The procession

A while ago, as I was stopped at the traffic light this procession happened in front of me I just had time to find my camera and snap this little slice of life!
I started painting this at Don Andrew workshop.
I am not sure it is finished at this point... What do you think?

Work In Progress

Kay Barnes was at the last NWWS meeting and it was quite inspiring to see her move the paint with a sprayer, I had to give it a try and here are the results.
This is on Hot press, I really like how the colors stay vibrant on that paper.
I can see now that a figure or two could help the composition... I will keep you posted...

Don Andrew Workshop

Last week I had the chance to be part of the workshop with  Don Andrews I enjoyed it very much, there was so much information shared, I felt overwhelmed on the 3rd day.
Day number one was about capturing your light and in watercolors that would be by saving the white of your paper. The lightest light against the darkest dark will be in the dominant area or point of interest, the place where you want the viewer to look.

Don also mentioned that he visualises a red mat around his painting and nothing goes in that "red zone" no lights, no darks, no details.
In Don's quick sketches above, the eye immediately goes to the whites.
Keep posted for another lesson and don't forget to click on follow so you will receive the next post.

Life drawing

I joined a meet up group on life drawing, this is my effort for this last Friday.

Brown Background

I might go a tad darker on the right but I believe the browns work better.. What do you think?

Background Experiment

One of my favorite little model: my youngest son!
I had fun experimenting with the background, using a new colour for me: Cobalt violet, I layered it, then sprayed water on it to make it move. Interesting but I realize the purple sort of lack harmony so I will change this background to the browns...

Summer time

I hope you all had a great summer... As school started again and everyone goes back into the routine, summer time is already starting to fade in my memory.

I could not resist this little girl with her colorful ring all ready to jump in the water...
Memories of warm days spent by the lake with the kids and running after the ice cream truck as soon as we hear it!

Baby brothers are not fun yet...

A painting from a photo ref. I did a while ago, baby is 3 days old, Grandma came for the event and big brother is Oh sooooo bored!
I am not yet completely happy with Grandma's face and will work on it some more eventually...maybe when school is back!

Baseball game spectator

Parents and kids are all ready for the baseball game, practice happens weekly on the school yard, a great opportunity to quickly sketch the patches of color and the great mood.

Let's go get a ball

I take my children to the park as much as the weather permits and I love to sketch fast moving figures, here is one from "Nike Park"

A plein air try at Juanita Bay Park, Kirkland

A little serenade from Edmonds. This was drawn in ink and then watercolored, I added some sepia at the end as well.

Plein air in Edmond

I took a wonderful workshop with Faye Castle in Edmond and our group went painting in a beautifully arranged garden shop. The bird houses caught my attention. One of my challenge is to stay with my first idea and try to ignore the bright orange flowers on the side, begging to be the "star"

"Who's Boss?"

This is "who's Boss?" my attempt at a rooster while at Bev's workshop, my neighbor liked it so much, it now prowls in her house!

Bev Jozwiak part 2

Here is part of another painting of Bev's demo the colors on this crow are stunning.

Bev Jozwiak workshop

Bev Jozwiak bevjozwiak.com is one of my favorite artist and I felt quite priviledged to be one of the lucky one at her 3 day workshop... I had such a great time! I feel I learned a lot, I will share some of her techniques along with the pictures of her finished demos.
Bev is a great teacher, open minded and down to earth.

She uses Fabriano hot press paper, I never painted on that surface and I must say I was quite out of my comfort zone at first! but the sizing is so different, the paint seems to stay on top without being absorbed which makes it more true to life and is very easy to lift. I liked the results so much I will probably continue to use it.


Bev palette is overflowing with fresh or very moist paint, and she puts it on quite thick and sticky with very little water, she tends to paint her dark values first and that makes it easier to judge the overall values.


Bev used gesso for the white on the rooster, that added great texture and a sparkly powder on the tail... more things that I will eventually try on my own...

My red door

Spring has taken the disguise of winter... but the gardens are pretty and colorful, I've wanted a red front door for a long time... just need a few more coats!

We are lucky here to have beautiful trees all around us, the idea of putting a figure in there for scale came too late in the game...

Started to sketch this with a black sharpie and watercolor.

Two ladies at the park were immersed in their conversation and not moving around too much!...
I sketched them with a sharpie and added watercolor.

Retired sketchbook

On another very wet day, I sketched this from my car, waiting for the kids to get off school, I liked the movement in this sketch so I used it later to do a watercolor that sold fast called "Rain, rain, go away" you can see on my website http://watercolorart.webs.com/

There is almost something sad finishing a sketchbook... I have been carrying these pages for quite sometimes...
I will have fun starting a new one, even though the new white pages could be daunting at time! Yet one has to be ready when the sun comes back and you find yourself watching the kids at the park! So here are some of these few last pages...

Here in Washington, when the sun shines we really enjoy it and all of a sudden a lot of people are out on a stroll looking for some vitamin D!!

The kids are watching a movie and almost staying still! Fountain pen and a wet brush.