the help of some bar soap, with the suds worked into the bristles fairly dry so that the soap helps hold the bristles in the correct shape and allowed to dry. The soap washes out once the brush can hold its shape again.
The World Watercolor Group prompt for today is “Fresh” and my first thought was of freshly squeezed orange juice, but I painted oranges yesterday so I went in the opposite direction and thought of the worst thing that I have ever tasted fresh: an olive.
My family and I were in Italy and were on the Amalfi Coast, walking down from Atrani to Amalfi when we passed some olive trees in the verge between switchbacks on the trail. There were some nice ripe purple-black olives hanging there. My husband wondered aloud what a fresh olive would taste like. He reached up an plucked one and then gallantly handed it to me. Without thinking much, I popped it into my mouth. Oh! Bitter! Bitter! This walk was less than a mile long, so we weren’t carrying water and I had to go the rest of the way with the nasty taste in my mouth. Who ever thought of eating olives in the first place if they taste like this fresh? I do like olives, especially the ones we bought in the Italian markets, all brined and spiced, oily and tasty, both black and green. But from now on, I will not eat fresh olives!
Is there anything that you don’t like when it is fresh?
Happy New Year! May today be the beginning of a wonderful year for you!
As I sat down to breakfast this morning, I decided to look at the Doodlewash watercolor prompt for today. I had a sneaking suspicion, as I looked down at my delicious breakfast, that it would be the prompt for today. And I was right. Do I eat it now, or stop, paint it and then eat it?
Fried eggs are best when eaten right away, so I ate my lovely breakfast and then cooked another one to paint.
Parts of the United States had a white Christmas, but not here. So, any snow that I paint is coming from my imagination. Here’s looking forward to some of this cold sparkly stuff before too long!
With family filling our home on Christmas and staying overnight in my studio, I knew that no serious watercolor painting would be attempted. But, I wanted to have something to do with my daughter-in-law and my son’s girlfriend. Looking at videos on YouTube, I learned enough to be comfortable trying out pouring acrylic paint.
This was a messy but fun project. We were all excited with how it turned out. My daughter-in-law, an engineer, was apprehensive when I first mentioned an art project but now wants to do this with a group of friends back home. 😊
We had practiced a couple of times on gessoed Bristol paper before turning to canvas. Our final results:
We were introduced to Panetone, a sweet yeast bread with fruit baked in, when we lived in Italy. I’m not a big fan of fruitcake, unless this qualifies. Yesterday’s prompt on Doodlewash was “fruitcake” but I couldn’t paint this until after I finished baking it today. My sons and husband patiently waited until it was cool enough to cut. Hopefully we will have some left to eat on Christmas!
The watercolor prompt for today is “candy”. I looked at our assortment of candy canes, mints, and chocolates wrapped in shiny colored foils, and I wasn’t inspired. Then I read Charlie O’Shields’ post and looked at his watercolor picture of candy – decorative ribbon candy! But he also talked about “burying the salmon”… and I realized that my husband was coming in the door with salmon from the smoker, a delicacy my family has affectionately dubbed “fish candy” and asks to get as a Christmas present!
We learned about hard-cured smoked salmon while living in the Pacific Northwest. The native peoples catching and curing the salmon inspired this treatment of the fish. After brining the fish for several hours, it is smoked and cooked at a low temperature until it is cooked and firm. Yummy!
